[Ansteorra] Polls

[Richard Morgan]

On the question as to whether we should or should not use vambraces I am 
going to lean on the should side, with clarification. First of all I do not 
like extra rules, the fewer the better!!!!!!!!! Sir Ricardo de Pisa and I 
are the two individuals who broke their arms leading to the vambrace ruling. 
I broke my sword arm while wearing a rubberized football forearm pad. It was 
the result of my frustration at not being able to kill an opponent that I 
thought I should be able to kill. I broke the Ulna at the end of the bone 
near the wrist upon my opponents sword. It was a compound fracture I needed 
to have two surgeries a metal plate installed and removed and it took over a 
year to heal.  I do not recall the circumstances of Sir Ricardo's break. 
Both incidences occurred before any vambrace rules. I was wearing extra 
protection for the times. When we learned how to fight at that time we were 
trained to hit arms lightly if at all to "keep them honest".  So arms were 
not a frequent target. If we would try to go back I foresee a lot of 
injuries while we learn to not take shots and pull blows. So even though 
they are a pain, and they are not period for my persona I would keep their 
protection to maintain our current level of blow delivery which is as close 
as can be to being accurate while still being safe as possible at this time 
with the current targeting rules in place. Half gauntlets on the other hand 
are over armoring a non target area, if the rules for not blocking with an 
invulnerable area were enforced we would not need  them. The previous ruling 
by the Society Earl Marshal that the rules stated that the hand and wrist 
could be protected by a  combination of vambrase and basket should stand. 
There is no need fore the redundancy of a half gauntlet unless we were to 
make the hand a valid target. Which I by the way think we should. While we 
are at it we should allow lower leg blows with proper armor, and ban 
fiberglass spears before someone gets severely injured.

Sir Richard ap Morgan

PS:   I believe there was also an incidence of an arm injury through a half 
inch plywood shield by a sword shot but I do not remember the details.