[Elfsea] Fighter Practice thoughts

[Tomas Niallagain]

Your Excellency and good people of Elfsea,

  I too have a few thoughts on the fighter practices in Elfsea.  I will also
attempt to answer the questions put before the list.  I have been a regular
attendee of Fighter Practices in Elfsea, official, unofficial and private.
I believe fighter practices serve several purposes, exposure and possible
recuriting, commeraderie or fellowship with like minded people, and of
course training our fighters.  Training is of course the most important
(imho) since it IS a"Fighter Practice", the other considerations while
important options can be done in other venues but if they are stated goals
of the function then people within the Barony need to step up and support
that portion of the "Practice".

Speaking of my experience only, prior to the absorbtion of the BBR practice
into the list of the Barony's practices, Sunday practice had 5 core regular
attendees.  Did they make every practice? No, but more often than not those
5 were there.  Four of these were also the foundation fighters at BBR, the
5th making it about half of the time.  Also historically (my experiences
only) fighter practices tend to dwindle during the cold months partially due
to weather, part holidays. The hardest thing about that is over coming the
apathy that can set in about fighting when there is so much else they need
to be doing.  Usually the core folks were the only ones who showed up to
fight or train. They were warmed by their desire to improve (imho).

Should fighters fight weekly? Yes

Should they fight more than once a week? If they want to get any better Yes.

Does the Barony need 2 practices a week? If the fighters want to train they
need the venue to do so, however  I think the Barony should only be
responsible for 1.  Regardless, the support needs to be there from the cadre
of fighters who are able to actually teach people (at least at a beginner
level)  I have always tried to support the baronial fighter practice, by
both my attendence and asking folks to head our way and teach.  When the
Barony made BBR an official practice I decided that I would continue to
support one practice a week as I, like most of us, seem to have more that
needs to be done than I can find the time for.  I also believe others may
have made the same decison, diminishing the attendence on Sunday while the
rest that came took the opinion "No one is bothering with this practice
anymore why go?".

If we want to improve attendence to any fighter practice I think we need to
do one of the following:
- Get commitments from really good, dynamic teachers to show up and teach
people, while ensuring your fighing membership knows when they will be there
- Give them a reason to come out and fight.

If the second option is chosen, without the first, the boom in attendence
will be short lived as fighters will get tired of monthly tourneys. These
tend to be won by the same guys over and over if they aren't getting a
chance to really improve themselves.


On 1/7/07, Ameline DuBois <Ameline at generich.com> wrote:
>
>
> Do the Baron or Baroness need to be at more practices?
>

While The Baron and Baroness have a wonderful presence and would be a great
addition to the activity, certainly drawing others out possibly even
fighters, I have to agree with Mistress Stella. that Centurion Armand
Dragonetti needs to come to practice for his own sake, and he needs to be
training and fighting.


Do we have to have practice at a park, or could we do it at peoples houses?
>

They should be at parks to facilitate new fighters attendence.

Could one family a month sponsor practice?
>

How would this work? As an official function of the Barony, the barony needs
to be financially responsible for it.

Could we have other things with fighter practice?
>

Other activities are certainly welcome, providing they don't pull  fighters
away training.

Business meeting and fighter practice combined?
>

No, weather is too unpredictable for business meetings.

A&S and fighter practice combined?
>

see 2 questions above

Can a Knight or Don be a deputy?
>

Sure, they can even be the local knight marshal and/or rapier marshal.

Have you helped to support the fighter practice?
>

yes

Have fighters supported what you do?
>

yes



Sior Tomas
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