[Elfsea] Fighter Practice thoughts

[Wilkerson, Glen D]

Tomas makes several valid points, and to them I would like to add this:
It has been my observation that a lot of people have stopped coming to
practices because so many practices have been "officially" cancelled,
and so many practices have been "officially" cancelled because of
Section 12., X., B.,1. of the July 2004 edition of the Marshal's
Handbook which states:  "Each SCA sanctioned combat activity at an
official SCA practice shall be attended by at least one Warranted
Marshal or their designated Deputy."  This rule has resulted in many
practices being arbitrarily cancelled because one or both of the
marshals can't make it to practice.
 
I did not have time to make a detailed reading of Section 12, only
skimmed it, so we need to know:  What, exactly, are the duties of the
marshals at practice, especially as regards authorizations, waivers, and
record keeping?  And would it help the marshalate if a lot more fighters
volunteered as deputies? 

________________________________

From: elfsea-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:elfsea-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Tomas
Niallagain
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 1:39 PM
To: Barony of Elfsea
Subject: Re: [Elfsea] Fighter Practice thoughts


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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