Sticky Questions

At Whipping Winds, I was asked why there aren't any northern White Scarves. Boy, talk about a loaded question. But you have to admit it's a very good question, even if it isn't entirely accurate. There is one White Scarf in Bronzehelm: Don Adam, a recent transplant from the Outlands.

So why hasn't Northern Artemisia produced any White Scarves? I mean, we have fencers. Fifty-two, going by the official rolls. That's out of 178 total authorized fencer. In other words, almost 30% of Artemisia's fencers live in Northern Artemisia, and yet only one of the 19 White Scarves lives north of One Thousand Eyes. Now if we average out the number of white scarves (19) to the number of fencers (178), you come out with about one out of every ten fencers being a white scarf. So we've apparently got the numbers to allow us to produce White Scarves, so it can't be our numbers.

Maybe we're just too new of fencers. There may be something to that. After all, when I came back from the Army, there were only a handful of fencers that I recognized from before, so the majority of fencers up here have been doing it for something less than 7 years. The thing is, I can think of three fencers besides myself who were fencing before I left that are still active: Cormac, Antoine, and Albion. Yes, Antoine and Albion took a hiatus around the same time I did and came back at about the same time, but even discounting those absences, they still have better than ten years fencing within the Society. So there is a pool of experienced fencers to look at for promotion (about the 1 in 10 we see in White Scarves, even) as well as a pretty good crop of up-and-comers in the making.

So it's not lack of fencers or lack of experienced fencers. So why aren't there any Northern White Scarves? The only reason I can come up with that might have any merit is visibility. Artemisia covers a huge area, about a thousand miles from our northernmost group to our southernmost. And, although One Thousand Eyes is closest to a geographical center, Loch Salaan has been our cultural center since our days as a principality. Just look at a map of our kingdom and you can see this: centered around Loch Salaan are three other groups, all of which are less than two hours driving time apart. Even expanding out, there's another half-dozen groups within about 4 hours of Loch Salaan. So, yes it makes sense that Loch Salaan would be the cultural center. The drawback to that is that the southern-most group in Northern Artemisia (the former shire of Dun Braga) is seven hours from Loch Salaan. And beyond them there's three groups within an additional two hours, and three more another three hours out and then two more past that.

For the most part, those of us in Northern Artemisia can manage about a 4-hour drive to make it to events without too much trouble. Unfortunately for most of us, the only groups within that four hour range are other groups in Northern Artemisia. I'll admit it: in my 20 years of playing, I've made it south of One Thousand Eyes a whopping 5 times.

And we get upset because more southern fencers don't make it up to our events. Hmmm. If we can't make it to events more than four hours away, how can we expect our southern brethren to do it?

If we, as Northern Artemisians, expect to receive the recognition we feel we deserve, we need to make it out of Montana - and not just to Uprising. We need to be willing to make the long pilgrimages into the heart of Artemisia. And not just to be seen, but to also show our southern friends that it is possible - and worthwhile - to make the long trek.

Don't Stick Your Neck Out

I've started to see a scary trend during armor inspections over the last few months: gorgets that don't pass. And it isn't even that they're failing because of a lack of padding, it's because they don't cover enough of the neck. If you read the regs, they're pretty clear:

For heavy rapier and cut and thrust rapier[Artemisia does heavy rapier], additional throat protection is required; it shall consist of rigid material, as noted above, covering the entire throat, and shall be backed by either puncture resistant material (as a hood), one quarter inch (1/4") (6 mm) of open-cell foam, or their equivalents. The cervical vertebrae shall also be protected by rigid material, provided by some combination of gorget, helm, and/or hood insert.

Like I said, it's pretty straight-forward: the neck has to be covered by a rigid material. The problem I've been seeing is gorgets that are way too short for the wearer. For those who don't know, they way marshals test gorget protection is to have the fencer lean their head back and then look under the mask's bib. Ideally, we won't see any skin. If we do, then it becomes a judgement call for the marshal. If the marshal can't fit a finger in the gap, it's probably good, if they can fit one or more fingers in, it's a bad thing. Now, last weekend at Whipping Winds, there was a guy with a gap that I could fit my entire hand in. Not only that, but he was tall (taller than me, in fact) so the odds of taking a shot to the gap was better than average.

Like I said: a bad thing.

Now, the best fix for this problem is to find a good armorer and have him custom-fit you a good gorget. Unfortunately, good armorers can be hard to find, and when you do, there's a good chance they will be busy. That leads to the next best thing: trying on a gorget before you buy it to make sure it fits. Yes, that means no buying off the Internet. But it also means that you won't have to fiddle with it to make it work.

Okay, so how do you know if it fits?

• Does it fit around your neck with enough space for padding?


• Can you turn your head and tilt it from side-to-side as well as nod it forward and back?


• Does it cover your adams apple?

If it meets those three criteria, go grab your mask and try it on with your gorget and have a friend look to see how many fingers they can fit between the gorget and the mask. If they can't fit a finger in there, you're good.

Those are the best ways to correct the problem, but there are those of us who can't afford a new gorget or whose neck is too big or too long and just can't find one that fits, which leaves you with trying to fix what you already have. Here are a couple of ways you can do this. The first is to get a piece of heavy leather that you can slide behind the front of your gorget to give you the necessary protection. The upside to this trick is that it fully meets our equipment standard, but it has the downside of being another piece of equipment to keep track of.

The other answer - and probably the least desirable - is get a coif that fits either over or under your mask that will cover your neck. This has the advantage of covering the armor requirements for the back of the head, but it's downside is fairly major: it doesn't really correct the problem, it hides it instead. All it does is keep the marshals from seeing the gap. And be warned: if you go with the coif and it covers your entire gorget, odds are that a marshal will try to choke you to make sure you are wearing it. But don't worry, as soon as they feel your gorget, they'll stop squeezing.

And since my solution to a slightly short gorget is to wear a coif, this is definitely one of those "do as I say, not as I do" moments.

What I meant to say was...

At Whipping Winds this past weekend, I taught a short class on Marshalling for Rapier where I covered field marshalling and weapon inspections before doing an open Q and A period. And whether because of the crud I was suffering from or just my natural absent-mindedness, there were a few things I forgot or I feel like expanding on.

The first omission (and probably the biggest) was on the subject of injuries. If you are the marshal in charge of an event or a practice and there is an injury requiring outside medical assistance (ambulance, EMTs, etc.), you need to contact both the Kingdom Rapier Marshal and the Earl Marshal (currently Don Azir and Duke Allan) as soon as possible with all of the details of the incident. In this case, as soon as possible means within twenty-four hours, but if you can send something up as soon as the EMTs have left the scene, that is better (make a trip into town if you need to). For some reason they get grumpy if they hear about stuff from Corporate before they hear about it from their guys in the field. Go figure.

The next thing I want to go into is rules vs. rumors. As many of you know, canes have been on the experimental list for quite some time. At the event, a couple of people brought them and I did the standard hold 'em up and ask if anyone had any problem facing them. One gentle, got rather upset, insisting that Don Azir had just approved them and was writing them into the rules. This was even corroborated by a marshal-at-large who was there. The gentle with the can was even more upset when I told him that I didn't care and that until I saw the written regs, I was treating it as a rumor. Here's the thing. It's not that I thought he was lying, even without the corroboration of the other marshal. The problem was that I have heard nothing from higher-ups about the subject, and I have seen no regulations about canes, so rather than trying to enforce rules I have never seen as to construction standards and such, I enforced the rules that I knew to be good. In my opinion, it is always better to enforce outdated rules that you know than to try and enforce new rules that you have never seen before. The flip side, of course, is that to have a responsibility to keep as up-to-date on the rules as possible.

We also spent a good chunk of time talking about drinking and fighting. The rules say that if you're impaired, you can't fight. Of course, they don't define impaired which leaves the decision up to the marshal in charge. So I told them my basic rules: if I can smell it, you can't fight and if you walk up with a beer in your hand, you're done (yes, I've had it happen). But probably the best way to handle it is for fencers to marshal themselves. If you have a drink, just don't fight. Likewise, if your cold medication leaves you fuzzy or your on prescription pain meds - or even if you just feel "off", don't fight. Remember, this isn't like deciding you don't need to wear a cup where you'll be the one hurt, this is an instance where your stupidity will hurt someone else.

The last thing I want to talk about is the authority and responsibility of the Marshal in Charge (BTW, who was the MIC for rapier at Whipping Winds, and where was he or she on Saturday?). The Marshal in Charge is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in his list field or on his melee field. Everything that happens is his fault. That is why the Marshal in Charge is the ultimate authority for his field. Whatever they say is law. The Marshal in Charge can tell the Society marshal what to do, and they must listen. Now this doesn't mean that being a MIC gives you the right to be a petty tyrant, even if it does give you the ability. Remember that every decision you make can be held up for review after the fact. Now both out kingdom Rapier Marshal and Earl Marshal are very supportive of their troops in the field and will probably stand behind your actions, whatever they are, but if that action was really stupid, you may find yourself with your warrant and authorization pulled.

Initial Impression: The Complete Taiji Dao: The Art of the Chinese Saber

As a birthday present for myself, I picked up a copy of The Complete Taiji Dao: The Art of the Chinese Saber (ISBN 1583942270), hoping it would help with my quest to make the Hockey Stick from Heck more than just a psychological weapon. I was even a good boy and waited until my birthday to open it. Unfortunately, between work and family, this only left me a half-hour or so to glance through it, and no time for any actual blade work. Even so, this was enough for me to form an opinion on the book.

I was a little leery when I ordered it because of the price: under $20 for a "fighting manual" usually means it's some guy talking about how great he is. That's not the case here. The entire book is written in third person, with absolutely no self-aggrandizement. And what's even better is that the pictures actually show the moves pretty well.

The book begins with a history of the style and the weapons, before going into the basics (hands, feet, blade) and then how to combine the basics. I will admit that I skipped over the history and went straight to the good stuff so I can't tell you much about the first part of it, but if you're a wire-weenie like me, you don't care about the history anyway.

The basics were covered quite well, but if you're looking to translate the style over for SCA fencing, I'd skip the footwork as it's designed for power and better suited for armored combat. The hand work (holding the blade and hand positions) is spot on for the strong hand, but I'll have to play around with the weak-hand stuff: it's weird. And the various attacks look good, although some of the defenses are questionable for our style. With the exception of two thrusts and a single draw, the attacks are entirely tip-cut variations. This will mean that you have to be careful of your power to avoid percussive hits, but it should give you good flow with a curved blade.

And the section on combining the parts looks to be designed to increase the flow inherent in the style, turning it into the ballet of blades we are used to seeing in Chinese martial arts movies.

All in all, I am pleased with the book so far and can't wait for the chance to play with the style with my sword in hand.

My Mom's Not Going to Like This

You see, my mother's a died-in-the-wool feminist, achieving more in her mumble-mumble years of living the belief that there is nothing a man can do that a women can't (when she did hit the glass ceiling, it was because of religion, not gender) than most people can imagine. So you'd think that the odds of my being a chauvenist would be pretty slim, right?

And you're right, mostly. The thing is, I recognize the fact that - in general - there are some things an average male is better at than an average female. The big example is physical strength. Your average male is stronger than your average female. But along those same lines, your average female has better balance and a higher tolerance for pain (yes, it's true) than your average male. One isn't better than the other, they just have different strengths.

So, why does this matter in fencing? The physical differences don't, really. The psychological differences do. At least to me they do. Okay, before you jump up on your soapbox and start haranguing me for being a sexist pig, let me explain. You see, women don't, in general, find going out and blowing stuff up a relaxing way to spend an afternoon. For them, agression is something that has to be cultivated, whereas it comes so naturally to men that, if anything, it has to be reigned in. And when you consider that half of fencing is proper use of agression, you can see where this becomes an issue.

In my experience, you can bring out the agressiveness in even the most timid male fencer by two simple steps. The first one is to go at him hard and heavy for about five minute (not quite club him like a seal, but along those lines). This gets him to understand instinctually that you're not really going to hurt him. The second step is to have him do the same to you. If you do it right after step 1, he'll be frustrated enough that he will come at you hard and heavy. This will not only make him understand that he's not going to hurt you, but it'll also flip a switch in his cave-man brain, and he'll know that it's okay to attack. Yes, sometimes it'll take a few tries, but if it takes over a half-hour to get him to attack instead of just defend, I'd be surprised.

This doesn't work with women. At least not in my experience. And neither does having them picture their brother/sister/mom/whatever, at least not anywhere close to consistently. The truth is, I have no idea how to bring out the agressiveness in women fencers. Let me tell you, I had fun trying to explain that to the mother of one of our local fencers. She was asking if I could help her daughter become a more agressive fencer and I told her no. When she asked why not, I tried to explain how women and men think differently. Needless to say, she didn't take to that too well. But when I asked her if she understood how men thought, she admitted that no, she didn't. I told her that the easiest way for her daughter to learn how to be agressive would be for her to talk to someone who wasn't suffering from testosterone poisoning (i.e. another woman).

I'm sure there are people who don't agree with me, who do see this as and admission of sexism, but I like to think they are wrong. Rather, this is an admission of a personal limitation. Just as I can't take apart an opponent's style by watching them fence, I do not know enough about women to bring out the agressiveness necessary for fencing. The mechanics of fencing, I can teach to anyone, but the mindset is beyond my capabilities.

Was I right?

In one of the posts over on Artemisia Militaris, someone asked the question of whether the new youth stickers affected how us old farts fought them. Basically, she wanted to know if we were taking it easy on the young fighters because they are young. Pretty unanimously the answer was no, but.... Later, I approached the fencer who'd posed the question and admitted that I had treated my fight with her in the Non-Don tourney differently, but it wasn't because she was young. It was because she was looking to become a cadet.

Okay, here's what happened. Yes, I gave her the best fight I could - she even commented on not being used to me being "all flowey and stuff" - but she's young, quick and not without skill whereas I'm old, slow and left relying on my skill and we ended in a double kill. Almost simultaneously, we head-shot each other. Her shot landed a fraction of a second before mine, but well after I'd started my shot. Now, if I'd been treating this as a serious tourney, I would have taken it as a double-kill and the call would have been beyond question. But I was in it for the fun (I'd make a lousy cadet, so there was no point in drawing attention to myself). She was, too, but I knew that the added visibility would do her quest good. So I gave her the bout, claiming (rightfully) that her touch landed first.

When I talked to her about it later, she said she didn't really need the extra exposure - and she's probably right: she's a good enough fencer that she'll go far without too much help - but she didn't mind what I'd done. After all, she'd had fun.

But looking back, I do have to ask if it was the right thing to do. At the time, I was sure of it. And, in this instance, no harm was done. But I've realized that if she wasn't such a confident young woman, it could have left her wondering if she'd have done so well if I hadn't "given" her the win.

Was this another one of those things I can add to my ever-growing list of ways not to become a Don?