Modern Fencing: Yes or No?

It seems like there's a never-ending debate on whether or not modern Olympic fencing has any use to the SCA fencer. After all, fencing's fencing, right? And with the resurgence in Olympic, it's becoming easier and easier to find local fencing clubs to join, but is it a good idea for someone who wants the best rapier game they can get?

For the record, my start in fencing was in Olympic, some twenty years ago. I fenced mainly foil and epee, but did some sabre as well, so I am familiar with the sport. Olympic is a wonderful place to learn basic parrys and attacks as well as work on your tip control and speed, but it does have three major flaws: footwork, right of way and touches.

Olympic footwork is basically sound, except for the fact that it is designed for a 14-meter by 2-meter (roughly 46'x6') strip. Because of the narrow width, the only movement options for Olympic fencers are front/back and up/down. That's good, as far as it goes, but SCA fencing is usually done in the round and that extra dimension of side to side makes a real difference. When someone is advancing in Olympic, your only choices are to stand your ground or retreat, but in the SCA, you can side-step in just about any direction.

Another flaw in Olympic (as far as the SCA is concerned) is the idea of right of way. Basically, right of way is the idea that whoever attacks first, wins - no matter who lands their attack first. Now, don't get me wrong, right of way is a good idea, but in a style that scores body parts differently like the SCA, there are times when it is worth sacrificing an arm or a leg to get the head or torso.

The third major flaw in Olymic fencing is what constitutes a touch. Any touch that results in sufficient bend (or that will set off the scoring buzzers) is a good touch. Sounds pretty good, right? The touches might be heavier than we use, but the idea's sound. Well, sort of. You see, in Olympic, it doesn't matter how the touch lands -tip, flat or press - as long as there's sufficient bend. In a form that treats blades as having edges, you do suddenly have to worry about how the blade landed, not just how hard.

Of course, Olympic isn't all bad. Some years back, a visiting fencer from the Outlands commented on how incredible Artemisian fencers were at single-sword. The reason we were (are) so good at single-sword is that most fencers are tought a modified version of Olympic as their first style, complete with parrys, attacks, lunges and drills. Those drills, especially make their way into our psyches until we can't get rid of them. I know I've killed more than one person with a textbook lunge. And, as limited as Olympic is, it is a good way to keep your parry reflexes sharp and cut down on your double-kills.

So should an SCA fencer do Olympic? Not if they're just starting out. The differences in style are too great and they'll find their fencing suffers both on the strip and in the round. After they've gained a good feel for fencing and can separate the two styles, then yes, they can gain from the experience. With one caviat: stay away from sabre. Sabre offers no benefits to the SCA fencer and can lead to the bad habit of hacking.

GPS Review

I found this floating around. It’s a review of the Magellan Maestro 3100 I wrote after Uprising last summer, done in a period voice. Enjoy!

Throughout my travels, I had heard great and wondrous tales about how much easier it was to travel with the assistance of a navigator. Now, I was a bit dubious as to their usefulness travelling the King’s roads as I am familiar with the reading of maps and could usually get from one place to another without getting too lost, but I’d found a navigator by the name of Magellan who was willing to work cheap. So I hired him with my upcoming trip to Uprising in mind.

Now while this wasn’t my first trip to Uprising, I’d only traveled the road to its current site once without a driver and thought it would be good to have the reassurance of a navigator to guide my steps. We left Castelleone under clear and sunny skies, but by the time we approached the northern border of what was once Dun Braga, I could see storm clouds brewing on the horizon. For anyone who hasn’t traveled the King’s highway through region, the northern reaches of Dun Braga is a series of narrow, winding valleys that can be quite challenging in rough weather. Seeing the clouds and thinking not only of the roads ahead, but all of the gear sitting exposed to the elements in the back of my wagon, I decided on a detour that would skirt the eastern edge of Dun Braga before rejoining the King’s highway. Yes, the detour might have been five or ten miles longer, and the narrowness of the roads meant that I couldn’t travel quite as fast as on the King’s highway, but the roads were relatively straight and level – and not currently enjoying the attention of Thor.

So I turned off the King’s highway and almost immediately my navigator, Magellan, began telling me to turn around. And he continued to do so in his annoying sing-song voice every half-mile or so until we met up with another of the King’s highways that fed into Dun Braga from the east. Then his suggestion was to get on that highway and rejoin our original route at Dun Braga, some thirty miles away. And, like Magellan’s continual insistence that we turn around, I disregarded his advice. For I knew that if I used his route, it would be thirty miles over a winding mountain pass to Dun Braga and then another sixty miles to its southern edge, whereas if I continued on my current route, I’d reach that same southern edge in a mere seventy miles. So I continued on my detour and my navigator started up his petulant pleas to turn around once again.

We’d gotten to about halfway to Dun Braga’s southern edge before good Magellan finally decided to look at what was ahead instead of where we’d been and admitted that maybe, just perhaps, I knew what I was doing. By the time we rejoined the King’s highway, he had settled down and was even ready to admit that we’d lost a mere ten minutes in taking the detour.

All was good as we passed into the lands of One Thousand Eyes and left the King’s highway. But as we approached where my navigator said the road to Duke Alan’s lands were, I again had second thoughts about his veracity. As I said, while this was only my second time bringing my own wagon to these lands, I had ridden with others before and none of the landmarks I half remembered were present. So I pulled out the directions sent along with the invitation to visit the Duke’s lands and, sure enough, Magellan was telling me to turn far sooner than the Good Duke had recommended. We continued on, now following the written directions I had been given instead of my so far questionable navigator’s constant please to turn around or turn left and reached the Duke’s lands without incident.

Needless to say, I began my return trip leery of my discount navigator. But, while the Duke had been good enough to provide directions to his lands, he hadn’t provided the same from them and I was forced to rely on good, old Magellan’s advice. And, at first, his advice seemed sound enough until I realized that my navigator had me rejoining the King’s highway after passing through the heart of One Thousand Eyes instead of just cutting over the mile or so to rejoin it sooner.

And, I must admit that he figured things out much sooner this time, only giving me a pair of “turn around”s before realizing what I was up to and gave me no more trouble on the way home.

Whoops!

I got the opportunity to visit another group's rapier practice recently. It was nice to get out and face new people and try out new things. Well, okay, do a refresher on some not-so-new things. Specifically, the baton. I haven't really played with baton in years, even though it used to be one of my staples.

So I was out there, and doing pretty well with it until I faced a guy using cane. We were both fighting right handed and as we were fighting, he trapped my blade and tried to do a high attack to my right side. So there I was, staring at a completely exposed side and thinking, "I know what to do..."

I thrust.

About three-quarters of the way into my attack, I realized I wasn't holding a dagger. Luckily, my baton doesn't have much mass and I was able to pull my blow with only lightly tapping his side. I was chanting "Not a dagger, not a dagger..." as I reset and my opponent was pleasantly surprised to realize he didn't die. I wasn't sure if he got me or not, but after that big of a screw-up I considered myself dead. And figured it was time for a break.

This was one of those times where I got lucky. I was lucky that it was a practice and not a tourney. Core sample or no, if you gack someone with a baton in a tourney, odds are you're done - for anywhere from the day to six months, depending how hard you hit them. At practice, you get a talking to and are advised to practice some more with it before you take it into a tourney. Of course, that's why I was playing with it there, instead of at a tourney. I'm a firm believer that it's never a good idea to try something out for the first time at a tourney: if you're going to screw up, screw up at practice.