Whatever happened to?

I remember when I was first starting out fencing, there was a big push to get as many authorized marshals as possible. It went as far as to stress the point that you didn't have to be authorized to fight to be authorized as a marshal. Even still, the majority of marshals were fighters. Whenever we'd get a new fencer, they'd get trained in the basics of marshalling right along with their footwork and blade drills. They might not get authorized as marshals in the end, but more often than not, that was simply because they never got signed off on it, not because of any lack of skills. They could, at the very least, serve as field marshals and quite a few were good enough that they could do weapon and equipment inspections without any doubt about whether the people they inspected were legal or not.

But nowadays, as I look around Northern Artemisia, I don't see that any more. It seems to me that the only people getting regularly trained as marshals are those fencers lucky enough to volunteer to serve as their group's Rapier Marshal. Now, personally, I think that's backwards. I think a person should be authorized as a marshal before taking up the duties of a group's marshal. But that's besides the point.

Over the summer, I tought a few classes on marshalling and they seemed to be well-received, but I noticed a few areas where previous instruction had been lacking. The biggest one was probably in armor requirements (especially coverage for the back of the head). This is something that every fencer should know. After all, if you don't know the requirements, you can't be sure you're gear will pass and you can play. And saying, "Well, so-and-so said it's okay" just doesn't cut it. You have to be able to say, "Well, the rules say...." Now I will admit that you do occasionally run into a marshal who is a bit... shall we say overly enthusiastic when it comes to the rules, but that is rare (I've had legal gear bounced twice, I think, in the 15+ years I've been playing). And if you do run into such an individual, smile and nod and make the necessary adjustments in your kit and then go home and double-check the regs, because they may have been right.

But back on the subject at hand, we need to train up as many fencers as possible to be marshals, for a couple reasons. The first is that group marshals do, occasionally, get burnt out and need to step down. But without trained marshals to take their place, it seriously limits the possibility of finding a replacement. Another reason is that it allows fencers to take a more active part in their local groups. It allows them (under the guidance of their local warranted marshal) to run the fencing at events, or - at the very least - help whoever is running it by serving as field marshals. In short, it allows us fencers to help spread the load so that we all have a better experience fencing in the SCA.

So how do we get more people learning how to marshal? Well, we need the marshals we have to teach more. Maybe set aside part of your fighter's practices to cover marshaling. Now, the current rules do require that these classes need to have a warranted marshal sign off on them, but there's nothing saying he (or she) couldn't get someone else to teach the class under their supervision.

It can't all be on the marshals, though. All of us fencers need to search out our marshals and say, "teach me, please." And we all need to make it a point to learn the rules, whether we want to be marshals or not.