When Are You Going to Suit Up?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever been asked why I don't do armored fighting. When I'm asked, I usually respond with something along the lines of "I'm not that interested in it." Which, while it tends to confuse people (if I'm interested in fencing, how can I not be interested in armored fighting?), isn't completely true. And it definitely wasn't true when I started in the SCA. Back then, it was fighting that I wanted to do. I started with fencing because there wasn't anyone local who fought armored. So I fenced, and whenever I got the chance, I'd strap on a set of loaner armor and play heavy. And I like to think I had some promise as an armored fighter, even if I wasn't good.

And when I got married, I even put together a suit of armor and made it on the field a time or two. After all, I had a lady now, and there was no way I was going let myself be unable to answer a challenge to her, no matter the style of the issuer. So what happened? Well, let me tell you. One day at fighter's practice (it was early summer, just before Uprising), we were doing a melee practice and I did a perfect wrap, my blade crossing my opponent's back from shoulder to hip. Let me tell you: it was beautiful. At least until he screamed and dropped to the ground. You see, it wasn't an armored practice, it was rapier. And I'd just done a full-strength wrap with an epee (they were still legal then) to an essentially unarmored person. Luckily, I'd hit him with the flat and the blow was spread across a large enough area that all he got was one wicked bruise. But let me tell you: it was a wake-up call. I realized I had trouble avoiding armored moves while fencing.

So I did a couple things to keep from doing something like that again. The first was that I changed the guards on my swords and the way I gripped them so that they were unlike how I would hold a stick. The way muscle memory works (for me, at least) is that if the muscles (my hand) aren't in the right position, the memory doesn't come to the surface. The other thing was to give away my armor and give up armored fighting. I was more interested in fencing - and was a better fencer - so it was the logical one to keep. Yes, I lost the ability to champion my lady wife in armored combat, but even then, her brother was showing promise and had a reputation as someone you didn't want to get annoyed with you. And nowadays, well... good luck and we'll throw you a nice funeral.

In the intervening fifteen years, I have progressed to the point where I don't think I'd have trouble mixing my styles, but fencing is still my first love (how can you argue with something that's brought both good friends and a wife who's more than I deserve?) and so I'll leave the armored fighting for others.