Right of way

There has been some discussion on Artemisia Millitaris about the idea of right of way and whether or not it plays a role in rapier fighting. Right of way is a common principle in modern fencing that says that if two people attack at about the same time, whoever started their attack first is given the touch unless their blade has been parried sufficiently to bring their point off-target. Fighting in the SCA does not use this principle. If two combatants throw their attacks at about the same time and both attacks land, both hits are good. Sometimes this means trading an arm for a kill and sometimes it means both fighters are dead.

Now while right of way isn't a rule in the SCA, the question remains of whether practicing right of way is a good idea? Short answer: yes. Long answer: usually. The way I see it, the goal of tournament fighting is to not lose. Okay, so how do you not lose? Don't get killed. Which means when they attack, you should parry. Then you can kill them. It ties straight back into those old drills: attack, parry, repost, parry, repost... and so on and so on. Yes, there are times when there's nothing more effective than a stop-thrust, but the stop-thrust should be just one part of your bag of tricks, not your main move.

Unfortunately, for many of us, our instinctual reaction to our opponent starting to move is to attack. Which leads to double-kills and train wrecks. How often have you heard someone say, "I was throwing my shot when you landed" to explain away a hard hit?

Another common problem is people trying to parry and attack at the same time. The problem with this is that it is very difficult to do both well at the same time. Think about it: when you parry, you are primarily moving your blade either left, right, up or down and when you are attacking, you are primarily moving your blade forward. Which means that when you parry, you are changing the distance, angle of attack and point of impact for you opponent. And if you're attacking while parrying, all those things are changing while you're throwing your shot. It's far easier to wait until your parry is finished and those variables have stopped changing before you throw your shot.

So do I think right of way should be part of the SCA's combat rules? No. After all, if two people were to attack at the same time in a real sword fight, odds are that they'd both be dead. Do I think we should practice right of way? Yes. Because it's hard to not lose if the other guy keeps stabbing you when you stab them.