Vulgar or Sport Fencing?

If you really want to get on the bad side of a fencer in the SCA, call them a sport fencer. A sport fencer is someone who uses any move they can to get the win, no matter if the move was used in period or not. The problem I see with the term sport fencing is that at least in Artemisia, there isn't a lot of sport fencing. At least in the sense of moves that can't be documented as period. Well, okay, there's one area where sport fencing is prevalent - the use of Olympic or Classical footwork - but other than that, most of the fencing is period.

Okay, so maybe a lot of fencers are using a mixture of styles and moves from a half-dozen sources (I know I got a lot of weird looks at the last event when I seamlessly segued from Spanish rapier to Polish sabre to Portuguese great-sword), but this wasn't unheard of in period times. There was even a term for it: the Vulgar style. And if a fencer has a persona that would have traveled a lot, such mixing of styles is perfectly acceptable. I think the problem comes from fencers not being able to say where a particular move comes from or what it's called. I know I was always told that if you can document something, there's not a lot other people can do if they don't like it. So if someone does use the Vulgar style, they can shoot down a lot of arguments that they're "sport fencing" by demonstrating their knowledge of the history of their own moves.

I will warn you, though, that it is a lot more work to document the various aspects of your Vulgar style than it is to try and learn a single master's style. After all, if you're studying Agrippa, then it's easy to remember who came up with the move (or who wrote down the move, rather) and what manual it's from, whereas trying to remember a single source from a half-dozen different sources can be a bit harder. For example, you have to remember if it was Agrippa or Capo Ferro that came up with the Cavere? Or what's the move called where you strike your opponent's blade while stepping into it? [Bonus points for anyone who can answer these]

Personally, I think that learning the Vulgar style is better than learning a style your persona wouldn't have known. After all, a 14th century Scotsman wouldn't have access to DiGrassi and it's a stretch for a Japanese persona from any time period to learn any of the European forms. Another advantage to the Vulgar style is that is allows you to test the waters with several different styles before you find the perfect style for you.

Of course that leads back to the problem of being seen as a sport fencer. Which, in turn, leads back to the idea that there's no such thing as the perfect fencing style.