Anybody Here Ever Compete at an SCA Tournament?

[Jonathan Randall]

Anybody Here Ever Compete at an SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms, a society aimed at preserving and promoting middle age lore and dress) Tournament? How was it? Did you learn a lot? Was it well run? Realistic? What weapons were used?

 

[Dwight McLemore]

I was in the SCA for a while back in the 90s. I never liked what I saw. I did not learn much from the "Martials" or " Instructors" here . (shall remain unnamed). It seemed to me they had difficult time balancing out what they wanted to do, role play or martial arts. Over the years I've met some really nice people in the SCA some are really Master level skilled . Some are really great scolars but the majority of folks look at this as recreation and role-playing. Things are changing but as the members will tell you, they still got a long way to go to put more realism into thier tournament rules. What did impress me very much was the fact that many of the members participated as a family to go get the Rennaissance/Medieval Experience.
My experiences with the Mountain man/Longhunter groups was entirely different and not in the same category of the SCA. And that's another story.
My recommendation. If thier martials will let you, go participate in one of thier tournaments. It may be what you like.

Best
Dwight

 

[Jonathan Randall]

I was in the SCA for a while back in the 90s. I never liked what I saw. I did not learn much from the "Martials" or " Instructors" here . (shall remain unnamed). It seemed to me they had difficult time balancing out what they wanted to do, role play or martial arts. Over the years I've met some really nice people in the SCA some are really Master level skilled . Some are really great scolars but the majority of folks look at this as recreation and role-playing. Things are changing but as the members will tell you, they still got a long way to go to put more realism into thier tournament rules. What did impress me very much was the fact that many of the members participated as a family to go get the Rennaissance/Medieval Experience.
My experiences with the Mountain man/Longhunter groups was entirely different and not in the same category of the SCA. And that's another story.
My recommendation. If thier martials will let you, go participate in one of thier tournaments. It may be what you like.

Best
Dwight

Thanks. This is pretty much what I gathered regarding SCA from my research.

I'd love to hear about your Mountain man/Longhunter experiences! Feel free to start a thread to discusss them.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I was in the SCA for a while back in the 90s. I never liked what I saw. I did not learn much from the "Martials" or " Instructors" here . (shall remain unnamed). It seemed to me they had difficult time balancing out what they wanted to do, role play or martial arts. Over the years I've met some really nice people in the SCA some are really Master level skilled . Some are really great scolars but the majority of folks look at this as recreation and role-playing. Things are changing but as the members will tell you, they still got a long way to go to put more realism into thier tournament rules. What did impress me very much was the fact that many of the members participated as a family to go get the Rennaissance/Medieval Experience.
My experiences with the Mountain man/Longhunter groups was entirely different and not in the same category of the SCA. And that's another story.
My recommendation. If thier martials will let you, go participate in one of thier tournaments. It may be what you like.

Best
Dwight

There were many disfunctional groups in our area. They wanted realism with their fights, but did not understand the basic parry and could only understand force to force attack/block. Therefore the larger weapon was considered the winner in the clash.

I just smiled and walked away. One did track me down to better is fencing even though I am not a fencer, but wanted to get a differnet point of view for two weapons, and he was fun to work with. In this he understood the parry or pass. So it was not 100%.

 

[Dwight McLemore]

If your ever in the Tucson Az. area you might look up William Wilson, He is an SCA person who just happens to be one of the Top Notch Rapier people in the business. He is indeed a highly talented, historically correct scholar and fighter and has done a lot to solve some of the realism problems. Bill's book The Art of Defense, is a great read particularly if your new to the Rapier.

Best
Dwight