SCA Heavy Fighter Practice

Introduction

Finally over the last month or so, I have had the opportunity to start getting back in armour and getting back to fighting fit. This has brought up again the old question: what should a fighter practice consist of, and what's the best way to train to up your skill level? Heavy Combat in the SCA is a martial art, and like any martial art, sparring is only a portion of what it takes to get better. You also need to practice the skills you have and make a concerted effort to learn new techniques to add to your tool box. I have heard from many people and seen practices that just consist of people showing up eventually throwing on armour, running pickups for a little bit and then going home. While it feels to me that this will certainly keep the rust off, and might help you improve if you are fortunate enough to have high quality fighters at your local practice,I don’t think it’s the most effective way to grow your skill level.

I feel that the best way to make an efficient practice is to have it split into three portions: Technique and Drills, Sparring, and Melee/War Practices. This is in addition to the time spent armouring up and padding down being used to discuss repairs or any other things people need help with. This setup gives plenty of time to work on hands-on fighting as well as time to work with fighters who need to practice specific aspects of fighting.

Technique and Drills

The first chunk of fighter practice is a great time to work on drills and practice work. It’s a good opportunity for new fighters to learn the basic shots or combos, and for experienced fighters to warm up and keep building the muscle memory that they need to be highly successful. Personally, I would split this portion in two parts itself: a general technique or drill that the person running the practice wants to work on, and a portion where experienced fighters can help newer fighters with things they want to learn. In my experience, teaching is a great way to make sure you understand a topic, something I have seen incorporated into martial arts programs of all sorts. It gives the teacher a chance to see how the more experienced fighters are progressing as far as their understanding of things, and allows the one-on-one time to polish the newer fighters.

The drills themselves can take many forms, ranging from footwork drills to combo drills where fighters pair off and throw a specific set of attacks while their partner blocks and then they switch. Depending on the location of the practice and what's available, it can even be pell drills where fighters take turns going through a series of attacks on the pell.

Examples of Drills
Bellatrix Fighting School-http://www.bellatrix.org/school/section07.htm
Footwork and Pell Drills from SCA Heavy Youtube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkJ7lvYvfPg&feature=youtu.be
Four Strike Drill at Southkeep’s Local Practice- https://www.facebook.com/groups/Southkeep/permalink/10157345943106902/


At my last practice, one of the senior fighters made the comment “Muscle memory is what your body defaults to when the tank is empty and you have nothing left to give”. This made a ton of sense to me. Drills, Katas, and Pell Work all fall into this category of teaching your body to know what to do even when your mind isn't caught up or you feel too tired to go on. Too often in the SCA I have noticed this is the part that gets ignored at practice. Everyone is excited to get in armour and play, but imagine going to a sports practice and just doing scrim
mages, or a dojo and just sparring. In any other martial art, practice of techniques is the lion's share of the training. It's important that we build this habit at our practices, to help prevent fighters from getting frustrated at plateaus in their skill, and also to continue to grow the overall skill level of the practice.

Sparring

Heavy combat in the SCA can be won as often by endurance as it can by skill, especially in situations where we are talking about a long tournament or war situation. One of the best ways to build endurance is by pushing your limits while in armour, which means participating in exercises like bear pits and round robins where you’ll end up fighting for a prolonged period of time. Sparring also gives everyone a chance to use the techniques they were practicing in the technique portion of the practice and see how they can best incorporate it into their fighting.

I recently had the opportunity to see a round robin training circle used as part of a practice, and I thought it was completely brilliant. Previously I’d thought bear pits were the best way to spar, since they gave everyone a chance to fight and build endurance. The round robin I think, does even better: in addition to everyone getting plenty of fights and limits being tested, it allows everyone in the circle to watch the fights. This means that the people watching have the opportunity to either catch a mistake the fighters are making or learn new things to incorporate into their own repertoire. It also helps to have people cheering you on when you feel you have nothing left to give. I would suggest keeping the circles no larger than 15; any bigger than that and it takes too long for everyone to get their fights in. If your practice space is large enough and you are fortunate enough to have 16+

fighters you can easily set up two or more circles.

Once the training circle is done, I would suggest a few more pickups for fun so that the people who still have gas can keep going. This also gives fighters the chance to ask for specific types of practice, such as allowing someone to just practice defense while being attacked, or try a style they don't normally use.

Melee/War Training

The final portion of practice is another piece I feel is often left out: war preparation. Tourney fighting is all well and good, but in my opinion the most fun you can have is going to war and fighting as a unit. Training the basic concepts at a local practice will dramatically improve your overall performance at war. Not only will it help you stay safe during the large battles, but it will allow you to make the most of your time there.

This portion of practice should also be split into two sections: a practice portion where you go over techniques or maneuver practice, and (if you have enough people) mock battles. I would say that the minimum you need for a decent mock battle would be six fighters, three per team. This allows you to practice small squad tactics and work on battlefield awareness and communication. 

The practice portion can be used to teach how to lock up shields, or move as a unit. Ideally you would use everyone as one unit for this. That would allow the group to practice large unit movement. For testing shield locks, it’is a good idea to have the unit lock up and then one or two other fighters do pulse charges trying to break through. You can almost run this like a football drill:

4-6 shield men locked up
One fighter charges the line then takes his place in the formation.
One of the other fighters leaves the formation and charges
Repeat until tired or the line breaks.

This drill would also have the added benefit of showing fighters how to file in when there is a casualty by showing them how to move into new positions to keep the line going.

I have seen a wide variety of useful drills when it comes to melee practice, everything from linking back up when returning for resurrection point to how to react when the line gets split. The most important part with the first part of the practice is to teach the unit how to move together and how to respond to commands.

The second portion of melee practice involves splitting the unit into two parts and having a 20-30 minute resurrection battle. If there are fewer than 5 people per side, I feel it's better to do several https://ulfhedinnjourney.blogspot.com/2019/07/knattleikr-norse-ball-game.html), or anything else that gets fighters mobile and having fun. After the ‘boring’ marching drills, it's important to do something light to end practice. All of these games also build endurance since they involve a ton of motion and fighting.

rounds rather than a resurrection battle. For the resurrection battle, you can do something simple like King of the Hill, or if you have enough people, capture the flag. This is also a good time to do fun things like Jugging, Knattleikr (

Wrap up practice with conversation on the melee portion while padding down, give everyone the chance to discuss things they thought went well or things they want to improve on. This builds unit cohesion and with many eyes on the field it's easier to catch mistakes.

Conclusion

As always, let's be clear: these are just my ideas on how a practice could run to give a variety of training situations, and allow people to work on a range of skills each week. In addition to group practice, it is important to make sure that fighters are practicing by themselves on the pell or something similar. Some physical conditioning throughout the week is also good; like any sport, improving your physical fitness will improve your overall performance in heavy combat. I would also add that once a month or so it would be a good idea to get the whole group and travel to another group’s local practice. This gives everyone a chance to face off against other fighters and to see what other groups are doing.

Let me know what you all do at your practice, do you have any tips and tricks for new fighters trying to get things squared away? Let me know in the comments below!

Tourney of the Three Ships 2020

Introduction

It’s been a long while since I did an event overview post, but this weekend marked a special time for me. It was the seventh Tourney of the Three Ships, an event that I helped get started, and it was the start of my return to the SCA in a real sense. Over the last year, as I have gotten steadily into the blog again, I have mentioned a few times that because of outside circumstances my wife and I had to take a very real break from the SCA. This break wasn’t because the SCA had burnt us out, but because we were just incapable of doing the SCA with everything pressing down on us.

This weekend felt a lot to me like coming home: not only was it to our local event that I love so much, but it was an event for the whole family. From the moment we arrived on site Friday night to start helping with set up and moving things around, everything just felt right. I was walking down paths that I had walked a dozen-dozen times, and it made me happy. This feeling of comfort reminded me of why the SCA was so important to me in the first place, something that I had lost in the hustle and bustle of mundane life.

Our lovely Princess Islay Elspeth of Glen Meara had made the trek from the Barony of Darkwater to visit our corner of the Kingdom. It is always appreciated when anyone makes this trip, doubly so when any of the Royals do, given how far it is and how many groups they need to visit during their time on the throne. Our Kingdom stretches from Key West to Jacksonville, and is the width of Florida, which means that we often have people who make a 6+ hour drive just to attend our event.

Tournaments

The entire concept behind Three Ships is that it is a competition between local groups to see who has the best warriors among three disciplines: Heavy Fighting, Rapier, and Archery. Each year, we have asked for the groups to submit teams and the scores would be tallied, but this year I did the scoring a little differently to try and take some of the work off the attendees:  I took the highest scoring warrior from each shire in each discipline. This let everyone feel like they were working towards their team score without giving larger groups the advantage. I think next year, I’d like to do a presentation of teams before the Crown or populace to build some more of that pageantry and local group pride.

Typically, I enjoy an event to have pretty tight theming between tourneys, feast, and decorations. Three Ships has always had an overall nautical theme focusing on one time period or another. This year was no different as we focused on Magellan’s trip around the world. To keep that in mind with our martial events, each tourney had its own set of special rules. The archery was a shoot where the targets were bags of spice, which was the main motivator for Magellan’s trip in the first place. Our rapier tourney decided to take a note from the idea of the constantly changing ports, and made a tourney where a fighter could only use a given style once until the finals. Then for heavy tourney, we made it a counted blows tournament to represent the kind of fighting that might have been done for fun while bored at sea.

The Archery shoot was very well attended, with some notable archers from around the kingdom. I believe our last count was 10 archers from 5 or 6 different groups. However when all was said and done, there could only be one winner, and it was our recent transplant to Tri Os, Master Rupert the Unbalanced, who took first place. He has only recently come to Southern Trimaris from the East Kingdom, and we are happy to have another master archer in our midst.

The Heavy tourney was well attended: we had 10 fighters sign up, with a handful more who padded up later for pick ups. Five counted blows can take a ton of stamina among equally-matched fighters and this tourney was no exception. The best example was the battle between brothers from Sergio and Augustin de Leon, who fought great sword with the added caveat of no thrusting, something to make it more interesting since they are both fencers. In the end, it was Azrael von Licht that took the field going undefeated.

The Rapier tourney had fewer fighters than we are accustomed to, but was still a great test of skill from all of our fighters,  with Don Zhao Fong coming down from the frozen north of Castlemere to best his opponents and earn his prize. He performed so well that despite being the only member of Castlemere in attendance, the Barony still ended up in 5th place among all the groups who attended.

Overall the lysts were fun to watch, and gave us a wide variety of local groups in the competition, possibly the most of any year. All of the Southern Shires were represented as well as Darkwater, Castlemere, and Marcaster. Hopefully next year we can get even more people to come down and represent their local groups. However for this year, for the first time ever, the Shire of Seamarch came out ahead, beating Southkeep by three points and Sangre del Sol by four points.

Court

With our Princess in attendance, we were graced with a Royal court, something we are very fortunate to have always had at Three Ships since it’s very difficult for many of our local members to attend larger events. The major benefit of the Royals taking the time to visit us is that it gives the opportunity for members who travel less to be recognized. This year, two dear friends got their first awards ever, Jen of Southkeep and Red of Southkeep. They have worked tirelessly at a local level, and the Princess was thrilled to be able to acknowledge and reward that; she was most gracious in the way that she spoke about reaching out to the more distant portions of the Kingdom. Cian and Cera, the Mom and Pop of our local shire, were also honoured, with Cera getting a Healer’s Lamp. This was an award that had originally existed for members of the Chiurgeonate, but has been reworked to be an acknowledgement of someone who has gone above and beyond in the service of the populace. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.

Aeta Ulfhamar showing off her device, from
Mistress Sibeal's silk painting class.

Court is also where we award the prizes to the winners. One of the secrets to the success of Three Ships over the years are the amazing craftspeople of the Shire. Every year they create amazing prizes for each of the individual tourney winners. This year the prizes were handcrafted boxes made with dark walnut inlays and dovetail joints. We also give out scrolls to each of the winners done up by our local scribes, with the final prize being our Travelling Scroll, made of leather tooled and painted by HL Robert de Cleftlands, and calligraphed each year with the names of the winners. The scroll makes it home each year to be conquered again

Feast

Our other big secret is feast… I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Southkeep brings the tasty grub! We have had carefully researched delicious Norse feasts, homemade bread accompanying a German feast with all the fixings, roast turkeys with a fan of their feathers, and this year the feast steward lived up to all of that in her kitchen debut! Lady Margarita di Rossi treated us to a caprese salad with mozzarella and tomatoes, pea soup, and chicken or eggplant rollatini with bechamel or tomato sauce. Each course was tastier than the last, but it was dessert where she really slayed the whole of the dining hall. She presented to the high table an individually portioned homemade cheesecake topped with a chocolate mouse… but wait, there's more! The chocolate mouse was filled with raspberry jelly and chocolate mousse! Due to tempering issues with the chocolate (the fact that she managed to get eight mice to temper in an open kitchen in Miami is astonishing), the populace didn’t get the mice; they did, however, get a lovely portion of jelly and mousse atop individually crafted cheesecakes. This might be the best dessert I have ever had at an SCA feast, and I am not ashamed to say that I got seconds!

Conclusion

Overall this Three Ships was a ton of fun, and I honestly can’t wait to do it again next year. Every year, we learn new things and the event runs smoother. Next year will mark 7 years since Cian and I ran the first Three Ships. It’s remarkable how quickly time has passed. Thank you to the wonderful staff who made this event possible. Thank you to all the attendees who, without, it would just be a very expensive Shire meeting. We hope to see all of you back next year so that we can do it again!

Writer's Note: This year, I completely failed to get pictures of anything. I will be looking for pictures over the next couple of days and add them to the post as they get found.

Norse Combat Archery

Introduction

Before getting into the actual blog post for today, I would like to take a moment to discuss the blog overall. This post marks my 50th! It has been more than six years since I started this blog as a place for me to put down my thoughts and chronicle my journey in the SCA. Over the last year, I haven’t been as active in the SCA as I would have liked to have been, but writing here has really helped me stay on top of research and improving myself even when I couldn’t get to events. I would like to thank everyone who shares these posts, and all of you who read and comment… the interaction helps me improve my writing and decide what topics I need to get into. It has  been a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

Recently, I was approached by someone who wanted to get into the SCA specifically for combat archery. During my time as Hospitaller and Seneschal for the Shire I put a lot of work into honing a good overall speech of what you need to get started in the hobby. Combat archery is a little different, and early period makes it even further removed from the “normal” idea of coming into the hobby as a fighter. This inspired me to write this post, first looking into what an archer from the Nordic countries might have used or looked like in the 8-10c, and then how this would translate into gear to get involved in the SCA.

The Way of the Bow- Northman Style

Most of the time, when we picture the savage Northmen going aviking, the bow isn’t what comes to mind first: we have a mental image of giant warriors swinging large axes or broadswords, but that

Depiction of Ullr on the Boksta
Runestone.

doesn’t mean that the Norse were not a bow-using society. We know for a fact that bows were a common tool used for hunting and that they formed a part of daily life; arrowheads are actually a relatively common find, and so we have many examples of the different styles that may have been used throughout the Viking age. We also have evidence of bow usage on runestones, and in mythologies: Ullr and Skadi are both often depicted with bow in hand.

Since there is plenty of evidence that bows existed and were common during this time, the question then becomes how were they used, and what types of bows did we see. We’ll explore the latter a little later in the blog when we discuss equipment for archers. For now, let's discuss use. Evidence points to bows being primarily a tool for hunting. When used in combat, we see it most often discussed as an opening volley for mass combat, or as a means of attack during naval engagements. In the Sagas, arrows account for less than 5% of all attacks that we see. Now, the Sagas primarily discuss small combats, but this still gives us a decent idea of how bows were used in regards to fighting. Oddly enough, the most specific use of a bow as a weapon rather than a tool was actually done by Gunnar when defending his home. This gives me the idea that the bow was stored in the same way as other weapons, close at hand in the event that it is needed for defense.

Equipment

Artists depiction of an archer
in the 7-9c.

It would be easy to imagine that an archer would be equipped in much the same manner as any other warrior, and since we know that Norse soldiers in the 11c had a pretty specific list of equipment that included a bow for every 10 or so men, we know that archers weren’t a special corps of soldiers they way you would see in later English forces. The archers in the Norse armies appear to simply be the best shots/who ever can get to the bow, and their job is to fire initial volleys until battle is joined, and
then jump in themselves, similar to the way Yeoman in the SCA work.

Armour- Viking Age soldiers were very limited in armour, according to our finds. Leather wasn’t common enough for leather armour to be prevalent, and mail was very costly. I would imagine that your average warrior had a helm, and maybe a padded coat of some nature, but there is little evidence of that. In the 11c, all soldiers were required a helm, but mail shirts were usually only for the leader of each warband or elite units.

Secondary Weapons- By the 11c, there were attempts to standardize the equipment of the Nordic soldiers. The basic weapon for everyone was a spear, and it is easy to imagine that most warriors would also carry a long seax. In the sagas, axes were also a common weapon, so a hand axe as a weapon on the belt of an archer wouldn’t be too far off from the possible, and they have the advantage of also being tools.

Bows- We have one complete extant bow that was found at Hedeby. It was ~72in long, just over 6ft, making it what most people would call a longbow. Like the English bows, many people are accustomed to seeing it was made of yew. Based on other fragments that have been found, bows were between 60-80in long. I would think that, since bows were personal tools that were brought along to war, it is quite likely that they varied a ton from person to person based on height, strength, and draw length. We even see evidence of this in the sagas were Einar complains about the king’s bow being too weak.

Quivers- There are no extant quivers for the Viking Age. We have some scraps from Hedeby that have been listed as remnants of a quiver, but nothing solid. The word for quiver appears in the sagas, and is said to have been carried on the back.

Collection of 7-9c Arrowheads.

Arrows- The majority of extant arrows from this time period were constructed in the same fashion, full tang drilled into the shaft. We know from other cultures that different arrows were used in combat than for hunting, but since the gravesites in which arrowheads were found didn’t belong to warriors, it is difficult to know what the Norse might have used in battle. Although as a matter of speculation, given the light armour that we know was common, any arrow would likely do, with broader-headed
arrows of the type used for big game probably being better.

Recurve Bows and Crossbows- Recurve bows and crossbows both fall into either outside the actual time period for the Viking Age, or outside the general area that the Norse were in. Crossbows were present in the Norman army at the very end of the Viking Age, so you could have a later Norse persona with a crossbow. Recurve bows were used by many cultures the Norse interacted with, so there is no reason a persona couldn’t have taken a fancy to one. Neither of these weapons would have been common or the norm.

A Viking Age Combat Archer

In the SCA, we are all about research and the creation of a persona. Towards that end, let's discuss what type of person a Viking Age archer might have been. The most likely circumstance in my mind is that a person who uses a bow as their main weapon was a hunter who has come along to the raids, or is defending their homeland. This person would be equipped a little differently than your standard warrior.

Armour- SCA combat archers have all the same armour requirements as heavy fighters, which means that you need to have rigid protection for your kidneys, floating ribs, wrists, hands, elbows, forearms, knees, throat, and head. For more specifics on what that means, check out either my article on armour (https://ulfhedinnjourney.blogspot.com/2013/12/armouring-ulfheinn.html) or your local

Illustration of the Hedeby bow.

marshallete handbook.

In my opinion, the best way to handle armour for an early period combat archer would be to make as much of it as hidden as possible, and to wear close to minimum armour. This will give the overall look of someone without access to a ton of metal armour. I could see an argument being made that, if the archer is a hunter, they might have more access to leather, and some sort of leather armour being used, but it isn't supported historically. I’d find it reasonable, but the choice is up to each person. The one thing I will comment on is that for an archer, visibility is a hugely important part of choosing a helmet. Make sure you can see out of whatever you buy.

Bow- The best thing I have seen for representing a longbow on the field is a youth fiberglass bow. They tend to be a little short, but the draw weights fall within the rules, and they are really sturdy. The last thing anyone wants is to spend money on a really nice longbow only to have it damaged when a piece of siege ammunition hits it.

Arrows- SCA combat arrows are very specific in their design to maximize the safety and durability of the arrows. These blunts can be purchased from many different shops, but I have always been a fan of Sir Erika and Northstar Archery. That could just be Trimarian bias though! Combat archery arrows are made from rubber heads with a fiberglass shaft and a plastic anti-penetration device as the fletching. Most retailers would give you the option of buying them made or as kits. If you don’t have a local combat archery marshall to help you learn the right way to do it, I would suggest buying them made so that all you have to do is label them.

Quivers- This to me is one of the most difficult parts to get right about a combat archery kit. The bulkiness of the blunts and rules about fallen ammunition mean that you really want a good quiver. The best pattern I have seen takes PVC pipes slightly larger than the blunts and makes a bundle. This bundle is then covered with linen or leather to look like a quiver. This has the advantage that your arrows don't get tangled, but it gets very bulky or carries few arrows. I have seen many archers use basket quivers, which lets them carry a large amount, but does require care when drawing arrows. It might take a while to find a quiver setup that works for you. Talk to people and get advice.

Samurai Combat Archer at
Gulf Wars in Lumberton, MS

Secondary Weapons- In the SCA, an archer can not switch to fighting with other weapons unless they put down their ranged weapon in a safe place, and they are authorized in that weapon style. This can mean going off the field or having a partner who holds the weapons when fighting gets in close. I would suggest having your melee weapons just off the field where you can go and switch out, at which point anything you want can be your secondary. In resurrection battles, it's a particularly good idea to have secondary weapons for when the arrows run out.

This brings me to a slightly adjacent point: I always tell people who want to do combat archery that it’s a good idea to authorize heavy as well. It gives you the option to fight when you run out of ammo, but also there are many more heavy combat events in the year than combat archery events. You already have the armour so there is no additional investment, and you get the chance to play that much more. This could just be my thinking, but I am authorized in both Combat Archery and Heavy Combat, and I am authorized in Rapier just in case that's what people are fighting on any given day.

Conclusion

Combat archers are one of the really cool parts of the SCA: it's what helps us recreate battles as opposed to just tourneys. It can be a ton of fun to get out there and just loose arrows, and it can fit in within a variety of time periods. One can easily do a Viking Age persona whose focus is archery. I hope this post has given you some of the information you need to get started, and as always, if you have any questions or if I missed anything let me know!

Resources

Analysis of Weapons Used in the Sagas by the Hurstwic Institute- http://www.hurstwic.org/library/arms_in_sagas/weapon_use_summary.htm
Viking Bow by the Hurstwic Institute- http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking_bow.htm
Viking Military Organization- https://regia.org/research/warfare/viking3.htm
Trimaris Marshall’s Webpage- https://www.trimaris.org/officers/office-of-the-earl-marshal/
Northstar Archery- https://www.northstararchery.com/SCA_combat_archery.html