[SCA] Sidesword?

[Brodir]

Anyone doing this? What are the main differences between sidesword and plain rapier? Opinions on sidesword overall?

[Elias mac Griogair]

the level of force used is a starting point. beyond that there is the fact that you are doing strikes in the style of the heavy fighter. And there opens the possibility of ACTUALLY getting to use the manuevoers of DeGrassi and others.
sidesword is a lot of fun and this is the one area that I would do that lets me get as close to the light side as I can stand.

Elias
heavy marshal & side sword guinea pig
Drachenwald

[Kevin the Hound]

The SCA Sidesword Experiment rules are here:

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/sca/sca-sidesword.html


Master Gwylym, the Society Sidesword Marshal, is administering the program and trying to keep the scope of the experiment fairly closely controlled. The basic underlying concept of the experiment is to prove that SCA Rapier-style combat can safely include delivery of percussive blows.

One of the elements of Sidesword combat is that we DON'T use schlager blades. Gwylym's experience with his (non-SCA) Tattershall School of Defense is that they don't perform well or last very long. (Yeah, I know about the whole Mensur thing, but I believe that Gwylym knows what he's talking about) Anyway, we have to use beefier blades, with a Del Tin Practice Rapier blade (or equivalent) being the >lightest< usable blade. Included are Zamarano blades, Scottie Diamond Blades, the Starfire rapier and the blade of choice, the Del Tin >Bated< Rapier blade.

Typically, you need to cut the length down, since most of these rapier simulators use a blade around 42" long. The proper length for a Spada-de-lato (Sidesword) is around 38" for a 6 foot tall man. Also, since we are still using what are basically >rapier< simulator blades our swords are still lighter and less beefy than a >real< sidesword blade. This, for our sake, is not necessarily a bad thing, but Gwylym is trying to get Del Tin to produce a combat version of a Spada de Lato (that would be cool).

The combat styles are supposed to be based around the teachings of Marozzo, Agrippa or Di Grassi, or other teachers of the same time period. Marozzo is most cut dependent, with Agrippa and DiGrassi being substantially more "point-oriented". All of them use delivery of percussive blows as a major part of their teachings. They are NOT "rapier" teachers, they taught what was basically Sidesword. Cut & Thrust combat.

Engaging in Sidesword combat is a blast. You work with your partner/opponent to maintain a tempo that both of you are comfortable with. You can increase this tempo, increasing the combat intensity, until you are doing the footwork and body mechanics at near 100%, with the bladwork at around 80% of full intensity. You have a real sense of fear of being struck, which you should have.

The base armor is rapier armor per SCA standards, with the addition of rigid "back-of-the-head" protection. Steel rapier helmets are highly encouraged. Most of the Sidesword combatants I know wear half-gauntlets, rigid knee and elbow protection, padded doublets (or armor padding), vambraces and steel helmets.

We (in the Midrealm) are currently requiring that participants be experienced Rapier combatants, or possibly experienced combatants who get a Rapier authorization. We also have a simple authorization process, that largley boils down to "do you look safe enough that we want to work with you?". This is an experiment, so we send reports t our Kingdom Sidesword Marshal after >every< practice. He sends monthly reports off to Gwylym.

No serious injuries in the Midrealm that I know of. The little bruises and dings wouldn't even register on the heavy combat radar screen.

Kevin the Hound
known in the SCA Middle Kingdom as
Kevin O'Shaughnessy, Sidesword Marshal (among other things)


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Pars Acuta in Alio (The Pointy End Goes into the Other Man)