Why do you fight?

[Baron Alejandro]

Because it's fun.

[SirOlafr]

I fight because I enjoy the hell out of it.

Sometimes it is frustrating, but it is a challenge that I want to meet. It is a way for me to test myself. I see someone that is better than me at the game, and I want to be able to match that opponent. When they face off against me, I want them to know they are in for a good fight. I love the moments when you do something, and you reflect on it after and you are like 'dude, that was so effing cool'! The comraderie is incredible. I have never seen anything quite like it. Where else can you meet someone in a combat like situation and have them call you your brother?

I love seeing the overall improvement in my fighting as I continue to work at it.

I love the way it gets my blood pumping like so few things can.

Maybe I'm nuts, but I seem to like to get hit too. I can think of so many times when I get hit with a really quality shot. My 'good' call seems to ring out that much louder as I get this rush from being struck. Damn, that was a nice shot! Grinning, I step back in to see if they can do it again. My turn!

I fight because I love it.

Keep it fresh SuGyong. You have to look for the challenges. Find things about it that will make you want to keep working at it. You have to want to do it. It is recreation, you should enjoy it. I think you can look at it from the perspective of a relationship with a spouse. What keeps people together and interested in a relationship when it is the same old person and the same old stuff? You stay with a person because you love them. You stay in it for those moments that take your breath away.

I'm sure everyone has moments when they 'don't feel like it today', and that is fine. We have outside the SCA lives too. I'll tell you though, even on those days when I didn't really feel like it but went ahead and fought anyway; I have never, ever regretted it. I have, however, had days whn I did not go, and later thought to myself, "man, I wish I had gone to practice".

As the Gatorade ad says, "Is it in you"?

Olafr

[Scott]

It's what I do. Do I really need a reason?

- Scott

[Neassa]

I love being part of a well-functioning team. I am one of the dreaded combat archers (the shame! the shame!), and I love working with the guys on my team to do our part. When I can kill the spearmen on the other side who are threatening my companions, or take out an enemy commander, the feeling is amazing. In non-archery battles I will sometimes fight spear, and that's a whole different sort of fun. (Usually the more painful kind.)

I've only been fighting for 5 years or so, and I only do melees, so even getting killed is still fun for me. I've been in the SCA for (counting...) 23 years now, and fighting has added an entirely new dimension for me.

Neassa

[Magmaforge]

Because the Art can take as much as I can give it, and it rewards me for every bit.

Because not only is it incentive to be active and fit, training and fighting makes you feel ALIVE like nothing else.

Because I have met a lot of good people through this stuff, and find more and more each year.

Because every day *is* something new, it is always shiny and new and different and unexpected. Recall the scene in the second Lord of the Rings movie when Aragorn starts idly shifting his hands in the grass and starts finding the trail of the hobbits into Fangorn forest. Every day the works of the ancient masters wait for someone to discover something new in them.

Because we should know where we came from, and pay homage to those countless unnamed predecessors of the present.

I love being part of a well-functioning team. I am one of the dreaded combat archers (the shame! the shame!), Neassa

Neassa, that was really hilarious. The shame! The shame!
That and Morgan's post made my day!

[SirCathal]

Cause i really enjoy it. Its truely fun. And because i set a goal for myself.

[Token Bastard]

I fight mostly because it's fun. When I stroll out onto the field, trade a few blows with one of my fellow fighters, and then take a resounding *BONK!* to the head, I can't help but grin like an idiot. It's just straight-up fun-ness, that's all. I don't win a lot of bouts, and tend to always come home from practice with some bruise that'll hurt like hell the next day, but I'll be damned if I don't enjoy every minute of it.

Also, I fight because it gets me physical. I went through all my grade school years without doing any sports at all, nothing really physical outside of walking and riding a bike a lot. With fighting in armoured combat, I can get outside, work some muscles, and get myself healthier.

-Ed

[Vebrand]

Dante, why do you fight?

To crush my enemies, to see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of their women?

I fight because its fun as hell...

Dante when I get back from the deployment and leave (in other words this fall) look me up for some fights.

Vebrand

[Richard Blackmoore]

God wills it.

It is fun.

It is the way of my people.

It is a great release of energy and stress, since in modern society we are no longer allowed to strike those who most deserve it.

It is the closest to medieval combat we can get to where we really hit each other safely and yet still use significant force and have lots of people be able to afford to participate. Though I am hoping some day spring steel suits become affordable enough some day that we can do this with rebated steel (at lower force levels properly) and use weapons that behave more like swords. But that will probably never happen in the SCA for cost/safety and other reasons. Some WMA group probably.

[Cet]

To practice striking people dispassionatly and for the rare time warp moment.

[rhys]

i fight to help cope with my PTSD. I fight because all my friends do. I fight bcause it is a fun time. and I figh because well, see other reasons, .but mostly because I really enjoy it




Rhys

[rob(in)]

same reason as always:

"you mean there's a place i can put on armor and we beat the crap out of each other? no way!"

[bkillian]

To throw my rough, callous, exterior into sharp relief....... oh wait , no thats vogon poetry Because I like to fight, that simple

[Jon Barber]

Because I really, really enjoy hitting people.

[Morgan]

I like what our Syr Owen says... "You mean I can whale on people and not get arrested?"

[Valley of the Fir Trees]

I am still very new in the SCA, so every time I put on my armour, I feel like a kid at Christmas...there is nothing in the world as cool as wearing armour, and fighting in it. I also see improvements in my ability and skill every time I fight, so that is really good motivation. Also every time I fight, I find that there is something else that I like about it.

Being around people with similar interests is a big one for me. Not many people in the past have been that interested in talking about some battle or why a certain culture developed the way that it did. The crap I used to get by EVERYONE else on my football and baseball teams..."Dude, shut the hell up! We don't care about history! I'm trying to drink beer!"

But thats not really about fighting. I have always been pretty athletic, and I love being able to combine two thing that I love - a physical and mental contest with a historical influence.

[Aaron]

Hi,

Why do I fight? Why the SCA?

For the sweat and exercise.

Well, maybe that’s not all of it. I can get that just doing pushups, sit-ups and core work with some additional running. Why the SCA?

It’s for the sweat, exercise, comradery, laughter and impressing my wife.

I can do rugby, combatives or judo and get that if I want. They have tournaments too. Why the SCA?

It’s for the sweat, exercise, comradery, laughter, impressing my wife and my mental health.

I notice that I'm not an asshole after I fight. And this lasts for a couple of days. But several medications would work for that. Why the SCA?


It’s for the sweat, exercise, comradery, laughter, impressing my wife, my mental health and the romantic concept of swordplay and weapons.

Fighting appeals to the romantic in me as well. It's the joy of the pageantry and the feeling of being a "knight in shinning armour" Because of the feeling I get from moving in armour as if my life depended upon it...but at that time it really doesn't. But I could get that from Kendo and reading a book. Why the SCA?

[i]It’s for the sweat, exercise, comradery, laughter, impressing my wife, my mental health, the romantic concept of swordplay and weapons, AND the “robot warsâ€

[Riejckaert]

I get to wear armor and carry a big weapon and actually beat people. No one looks the same. We can go to an event, camp, have a fire and sing bawdy songs drinking, fight all the next day and then have wild crazy parties until the sun comes up. Where in the mundane world can you get away with that?

[DELETEMYACCOUNT]

Because I'm supposed to. Those that can, should.

[Jean Paul de Sens]

Every time I dress up in armour, some jackass tries to hit me with a freaking stick.

Best.
Response.
Ever.

Hey Morgan, I'm your huckleberry.

JP