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PhilosophyAndApproach

Page history last edited by maxntropy@... 16 years, 1 month ago

Our philosophy and approach towards the arts of combat are borne from decades of study and practice and a long and glorious history reaching back to Duke Akbar ibn Murad of the House Hakkim of the East Kingdom of the SCA and his students, Sir Strykar Geirharldsson and Duke Sir Siegfried Von Halstern and is oriented around a number of basic concepts:

 

  • Integrated and Holistic: Offense, defense, movement, rotation, and positioning are all components of an integrated, inter-related, and interchangeable holistic framework.
  • Analytical and Scholastic: We attempt to construct and deconstruct the mechanics, tactics, and strategy of both our and our opponents' actions to understand both what we are doing on the field and why we are doing it (mechanically, tactically, strategically, ethically, ec...) and to study ourselves, our opponents, different schools and historical approaches.
  • Inclusive and Syncretic: We don't believe there is necessarily a single best technique applicable for all people in all situations, though there may be a single best approach and overall manner of learning, but instead attempt to build the most effective personal approach for each fighter by fusing together any and all available schools, techniques, methods, and approaches.
  • Temperament and Attitude: We believe that medieval combat is fun and being around people having fun makes people learn better.  There are appropriate times to be serious and appropriate times to have fun, and it is appropriate to know which are which and to have both, making sure there is sufficient amounts of both.

Comments (2)

Anonymous said

at 2:40 pm on Feb 21, 2008

Max, as I read through the material of the Scholum, I realize that the teachings of the school are distinct with a greater analysis from much of the way I've been taught to fight.
1) The Zero Stem blows are new and distinct to me
2) The lack of explicit returns or recoveries leaves me aghast as I end up in that moment on the trailing side of a blow, but have no place to go unless I recover.
3) I find myself wanting to contribute, but I realize that my lexicon doesn't match up well with the Scholum Artis Bellum lexicon yet.

I consider all of these to be challenges I'm facing personally. I have a shotgun collection of different advice and theory I use in comprehending a fight. Can we build a page or two on how to watch and analyze a fight?

Some topics that local fighters will hit living in this area:

1) Gyrth's Oldcastle: L stance, ranges A-D, and a sword held behind the spine with a closed shield.

2) Bellatrix School: Shield foot flat snaps, Single tempo shots, etc. (Sir Guy knows most of this stuff)

3) What kinds of fight can you expect from southern Atlantian fight schools? How do you beat an Ebonwolfe fighter?

4) On the west coast, Duke Uther decomposed fighting topics into 3 subjects: Mental Prep (Training, Techniques, and Spiritual readiness), Body Prep (Muscle Memory, Strength & Endurance Training), and Armour Prep (Armour selection, Planning for failures, Armour, Arms, & Shield construction and maintenance). Many of these critical topics help new fighters make life decisions that keep them fighting more consistently for a longer time.
1) Why do I fight?
2) What's the right vs. wrong thing to do at an SCA practice?
3) What do you have to do to be able to keep fighting?
4) Why do you want to keep fighting?

I'd like to put together some more doctrine pages to help new fighters get the right mindset.

maxntropy@... said

at 12:31 am on Mar 4, 2008

We've said repeatedly from the very start that *every* blow is a two-part affair consisting of both the shot and the return/recovery. From every shot, however, there are different options for recovery, and we have been focusing on the basic mechanics of the shot steps themselves (the most basic "what" of a technique) so that the trainees can inculcate the minimum appropriate basic technique. This is equivalent to playing a single "note" in music. We have been working up to integrating movement in with the basic shot and some recoveries (e.g., combinations) which would be equivalent to playing the most fundamental chord in music (playing a few notes simultaneously in time). We are not yet teaching the "how" of fighting -- things like different types of snaps, rhythms, how to fight Southerners, different schools, etc... That's the 201 class and beyond. Uther's is a nice framework (though I'm not quite sure how the training and the muscle memory differ that significantly), and we are really doing all of that but in an integrated way, in which we are trying to emphasize that the mental, spiritual, technical, analytical, sartorial, ethical, honorable, interpersonal, and physical are all part of a single holistic approach to fighting. We are trying to "weave" together a comprehensive whole in which one's honor and prowess and armor and courtesy and focus and strength all progress in parallel and are combined parts of a whole. To do that we are first constructing the basic techniques of breathing/focus, rotation, movement, offense, and defense in a manner in which they are all feeding off a common set of mechanics (101). We will then move into applying those techniques in a common set of circumstances regarding how you fight (201).

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