I’m Going to be a Fencer
No – no. I’m not dealing with stolen goods. I’m dealing with long slender blades trying to kill me.
Much better, yes?
I’m not going into Olympic style fencing, what with it’s rules about only traveling in a straight line and the thin oversized metal toothpicks. I’m going in for the rapier stylings found in the SCA. We use a much thicker blade, which doesn’t bend into a U when pressed against something. The fighting technique is based on 16th century fighting manuals – of which there are plenty.Those guys wrote so much on the best way to dual it’s surprising they actually had time to dual.
There are many different; schools, techniques, styles and types of attack, defence, posture, and parries as there are apps for your phone.
I’m not going to get into all that, too much. I’m going to learn how to not die in the first five minutes, and then have fun…well, five minutes and thirty seconds worth of fun anyway.
The very first event we went to, I spent the entire time standing, so I could see over peoples heads and watch the fencing – for hours I did this! But I said I wasn’t getting into it – too expensive, too old, too out of shape… I’ve changed my song – and I’ve changed it for the very reasons I said I wasn’t getting into it.
I’m doing this for essentially for two main reasons. The first reason is that I’m no longer a spring chicken, I’m not even a summer chicken… and so I see this as a way to stay in some sort of shape… besides poor. It is good cardio activity, and should help keep my joints – which seem determined to fail me – flexible and strong.
The second reason I’m doing it is because – it’s fun! When we last played in the SCA, I did fencing and enjoyed the hell out of it. I wasn’t even too bad at it. My favourite style to fight was sword and dagger. However, last time I did it, I had no gear of my own – except my cup. It isn’t cheap to get the gear and I didn’t have much extra cash.
The problem with not having my own gear was that I put off being authorized forever (authorizing = testing to make sure one is safe to fight). I missed so many oppurtunies to have fun at events because I wasn’t athuorized. This time around I’m doing it differently. I’m getting my gear and then starting training. So I’m putting off training a for a month, or so, but once I start as soon as people think I’m ready – I can authorize and have fun fighting whenever I want.
My parents and sister are wonderful and always ask what we want for christmas – often this causes confusion as my wife and I stumble about blinking trying to think of what we want. Most times we realize we want the same thing as the year before – a shit ton of reading material. This year, before I was even asked, I declared what I wanted – a sword!
I can cover the expense of a mask, and my wife is already planning my garb, which must meet certain safety requirement but also,we all agree, should look good enough I can go straight from fighting to court in front of their majesties if I have to. So I really see no reason why my New Years resolution shouldn’t be able to be carried through on – Authorize in Rapier!
I just have to remember to buy a cup.
Filed under: SCA Tagged: blade, cardio, dual, fencing, fencing manual, garb, health, rapier, Society for Creative Anachronism
