thegirlsclub

[Tibbie Croser]

I suggested to someone here that she not pursue rapier until she had advanced farther in SCA heavy combat and that spending time on rapier would reduce her time available for heavy combat training. She pointed out that her armored combat instructors thought cross-training in rapier would be good for her.

I've been training in only rapier for 4 years. I know zilch about SCA armored combat. But people on this forum who are hardcore SCA armored fighters have preached that training for SCA armored combat needs to be very intense and very specific. Surely time spent cross-training in rapier would be better spent on specific training for armored combat?

I'd think the time for cross-training in rapier would be when the armored combat fighter is (a) fairly advanced in armored combat and/or (b) unable to do armored combat because of injury.

[Isabella E]

Some things from fencing have a direct positive impact on your fighting in armor. Footwork and point control are big ones. I think if you half ass your training in one thing and try to half ass your training in another at the same time you're going to suck, but not because you are doing both. It's because you're training half assed.

Mixed martial artists cross train all the time. In fact it's arguable that one trick ponies in MMA don't last very long because they need to be competent in multiple disciplines. Even Bruce Lee knew fighting was less about system and more about efficiency and adaptation.
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It's not the most powerful animal that survives. It's the most efficient. -Georges St-Pierre
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[Cunian]

I think partly it may depend on the pool of training available. In some areas you have many accessible practices with knights and dukes at them. In other areas, you might only have a single small practice without a lot of depth. In the second case, going to a rapier practice as well is pretty well bound to be a good idea, while in the former case it's likely that going to a second heavy practice will be more valuable. You do what you can with what's available to you. She who does more will generally become more worthy.

[broinnfinn]

I use rapier as rehab after injury to transition back into heavy. It's easier on my body while I am healing, but keeps me in practice mode.

[audax]

the little dragon had no use for syste/\/\s at all he was all about using what worked and dispensing with what did not there is nothing at all proble/\/\atic about cross training in rapier except that it can draw attention away fro/\/\ heavy fighting if that is ones focus as bruce said it is like a finger pointing away to the /\/\oon; do not focus on the finger or you will /\/\iss all that heavenly glory use it as a training tool
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Martel le Hardi
squire to Meser Lyonel Oliver Grace, fostered to Sir Gaston de Clermont
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The Minstrel's Champion

[Tibbie Croser]

Isabella, I'm sorry about this topic. I'm overly zealous about protecting rapier from accusations that it's a "threat to" or "distraction from" armored combat. I love rapier the way that you all love armored combat, and I would prefer that SCA fighters take up rapier for its own sake, not as a means of cross-training for armored combat (unless they're spear fighters).