thegirlsclub

[Ruskovic]

What do you all think of using foam weapons, like combat swords, for cross training? It's against SCA reg.s to practice w/o armor, so I figure the loop hole would be to practice w/o the rapier....


I think it's good to occasionally use foam weapons so that in a group setting we don't have to worry about armoring up. Also, the visibility of showing specific drills is greatly increased w/o the helmet and armor.

Also, the light weight foam weapon (as compared to the rapier), is easier to manipulate for longer practice times prior to fighting.


What do you all think?

[Cunian]

I think using something along these lines has a lot of value. We use whiffle ball bats a lot for drill and such at our practice. (heavy) That said, I did give the hubby a black eye with one once when I thought he would block.

[Tibbie Croser]

I think foam swords would have more value for training new rattan fighters who don't have armor yet than they would for training fencers. Rapier armor is not that much of an additional weight; the masks are not nearly as heavy as SCA heavy helmets.

Slow work can be done without a mask if people are careful.

I'd be concerned that a new fencer training with a foam sword would not be able to adjust the calibration of his/her thrusts when switching to steel. Steel hits much harder than foam.

[Isabella E]

Personally I think that they don't handle the same, so you may end up just introducing bad technique and poor calibration that has to be corrected when a student picks up the real thing. You can do a lot of drills and practice techniques without wearing armor in slow timing.
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