Fighter Practice
Both Armored Combat and Rapier fighter practice are held Saturdays, 8am-10am, near Ramada #11 (SE side) of Caballero Park in Yuma, AZ. For notices of cancellation please check our calendar and our Facebook group!
If you are interested in combat sports and martial arts, come give it a try! We have loaner gear available, just let us know you are interested by emailing our marshal at marshal@burningsands.atenveldt.org or posting to our Facebook group! Note you will want to bring your own hard-shelled sports cup (groin protection namely for males) and maybe wear long sleeved clothing. Otherwise, we have everything else you need, you just have to show up!
You must be 16 and older to participate and must sign a waiver for liability purposes at every practice unless you are a paid member and authorized to fight in the SCA. Participants under 18 years old must have a parent or legal guardian present to sign a waiver and consent form.
What to expect your first time at a fighter practice:
We will go over all safety requirements and procedures before having you (or your parent/legal guardian) sign a waiver. Then we will help you get armored up from our loaners appropriate for armored combat or rapier, depending on your expressed interest. We then will do an armor inspection to make sure your armor meets minimum requirements and is safe. Next, we will help calibrate, which involves delivering a blow to your person to help you understand the varying degrees of force used, i.e. what is considered light, good, and excessive. We will go over some basic rules including what striking areas are legal or not. Next, we will go over and practice some basic stances and techniques to make sure you can safely deliver a blow and defend yourself. Finally, we let you have a go at it and see what you can do! Many first timers struggle with having an idea in there head of what is going to happen and executing that idea the way they pictured it. More often than not it almost never works out the way you imagined it, and that is okay! That shouldn’t discourage you from trying something that sounds cool in your head, sometimes it works out and can surprise even the most seasoned of fighters! We are all students and teachers here, even you, and we learn the most when we humble ourselves to those facts.
For more information on safety and rules, please refer to the SCA Armored Combat (Rattan) Marshals Handbook and/or Atenveldt Rapier Handbook found in the Kingdom Document Library.
