Don't you guys think your taking the fun out of Renactment?

[Nex_Addo]

Medieval Renactment is a sport and in sports people get injured. In rugby last year 2 people died. Question should rugby be played in a big bouncy castle?

I think some of these combatants need to toughen up. This guy who had two teeth knocked out got over it even said it was his fault, the guy that hit him bought him a box of beer thats a great example of someone getting hurt and not making a fuss.

If someone wants to play sword tiggy there welcome to goto NAAMA but Taupo should be left how it is. It's simple instead of relying on the other person not to hurt you why don't you just go get some better equipment and if you go out there bare chested be prepared to take a blow.

The next thing that completed pisses me off is these people who were a shield on there back and have a shield in there hand as well. If I was to put steel on my back in the form of a back plate i get touched im dead but if I put wood on my back then my backs completely safe. Because we all know that wood is stronger then steel right? Obviously there are going to be flaws in rules but that does not mean you should just use the rules they are there to make people safe not give someone an unfair advantage its just common sense.

Another issue that needs to be raised is that pretty much anyone can grab a sword and jump into a battle. I believe that club captain need to take more responsibility when they sign there name to allow someone to fight. I've had a talk and this is just a suggestion.
1st once a captain has signed his name if his student is unsafe then the marshal will come up to him quietly and say something like "hey slow it down please" ect
2nd if he should continue to be unsafe then the marshall shall shout out "Look John Doe i told you to slow it down one more time and you off"
3rd If he is still unsafe the Marshall shall then remove him from the field if he should argue his captain (or a repersentive) is brought up and the rest of that clubs member shall be removed from the field and the captain rights to sign people off shall be revoked until further notice.

This will bring in pair pressure as the rest of the club will tell him just to get off. There is no need for more rules or a NAZI group to decide whats right and whats wrong thats up to the club captains and event organizers and I dont want to see sword tiggy at Taupo or play with pretend swords.

Basically were all there to have fun and were all grown ups and a sword is still just a steel club and it WILL! injure people and thats what were there for. I have seen so many untrained people go out onto the battlefield with very little training and noone stops them. Then we have the sissies who get a scratch and go and have a cry about it. Another good example was I think it was Victor got hit pretty hard and he just made the choice to retire for the day BUT HE DID NOT CRY ABOUT IT. Medieval Renactment is a social event we enjoy it if we take a good but safe hit if we all were to go away and have a cry then there would be no need to respawn.

Summary Taupo is Taupo, NAAMA is NAAMA dont mix the two together. Camps are social events and should be fun. Club captains need to crack down on who they let on the field. And people need to harden up

Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye............... Then its hilarious

[ann dugmore]

One of the best things about Taupo was that it wasn't NAAMA! A great many people want to enjoy a more 'realistic' form of combat that utilises their training styles without giving advantage to quick wrist flicks that are a million miles away from 'killing' blows.
We do not want to hurt people and so training and control are essential.
It is the Club Captain's job to ensure that combatants are mentally and physically prepared to enter a melee. They oversee the training.
The Marshall's are there to stop hotheads and weed out those whose training has deserted them in the excitement!
I would hate to see this multifarious sport become over-regulated through one over-arching body. Such an organisation would quickly become the provenance of the bureaucratic, officious and pretentious!

May I suggest that those who are worried about the injuries caused by fighting should organise their own 'virtual' tournament; but please don't start whinging when they get 'occupational over-use' (which is the new name for 'repetitive strain injury'!

[knight of magdalene]

I think the point of this excersise is not to reduce the ability to use technique, but to increase it. NAAMA was formed it appears so that different clubs with different styles could come togeather and have mass melle....that objective is sound.

When I talk about safty, it is not about reducing the pitch of the competition but to be able to maintain a high level and ensure that a high safty level is maintained.

There are people out there working on such systems ... why not integrate this knowlege?

NAAMA from my perspective is simply a convinient existing franchise with a collection of experienced owners who have opportunity to take interclub mass melle to the next level...

People have lost eyes in this sport and it is no laughing matter...nor is loosing teeth.

[knight of magdalene]

[Nex_Addo]

[Anna Cruse]

If someone enters the field at a public event after being told they are fighting with a specific set of rules (and even agreeing to the risk inherent in that set of rules) and then are injured because that set of rules is not being played, or the marshal is incapable of enforcing that set of rules then the event sponser/organiser MOST DEFINITELY IS liable. I would sue if it were me or mine, to stop it happening again. If a combatant agrees to fight by the rules but doesn't have adequate control there's grounds to press charges of assault. (Imagine if an unlicensed driver entered a race track). I'd do that, too, to protect people.

I mean it.

People who don't want many bruises or rough play will sign up for NAAMA rules, because it's not likely to result in worse. I know people who are on warfarin, model for their only income, are recovering from serious surgery who will enter a NAAMA field because they trust they are not going to be badly hurt. These people are BRAVE, to do what they do, yet people like Lex hold them in contempt.

I personally am willing to be hurt, hurt or even kill someone in self defense, or defense of my community. I joined the Guardian Angels because the risk I take when facing a knive or club weilding thug is less than someone who hasn't been trained with weapons, and I'm willing to take that risk. Are you, Lex (more than hypothetically, I mean)? But the people I fight at re-enactment events are NOT (for the most part) a threat to me, society at large, or even unfriendly. I DON'T WANT TO RISK HURTING MY FRIENDS. That death happens in rugby is an appalling basis for your argument. Does that mean that if we have one, we're still better off? Death or maiming in sport is a tragedy, not an acceptable fact of life, and the unaccepted risk of injury is not "fun".

No-one does a martial art they believe is inferior to another. Some of us like to believe that we're not really learning to hurt people unless we do, or that it requires the same force to cut a person as it does to cut into a tree. Whatever - just keep it away from me, my friends and any NAAMA field.

Anna Cruse

[knight of magdalene]

At the end of the day all this converstaion is moot as the franchise owners of NAAMA, WMA etc are the only ones able to make changes to the Safty equipment rules. The way it stands at the moment is participants either like it or lump it, end of story.

The owners of the NAAMA franchise are (from what I can gather ) club captains who have voting rights.

[knight of magdalene]

Anna, I agree with every thing you say except that you might remember that NAAMA is the umbrella for interclub combat and that as a result of this people will want to try out their style in mass melle you will never stop that unless you take the vetting away from the club captain and grade each participant annually in a pre naama event. Once qualified the participant would have an annual licence so to speak ... there could be great fun in this ceremony.

Marshals also shold in this cerimony be vetted via participant application and examination appointed and provided their marshalling staff...to be used in all interclub events.

Marshals would in the end of the day become the professional umpires we so surely need in this growing and mutating european cultural activity.

What you could do... as I see you as being somone with the ear of the NAAMA council...also do... to be seen to be providing a solution...which is the number one concideration..is to increase the level of safty equipment as manditory, kneck, spine, mouth, eyes, chest(girls), kidneys, groin, arteries elbows, knees.


Why isnt this possible?

[Angel]

[knight of magdalene]

oK but NAAMA is about inter club thus inter style combat surely then the equipment safty standards should be raised ?

[Angel]

Some people who want to fight at NAAMA have to change their style entirely to take part. It's not inter-style. It's just NAAMA-style.

[knight of magdalene]

[Angel]

What do I mean?
See:

[Bogue]

[Angel]