Finding Inspiration

Guten Tag!

Today I am inspired! I've been struggling lately to find a focus and that's been detrimental to my SCA experience. It can be a little disheartening to be running around helping everyone at events or practices (which is my natural tendency) when you haven't got something you're passionate about to work on.

It's even harder to handle the administrative duties of being a group Seneschal!

But thanks to a couple of long chats with our most excellent Baron and Baroness, Branwen and Kilic, I am once more inspired to work on my own projects. It was only when I sat down with their excellencies who are both highly knowledgeable and highly engaged in researching the medieval period that my own interest in research was re-kindled. Yes, I am a nerd at heart and in the SCA I can find like minded people who won't ridicule me for wanting to read a book more than drink a VB.

Through our chats I realised that one of my major problems is that I try to be involved in everything and that I haven't yet identified what it is that I'm truly excited about. But there's one thing I do know, and that's that I'm interested in the Crusades and particularly the involvement of the Holy Roman Empire. Now couple that with the fact that there's a disturbing amount of Tudor garb at Anealan events and I find myself inspired to put together a Crusade era outfit. This will be the first time I've actually put together an "outfit" rather than cobbled together some typical SCA bits and pieces into an ensemble.

I'm still searching for inspiration but here's one image I found:

Yes I know this is a picture of royalty but the effect is pretty impressive.

I'll post updates as I make progress (or just find pretty pictures to inspire me!)

Until next time

Bechtold (the Crusader)

Victory!

Guten Tag readers!

Today I post of victory in a tourney! Okay so it was a demo event and a team tourney and there were only a few fighters and my partner (Dino D'Malta) did the lions share of the killing but it still counts :)

Looks like endless pell work can be useful. According to my beloved who attentively watched all of my fighting, I was embodying the "fire" persona. For those not familiar with the theory some people describe fighting styles in terms of the four elements (wind, water, fire, earth). Fire is the aggressive, attacking persona. I guess all that pell work made the blows come fairly instinctively and since I haven't trained much else, I relied on a flurry of blows to see me through.

It's remarkably effective against the less experienced fighters because it is really hard to work on a strategy when  someone's trying to take your head off! Of course against the good fighters it doesn't work so well as they effortlessly defend against the flurry and find a gap in your defence. Which of course you aren't focusing on because you're trying to kill them!

So time to focus on defence. Hard to do against a pell I suspect so I might need to volunteer as a human tent peg at training again so that through merciless beatings I might learn to keep my guard up.

But all that aside it was a really awesome day simply because I didn't break and I didn't lose all my fights. Next step, fight regularly without snapping like a twig! Oh, and painting my shield so I don't again look like a member of the legion of the unpainted.


Bechtold (the chuffed).

Summer Slowdown

Guten Tag!

Yes it has been a long time since I posted but I have fallen prey to the dreaded summer slowdown known to affect many SCAdians. As soon as it hits 30 degrees around here, the heavies are too hot to train, and the silly season of holidays takes away everyones free time.

So how is it that during the slowdown I ended up the Seneschal of Aneala? Oh yeah, that's right, I can't help myself. Why is it that I end up embroiled in the administration of every organisation I ever join? Glutton for punishment or power-mad dictator - you be the judge...

Anyway Aneala is getting right back into the swing of things at the moment and I will be trying to reignite my interest in costuming so hopefully I'll have some pretties to show off very shortly. Despite popular opinion, the Crusade era has some very impressive garb and I'm keen to show it off.

Here's to shaking off Summer sleepiness and getting back into the game.


Bechtold (who spent most of today dozing rather than doing anything. Damn 35 degree plus weather. I tried, honest!).

Taught a lesson the old fashioned way...

Guten Tag!

On the weekend I fought in my first tournament for a fair while, the Queen's Guard Tree of Chivalry in Abertridwr. Even though I didn't feel quite ready to get back on the horse so to speak, I felt like I had to honour Lord Benedick's courage in standing against all comers in his position as a member of the Queen's Guard.

And in case you're wondering how I did? I got walloped. Good and proper! I think I scored a single telling blow in the entire tournament and I'm not sure how I pulled that off. Probably a thrust when I was out of ideas and just flailed away!

But it was good to get out there again and not break something for once. It's been a long time since I've fought Lord Benadick and he showed me exactly why he's considered one of the finest non-chivalry fighters in WA. My stomach still hurts from an awesome shot he nailed me with that seemingly passed completely through my shield. And then I fought his Master, Sir Halfdeane. That was even more embarrassing. I couldn't touch him!

But I'm not letting my failure keep me down. In fact I'm seething at the moment so with any luck I can turn frustration into inspiration and tackle College Challenge head on. Who knows, one day I might even get a kill on someone.

Bechtold (the rusty)

A device for all occasions

Guten Tag!

Today I'm walking on air because my SCA name and device have been approved by the College of Heralds. My goodness that was an arduous process. It's such an arcane procedure shrouded in mystery. You find yourself watching the submission process updates wondering just what happens in the den of heralds during those passing months. For example, what the heck does "pre-proofreading" mean? And why does it take a month? I have this vision of a herald starting at my device for a month just to psych themselves up to proofread the single line description. Now I realise that the heralds have lots of submissions to go through but from the perspective of the person waiting for the decision, it's an agony akin to having teeth pulled, very slowly, one millimetre at a time.

But who cares? I have a device. I can even call it my arms since I've received my AoA. And to cap it off, at the Bal d'Aneala I was inducted into the Order of the Demi-sun for my service to the Barony of Aneala. So all in all a good SCA week for me! When the SCA is good it's great my friends. When it's bad... well, just read some of my other rants.

But anyway, yay for devices. Look out for my device to soon be plastered on everything I can get my hands on. At least it will be once I find a way to paint roses well. Why did a craft challenged person like me pick roses? Maybe I need to get some commissioned. Cinara, where art thou?

Oooh, and Cinara got her very awesome name approved as well and is moving ever closer to having her device approved. Parrots and ermine, boy does she have expensive tastes :)

Until next time,

Bechtold (the uncharacteristically enthusiastic).

P.S. here's my device, in all its computer generated glory. I'll paint it up one day, promise!

Recruitment in the SCA

Guten Tag!

There have been some really interesting discussions in the Barony of Aneala and the wider WA SCA community lately about growing the SCA in WA and perhaps moving towards a Principality (where we get a Prince and Princess of our very own!).

Of particular interest has been the discussion of growth, and what it actually means. Having a look through various definitions of the word, I have decided that my favourite is the following:

"A progression from simpler to more complex forms".

What I really like about this definition is that it allows for all kinds of growth. Why does this appeal to me? Because in all of the volunteer groups I have been a part of (yes I'm a committee junkie!), growth has to many people meant one thing and one thing alone - MEMBERSHIP!

And that's definitely a form of growth, no one can deny you've grown when you're bigger right? But I'm interested in the issue of complexity. Do we grow to become more complex by getting bums on seats? Certainly we have to plan more for the influx of new people. It was certainly more complex to cook for 100+ people than for 30ish! But what happens when you can't service all these people? Should you be servicing these people? Is the SCA about helping newcomers? Is that growing the complexity of our game? Certainly I wouldn't be an active participant these days if I hadn't of had lots of help on the way. And this is where the bums on seats mentality fails me. We can't adequately service that many people. Looking after newbies is hard work.

While I may be crucified for saying it, I'll reiterate: NEWCOMERS ARE HARD WORK! That doesn't mean they're not worth it! But what it does mean is that we need to recognise that it's hard work, and not bite off more than we can chew. I didn't join the SCA to be a service provider, I wax lyrical about fighting to newbies because I love to talk about it. I help someone learn the basics so that they can join in the fun. I don't do it to tick off another member on the roster.

And, while it sounds really harsh and uncaring, when I'm looking after a newbie, I'm sacrificing time I could be doing something else. But when I'm helping an impassioned and active newbie, it's greatly rewarding and probably gets me to learn about all kinds of new things as I help them through their journey. Now there are some people who will argue that I'm saying that we should ignore newbies and I'm not. In fact I'm saying quite the opposite. What I'm suggesting is that we invest lots of time in newbies, but only take on what we can reasonably accommodate and give each newbie the best possible chance of becoming a "lifer" and contributing to our game. In essence, I would rather spend all my effort helping out one passionate newcomer than try and hold the interest of 30 sorta-kinda-maybe interested types (quality over quantity and all that...).

This way newcomers can find their feet in the SCA (which we all know is not the easiest of processes) and contribute to that growth in complexity that we are all looking for. We all want our game to improve, we all want to see more fighting, more arts and sciences, more of everything. But I don't think we get that from a purely numbers based membership drive.

I guess my major concern is that we all seem to forget that the SCA is a group of people who have similar interests, not an organisation tasked with hunting out those who might be willing to join us and doing anything we can to keep them. As my lady Cinara so eloquently put it, "we're not a service organisation". We help newcomers because they enrich our game, not so we can make our membership statistics look good.

And yes, this is just my personal opinion, but that is the conceit I'm allowed through operation of a blog. Have a different opinion? Let me know in the comments. I'm actually really interested in this, because I dearly want to see the SCA in WA grow to be more complex, rich and exciting for all.

Thus endeth the rant,

Bechtold (the mildly opinionated)

Teaching the art of combat

Guten Tag!

So recently my attempts at getting back into the combat scene have been somewhat derailed by a flood of new fighters who want to learn how to hit people with bits of furniture cane for fun and profit.

As a relatively long term newbie to the fighting arts I seem to have become an impromptu teacher for these fighters, which is interesting considering my extremely limited participation in actual armoured combat to date and my long term injuries. It got me thinking, why do these fighters seek me out for training instead of the more experienced fighters? I've come up with a few reasons below, but what do you think? Am I a fraud for teaching them? Should I send them on to more experienced teachers? Should I just suit up in my armour and ignore the newbies? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Why people might be seeking me out for training

1. They're intimidated by the long term fighters - I can definitely see this, since I'm still intimidated by them! These fighters seem to prefer the pain-based reinforcement strategy for training where they keep whacking you until you wise up and start blocking them. Effective, but when you have no idea what you're doing, getting whacked continuously is no ones idea of fun.
2. I can't help but talk about fighting - GUILTY! Being an old hat at martial arts in general and an avid fan of armoured combat, weapons and armour of the medieval period, I don't really shut up and have an opinion on anything. So if a newbie asks me a fighting question, three hours disappear while I wax lyrical on every subject vaguely related, show every shot and block I can think of and reminisce about the few fights I've had.
3. I'm actually a good teacher - Not sure about this one, I'm certainly an opinionated teacher. With my background in Speech Pathology I can certainly talk people's ears off but I don't know that I actually teach them anything practical...
4. I'm procrastinating to avoid getting back into armour - Yeah probably... I'm still not confident that I won't break like a dried out twig when I get back into it and the newbies need help and I wouldn't be very nice if I abandoned them... insert increasingly implausible excuses here!
5. I'm just unbelievably good looking and charismatic and people can't help but be drawn to me - You keep dreaming there Bechtold...

So, what do you think is the reality of the situation? Advice needed, loyal followers (follower? Can you say followers if you read your own post and force your significant other to do so as well?)

Bechtold (the horribly unqualified teacher of heavy combat)