[Cynnabar] Youth fighting in Cynnabar

[Randy Asplund]

Unto the members of the Barony, Greetings from Sir RanthulfR, Youth  
Marshal, etc.

At our last Baronial meeting we had a discussion about promoting Youth  
fighting in both boffer and rapier in Cynnabar. I volunteered to write  
to Lord Nylas Kazmer, the Kingdom & Pentamere officer responsible for  
Youth Combat, and ask his advice.  The following is my letter to him  
and his reply back (posted with permission). I am forwarding it to you  
all because it is a bit much for reporting at a meeting, and it  
affects many who are not regular at the meetings.



> On Nov 14, 2011, at 9:34 PM, Randy Asplund wrote:
>
>> Hi Kazmer,
>>
>> This is a scoping out kind of letter. I just got back from the  
>> Cynnabar weekly business meeting. The subject of demos for boy  
>> scouts came up. I suggested that we talk to youth fighters in the  
>> area and see if any wanted to be in a demo for kids close to their  
>> age. That inspired a long discussion about what we could do to get  
>> youth fighting going here.
>>
>> We all recognize that we have parents bring kids around every once  
>> in a while, the kids are enthused, but  we have no loaner gear or  
>> youth of the right age/size for them to spar with.  The people at  
>> the meeting all want to have the barony be ready to provide youth  
>> fighting, but we just don't seem to have the youth critical mass to  
>> accomplish it.
>>
>> I suggested that we point parents to the materials online so they  
>> could become familiar with armor & weapon standards and learn the  
>> rules. Then we would send them to the larger youth practices when  
>> they are held out near Detroit. My thought being that once we had a  
>> few doing that, we wold gain the critical mass locally to pt it  
>> together here with regularity.
>>
>> The concern expressed by the others was that once they went out to  
>> Detroit, -if indeed the parents could be talked into that drive-  
>> they wold keep going there instead of settling here, even after  
>> local opponents were found.
>>
>> I asked if they would like me to write to you to see if you might  
>> have some helpful suggestions on how to get our group "over the  
>> hump" so to speak.
>>
SNIP
>> Have you any advice or thoughts on it?
>>
>> RanthulfR
>>

On Nov 16, 2011, at 12:34 PM, Lord Kazmer wrote:

Sir RanthulfR,

Achieving a “critical mass” is always the problem with youth combat.   
Nothing is more frustrating for the kids than not having anyone to  
play with.  One of the reasons that youth combat has been successful  
at the Roaring Waste practice is that we draw from several groups.  No  
one group usually has enough kids for a viable practice but by drawing  
on the surrounding groups the critical mass can be achieved.  The  
Roaring Waste practice is really a regional practice and by holding it  
once a month we can sort of concentrate participation.  There is a  
limit to how far parents will drive though, probably less than an hour.

Some of the marshals in Andelcrag are trying to get a Baronial youth  
combat practice started out there because, again, they don’t have  
enough kids in any one group but the barony as a whole has quite a  
few.  They want to try the once a month model but are having trouble  
settling on when and where.

An Ann Arbor practice could also draw in other groups.  I know there  
are interested kids in Talonval and Weald Lake.  Some have come to my  
practice on occasion.  A trip to Ann Arbor would be much more feasible  
for these parents than to come to my practice.  You could also draw  
from Brackendelve.  The Detroit area youth combat practice is always  
the last Sunday of the month.  If Cynnabar started a monthly practice,  
the second Sunday for example, those who are inclined to could attend  
both.  Some of the kids who come to my practice would attend more than  
one a month if available, but we have been reluctant to hold ours more  
often for fear of losing that “critical mass”.  When we started, about  
12 years ago, we had my son Bill, and Maximilian’s son Odd.  Those two  
got awfully tired of only having the other to fight with.  As time  
went on, and with the availability of loaner gear, we got more kids to  
play.  One of the “problems” with YC is that the kids do age-out.   
About three years ago we had a bunch of division 3 kids at my  
practice.  Then they started turning 18 and were gone.  Leoric from  
Weald Lake was the last one.  Now my oldest regular participants are  
14, but I have 5 or 6 more right behind them in division 2.  Wait a  
couple years and I’ll have a bunch of division 3 kids again.

On-line information for parents is somewhat lacking, other than the  
kingdom rules.  This is an area which I want to correct.  I hope to  
get some more resources posted to the kingdom website.
Loaner gear seems to be the key.  Parents are dis-inclined to spend  
money on gear until they are sure that their child is actually going  
to stick with it.  I’ve suited up many a child over the years who,  
after one practice, decided they would rather do fencing or archery.

Accumulating gear is a slow process, my stash is about 12 years in the  
making.  I started by asking for donations of old sports gear.  I got  
more roller-blading elbow and knee pads than I needed initially.   
Hawkland Moor authorized me to spend up to $75 which I used to buy  
hockey helmets at Play-it-Again Sports.  I’ve also hit garage sales  
and flea markets for most of the rest.  The only armor that isn’t  
commercially available are gorgets, but I’ll bet that some of your  
local fighters have scrap leather and barrel plastic lying around and  
could throw together a few.  Someone from Cynnabar would need to step  
up and be the point person for the program.  This should be a youth  
marshal with a background check (you need one of those present  
anyway).  Assistance can then come from parents, fighters, and other  
adults.  Remember, you don’t have to be a warranted youth marshal to  
work with the kids, just to “spar” with them.

What can I do to help you get started?  Would you like me to attend  
one of your baronial meetings to discuss this with the group?  I would  
also be willing to attend one of your practices and bring my loaner  
gear, although I can’t make a regular practice of this.  Boy scout  
demos can be a fertile recruiting field.  Over the last few years I’ve  
had several families get started in SCA because the kids were  
introduced to youth combat either at demos or by friends in the SCA.   
Little known fact: most of the kids in youth combat do not have a  
parent who fights.

I will be teaching a class at 12th Night in January for parents and  
kids who are interested in learning about the program.  As part of  
that class I am working on a set of hand-outs on how to find or make  
youth combat gear.  I plan to post these on-line eventually.

At the very least, lets keep talking.

THL Nyilas Kazmer
Middle Kingdom Deputy Earl Marshal
Youth Combat


Randy Asplund
Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist"
www.RandyAsplund.com
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Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy
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