[Cynnabar] P.S. Youth fighting in Cynnabar
Charlotte Mayhew
crmayhew at comcast.net
Thu Nov 17 17:15:08 UTC 2011
To encourage youth fighting in Cynnabar, just start hosting a once-a-month
youth practice. Publicize it throughout Michigan and Ohio groups and hold
it on a *different* week than the Detroit youth practice.
Marshal activities all fall under the Marshalate, not under Children¹s
Activities. A Youth Authorized Marshal with a full understanding of the
armor & weapons requirements should run this, not a Minister of Youth.
Youth Rapier:
Warder Arnold and Warder Miguel are both Youth Authorized Fencing Marshals.
The armor for adult and youth rapier is the same, only the weapons are
different. So the Barony¹s loaner equipment is suitable for youth. The
biggest issue here is that fencing is a well-attended practice and sometimes
fencers (of all ages) have to wait for their turn in armor.
The fencers as a group have been very welcoming to my children and the
friends they¹ve brought to practice. They have been very willing to work
with and teach them. I daresay there¹s already a youth rapier practice in
Cynnabar; it¹s just mixed in with the regular one. Still, I think a monthly
designated youth rapier practice would be well-attended.
Youth Heavy Fighting:
A newbie doesn¹t need armor to hold a sword and learn to hit a fully-armored
fighter. If you get the interested youths to come to practice, and figure
out ways for them to participate without full armor, you¹re halfway there.
Running hands-on classes on various weapons, shields, long weapons, etc.,
will all engage interested new fighters. Then you can get them armored up
one by one.
With 4 different levels of armor and weapons requirements, getting loaner
armor together is much more complicated than it is for rapier. It would be
a good idea to write up a one-page summary of armor requirements for each
age group, with an emphasis on regular sports equipment that can be
purchased. This would be helpful to newbie parents, who might just go
purchase needed equipment. This is especially true of the younger ages,
where most of the armor is easy and inexpensive to buy.
One of the biggest hitches to recruiting interested youth fighters is that
you also have to recruit their parents. It would be a good idea to know
whether you want to recruit all ages of youth (from 6-18) or if you just
want to concentrate on teens.
This is my 2 cents, based on my experiences with my kids in youth combat and
fencing.
--Sunnifa (Charlotte)
On 11/16/11 7:57 PM, "Randy Asplund" <randyasplund at comcast.net> wrote:
> Oh, I forgot to mention- Actually, I believe that Ld. Arnold is a Youth
> Fencing Marshal, so I am not the only Youth Marshal.
>
> I'm writing from Craft Night and there is a little talk going on right now
> posing the question of wether the group might like to add a Minister of Youth
> so we could have someone who can help coordinate activities for the children
> of the Barony.
>
> Just food for thought (to go with the pizza we just had and the home-made
> apple pie & ice cream we are about to have...)
>
> RanthulfR
>
> On Nov 16, 2011, at 4:40 PM, Greg Less wrote:
>
>> Before we get to far down this path of buying and prepping... do we actually
>> have any youth that are interested in fighting, are in the same age division
>> as other youths and have parents that are willing to commit to making sure we
>> have critical mass? Furthermore, the barony has exactly one authorized youth
>> marshal. The authorization process, not to mention the background check, make
>> the prospect of us getting more seem slim at best.
>>
>> So, I guess my question is - why are we considering this and who plans on
>> supporting?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -Gregoire.
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 4:36 PM, Randy Asplund <randyasplund at comcast.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Actually, I was just out at Share House on Jackson d. the other day and they
>>> had a lot of hockey helmets and other stuff for CHEAP.
>>>
>>> RanthulfR
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 16, 2011, at 4:03 PM, andrew at prometheusmotionpictures.com wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Recycle Ann Arbor has youth hockey helmets (usually 2 or 3) on the shelf
>>>> nearly everytime I go there. Hockey pants and elbow and knee pads as well.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm not in a position right now to volunteer for anything, but in the
>>>> future I would be interested in getting a youth combat authorization /
>>>> marshalette. I've already been background checked to death from working at
>>>> CPS, and would certainly be willing to do it again.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Hjorleif
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On November 16, 2011 at 3:27 PM Randy Asplund <randyasplund at comcast.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> > 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 ³critical mass² 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 don¹t 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 ³critical mass². When we started,
>>>>> about
>>>>> > 12 years ago, we had my son Bill, and Maximilian¹s 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 ³problems² 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 I¹ll 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. I¹ve 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. I¹ve also hit garage sales
>>>>> > and flea markets for most of the rest. The only armor that isn¹t
>>>>> > commercially available are gorgets, but I¹ll 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 don¹t have to be a warranted youth marshal to
>>>>> > work with the kids, just to ³spar² 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 can¹t make a regular practice of this. Boy scout
>>>>> > demos can be a fertile recruiting field. Over the last few years
>>>>> I¹ve
>>>>> > 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 <http://www.RandyAsplund.com>
>>>>> > Maker of Medieval books and
>>>>> > Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy
>>>>> > (734) 663-0954 <tel:%28734%29%20663-0954>
>>>>> > 2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
>>>>> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Randy Asplund
>>> Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist"
>>> www.RandyAsplund.com <http://www.RandyAsplund.com>
>>> Maker of Medieval books and
>>> Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy
>>> (734) 663-0954 <tel:%28734%29%20663-0954>
>>> 2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Barony mailing list
>>> Barony at cynnabar.org
>>> http://lists.cynnabar.org/listinfo/barony
>>>
>>
>
>
> Randy Asplund
> Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist"
> www.RandyAsplund.com <http://www.RandyAsplund.com>
> Maker of Medieval books and
> Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy
> (734) 663-0954
> 2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Barony mailing list
> Barony at cynnabar.org
> http://lists.cynnabar.org/listinfo/barony
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