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Your Majesty,
Thank you for sharing and clarifying.
In the barony of Thescorre we have 2 young men who do want to participate in the rattan training before they are allowed to fight adults at will. Their concerns and those of their parents, as told to me, is that under the current proposal they have to continue to practice rattan "underground" rather than at SCA practices.
Please do not shoot the messenger anyone, I was asked to relay their feelings and that we do have 2 fighters who are very interested.
Over time we have lost some very good youth fighters who have not continued on in either the youth program or as adult fighters when they turned 18. Reasons can be quite varied and many, but in two cases it was because we were not able to challenge their skills enough under current conditions. My step son and another youth just got tired of fighting each other after several years because they knew all the other's moves. One has moved on to fencing outside the SCA and my step son is over 21 now and says he is not particularly inclined to return to an activity he enjoyed in a group that was not sensitive to their needs. Both of these young men found training outside SCA policy allowed greater challenge and built their skills more.
I have questioned my skills as a marshal many times because I was not able to find enough ways to challenge their skills within SCA boundaries. My personal opinion of allowing the 16 and 17 year olds to fight rattan is based on past experience, my professional training and what the framework of the SCA policies might allow. I support the alternate choice of rattan against each other for 16 and 17 with an adult partner/mentor who wish to train. As parents we were very particular who was allowed to work with Matt. We wanted someone who would demonstrate high levels of chivalry, honor, respect and fair play along with the ability to throw a good shot. I became a marshal because I did not think it was fair that the same person had to be responsible all the time for the activity. Shortly after we had two more youth marshals in our practice group who also felt the same way.
While the process of standardizing what attributes the majority would feel best exemplifies a responsible adult fighter mentor continues, I hope that some fighters are not overlooked because they are not at a certain rank.
This entire process not an easy task and I am very grateful to all those who have begun to listen to the voices of those who wish to develop a responsible training program within the SCA that will transition the youth fighters to the adult list as safely as possible.
Nivah
In a message dated 11/20/2008 11:15:14 A.M. US Eastern Standard Time, muirgens@... writes:
Greetings all:I apologize for just getting to these messages now. I am still catching up with my mail from the weekend away. Here are some thoughts, comments and corrections.
I am all for doing what we can to sustain and improve the youth fighting program in the kingdom (and I'm sure His Majesty would agree). We need to keep kids engaged and interested in the SCA and all of it's activities both for the vitality of the society and because it's better for their brains than Nintendo and Myspace (in my opinion). When we discussed this issue at Our Curia, there were some concerns that I don't think have been addressed. One was "do the kids want this?". I am not sure that has been answered yet.
I would, with all due respect to His Excellency Sir Tristan, like to clarify that His Majesty and I are not against a youth rattan program in general. We are against arming up a 16 year old and turning him or her out to fight any and all adult comers. His Majesty and I have concerns about the potential for harm to still physically and emotionally immature kids. And here I am talking about biology. Certainly there are physically large and "mature" kids out there. But size and apparent maturity does not mean that they are actually finished growing or that their brains are like an adult's yet. To borrow an example, yes we allow kids to drive at 16 but not past midnight and they pay a lot more for insurance (or their parents do) because they are generally easily distracted, more impulsive, and wreck more than adults. From the adult side, we all know fighters who are either over calibrated, easily pissed off, or just not good teachers. We all tend to steer even adult novices away from these folks in a subtle, often unspoken way, because we don't want the new folks to get turned off to fighting or the society. This to me points up the need to make sure that any adults who are part of the youth rattan program are patient, well controlled, and good teachers so that kids aren't at the receiving end of any of that.
None of this means that We are opposed to youth rattan (or fencing) across the board. We are willing to talk about and probably approve a well-thought-out plan to introduce rattan combat to older kids should we all get this organized before We step down. Most of you are probably unaware that what brought me into the SCA at the age of 8 or 9 was fencing. At that time (yes, the earth was still cooling and the written word was new technology) there was no age restriction for fencing so I started my SCA career fencing adults and really enjoyed it. It got me into the society and obviously it has stuck! So I certainly appreciate what youth rattan and/or fencing programs might bring to us all. However, they need to be well thought out and well implemented to protect the kids while allowing them to continue to learn and grow in the Society.
I hope that this conversation will continue both online and in live meetings. I would request that future meetings be scheduled and announced broadly through not only this list but the discussion board and "announce". I may have overlooked an announcement, but Christopher and I were not aware that a meeting was planned for the Castle event making it difficult to attend. I look forward to learning what was discussed at that meeting if it occurred.
Thank you all for being so concerned about the youth of the kingdom and about the future of the youth fighting programs. I feel confident that we will come to a policy that will be good for the kids, good for the adults who are interested, and good for the Kingdom.
Morgen
Regina![]()
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