Protective equipment, protocols and rulesets

[David]

I would like to kick off this topic by posting the current AS&S basic safety and training rules:

SAFETY RULES
Must be 15yo or older to train.
Must be 16yo or older to spar.
Must pass Dragon Grade and be signed off by Instructors before fighting inter-club.
Must be signed off for each weapon combination by Instructors.
Weapons to be de-burred and de-rusted before use.
Up to date Tetanus shot. (If injured, a Tetanus booster is recommended.)
Leather gloves must be worn while working with weapons.
No targeting groin, joints, or spine during sparring, hands and feet do not count.
All practice with head shots must be carried out wearing adequate head protection.
All plays must be done with adequate head protection.
Do not finish grappling moves as they may dislocate or break limbs.
Plays and sparring end if one or more participants goes to ground.
On the call of "Break" (or anything similar) stop fighting.
In mass battle, repeat the call of "Break" until all fighting stops.
No drugs or alcohol to be consumed before or during training.
8 hour curfew for alcohol before a battle day.
Minimum of 3 training sessions before new members are allowed to spar.
Minimum gear requirements to train are leather gloves.

TRAINING RULES
Salute in and out.
Training will start at 10 a.m. - members arriving after warm up and salute are to wait quietly until invited to join in. They are to warm up and kit up quietly and wait in the foyer area to be invited in to train.
No personal kit will be handled by anyone else without permission from the owner. This is for safety and basic courtesy.
Anybody wishing to use equipment from the weapons cupboard will initially talk to the Quartermaster (Julz) or a Senior Club member if the Quartermaster is not present. The member who removes equipment from the cupboard WILL return the equipment to the cupboard after use with NO EXCEPTIONS.
All weapons strikes will be controlled at all times. This means that the strikes, although fully charged, will be controlled at the impact and will be sensitive to the opponents skill and armour status.
Sparring WILL be presided over by a Marshal at all times.
All sparring must have at least one Senior, i.e. 2 Seniors, or 1 Senior and 1 Junior, not 2 Juniors
We are a Historical European Martial Arts Club and, as such, we train and practice those systems. You may have had valuable experience in other Martial Arts and this is fine, but you should refrain from bringing those styles to training as this can lead to injury when used (in combat or jest) against a person less experienced in that style. Also, remember that this will also dilute your muscle memory of the HEMA styles.
The Instructors in charge are in charge for that session and WILL be listened to at all times - this is for your safety and the safety of all.
Horseplay is fine but this should be reserved for the appropriate time and will not occur during formal training or you will be asked to sit out for a while.
When practicing or sparring you will ALWAYS be mindful of your environment, your comrades and those around you spectating.
You will always listen to commands being given by those in charge.
If you hear BREAK or STOP or STAND STILL then you will IMMEDIATELY cease what ever it is you are doing and take up the call.
A man on the ground during combat is counted as "Dead" and will be instantly out of combat.
When you are hit and "Dead" you must secure your weapon by holding the point downwards and remove yourself to the side of the combat area.
If you feel tired, out of breath or dehydrated during play you must remove yourself from combat until you recover. Excessive fatigue leads to bad judgment and uncontrolled blows. This is UNACCEPTABLE.
We are all members of the Club to enjoy ourselves, learn about HEMA and maintain intact skins so that we may live to play another day. ALL the members (whether Senior or Junior) are learning all the time and no-one has all the answers so please be patient with everybody and move forward as a cohesive unit.
If you hurt someone then you sit out the bout.
If you hurt someone badly, you sit out the rest of the session. You stay, but sit it out.
If you send someone to A&E, you pay for their treatment, and you buy them dinner.
Cell phones to be off, or silenced, unless prior arrangement is made with the instructor.
Off topic conversations are to be taken outside, or to be discussed after training.


These are the rules that we currently use. They are not cast in stone and we constantly re-evaluate them.

[Angel]

A note on tetanus shots.

If you had a tetanus shot at 15 or 11 (under the new schedule), then you aren't due for another one until you are 45 and then 65 - so most people are "up to date" without needing to worry.

If you get an injury of a certain type - depth, contamination, surface area, burns etc, then you will get a booster shot if it has been more than 5 years since your last tetanus shot.

More frequent tetanus boosters are not recommended as you are unlikely to gain increased immunity, but more likely to suffer side effects from the vaccine.

Basically you will be given one when it's needed, there's no need to pre-empt anything.

[David]

Thanks Angel.

[Terme]

A note on younger members my boy likes to fight (with me and others I approve)... an older member is able to keep his interest going. if he was told you have to wait to a certain age to do anytihng he would lose interest.

I say older member coz we trust them more to hold themselves back, he does only fight with wood at the moment and very rear'ly at that.

im only talking about younger members not others I find that allowing the smaller people to train does help, while they may show up only every now and again its all about seeds planted. if barred completly an asset no matter how small could be lost.

just my 2c an age limit.. IMHO is an age lost.

[Chantelle]

unfortunately i had said in an earlier post i would collate and post the threads separately .....so i have....

safety equipment and
safety protocols

are sepatate threads - as there was too much in both to combine (it gets less confusing that way when it is time to finally look at everything and bring it to the table) but if you want to keep discussing here - we can just consolidate when both have run their course

thank you david for starting this - seeing all of AS and S's stuff on line is fantastic!

xx chantelle

[David]

Chantelle - sorry if I mucked up your posting plan.
How about asking a lovely Admin to combine my posts where they best fit and delete the originals. I do not have any problem with that at all. It would keep everything tidier and logical...

Dx

[Chantelle]

thanks!! i didn't want to offend you xx

and yes - if the lovely admin people could copy the stuff over and delete the other thread that would be ace

how do i ask for that?.......never asked for anything on the site before - who is the best admin person to ask, or do they just read this and do it?

sorry to sound useless!

xx thanks

[David]

Chantelle - Since I put up 2 threads you might want to direct what goes where!

The Admin should be able to merge topics into one. From there useless messages like this one can be deleted!

D

[conal]

A note on younger members my boy likes to fight (with me and others I approve)... an older member is able to keep his interest going. if he was told you have to wait to a certain age to do anytihng he would lose interest.

Just talking to this point, I agree.

It is possible to separate tourney from display & inter-club fighting.

I'm fine with young'uns fighting in display and inter-club providing there are clear ground rules established prior to combat.

Manakau Market has worked very well in the past with a flank designated for inexperienced fighters. All good no worries.

[ChronicD]

Reply to Conal:

Manakau Market is small and so it works - whether this arrangement would work on a larger scale would have to be tested/discussed.

The concern is that no one come to harm - smaller events are a great chance for newer members including the younger to experience display fighting and it should be encouraged as a stepping stone to the larger events.

A new swimmer does not start in the deep end and the same is applicable here.

all the best
dan

[Leah]

[Robbo]

throw in some zimmer framer's with the newer, up and coming, learners to help guide them through the process even.

Wow, we'll actually be helping each other next.

[ChronicD]

Hey there,

Leah i like your second suggestion to move towards having an alternative to display fighting for the up and coming. For example we could make a display of actually training the less experienced - going through drills and sparring under tightly controlled conditions.

A display fight scenario should be limited to those who have trained in display fighting. At the moment display fighting has become a slug fest where you just hit each other really hard. It is not a place for the newer members.

I am referring to larger display fighting events such as Taupo and Harcourt.

Robbos idea to through in some experienced fighters to train is cool as well - it could be set up that in a day the trainees will do 3 one hour trainings and those times could be divided between 3 different participating clubs head trainers - thereby exposing people to other clubs methods. It will be a mixer for the new and fresh.

thats me for the night
Dan

[Chantelle]

hello

One of my orignal concerns was that "display' fighting had become a bit harsh - the point is not to 'go harder' because there is an audience....but to actually know how to put on a show and do a - DISPLAY fight.

i suggested to Fugus that there could be some of the training camp devoted to that - as there are people out there hurting themselves un-necessarily at quite a few of the events in the last few years

i would be keen to help people in DISPLAY fighting techniques - ie - telegraphing blows, how to kick / punch without hurting people, etc etc - as i have trained others in paid postitions in drama classes etc and was trained myself years ago by highly respected people in the Acting industry and then with the KD

if anyone is interested in how to make a fight - safe, look good and real and not get hurt / hurt each other while making the audience -

a)believe it
b)not wince in the face of the seeing actual blood or worrying for the combatants safety.....

then let me know....

thanks
chantelle

[Terme]