How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

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How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Kyrian » Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:38 am

In your experience, what have been the most effective ways to teach the Bel rules to a new fighter?
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Thorondor » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:20 am

Teach them, in person, the strike zones, weapon types and their damage, and then help them get hit calibrated on the side lines. Then go over min-garb rules.

Then point them to the rules page on the website for specifics on making armor, weapons, shields, etc. It's too much to cover verbally and have it soak in the first time. Tell them if they have questions after reading the rules to come to you. Its better for them to know where to look for the rules than to have them ask you every 2 minutes how big a shield has to be.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Big King Jimmy » Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:29 am

Strike zones, pointing out the the edge of the torso and that the head is an illegal target. Point out the "hold" rule. teach blue rules. Fight for a bit, if it comes up, teach about hand on weapon and foot on ground. First time you take a break just answer any questions they have with the correct answers, this usually leads to the rest of the rules like weapon types and armor and stuff, but first practice we usually just switch to single blue. Garb is brought up within the first or second practice.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Forkbeard » Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:06 pm

No head shots from hand held ****.
Headshots from flying **** count.
Torso shots are death.
Take a knee when you loose a leg.
2 limbs =death.
Weapons over 4' long can break your shield.
Go have fun.
Everything else can be taught the next time they come to practice, or along the way if they are smart enough to ask questions.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Azgarehta » Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:03 pm

We usually give them the strike zones like this:

Imagine you're wearing a t-shirt and underwear. Everything inside the seam at the shoulder is torso, and everything outside that seam is arm. What your underwear covers is also torso. If you pee from it or poop from it, you're dead from it.

2 limbs=dead (2 arms, 2 legs, 1 arm/1 leg) or 1 torso shot is dead.
Piercing doesn't count towards 2 limbs. (spears, stab tips on swords)

We usually talk about weapon types right after limbs and explain piercing, slashing, reds, rocks, and flight.

We make a cursory note of shield checks, bashes, and grappling but don't teach the noobs any of it until they've been there about 2-3 months consistently.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Rocca » Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:40 pm

Its a two point system - two points equals death. Each limb is one, so two limbs is death, your torso is two, so instant death. Head shots don't count unless is flies, so arrows and javelins. Loose a leg, go down on one knee, loose an arm, put it behind your back. There are some more nuanced rules but you can ask about them when they come up.

That's it, go have fun.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Tiberius Claudius » Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:47 pm

After getting a waiver signed, I generally start out with asking if they've ever played sports before to get a feel for what I can gloss over, and what I need to repeat a couple times.

From there I stress that this is a full contact, honor sport. It's not my job to tell you that I hit you; it's your job to tell me that you got hit. It's all about honor and the way we maintain honor on the field is through communication by calling "light", "garb", "graze", "head", "hand on weapon", "foot on ground" etc. As I say each of these I give them a quick little physical example. Without communication and honest hit taking the game just turns into a larger version of "bloody knuckles" and that's no fun. This is a fight, win/get killed, get up and do it over again game, so leave ego at the door and take your shots. Until they've been around a bit, shot calling is to be loud and consistent every single time they get hit, regardless of how obvious it was. Failing to communicate will result in the Herald calling their hits for them as well as everyone else hitting them much harder since the shots are obviously light.

From there I explain that there is no "too hard", but there is "too light" and that the weapons are padded so the people don't have to be. Then I do light, medium, hard shots on their back with a blue sword so they get a taste of what getting hit will and should feel like.

I then go over target locations and what weapons can hit where and how. I also explain about putting arms behind back and taking a knee instead of hopping around on one foot because of safety and we're a full contact game w/ bashing allowed. From there I move into the Herald's role and how safety is also everyone's responsibility on the field. I also stress that there is no arguing with a Herald and that the honorable way to confront someone over hit taking is to do it after a fight and be an adult about it by asking clarifying questions instead of coming out and calling someone a cheater.

Once that's all covered, I'll go over the concept of an athletic stance, how they should fight S&B to start, basic basic footwork, and blocking with s&b on respective sides of the body.

Depending on how many people you've got, and how dense they are, shouldn't take more than 10-15 mins max. After that, hit the field and have some fun.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Big King Jimmy » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:14 pm

Something I noticed: I almost never stick someone on the field on the first day, unless they REALLY get it. First day is usually single blue sparing only.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Tiberius Claudius » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:39 pm

Interesting take Jimmy.

We let them fight, but we do restrict them from reds and spears for about two weeks to make sure that they're coordinated, safe, and mature/not insane.
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Re: How do you teach the rules to a brand new fighter?

Postby Teej » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:44 pm

Big King Jimmy wrote:Something I noticed: I almost never stick someone on the field on the first day, unless they REALLY get it.


How big is your field? We normally let newbies come right out to day battles (~60 people) but we single-blue them.
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