by 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.
Remy the Wroth wrote:Just don't call it boffing/boffering. That's not what we do. We fight. With swords. To the sorta-death. I can't stand it when someone says boffering. Plus is means sexin' in the UK.
RIP Surt, Adunakhor of Barad'dun