Equestrian:Activity guidelines - Jousting
Activity - Jousting
General
Jousting is based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry, and transformed into a specialized sport during the Late Middle Ages. It remained popular with the nobility in England and Wales, Germany and other parts of Europe throughout the whole of the 16th century.
The SCA has two types of jousting, based on lance type and requiring different armor - foam lance jousting, and wooden lance jousting. Conventions (lance techniques and arm signals) are the same for both.
Practicing with jousting equipment against a non-human target (i.e. a quintain or similar) falls under the skill-at-arms activities. Participants can train on a tilt, in armor, with the appropriate lances, ground crew and staff as if in an actual joust, without striking another person or being struck.
Wooden lance jousting requires a special authorization from marshals within the Society's Wooden Lance Jousting Program.
Foam lance jousting
Requirements:
- Jousting - Foam lance authorization
- Foam tip jousting lance
- Foam tip jousting armor
Wooden lance jousting
History-focused activity - Wooden lance jousting is the of the activities in the SCA that emphasizes period techniques and equipment, and includes additional requirements for participation. Tournaments include judges to help determine if a technique used was historically valid.
Wooden lance jousting is a Society-run activity, with marshals and participants authorized through the Deputy Society Marshal for Wooden Lance Jousting, rather than through kingdom-level authorizations and marshals typical of most other activities.
- Administration
- Wooden lance jousting is administered at the Society level. The Deputy Society Marshal for Wooden Lance Jousting is responsible for oversight of the overall program (reporting, warranting marshals, maintaining rosters of authorized participants and marshals).
- Authorization
- Participants are authorized by warranted wooden lance jousting marshals.
- Marshals
- Warranted and authorized by Deputy Society Marshal for Wooden Lance Jousting.
- Reporting
-
- Wooden lance joust marshals must submit a report for every event or practice that wooden lance jousting take place.
- Reports are submitted to the Deputy Society Marshal for Wooden Lance Jousting with a copy to their Kingdom Equestrian Officer (or Kingdom Earl Marshal).
Higher levels of skill and protection are required by the rider and their mount to safely participate in this activity to mitigate risk. The SCA's stricter equipment standards account for the challenges specific to wooden lance jousting and are closely aligned with the requirements in the rest of the international competitive jousting community.
Requirements:
- Wood lance jousting authorization
- Wood tip jousting lance
- Wood lance jousting armor
Conventions (for both foam and wooden lance jousting)
Rules of engagement
- Riders signal to each other when they are ready and the gait at which they will joust. When both riders have signaled, they start down the lane.
- Barricading is not allowed. If a rider consistently barricades, they may lose the point, the bout, or be removed from the tournament.
- Shelving (turning your echranche so it does not present a good target) is not allowed. If a rider consistently shelves, they may lose the point, the bout, or be removed from the tournament.
Target areas
- Legal target areas: torso, arm, echranche.
- Illegal target areas: Head, below the waist. Points do not count for touches or breaks on these areas.
Scoring
- Standard scoring:
- Tip touches a legal target area but does not break = 1 point
- Tip breaks on the torso or arm = 2 points
- Tip break on the echranche = 3 points
- (Optional) Tip breaks more than halfway, and breaks on the echranche = 4 points
- (Optional) Only hits at the canter are scored.
- Tournaments can alter the scoring, as long as it is clearly explained to participants before the tournament.
Arm signals
| Arm signal | Image |
|---|---|
| Right arm extended down indicates a walk | 
|
| Right arm extended out/level indicates a trot | 
|
| Right arm extended up indicates a canter | 
|
- The arm signal positions shown in Table 11.1 are used by the rider to indicate the gait/speed they are about to perform.
- In the case of gaited horses, the rider should use the signal for the standard gait closest in speed to the one they are about to perform (i.e. walk=walk, slow gait ~ trot, fast gait ~ canter).
Lance techniques
The three fundamental lance techniques essential to jousting are: the levee, the measuring pass and the mercy pass.
- Levee
- A proper levee is done by:
- Receiving the lance from the ground crew
- Resting the butt end of the lance on their leg or saddle in the safety (i.e. vertical) position
- Saluting to indicate their readiness to begin
- Starting down the lane and lowering the lance over several strides until approximately one stride from the target
- Striking the target
- Approximately one stride past the target, raising the lance up and away from the target
- Safely stopping the mount at the end of the tilt
- Handing the lance in the safety (i.e. vertical) position back to the ground crew.
- Measuring pass
- A measuring pass is a levee where the lance is lowered only on the right side of the mount's neck and does not cross over the mount's neck to engage the approaching target.
- Mercy pass
- A mercy pass is where the lance is pulled away before hitting the target and held at arm's length (tip up) to the right side of the mount to clearly show the lack of intent to hit or be hit.
- Although every effort should be made to avoid striking an unprepared rider, once the pass begins there is a possibility that the opponent may not be aware of the problem and make the strike.
- Each rider should be prepared to receive a strike even after requesting a mercy pass.