Cut And Thrust:Activity guidelines

Activity guidelines

Single combat

Capo Ferro, "The Art and Use of Fencing", 1610

1. Single combat recreates various dueling scenarios throughout history. There were prize fights sponsored by London's "Company of Maisters of the Science of Defence", a guild of sword-fighting instructors and students in Elizabethan England. In Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", Mercutio and Tybalt duel with rapiers and daggers. In many cultures, sword contests were used as a means to settle interpersonal conflicts or decide judicial rulings. In some cases, the goal was not to kill one's opponent but to cause a superficial injury in order to win or score a point.
2. It involves two combatants within a list field or other designated area.
3. Tournament single combat doesn't have to include an actual tournament or competition, and covers all one-on-one fighting that is not part of a melee or battle.

Melee combat

1. "Melee combat" includes all fighting with more than two combatants at the same time.
2. Melee combat is a recreation of group conflict throughout history, from a tavern brawl of unruly patrons to an alley skirmish between rival gangs.
3. Large-scale melee combat is a recreation of military and civilian conflicts using steel weapons, which occurred throughout the SCA time period.
4. Melee scenarios may include rubber-band guns and combat archery. These battles recreate later period conflicts where rapiers were carried as close-combat weapons to use once the artillery was expended.