SCA Combat

**william_cain** · Posted On: 9/04/2010 10:21pm

Aha! Then I was acting on poor information! Thank you for the update and correction.

I still stand by, in general, the notion that SCA combat is not a martial art in the sense of the word most people mean it, but I still respect the fighters who practice it for their dedication and skill within their magisterium.

**Ningirsu** · Posted On: 9/05/2010 1:17am

Originally Posted by captainzorikh

I have just a few questions about the armored fight you posted up, but I figured it would be more appropriate to attach that discussion to the thread at Collection of HEMA Armored Combat videos - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

I posted that one in my initial list (lol I wouldn't miss the one and only ARMA armored freeplay, would I? :laughing7)

And I've addressed some of the questions. To be honest, ARMA is very, very thin on the armored combat department--mainly due to difficulty in procuring an historical set of armor (be it in price, or the armor itself! Pieces aren't supposed to fall off like that!)

**captainzorikh** · Posted On: 9/13/2010 1:07am

I had seen this video a while ago, and just rediscovered it this week. It shows "good killing blows" in slow-motion. Some of the techniques used in this video are better than others, but it a good opportunity to examine the physics and some of the techniques used in the SCA. There are onside shots, offside blows, wrap shots, hammer blows, combinations, shots to the head and the body, and at least one face thrust. All of it is sword-&-shield.

And just to piss off the ARMA guys, there is a lot of fighting from the knees ;)

YouTube - Death blows - SCA Heavy Fighting

**NoloFerratus** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 3:04am

Actually The SCA doesn't define what it is they are supposed to be doing physically with their combat such as saying it's a martial art or sport. They only seem to say what they are pretending to do with the use of words like "recreate". With that said I can say I have indeed used SCA fighting techniques in a situation where a person more than twice my size was trying to kill me.
To sum it up he was all attack but had no defense for any of the sca blows I used against him and ended up on the ground bleeding and partly scalped while I only had a minor injury.
So much for the idea that SCA fighting styles won't work in a real fight. The fact is SCA fighting has a lot of advantages training wise to other groups because they train to hit hard with sticks that have some real weight to them and they use strikes that focus on progressively changing angles similar to zulu stick fighting.
I trained under a kali instructor recently who seemed to think nothing I learned in the SCA would work against him until I finally got him to put on a helmet and he found himself getting hit over and over.
And incidentally I wasn't that impressed with the WMA sparring I witnessed. None of their attacks used progressivly changing angles as they do in the SCA and also their blows were clearly to lite to injure someone wearing even thin leather armor had their weapons been real steel. On the so called " Sword forum" the WMA people claimed that the SCA fighting techniques were invalid since they were only "made up" instead of historically documented. My response is that all techniques were at one time made up by someone and besideds the Zulu used the same type of strikes used by the SCA fighters so in fact the technique is historical.

**Grimnir69** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 3:10am

And here we go again starting everything from the beginning. I suggest you read the thread from the start. Or we will have to repeat what has already been said what is it now, three times already? :)

**NoloFerratus** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 3:45am

Originally Posted by Grimnir69

And here we go again starting everything from the beginning. I suggest you read the thread from the start. Or we will have to repeat what has already been said what is it now, three times already? :)

What you expect me to read 40 pages before I'm allowed to post something? Get real.

**BackFistMonkey** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 3:47am

Originally Posted by NoloFerratus

What you expect me to read 40 pages before I'm allowed to post something? Get real.

.... actually Yes. How else are you suppose to add to the current conversation?

**Grimnir69** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 3:50am

At Noloferratus:

Nope. Not if you enjoy flogging a dead horse. :)

But, everything you say has been said in this thread numerous times before. And you totally miss all the arguments for both sides of the fence. So it will be difficult to get people to respond other than responses such as these. Unless you find someone else who just joined the thread, that is.

**captainzorikh** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 1:35pm

Actually, in all these pages, no one has actually come out and said that they actually used SCA technique in an actual real fight. The closest we got was Tsafa's sparring matches with a WMA person. And I have never heard anyone compare SCA fighting styles with Zulu techniques, so that's new too. I actually have no idea what he is talking about.

And I just realized I used the word "actually" so much I should be an actualary...whatever...

But Nolo, give the pages a brief skim, would you? At least the first ten or 15 pages or so, and then the last 10 or 15.

**tim_stl** · Posted On: 9/15/2010 1:49pm

Originally Posted by captainzorikh

And I have never heard anyone compare SCA fighting styles with Zulu techniques, so that's new too. I actually have no idea what he is talking about.

i think what's he's talking about is that zulu stick fighting makes a lot of use of rolling the hand from supine to prone (or vice versa) in mid-strike to change the angle of delivery (the way a wrap shot does). there's a pretty good video description of the idea by burton richardson:

YouTube - Zulu & Filipino Kali Stick Fighting

tim