Rapier Marshal 101 Class Outline

Last Modified: 2024-02-06 Revision: dfa161e

Introduction and Course Goals

The goal of the Rapier 101 class is to provide individuals with the basic background required to begin a successful journey toward a marshal’s warrant. It is not an instruction in all rules of rapier combat. This outline, in fact, assumes that the instructor and students are thoroughly familiar with the most recent edition of the Society Marshal’s Handbook and Kingdom Policy as it relates to rapier combat.

Prospective MITs are required to complete both Rapier Marshal 101 and Field Marshal 201 before taking the field as MITs.

Please send comments to the Deputy Earl Marshal for Training and the Deputy Earl Marshal for Rapier.

Marshal in Training (MIT) Program

Purpose

  • Attempt to ensure a uniformity of training and experience among the marshallate such that rules are being enforced in the same way across the Kingdom.
  • Provide new marshals with the mental toolkit necessary to manage fights and uphold armor and weapons standards in potentially stressful situations
  • REMEMBER: MITs are NOT marshals and cannot, on their own, monitor fights, inspect weapons, sign off on paperwork, or perform any other marshal duties
  • Refer to Becoming a Marshal

Armor Standards and Inspections

Materials

  • Know your material types
    • MUST be tested every two years per the Society Fencing Marshal’s Handbook and must be tested the first time new gear is used or if no marshal on the field knows a given piece of gear to have been tested. They may also be tested at the marshal’s discretion.
    • UnderArmour, Spandex, and other similar stretchy materials are not suitable as puncture-resistant materials. In addition, Kevlar is not an acceptable material as it degrades rapidly.
  • Marshals should acquire and bring appropriate testing equipment to practices and events they run.

How to Inspect

  • Inspections are pass/fail. Ensure that the fighter knows they have passed or failed, and provide the reason for any failure. A fighter should be given the opportunity to remedy the failure and return to the marshal who failed the item for re-inspection.
  • If you wish to provide an opinion on an item, such as one that may be legal, but close to failure, be clear in your language so that the fighter understands that the information that you are offering is your opinion, not a requirement.
  • Conduct the inspection in the same order every time as this will help you avoid making errors.
    • Have you signed in with the MOL?
    • Are you wearing any required personal protection?
    • Has your armor been tested in the last 2 years?
  • Inspections must occur at each event, practice, and every day for multi-day events.
  • Check masks and helms for fit, wear, and padding. Mask and helms should be inspected both on AND off the combatant. If there is concern about the face mesh of a modern fencing mask, it should be tested using a standard commercial 12kg mask punch tester by a marshal trained in the use of tester.

Neck

  • For everything but light rapier, verify the fighter is wearing a rigid gorget. This is one of the most common forgotten pieces of armor.

Torso

  • Verify the armpits have puncture-resistant coverage, as this is where people most often forget.
  • Chain mail shirts are legal. Verify there are no missing rings in vital areas. If you can’t see it because the fighter is wearing a shirt over, politely ask them to return to you so you can check it without any covering. Again, especially check the underarms.

Hands & Arms

  • For cut and thrust, verify at least soft elbows and appropriate hand protection for the weapons forms are being worn.

Weapon Standards and Inspections

Blades

  • Check blades for kinks, sharp bends, cracks, or burrs.
  • Verify tips:
    • Will not be dislodged easily
    • Contrasting color tape is used
    • NO tape covers the end of the tip
    • Has adequate protection against punch-through (e.g., metal in the tip) except for spatulated tips
  • If flex of a blade is questioned, be prepared to test it to Society standards.

Spear

  • Rubber headed spears, mounted on rattan between 1 1/8th and 1 3/8th inch diameter.
  • Head must flex to 90 degrees with hand pressure and return to normal.
  • Combined length of 4 to 9 feet.
  • Minimum diameter inserted into the head end is 1/2 inch.
  • Heads must be friction fit with tape including bright contrasting colored tape or ribbon at the base of the the spear head for visual contrast.

Overall appearance 10’ rule

  • Intention is to improve the appearance of the field, not prevent people from playing.
  • Fighter’s kit shall look medieval at a distance of 10’ or greater.
  • In general, this means no obvious sports logos, fluorescent colors, etc.
  • Sports armor should be completely covered, with the exception of fencing masks.
  • Be especially polite and helpful in enforcement of this rule, but firm. This also applies to authorizing fighters. This should be addressed at the local practice level prior to event attendance.
  • If an authorizing fighter does not meet this standard, find out who is running their practice and talk to that marshal.

Authorizations

The process to authorize in rapier is defined on the marshal’s website. Rather than iterate over the procedure in detail, the following are important items to take into account when running an authorization.

Authorization Forms

  • Light Rapier
  • Rapier (previously known as Heavy Rapier)
  • Rapier with a two-handed sword (not longsword)
  • Cut & Thrust
  • Cut & Thrust with a two handed sword (still not longsword)
  • Rapier Spear (Allows user to participate in combat using spears against rapier, C&T, or spear opponents)

Projectile Weapons within rapier combat are governed by Combat Archery marshals, including Rubber Band Guns, Bows, Crossbows, and thrown weapons. To use Projectile Weapons in Rapier Combat, the combat must be marshaled by a rapier marshal AND a combat archery marshal.

Selecting an authorization fighter

  • Try to select a fighter with at least three years of experience, unflappable in personality and controlled in their fighting.
  • Confirm they must be willing to be struck by the authorizing fighter, to deliberately leave openings.
  • They must not regularly practice with the candidate.

Selecting marshals

  • Authorizing marshals must be willing to let the authorizing fighter stand on their own merits and be willing to fail an individual.
  • At least one marshal must be from a group outside of the authorizing fighter’s local group.
  • The marshals must not regularly practice with the candidate.

Questions

  • Authorizing fighter must have read the rules of the list and must demonstrate a command of them.
    • They must know the intent & spirit, not necessarily the letter of the laws.
  • Marshals will not answer questions for fighters, nor provide hints.
  • Authorizing fighter should be encouraged to demonstrate a point (of say, how to obtain engagement) if they cannot clearly express the requirements verbally.
  • Authorizing fighter will not proceed to the fighting phases unless the fighter has demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the rules of the list, including engagement, valid blows, etc.

Criteria for passing for light rapier and rapier

  • The criteria are outlined in Kingdom policy.
  • In addition, the authorizing fighter must behave and fight in such a fashion as to not be a danger to themselves or others.
    • Examples of unacceptable behavior would include:
      • failing to stop on the call of Hold
      • cringing or dropping of defense when not in hold
      • striking the usher repeatedly with something other than the striking surface of the weapon
      • striking the usher repeatedly with excessive blows

Criteria for passing for Cut & Thrust or Spear combat authorization

  • As above, but also:
  • A higher standard applies as the addition of percussive cuts requires a greater degree of skill to ensure safety for the fighter and opponents.
  • Must demonstrate the ability to conduct attacks in series, incorporating multiple blows and/or feints.
  • Must demonstrate a defense capable of protecting against complex attacks such as described above.
  • Must show control over the weapon and the power generated when throwing form specific blows.
  • For spear, must show control when abruptly charged by their opponent.

Paperwork

  • It is the responsibility of the authorizing fighter to obtain all appropriate signatures on paperwork upon conclusion of the authorization.

Injuries or Issues on the field

  • Marshals (generally speaking) are not physicians or professional mediators, but do have a responsibility to the safety of fighters under their management. Fighters should be allowed to monitor their own level of injury and gauge their ability to engage in combat activities. Some special cases, however, are mentioned below:

Bloodborne pathogens

  • Fighters with freely flowing wounds must be removed from the field until the wounds can be dressed in such a way to prevent blood (or vomit) from coming into contact with other participants.
  • Marshals should seek to identify the root cause of any cut or bloody injury to confirm that the armor and weapons of the participants continue to meet Society standards.

Concussions

  • Fighters who are rendered unconscious may not return to the field that day and should be encouraged to seek professional medical care.
  • Marshals are highly encouraged to take some form of sport concussion training to help them identify the signs & symptoms.

Excessive impact

  • Fighters must exercise control of their techniques and attempt to mitigate excessive impact to their opponent. If a fighter throws blows which force their opponent to retire from the field, from a real injury (even one which only causes brief incapacitation), the marshal responsible for the field shall take such steps as are appropriate to stop the problem from recurring, up to and potentially including suspending the offending fighter from the field for the day. Refer to “sanctions” in the various marshal handbooks for your options as a marshal.
  • If this occurs it will be included in the event report.

Trauma triggers

  • Exercise patience and empathy if you happen upon a fighter that may be experiencing an event such as a PTSD/trauma trigger. If this happens, the fighter may need assistance getting off the field or further assistance from a trusted source.
  • A marshal is a safety officer, not a therapist. It is not our job to resolve the episode outside of what may be necessary to maintain safety, both that of the fighter and those around them.

Marshaling a fight

How to watch a fight

  • As the fighters are entering the list, visually inspect them to confirm that there is no obviously missing or defective armor.
  • A marshal should stand in a location relative to the fight that provides the maximum ability to view the fight. This means as the fight moves, you may need to move as well
  • A marshal should be able to identify hit location and whether a blow was delivered edge-on or flat. A marshal may NOT call whether a blow is good or not.

Spectator Management

  • Marshals must keep spectators and unarmored fighters outside of the safety zones around the outside of the list.

Showmanship and field presence

  • Marshals will conduct themselves in a calm and chivalrous manner at all times.
  • Marshals cannot both marshal and fight in the same activity. If an event has multiple rapier activities occurring at a given event, they may marshal one activity and fight in a separate activity.
  • At the end of each bout, the Marshals will ask each fighter if they are satisfied with the conduct of the bout.
  • Marshals should be identifiable to spectators and fighters as a marshal from a distance by wearing the badge of the office and having a marshal’s staff.

Melees

  • In melees, fighters are engaged with all opponents immediately upon the call to lay on.
  • Make sure you have enough marshals for the size melee you are running. There are guidelines in the Society rules.
  • Combatants may strike any single opponent they can safely reach with any legal blow if they are within a 180 degree arc of the opponent’s front as defined by the opponent’s shoulders, and at an angle they can be reasonably seen by the opponent.
  • Combatants may strike any opponent who is part of a line if the attack is delivered within a 180 degree arc relative to the local line the opponent is a part of.
  • Killing from behind (aka Death From Behind/DFB) is allowed if it has been announced beforehand.

Event reporting (3.1.3.8)

  • Anyone can file a report using the form on the marshal’s website for any marshal activity. You don’t have to be the MiC, or even a marshal to bring things to the attention of the Kingdom marshallate. For fields that don’t apply, just enter N/A.
  • File reports within 7 days of the event.
  • If there is an injury you must fill this out within 24 hours.
  • Discipline MiCs should file the report and then inform the overall event MiC that it has been done; event MiCs should make sure all discipline reports are filed.
  • Please be certain to report any of the following events:
    • Authorizations including name, weapons form, and result
    • Equipment failure (armor, weapon or other), including details like owner, manufacture, wear level, etc.
    • Injury (any event that requires the fighter to leave the field)
    • Conflict issues (disrespect for, or arguments with, any fighter, marshal or support staff)
    • Rules confusion (misunderstanding of or disregard for any rule)
    • Please give us details on both good and bad things so we can detect patterns if things occur at multiple events.
    • Names, names, names. Names of your marshals, your MITs, your MoL(s), your authorization attempts, problem folks, good folks, etc.
  • It’s a good habit to take pictures and you are able to attaches pictures to event reports

Support Staff

  • MoLs are responsible for authorization paperwork and managing tournament rosters.
  • BE NICE TO YOUR FIELD STAFF

Paperwork

  • Become familiar with the earl marshal website and the warrant site.
  • If you are running a practice, familiarize yourself with the waiver reporting requirements.
  • Be sure to go to the warrant page and use “request a new warrant” to tell KRM you took this class.
    • You are required to have an AEL account.
    • Specify if you are starting your MIT process or completing your training requirements.
  • Print the rules, keep them with you at every event you marshal.
  • Print a copy of your MIT form, a copy can be found in the paperwork section of the earl marshal website.
  • To stay current, sign up for the Atlantian Marshal’s mailing list, Unofficial Facebook group, and read the ACORN.

Open for Questions and Discussion