Do Something!   It is a better choice than doing nothing.

Injuries that is, in SCA combat.

Every time there is a rule change for “safety” reasons, or because something is just stupid or obviously needs changing.  Someone complains loudly…

WHY? where is the data? Show me the injury reports or incident reports for <insert changed rule / or comment about hitting too hard here>

Well there aren’t any, or not very many at least, and here is why.

Injuries:

* WE DON’T REPORT THEM. – about the ONLY (yes a *little* hyperbole ) way they are reported is if the churgeonate gets involved in some way. Or if the fighter injured has to go tot he Dr. THAT DAY, from the event, and even then only if someone in the marshalate knows about it.

*Most fighters don’t want to be seen as wimps, so they tough it out (or call it a day), and get checked out a couple of days later.  by their Dr. and NEVER report it to the marshalate.

* Most fighters don’t want the general churgeon touching them. a specific few maybe, but most of us know an EMT or nurse or Dr. and will go let them check us out, we’ll suck it up and wait till Monday, or go hit a local doc in the box before we’ll let someone at the event who we don’t know touch us.  and frankly that is generally smart.

* We don’t want to be the guy who gets the 3″ diameter sticks of rattan that our buddies use as “boom sticks” because they are so thick they no longer flex anymore, banned just because it fractured our arm…because our friends “like to use that”
Incident reports:

We don’t file them, we don’t report them.

Have a guy who is destroying armor or breaking bones (hey it was probably an accident, or poor armour right?) : we talk to them first (we don’t write anything down or report it)

2 months later he still have a problem breaking his friends?

We talk to him again, with a “no we really mean it” <insert wagging finger here> but we still don’t write anything down

3 months later, its still going on.  NOW we want to do something about it, but wait, we can’t – we report him to the KEM but he can’t do anything, why? – no incident reports on him….so NOW we have to start a paper trail and give the guy who has been breaking the rules for 6 months an “official” warning…

What we can’t do (because of no incident reports) is say “you bad fighter, you break your toys, you sit down right now for 6 months or I bash your goohaloog’n head in” (without the head bashing or goohaloog’n part, sorry I channeled Detritus there for a second… – its a joke, laugh if you like the Discworld…no I don’t advocate bashing anyone’s actual head in.)

(Same for if they constantly try to fight without an elbow cop or gorget, always “forgetting” to send in their authorization paperwork, and just reauthorizing at every event so they don’t have to pay the $25 non member fee to get their fighting card…or whatever rule or convention they happen to be breaking)

Why don’t we fill out the paperwork and turn it in the “FIRST TIME?” because 1) we don’t like paperwork, 2) we’re horrible about even getting in event reports and quarterly reports in at all, much less on time. and 3) we don’t want to be seen as being a “bad guy” or “rules lawyer” or jerk or whatever. and it generally takes a catastrophic failure or issue for incidents and injuries to be reported the first time something happened.

Don’t mis-understand I’m just as guilty as the next guy – I have had a broken arm, 3 cracked ribs,  2 broken ribs, a broken finger, countless sprained ankles and knee’s, a separated shoulder, approximately 9 “micro fractures” of my forearm, a couple of HUGE hanging hematoma’s from fighting – and I think only one of them (the broken arm) did I ever make sure was reported to the marshal because I felt my opponent was intentionally trying to injure me. (and I doubt it was ever reported to their KEM)

That is why SEM’s and KEM’s have to make rules based on less “proof” than we think would be necessary or needed.  They aren’t failing us by not having enough data to make an informed decision, they are doing the best they can with what they have, we (their marshalate and fighter populace) are in general failing them because we rarely report  anything.

Anything going to change? Nope probably not, BUT there you have the “why” they don’t “provide better information on why they are making these rulings”.