What constitutes a good thrust to the face in SCA combat?
There seems to be quite the ‘confusion’ by some as to what is a ‘good’ THRUST to the face in SCA combat. – Remember we are NOT talking about a slash, but about a thrust.
Some folks want to interpret the rule one way…some want to interpret it another…lets look at the rule. (direct cut and paste from here http://www.sca.org/officers/marshal/combat/armored )
V.B.1. b. The minimum effective thrusting blow to the face shall be a directed touch and the maximum
shall be substantially lighter than to other parts of the body.
And
XVIII.C. Directed touch: a thrust that contacts the face-guard of the helm and, while maintaining contact with the face-guard, continues to travel in the direction of the face.
Section V was ‘acknowledgement of blows’ and section XVIII (Glossary) C. Other Definitions
Now I don’t know about you…but it doesn’t get much simpler than that.
If the thrust was traveling in the direction of your face, and makes contact with your grill while going in that direction…then it was a ‘directed touch’.
It is that simple…it doesn’t matter what caused it to get there, as long as it came there moving toward the face, and continued toward your face. Once it got there.
It doesn’t matter how hard, or light as long as it was going in the direction of your face. (If it was too hard it is still good, but a conversation should be had with the person throwing too hard)
It doesn’t matter if it ‘only touched my grill and would never have actually gotten to my face’ – As far as our fighting goes your grill is your face…it was good
It doesn’t matter if you are wearing a closed face helm…by our standards we are all wearing – open-faced iron helm with a nasal (yes we may be considered to be wearing a VERY LIGHT chainmail drape to resist the lightest CUT of a bladed weapon. – but we aren’t talking about a cu (slash)t…we are talking about a THRUST.)
It doesn’t matter how much you disagree with the rule…if you do anything other than accept the shot…no matter how you justify it for youself, you are cheating. That simple.
Oh and turning your head sideways (presenting an illegal thrusting target) is just gay.
That rule is written as well or better than any other rule in the Marshals handbook, it is not ‘open for interpretation’ it is what it is, and it is spelled out, in black and white AND then the term is later defined. It doesn’t get more open and closed than that.
