Youth Armoured Combat Draft:Change Log

Changes from Society Youth Combat Marshal's Handbook July 2024

The Society Youth Combat Marshal's Handbook can be found here - https://www.sca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Youth-Combat-Handbook-July-2024.pdf

Throughout, we have looked to move to simpler English, more suitable for children as they are one of the primary audiences for these rules. As part of this, we have shifted to referring to "you" as the person who needs to follow the rule.

We have removed gendered language and use the singular they/their/themself instead of he or she, his or her, himself or herself.

Overview

Mission and Goals

Our version of this section is virtually identical, but refers to youth armoured combat only. Youth rapier combat is dealt with in another handbook. As at November 2024, the Youth Rapier Handbook has not been approved by the Board of SCA Ltd or Committee of SCANZ.

General Conventions

Society rules allow kingdoms to establish procedures for youth combatant authorisations and warranting of marshals, and separate youth armoured combat and youth rapier combat into separate disciplines.

Our version includes the authorisations for participants and marshals that we have established.

We have included definitions in this section that are I.A and I.B in Society rules, and added some terms, such as Nominated caregiver that are specific to Lochac.

Parent Section

We've called this section "Information for parents"

I. Definitions

Moved to Overview as the terms aren't specific to things that parents need to know.

II. Participation

We have linked to the relevant policies relating to the participation of minors at SCA events in Lochac.

We have some differences in how minors are given permission to participate, and how minors who aren't attending with their parents are managed.

We remind parents that in NZ there are no background checks done for anyone running youth activities and it's the parent's responsibility to supervise their children.

III. Membership

We note that membership is not required for participation, though it is required for marshals.

IV. Parental responsibilities

We have reordered these and reworded them for simplicity.

Participants' section

We've separated this into multiple chapters.

V. General information

We have reworded this section to make it easier to understand, and included information about sparring partners.

The Society requirement for kingdoms to establish authorisation procedures is met by Chapter 4 on authorisation requirements, which sets out the process for the youth who is about to authorise, and in Chapter 12 as the process that the marshal will go through.

VI. Rules of the Lists and Conventions of Combat

The Rules of the Lists are not particularly child-friendly in their language, so their intent has been incorporated into the rules and the rules put into simpler language for children.

Similarly, Conventions of combat are referred to as game rules, and melee combat is referred to as group combat to make it more understandable for children.

We've separated it into two chapters: Rules for all combat, and Rules for group combat, which includes our group engagement rules, as Society requires us to.

Use of weapons and shields

Language has been simplified throughout.

VIII.Acknowledgement of Blows

Referred to as Taking hits.

Language has been simplified throughout.

The section on calibration talked about blows not hard enough to leave a bruise. Bruising can take some time to develop, so youth need some term of reference that is more immediate that they can use in combat. We've referred to blows not hard enough to sting.

IX. Armour requirements

Language simplified. No change to actual standards.

X. Weapons standards

Language simplified.

We have referred to HDPE pipe instead of Siloflex throughout, as the brand is not common in Lochac.

The metric translation of 0.375 inches is 9.5mm, however 9mm is the more commonly available form here, so we have used 9mm.

In general, we have rounded metric conversions for things in feet to the nearest 5cm.

Marshal's section

XV. Organization

This section lays out

• Types of authorised marshal
• Marshals as officers
• Marshals for events and practices
• Ranks of authorised marshal
• Marshals as officers
• Marshals for events and practices
• Requirements to act as a marshal
• Marshal responsibilities
• Marshal-in-charge responsibilities

XVI. Authorization of marshals

Chapter 13 in our handbook lays out the requirements and procedure for authorising a youth armoured combat marshal

XVII. General Requirements and Restrictions for Youth Marshals

In our handbook, the rules in this section are split up between Chapter 2 on information for parents and Chapter 10 on marshalling.

XIX. Adult Training of Youth at Official SCA Activities

(XVIII is youth rapier specific) This is our Chapter 11 - Adult participation

XX. Injury Procedures

This is our Chapter 14 - Injury procedures We have rewritten this to more closely mirror what is in our armoured combat rules.