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.
Minor grammar edit.
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.
Clarified Legal Majority for "minor" for NZ.
Coherency added to Glossary of terms.
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.
Clarified Lochac's supervision policy for two adults one of which must be a rostered marshal.
III. Membership
We note that membership is not required for participation, though it is required for marshals.
Note clarifing you do not have to be a full member however must be a "Event" member for participation at a offical training or event.
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.
Edited Division ages to match Society's age divisions.
Provided instruction for how to support and enable cross division play.
Edits involving standarised terms to reduce confusion.
VI. Conventions of All Combat
Edited Title to Conventions of all combat, to mirror the title from the YAC rules section
The Adult 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.
Standardising of rules changes as "Special Rules Changes" and clarified how they are implemented.
Supplied synonyms to the virtues of Courteous and Chivalrous for childrens context.
Clarified who to seek for if your are upset.
Complete overhaul of Unit engagement rules. Clear discription of a unit, how to join and leave a unit, defined Coherency and what can happen during unit engagements.
Clear definition of Kill from behind, its use and how to execute correctly.
VII.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.
Reiterated Face thrusts are not allowed for Div 1.
IX. Armour requirements
Language simplified. No change to actual standards.
Removed line indicating you "can" use a Coif, Aventails of maile or leather as well as Bevors as part of your head protection. This line was found to be irrelevant and so was removed.
Encourage armour to be historical from medieval to be more inclusive.
Clarified helm look, size and weight expectations and requirments.
Provided reason for shield safety.
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.
Grammer correction.
Clarified incidental contact safety coverings and how to cover them properly.
Clarified Javelin construction and thrust tip requirments.
Marshal's section
XV. Organization
Our version of 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
Added requirement to have 2 authorising marshals to create another Authorising YAC marshal
Added allowances to provide remote assistance and assessment for authorising YAC marshals
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, as our disciplines should have similar, if not identical, processes.
Standardised wording to eliminate confusion.
XXI. Youth Martial Authorizations
The information in this section (our authorisation procedures) is covered in Chapter 12.
Added Concussion recognition to Knowledg quiz.
Standardised wording to "tournament" bout from "proper"
Added avalibilaty to use authorised adult sparring partners if no other youth is avalible for an authorisation.
XXII. Marshal Responsibilities, Chain of Command and Reporting
Our Chapter 15 - Chain of Command and reporting covers reporting requirements, including dates etc.
Clarified Kingdom Youth Armoured Combat Marshal description.
Clarified Kingdom Earl Marshal description.
Clarified Field marshals supervising role.
Added Juristiction requirement for some marshals to hold a Lochac Youth Activity Authorisation Card.
Included the roles of a YAC marshal can also be done by a Authorising YAC marshal.
Reporting cross division play, reporting date and grammar correction.
XXIII. Experimentation
Our Chapter 1y - Experimentation covers Lochac's requirements for experiments, including our requirements for experiments to be approved by the Board and Committee (including consulting and informing the insurers) before they can be run. The process laid out mirrors that of the other martial disciplines.
Require consent from parent/guardian of child before use of experimental equipment can be used.
XXIV. Disciplinary actions
This section requires us to establish procedures for handling grievances and disputes. This is covered in our Chapter 16 - Sanctions and appeals.
Future change logs
This version has contained significant rewording and re-arrangement of the rules compared to the Society rules.
Future versions should require less substanitve change such that the change log can be presented in the format of:
- Rule section and number
- Was
- Existing text of the rule
- Now
- Proposed new text of the rule
- Functional change
- What this actually changes for our participants, if anything - some changes are just cosmetic and don't change the intent of a rule
- Reason for change
- Why we are changing the rule, eg. Society rule change, safety issues, clarification, etc.
- Notes
- Information that we will provide in the Notes pages to explain to participants when and why a significant rule change happened (not needed for typographical changes)