Northern Army Practices

[MorGrendel]

Hello all,


The commanders meeting this weekend determined four dates for our melee practices this coming season:


Sunday, December 15
Sunday, January 20
Sunday, February 24
Sunday, March 24


All practices will be held at Tysons-Pemitt Park on Rt. 7 just off the Beltway in McLean, Virginia. This is the Ponte Alto practice site when school is not in session. It is centrally located, has rest rooms in the library, ample parking, and a decent-sized field. It also has a lot of "civilian" traffic nearby, which makes it great for recruitment. That civilian traffic may impose limitations on what we can do with combat archery. We'll have to see.


For all of these practices, heavy melee practice will begin at 10:00 a.m. SHARP and will run until noon. Rapier melee practice will begin at noon SHARP and run until 2:00 p.m. Our goal here is for crossover fighters to have the chance to play in both disciplines and to have a set of practices that does not completely wipe out the entire day--practices will start and end on time!


Some notes:


--We will be fighting constantly during the whole practice, with very brief water breaks. We can talk about what worked and what didn't while drinking water and after the practice is over.
--We will fight rain or shine, snow or sun, unless field conditions are positively dangerous.
--Any "drills" will be couched in combat scenarios or will be fun, targeted intermissions (king-killer, 3-on-3 bearpits, etc.).
--These are not going to be official SCA events. They are just spontaneous gatherings of friends who want to hit each other with sticks. There will be no MOLs, Trolls, or fees.
--You are responsible for your own water and food.


We also would like to encourage local groups to take a look at the event calendar and host their own practices, whether on a weekend or at a weeknight practice. Please check in with me to work on coordinating/publicizing those local practices.


I'll send out detailed directions to the site as we get closer to the practice date.


Bog, Chux, Rome, and our various other friends are more than welcome to participate. Please cross-post this message as appropriate.


Looking forward to seeing all of you.


Joselin d'outremer
Northern regional warlord/liaison