Latenight opined, “"More realistic" ???? Oh please, this is going to be a LONG thread.
I will choose to refrain from going there yet again”
Yup… I have to say that if somebody wanted to learn rapier and didn’t have any good historical fencing schools near them, I’d rather see them at a good sport fencing sale than at an SCA practice. There are plenty of safety standards at SCA practices, but no teaching standards. Besides, there’s nothing realistic about hopping up and down on one leg or fencing from your knees. The SCA was almost OK, back when there were no other options. But now that there are so many historical fencing schools throughout the country, the SCA is for those who either cant get to a good HF practice or are more interested in the non-fencing aspects of the SCA (the garb, drinking, the ‘dream’, etc.) than they are about learning how fencing for self defense and the defense of honor was done during their time period.
Chris