It's that time of year when local practices start up and
there's an influx of new players learning our game for the first time. Let's
say you are one of those new people, it's great isn't it? Fighting like in the
movies! You feel like a superhero, and here you are, only a few practices in
and you consistently find yourself one of the last survivors on your team
almost every line battle! You're amazing!
But let's take an objective look at that for a moment...
You're a Crappy Newbie by Mike "Panther" Palumbo
So you consistently find yourself one of the last, if not
the lasts surviving member of your team during the line battles, and sometimes
you win and sometimes you lose, but you are always in there, dramatically
attacking and defending, and you've barely had any training! Let's step back
and analyze all the reasons why this can happen:
Luck
Those heroes in the movies, they get lucky all the time,
things just work out for them, but reality doesn't work that way. There's a
good chance that two thirds of your team is made up of people with at least two
years experience or more. Likewise, the opposing team is also mostly people
with more experience than you. You might get lucky enough to be the last
survivor once or twice, but the probability that this will happen to you every
time goes up into numbers I can't fathom. No one is that lucky.
Former Training
Did you come from another lightest touch LARP that takes
head shots? There aren't many very many. Do you have a black belt in multiple
martial arts that includes super skills in avoiding even the slightest contact
at all costs? It's possible, but by and large, success in any martial arts
program doesn't equate to automatic success in another, and ours is no
exception. Often certain skills or concepts will translate, but that tends to
be a jumping of point if you will, a means of understanding and relating to the
training in our system, not a replacement for training.
You Run From a Fight.
They say a truly good fighter only fights when he has to. And
while that might be true, if you are simply not engaging and instead running
away from conflict such that you are the only one left toward the end of every
battle, that makes you Ranger (Abe), and we already have one Ranger, so stop
doing that. Plus you don't learn much about fighting that way.
You're Not Taking
Your Shots.
So in the absence of the first three situations, the only
logical conclusion is that you aren't taking your shots. Congratulations!
You're a Crappy Newbie. And the reason
for this can range from the genuine desire to cheat to a variety of less
malicious reasons. As a newbie, not taking shots is rarely from the genuine
desire to cheat. One reason it happens is because you haven't developed the
sensitivity and the awareness to feel and process what's happening to you yet.
It takes time, no one expects you be perfect or even fast at it on your first
day, much less in your first few months. It's tough to allow your brain to
process where you are being hit when you're still so focused on hitting the
other person. This takes practice. And the best way to approach it is to make
sure you prioritize being aware of where you are being hit, rather than hitting
the other person. Doing that will mean that your attacks are often hindered,
but the respect you gain for simply taking your shots properly will inspire
people to teach you more. It won't be long before you are able to dole out
lighting fast attacks while simultaneously feeling even the slightest contact
from your opponent.
Another reason you might not take your shots is because you
have been misinformed about the rules, or misinterpreted some aspect of the
shot calling process. The most common of this type is when newbies explain that
they didn't think it counted because it was a late shot, or they couldn't tell
whether it was late so they just kept going. Or else they simply were sure
whether they got hit or not.
So let's state for the record the most basic fundamental
principles of the combat system:
1. It's a lightest
touch system and you are required to take every thing you feel.
This is a blanket statement and the fall back rule in the
absence of any other information that might be forthcoming in the rest of this
article or in combat itself. You simply take whatever you feel.
2. If you are not
sure what you felt, make the worst call you think it could be.
If you aren't sure if you got hit in the arm, call arm. If
you aren't sure if it was arm or dead, call dead. If you simply have no idea
what happened, call dead. The fact is that if you make errors in shot calling
to your own detriment, no one will ever accuse you of being a cheater, whereas
if you consistently make errors to your benefit, you will quickly be branded a
cheater. And once branded it's very hard to change the court of public opinion.
3. You are
responsible for calling the shots you feel, you are not responsible for telling
someone where you think you hit them.
This rule is crucial to what keeps the system form
degenerating into kids playing cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, good guys
and bad guys, I got you! No you didn't! Yes I did! Did not! Did to! You can never assume you got someone, and you
never tell them where you hit them. It's their job to tell you, and if they
don't call something, you can assume you missed.
The caveat to this rule is when you are a newbie and it's
obvious to a more experienced person (a coach or marshal) that you are not
feeling your shots. They may take you aside and ask you to reflect on a fight
afterward for the sake of your training. But this will be done with respect and
with the goal of making you a better player. However, beyond the first few
months of training, your standard combat experience shouldn't involve people
telling you where you got hit, nor should you engage in telling others where
you think you hit them. A player who's been given the proper training and had
ample time to incorporate it, shouldn't require intervention from a coach or
marshal. If after significant training you find that trainers are still asking
you if you felt certain shots, congratulations! You've graduated from Crappy
Newbie to Crappy Cheater. So if that's you, you might want to evaluate whether
you are giving the proper attention to your shot calling.
4. It's your job to
let your opponent know about late shots.
This one takes time to perceive, but eventually you will be
able to tell when a late shot occurs, and it's up to you to take back those
shots you delivered when you see them. Your opponent is operating under Rule 1.
He's going to take it, even if you were dead 5 seconds before you casually
swung your weapon into his leg as you were dropping your dead body to the
ground. You might be inclined to think that such incidental contact doesn't
mean anything, but he going to take it unless you tell him not to. Likewise,
even if you think a shot dealt to you by your opponent was late, you are
obligated to take it unless they tell you not to. Keeping in mind that you
often don't know if you hit a person or not (remember it's not your job to
assume), it pays to tell them not to take the shots you perceived to be late,
whether you think they landed on target or were blocked. That way you are
covered, and never have to say after the fight, "Oh you took the arm, I
didn't think I hit that at all."
5. People make
mistakes.
Despite all efforts, even the most experienced people make
mistakes. But adhering to the above rules keeps it to the bare minimum. And
people will always make allowances for rare occurrences. Practicing while keeping these philosophies
in your mind will help you avoid developing a chronic problem, and enable you
to set down a foundation for continued growth as a fighter.
These are the basics, and mastering them alone will earn you
tremendous respect from the community, even if you have no fighting skill
whatsoever. The fighting skill could take years to develop, but if you don't
take these basics to heart, no amount of skill will ever make up for it.
