One of the most impressive developments of the last decade in the Realms is the proliferation of fight practices across New England. When I started playing in 2002 there were three weekly practices running at WPI. the Kingston Plains, and the Commuter Parking Lot in Nashua. There are now up to six practices running on four different days of the week in three states:
Monday WPI Practice
Consistently bringing in new batches of players each fall and working with them for a number of weeks to ensure every combatant is safe makes this a great practice for newer players. The practice tends to begin with a period of one on one sparring, normally lasting twenty to forty minutes depending on the week. What makes this practice unique is their program of having a guest instructor each week. This means the focus of each practice changes by the week exploring both individual and team tactics. The overall fighting skill level of the practice tends to skew a bit lower with the number of new players, but that makes it a great environment to “get your feet wet” if you are just getting back into practicing, and with the relaxed pace of the practice there are plenty of opportunities to grab someone and do some one on one sparring. As a reminder the first month of so of practice (September through early October) after the new school year begins is single short only, to help teach the new recruits.
Tuesday Nottingham Practice
Likely the smallest practice actively running. Average attendance tends to be between eight and twelve people depending on the week. Practice normally begins with a period of one on one sparring that lasts the better part of an hour. This is followed by line battles that last until the end of practice. Line battles at Nottingham practice are “Ditch” style, where the first person dead from the winning team moves to the losing team. This keeps the teams fresh with the smaller number of attendees. Grimloch “Fat Burner” exercises are also sometimes mixed in after sparring during some practices. The average skill level at this practice is likely the highest of all the practices. This is a practice filled with highly skilled veteran combatants, although new players that have attended often have a wealth of combat knowledge to absorb. The pace is also quite high, there is generally only one short break between sparring and line battles and even some of the more in-shape players need to take a breather because of the pace of the line battles.
Tuesday UMASS Lowell Practice
One of the newer practices, it has only been running for a couple of years. This practice has a feel very similar to WPI practice on Mondays. It is very accommodating to new/inexperienced players, and there is a small core of veterans that always seem available for one on one training. The practice seems to run similar to WPI in that there is a period of one on one sparring to being the practice, followed by group fights, which when I was there was line battles. This is a medium size practice that seems to be growing each year, as the club associated with the school grows. The overall skill level of the park skews a bit lower due to the number of new players (similar to WPI) but there are great veterans to practice with as well.
Wednesday UCONN Practice
Widely considered the premier practice in the game, and with good reason. It is the largest practice by a large margin, averaging over thirty attendees per week and some weeks even pushing fifty! The practice generally begins with a period of one on one sparring. This is followed by some kind of individual or small team drill. Some weeks they will run Grimloch Fat Burners, while other weeks they will have two on one and three on two drills. Normally the last hour of practice are line battles, and these are the largest line battles you will see outside of events. The average skill level of this practice is mixed because of the large attendance. You will run into everything from first year new players to highly skilled veterans. The pace of this practice is also high, with there being very little downtime and structured activities for almost the entire practice.
Wednesday Nashua Practice
This practice runs from the middle of March until November (weather dependant). This is a medium sized practice. Some weeks there may only be a handful of attendees but other weeks there can be over twenty people ready to fight. This practice has one of the more relaxed paces of all the practices. It is not uncommon to see small groups of people sparring together for most of the practice. A normal practice has a fairly long period of one on one sparring, followed by a series of grand melees, and continuing with line battles. This is another practice that often utilizes the “ditch” variant of line battles. After line battles, there is generally another period of one on one sparring to end practice. Some weeks there is also a bear pit running, where if you keep your wounds and if you win two fights you get a limb back. The overall skill level is mixed similar to UCONN because there is a blend of experienced players and some newer players.
Thursday WPI Practice
Only recently opened to the public, this used to be a SMAS (Society for Medieval Arts and Sciences) newbie-only practice. This was also often the first practice that weapon combinations were introduced to the new recruits. I personally haven’t been to this practice since they opened it to the public, so my perceptions may be a bit inaccurate to what the practices are like now. This practice tended to focus on certain skills. Some weeks that was specifically teamwork, while other weeks it was individual drills. Being a newbie practice by design, the skill level was low with some experienced instructors to help teach the new players new tactics. Now that this practice is open to the public, I suspect the practices will run quite similar to Monday WPI practices.
Whether a veteran or this is your first time attending, you can find great fights and opportunities for combat instruction at any of the above practices. If it isn’t possible to attend any of the above practices remember it is always possible to start your own, many of these practices started with only a small handful of people.