SCA Combat Curriculum Development - Curriculum Goals, Parameters, and Length

It is impossible to structure an open-ended curriculum.  This is generally why open-ended study systems don't typically have lesson plans and structures the way that, for instance, a semester-based plan does.  This has historically been the approach for SCA fighter practices - if there is structure, it is largely self-imposed.  This has advantages - it is sustainable effectively indefinitely, and it rewards self-starting learners, who tend to be the best long-term students because they already have a strong interest.  However, it suffers from severe disadvantages in instructing new fighters, which is where the SCA historically suffers the highest attrition.

My goal, then, is to structure a series of lessons sufficient to present new fighters the fundamentals of SCA heavy combat, the historical grounding for it, and the game-isms of the SCA.  I have separately defined the fundamentals as what I think of as the Six Skills - stance, footwork, attack, defense, conditioning, and mental preparation.  The six skills form the basis for pretty much everything we do on the heavy field, and "the Six Skills" is sufficiently catchy to get people to remember it.

This program is not endlessly open-ended; it is very much the introductory-level class.  I aim for the program to last 90 days, at one lesson a week, for a total of fifteen sessions of roughly half an hour to 45 minutes each, to run at the beginning of fighter practice, so that fighters still have plenty of time to fight at practice, and have a thing for themselves to focus on.  Each lesson should target three essential points per lesson, and should be able to define those points up front.  Each lesson should also include points that the student can focus on during practice, and points that the student can work on at home - SCA fighting is a physical skill, and physical skills reward repetition.  Because new fighters can take longer to armor, and because body mechanics and position are an important part of training, all training will be un-armored slow work, with small shields or bucklers for visibility purposes.

Basic lesson structure runs something along the lines of:

1. Introduction of material to cover, including points to remember.
   
2. Drill demonstration.
3. Drill walkthrough.
4. Drill variations - no more than two additional variations on each drill per lesson.
5. Reiteration of what was covered.

The meat of each lesson is the drill and variations, which, if each lesson is half an hour, should be about twenty to 25 minutes of each lesson.  Corrections, when they are administered, should be brief, to the point, and physical rather than verbal, and explanations kept to a minimum during the lesson period.  SCA fighters tend to talk through details and permutations; however, the purpose of these lessons is to drill a physical skill, and if the muscles are not moving, the drill doesn't happen.  Additionally, minimizing correction to essential points and minimizing permutations reduces the "fire hose effect" for new fighters, giving them a handful of things to focus on rather than "everything under the sun."

Of course, this is only the structured lesson time - if someone wants to drill the material outside that, and ask questions as they go, this is the perfect time to do permutations and explanations, and is also an excellent opportunity to cultivate self-starting students.  It is also the perfect time to go over things that individual students want to cover, rather than the overall lesson - for instance, if a student is having trouble with footwork, or wants to practice their punch-block, "office hours" are a great time for more intensive study on that subject.

Next up - structuring individual lessons, given a target audience, a length of time, and a standard of performance.