New Kids on the Stock

[swill]

Hi new to all this, me and my boys (11 and 8) just bought some weapons and shields off the internet and started fighting neighborhood kids in the yard. We came to Geek Kon on Sunday with 2 other 11 year-old boys from the neighborhood and loved it.

We (3 or 4 11 year-olds and an 8 year-old, Pikachu, if you were there on Sunday) are planning to come to the Stock pavilion pratice on Thursday after 7 and I have a few questions.

Do you have other kids at practice? Do you actually want kids there? I know kids are hard to deal with.

Do the other poeple's kids need permission slips signed by parents?

My kids have hockey helmets that they wear when they play, we usually make other kids playing wear a bike helmet. Is that ok, frowned apon, encouraged?

Finally, any suggestions, words of wisdom, requests?

Thanks,
Swill

[Big Friggin Jimmy]

NOTE: I'm not actually a member of the Madison chapter. But I'm gonna get the ball rolling on answers.

Also, I'm the big guy that ran through the demo for you. Just to put a face with the name.

Kids on practice is rare but not unheard. On a national Belegarth field the minimum fighting age is 16. Chapters are free to bend that locally, or for any event they throw, but most don't bend it younger than 14. I'm not sure what Rhun's take on it is.

Safety equipment is encouraged. A helmet is taking it to the extreme, but kids that young have brains that are still developing, and a concussion at that age should be avoided. Another thing to think about is that eventually they could get more period style helmets, which will just help them look the part more.

My guess, and this is just my guess, is that the field in the stock could be easily split to give the kids space to fight eachother, but that kids fighting with adults would be severly limited. While it's fun to fight with kids (I fuckin love it) you have to pull your shots, roll with it when they cheat (which they will, and it's not always their fault, they're kids), these things just aren't something most fighters want to deal with consistently.

I'd highly recommend that any kids that participate, they're parents should at least come to the first practice, to watch the entire practice and sign the waiver. It's simply liability, staying the whole time is just one more step that a group can take to say "you knew what you were getting into." My chapter's policy is that for kids under 16, the child's parent must be present for the child to fight.

Again, I'm not from Rhun, my word is not law, but there's some stuff to think about. I know talkin to the guys on the side we loved watching pikachu fight, and your group was probably my favorite to do the rules run through for. They were very enthusiastic but also patient and polite. When I started to talk about getting hit the arm and pikachu through his arm behind his back I thought your child was a genius, it was really funny to find out that they'd done this before.

[Jarvis]

Thanks for the fast response Jimmy.

For Rhun, we like to have the parents of kids that young attend practices with them. We have a couple of little ones that have fought with us for at least a couple of months. I believe they are 10 or 11 years old, and their father fights along with them. We're careful and mindful of them and it has worked out well so far, though to be honest the kids have taken a couple of minor spills here and there. Nothing that they wouldn't get from sparring in a karate class, though.

In short: we can accommodate this, and as Jimmy has said, it would be a good idea for you to at least observe part of a practice to make an assessment on whether or not you would feel safe with your kids taking part.

[swill]

Sept 10, 2012 23:49:25 GMT -5 Big Friggin Jimmy said:

When I started to talk about getting hit the arm and pikachu through his arm behind his back I thought your child was a genius, it was really funny to find out that they'd done this before.

Yeah we bought a book called "Battle Gaming" with some rules so he's given that speech to other kids, but I told them the rules might be different so they should pay attention.

[swill]

Sept 11, 2012 0:14:58 GMT -5 Jarvis said:

In short: we can accommodate this, and as Jimmy has said, it would be a good idea for you to at least observe part of a practice to make an assessment on whether or not you would feel safe with your kids taking part.

Yes, I would be practicing with them. I don't think the other kids' parents would practice though. I will tell them that they should come and watch a practice before their kids can just come with me if that's ok with the chapter.

We thought about getting a kids club going in my neighborhood, but I realize after that demo at Geek Kon that there is a critical mass of people needed to make this fun and its more than the 4 or 5 kids at a time we've assembled at this point.

I'll start with just my kids and maybe some others if their parents can come on Thursday.

[Sir Beauregaurd]

great to have you aboard. hope you had fun at practice. we chatted about a bunch of stuff and it was great to have you at practice, hope you make it out regularly.

[swill]

We did have fun and plan to continue. Thanks to all for your patience.

[swill]

We came out to the Stock Yard today, but didn't have a waiver. I tried to print one off here, but keep getting the dreaded 404 file not found error. Could someone please send me one? My Pikachu is itching to fight.

[Kayle]

I will e-mail you the waiver today.

[Zee]

I just tried to log in to see if I could fix the waivers but the FTP from the hosting service is refusing to connect I'll have to give them a call after work

[Zee]

Fixed it, web sit now links to the files again. Right Click and save as to download a copy, click to view

[swill]

got it, thanks. We will be there on Thursday.