What’s wrong with the fights

[fbhjr]

We’re getting ready for the Gulf Cost Ren Faire in Pensacola. We’ve got a fair number of new people this year and an even larger number of new fights that are going to be performed there.
We had a fight review to look over what we’ve got and the scores weren’t all that good, even for veteran members.
One of the new members scored surprisingly high, which was not expected by a lot of folks.

I understand what the problem is, I’m just not sure how to fix it. More practice would make it better, but it wouldn’t treat the underlying cause.

The problem is the apparent intent of the people doing the fight. The fights that scored low are the fights where the people involved didn’t project the intent of trying to fight the other person. I’m not saying I want them to have that intent, but I want them to look like they have that intent.

The reason that the new person who scored well was a hit was he really projects that he’s worried the person he’s performing with is going to whack him in the fight. Hopefully he doesn’t really think that’s going to happen. But, the people watching think he’s worried, so they respond better to it.

Practice can make this better. With new fights there can be a lot of “what am I supposed to be doing here?” which can distract from the intent. But, not always because that does sometimes make it look like the person is really concentrating on it.
It is a problem when the person looks to where the next thing is supposed to happen. Unless something is really there, the person looks confused and distracted.
“That person’s looking up when a sword is coming in from their right,” is what the people watching pick up, even if not consciously.

Practice can make that better because if a fight is really well rehearsed the people doing it can be looking at each other as they do it and aren’t looking to see where the props are between them. It doesn’t mean it happens, but it is more likely to happen.

Speed helps some. If people are going fast it looks more serious. But, intent is separate from speed. You can look menacing and serious about what you’re doing without going fast. Fast is only a way to achieve it, not the only way.

But, speed and practice can hurt too.
When my wife and I took a class about stage combat a few years ago the man teaching it talked about how things should look like a fight, not a dance. I think this is one of my fights scored low. The person I was doing it with and I both knew all of the moves. But, it came off more like a dance then a fight and didn’t score well.

I’m not sure how to teach this to the people who need it. (Not all of them are new people.) Everyone is worried about remembering their moves. It’s a question of making people think you’re worried about something else.

I’ve got to ponder a good way to get that across.
Suggestions are welcome.