Have you ever seen people on the grassy hill in front of Hayes wielding swords or quarterstaffs? Do you stop to snicker at the âLARPersâ whenever you spy them? Have you ever really thought about what this group does?
This groupâoften mistaken for role-players unafraid of the publicâis MARRCA. MARRCA stands for Medieval and Renaissance Recreational Combat Association. This group does not reenact imagined battles, but instead learns the tactics of Western Martial Arts.
Christine Mendiola, a senior and retiring president of MARRCA, said, âI feel like LARPing is about the roleplaying experience, while western martial arts… is like studying actual historical tactics and skills. So itâs based in history versus based on imagination.â
Mendiolaâs personal interest focuses on learning from the 14th and 15th century German texts the club owns and mastering those techniques. From there, she hopes to continue to study older texts to learn about other techniques. Based on their interests and drive, members can continue to research and learn more about Western Martial Arts. This research can involve looking into medieval texts and working with sometimes ambiguous descriptions to recreate fighting styles. Western Martial Arts can then become a blend of active practice and intense study.
MARRCAâs approach is not the only method of learning about Western Martial Artsânor do members learn all of the techniques available in the wide range of history that the Medieval and Renaissance portion of MARRCAâs title covers. The types of Western Martial Arts are varied like the different types of Eastern Martial arts. âI want to keep the club going because it provided me that first step.â After joining MARRCA during her freshman year, Mendiola joined another training schoolâPolaris Fellowship of Weapons Studies âover her summer vacation. MARRCA is now a way for her to practice what she learned there as well as give other students the opportunity to explore their own Western Martial Arts interests. What Iâve found is most important about MARRCA is that it provides a community for people to explore this interest without the judgement that goes with carrying around a giant sword,â Mendiola said.
For anyone interested in learning about Western Martial Arts, MARRCA meets from 4:00pm until 5:00pm on Tuesdays and Fridays. During the winter, their practices move from their outdoor location in front of Hayes to the Milligan Hub in Stuyvesant Hall. Mendiola said, âItâs college, try something. Experiment.â
