{"id":1874,"date":"2020-03-03T08:41:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T13:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1874"},"modified":"2020-09-23T10:19:05","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T14:19:05","slug":"history-of-physical-education-and-sport-class-learns-jousting-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1874","title":{"rendered":"History of Physical Education and Sport Class Learns Jousting Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo by Samantha Yannuzzi (\u201922)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Nancy Kane, PhD, Kinesiology Department – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cries of \u201cHuzzah!\u201d ring out from students on the\nsidelines watching classmates practice skills used in medieval European\njousting.  Some students are acting as\nknights, some as squires or heralds, some as royalty. Four of them are getting\na good workout as horses carrying the knights. One serves as scorekeeper.\nShields have been emblazoned by competing teams, and the knights wear helmets\ndesignating them as belonging to the Gold or Silver team. It\u2019s the day of the\nEXS 197 Joust, in which students in the History and Philosophy of Physical\nEducation and Sport class experience some of the training used by knights in\ntraining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was created by Dr. Nancy Kane (\u201913), who\nwanted to bring history to life after researching the training methods used in\nmedieval times for her new textbook, History\nand Philosophy of Physical Education and Sport<\/em> (Cognella, 2020). The book\nincludes research and kinesthetic activities for each chapter to give students\nan engaging way to connect with the past and deepen their understanding. Kane\nwas assisted in her research by Jeremy Pekarek, Archivist and Instructional\nServices Librarian at the Memorial Library Delta Collection, who made SUNY\nCortland\u2019s 1898 edition of Joseph Strutt\u2019s book, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England<\/em> (1801) available\nfor her study. \u201cI could have read it online, but there is nothing like holding\nthe book, feeling its textures, and studying the words and engravings up\nclose,\u201d says Kane, whose students previously met with Pekarek to learn about\nCortland\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skills for the students\u2019 jousting day include\ntilting with jousting lances (made of pillow-topped salvaged bamboo sticks) to\nspear rings, hitting a target (or a squire), and eventually competing in single\ncombat against another opponent on \u201chorseback.\u201d The various events are\ndescribed in Strutt\u2019s book as practicing against a quintain, which could mean\nany of a range of targets from posts to squires holding shields. Quintains\ncould also be rings used as targets: Strutt notes that the French scholar,\nCharles du Fresne, sierur du Cange (1610-1688), indicated that the Florentines\nin Italy referred to tilting at rings as \u201ccorrer alla quintana.\u201d  Strutt also credits ancient Roman military\ntraining as noted by Vegetius in his book,\nDe re militari<\/em>., in which knights and squires would use a tree trunk to\npractice ad palum<\/em> (against the pole).\nEventually, shields and other targets were added, and tilting for rings\nremained a popular pastime among youth for centuries after the last tournaments\nfaded from memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kane used Strutt\u2019s first chapter in Book III with its\nillustrations to recreate the training techniques and adapt them for a modern\nclassroom. Strutt\u2019s quintain illustrations were taken from an early 14th<\/sup>\ncentury manuscript in the Royal Library,\nLes Etablissmentz des Chevalierie<\/em>, which were studied by the engraver and\nhistorian Strutt. \u201cMany of my students are physical education majors, and I\nwant them to experience some ways in which we can make history live and they\ncan integrate history into their future classes to bring extra variety and fun\nto their students. I love the interdisciplinary nature of the event,\u201d Kane\nadds. Strutt wrote that there is a literary and performing arts component to the\npastime of quintain, too. For example, Shakespeare refers to it in As You Like It<\/em> (I, ii), when Orlando\nsays, \u201cMy better parts are all thrown down\/And that which here stands up\/Is but\na quintain, a mere lifeless block.\u201d During the joust, Kane playsWe Will Rock You<\/em>, a Queen song used in\nthe 2001 Heath Ledger film, A Knight\u2019s\nTale<\/em>, to inspire the competitors and to add excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time Kane has used her historical\nresearch in practice. While serving as Director of Dance for the Trumansburg\nConservatory of Fine Arts, she successfully created and taught a class called\nRough and Tumble to encourage young boys to become part of the program. It was\nbased on German gymnastics, parkour<\/em>\nor freerunning, and stage combat. With a background as an advanced actor\/combatant\nin the Society of American Fight Directors, she has taught armed and unarmed\nstage combat to Cortland performing arts majors as well as members of the\nvarsity football and gymnastics teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jousts were the first instance in sports history in\nwhich scorecards were used, and the class scorekeeper eventually announces the\nchampion of the day. With typical chivalry, Sir Ethan Irons (\u201921) invites the\nentire Gold team to pose for the photo with their shortbread cookie prizes\n(provided in lieu of a feast). Kane will later print and bring in copies of the\nphoto for each member of the team as a memento. \n\u201cTransformational Education is part of life at Cortland under our Campus\nPriorities,\u201d Kane says, \u201cand I love it when we can integrate different aspects\nof learning into memorable events!\u201d Judging from the expressions on their faces\nin the photo, her students agree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nancy Kane, PhD, Kinesiology Department – Cries of \u201cHuzzah!\u201d ring out from students on the sidelines watching classmates practice skills used in medieval European jousting.  Some students are acting as knights, some as squires or heralds, some as royalty. Four of them are getting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2038,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1874\/revisions\/2038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}