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I use to help teach WMA Medieval Swordsmanship, mostly Longsword & greatsword.
I've done some informal Rapier teaching in the SCA and just getting back into it.
Comparing Olympic Fencing to a sword fight, is the equivalent of speedball compared to actual rifle combat.
The SCA groups seems to vary a lot. Personally I dislike the whole persona thing and only participate for the fighting. I would compare SCA to the Milsim crowd. It's mostly about show and just getting together and having fun.
WMA (western martial arts) groups are generally as serious as any Asian group. When we fight rapier (or longsword, dagger, poleaxe) with a WMA group there are throws, locks, disarms and other things that the SCA just simply does not allow. As well we learn how to "take out" opponents instead of just "touch" them.
Mocking one form of "swordsmanship" over another is immature and really is only useful in trying to prop yourself up above overs. Each has it's merits, those merits just change depending on the end result you are looking for. Since none of us are likely to actually every be in sword fight for our lives, it doesn't matter all that much.
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