IGX

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zueF4Mu2uM[/youtube]
A few things suggest they're still in the very early stages, but pretty interesting nonetheless. E.g., "Size doesn't matter" from a champion. I think the typical modern fencer would slaughter the field after a relatively brief adaptation, but it's still cool that they're working for the ancient texts, and the breakdown of the "ippon" was interesting.

HEMA is fun shit. My son and I have the Cold Steel longsword wasters, along with an arsenal of axes, shields, swords, etc. and we have backyard battles.

Fat Cat wrote:HEMA is fun shit. My son and I have the Cold Steel longsword wasters, along with an arsenal of axes, shields, swords, etc. and we have backyard battles.

I'm sure it's fun and safe. Just don't go telling that shit to Adrian Petersen.

It's cool cause we're white.

Who'd a guessed...

Very cool! There is a group that practices in a park by my abode that do similar work but with a variety of weapons. They also use old texts and work with each other to figure out how to make the material work. One of the guys who started the group is tiny yet his use of foundational body structure and economy of motion allows him to beat everyone. This guy entered a tournament and because there is no weight limit was faced with much larger opponents. He said he used a simple method from one of the books that used body structure and alignment to deflect the blows and counterstrike to win time and time again. The larger opponents thought they could just overpower him but it didn't work. It is really neat to see all this information resurrected and put back into physical usage.

Fat Cat wrote:HEMA is fun shit. My son and I have the Cold Steel longsword wasters, along with an arsenal of axes, shields, swords, etc. and we have backyard battles.

Okay, I feel better knowing it's not just me.

NERF swords and axes are the shizzle.

It's not just you. My son knows the difference between a shield and a buckler, an axe and a mace, and an arming sword vs longsword and the basics of handling each. The first, and salient, difference between a gentleman and a peasant is that he is armed and trained in their use. We are just introducing polearms.

Fat Cat wrote:It's not just you. My son knows the difference between a shield and a buckler, an axe and a mace, and an arming sword vs longsword and the basics of handling each. The first, and salient, difference between a gentleman and a peasant is that he is armed and trained in their use. We are just introducing polearms.

My son is still full on berzerker. He can't seem to grasp a tactic more subtle than "CHARGE!" I can still prevail just with footwork.

My daughter at least is grasping the subtleties of guard, and attacking with the thrust rather than the cut. She has the makings of a decent fencer.

Yeah, kids like slashing, not thrusting. I'll poke him half a dozen times and it never occurs to him to poke back. He'll get it one day. And on that day, I quit.

My brother and I had those giant nerf sabres when we were kids a couple times. We'd beat at each other until they foam broke and then they were flails.

The stuff I've seen nearby has a whiff of "We take this seriously enough to have ponytails but not seriously enough to put it to the test." I don't think I could stand that.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:My brother and I had those giant nerf sabres when we were kids a couple times. We'd beat at each other until they foam broke and then they were flails.

The stuff I've seen nearby has a whiff of "We take this seriously enough to have ponytails but not seriously enough to put it to the test." I don't think I could stand that.

I've noticed that the local practitioners of Bushido all sport a ponytail, a pot belly, Tilley Endurables when they're not in their kimonos and a smirk of smug self-satisfaction.

If interested, a subscription to ARMA is pretty well worth it of you have a hankering for historical fight manuals and discussions.

Work Longsword with a student who has some training in the German form (reconstructed, like all pre 1700's HEMA)

There are a lot of similarities in practice between what I learned in Pekiti Tarsia and Longsowrd, Cutlass and Sabre. In sparring, Ju Jutsu is a big plus to have under our belt and Medieval Men at Arms practised many of the same techniques you see in Japanese Ju Jutsu

I used to be very interested in Japanese weapons arts but since the late 90s my interest is much more into Classical, Medieval and Modern European weapon forms.

Find a group and give it a try, Gramps.

That front sweep from Shotokan will be a nice trick in HEMA sparring, I've swept my buddy a couple of times.

Bedlam 0-0-0 wrote:Very cool! There is a group that practices in a park by my abode that do similar work but with a variety of weapons. They also use old texts and work with each other to figure out how to make the material work. One of the guys who started the group is tiny yet his use of foundational body structure and economy of motion allows him to beat everyone. This guy entered a tournament and because there is no weight limit was faced with much larger opponents. He said he used a simple method from one of the books that used body structure and alignment to deflect the blows and counterstrike to win time and time again. The larger opponents thought they could just overpower him but it didn't work. It is really neat to see all this information resurrected and put back into physical usage.

A lot of HEMA people have backgrounds in living martial arts so they have a lot of the attributes of fighting already to make sense of those manuscripts in motion.

The guy I train HEMA with had some training from a ARMA/HEMA guy but tried going off manuels. When he showed me some o what he did in Ju Jutsu class 8 years back I was not impressed as it was what one expects, like a bunch of clips of position.

But after training Ju Jutsu and Pekiti Tarsia, he now flows with it. You would not want to face him with a bat or shovel in his hands and all you had is the like.

HEMA is pretty cool, aside from the politics and name calling, like any martial art. ;-)

This was the book that lit the fire for me. This, Rob Roy and having been in Ju Jutsu for a few years and could not find a real Koryu Kenjutsu group in my area, not long after I started doing some crosstraining in FMA and that gave me a living system to compare to written instruction of WMA.

WGM mentioned Nerf Swords, I've been doing that with my kids since they learned to walk and it has built attributes in them. Started with just beating them together but then I added short snippets of work on blocking, strike patterns and the such between just playing, then we would de construct things from movies and work them. This really got them into the idea of actually working on something. Later I added real stuff from Pekiti tarsia and sabreshort sword.

My eldest son used something we used to work with Nerf swords in his first sport Fencing tournament, not a "gross motor movement" and it combined the non weapon hand and body shifting for drawing the opponents weapon through the line while the weapon goes into a high, pointed guard, that the other kid ran/was drawn into. Yet he did it under stress in his 2nd match of the day.

So they are not just toys, but learning has been fun instead of martial serious.

Now the older one trains with sticks with me and wants to do Longsword with J and me.

Every HEMA FB page and most of the HEMA types I have as friends are talking about that article. Lots of them have been called up by people wanting to check it out for themselves. The movement is only going to get bigger.

It gives people who would not usually do serious martial arts because of "You have about as much chance of being struck by.." or " Your just covering up for your insecurities!" conventional wisdom amongst their friends and class to do serious martial arts because of the aura of it just being fun. It's kinda like people who would never talk of prepping, armed resistance or dealing with a political/societal collapse get all into the Zombie Apocalypse because there is zero chance of that, so therefore it's cool, whereas preparing for something that MIGHT happen makes them a redneck.

BTW, these guys have some good stuff, been watching this channel most of the day actually.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt14YO ... GCwcjhrOdA

DARTH I NEED TACTICAL ADVICES ON HOW TO BEST UTILIZE GERMAN LONGSWORD WITH RIGGED PROPAIN TANKS. I FIGURE A SIMPLE STRATEGY IS TO THROW THE TANK THROUGH THE FRONT WINDOW AND IF THEY STAY INSIDE THEY ARE EXTRA CRISPY AND IF THEY RUN OUTSIDE I LOP OFF THEIR HEADS WITH MY ZWIEHANDER IN THE CONFUSION. MKAYTHANX.

Rigged tanks go best with shotguns. Swords are for defense in your home. You might not hang a loaded gun on your wall but you might a sword.

Fiore dei Liberi's works are a pretty good primer for medieval self defense. Fabris' stuff is great for rapier work. All of it is fun if you have the beasties of martial movement under your belt and a pension for history.

^ Yes! And if you have prior training, you will see many similarities between western and Asian arts.

So, this thread is not at all what I was expecting.

NYT article here:

"Medieval Weapon Finds Modern Appeal"
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/sport ... .html?_r=0

Seems like the HEMA crowd needs to read the "Things about modern MA/MMA thread." Lot of these people want to be mystics and/or combatives ninjas, and they HATE the possibility of a combat sport.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:Seems like the HEMA crowd needs to read the "Things about modern MA/MMA thread." Lot of these people want to be mystics and/or combatives ninjas, and they HATE the possibility of a combat sport.

That's one thing I enjoy about ARMA. Most seem very willing to test their skills. It should be noted that any are also not spouting MARE as the be all/end all of combat. Most are just passionate about the resurrecting the old systems.