Research and Discussion Forums

That's an excellent question; I only wish I had an equally excellent answer. One thing it points out for me is the personal need to study the day-in, day-out, ho-hum lives of people from the past. We take so much time to study the great events of the day that we lose focus of the fact that these wer...

Jeremy, Thanks for the tip. You are very right about fencing. I love it as a sport and it is what actually launched me into this field of interest, but it is very contrived. Timing and speed are effected in a positive way, but the foot work is too staid to translate well into real sword play. If not...

Does anyone have a routine for drilling on foot work independent of actual sparring? I know foot work is the key to true mastery and would like to work it into my regular physical workout, but don't know what techniques or moves would be best to practice on a regular basis. Does anyone have a sugges...

I recently asked a similar question and recieved similar answers. One thing I discovered while researching the answer myself was that the sword was the least used weapon on a battlefield when looking at the overall scope of battle during the Medieval and Renaissance period. Typically, more action wa...

I have a question that I would appreciate being answered by anyone, but especially the more experienced members: When we look at and try to learn from a fight book, what, in essense, are we looking at? Are we reading a manual to help two combatants in personal conflict, are we reading a military tra...

As is usually the case, the best method towards enlightenment is via education. In this regards, there are two issues I think are most important to use when trying to educate people on this issue. First, I think the Asian martial arts have been glamorized as a result of Hollywood and, more important...

This is an excellent and highly informative article. For me it highlights a question that I hope some of our more experienced colleagues can answer: How much of what we study here that is based upon Medieval and Renassaince texts were intended for battlefield use only, were intended for personal com...

Gary.

Thank you so much for that information. White Haven is, in fact, only about 40-50 minutes away and easily accesible. This is fantastic news!

Thank you,
Scott

To all, I am very pleased to find such a useful and informative site one line to use towards learning more about one of my historical passions. However, there are no ARMA groups anywhere near me to practice with, so I need to know if there are any members in the central Pennsylvania region who would...

If I had to pick just one of these traits, my personal opinion would be that of daring. There is no endeavor in which the possibility for failure is high -- sport, war, personal combat -- that the ability to be daring and take chances is not rewarded. No swordsman was ever able to achieve a level of...