Research and Discussion Forums

I haven't been on the ARMA forums for some time now, I find this article interesting since I was one of the "non-traditionalist practitioners from unaffiliated and un-credentialed teachers of JSA eager and enthusiastic to participate", perhaps the only one on the forums to publicly say so ...

I've been reading Dobringer's Lichtenaur carefully of late and I'd like to know the current interpretation ARMA uses for the cross-strike. Any decent video-examples of 27V Twerhaw?
It's a horizontal slash but I can envision two hand positions and he makes mention that the hand is turned.

It seems with all of this countercutting, you would never want to attack first. If you were to cut first, wouldn't you then expect your opponent to countercut? It seems it would pay to be very defensive then, and I'm sure that that's not correct at all. Any sort of defensive technique means you hav...

We're definitely on the same page Tom, I agree with everything you said.

Dave, can you please post the full up-to-date rules?

Have you considered chalking the weapons? If you apply chalk to the cutting edges then you can readily distinguish areas struck.

And if the goal of sparring is to simulate real combat as accurately and safely as possibIe, then I'm not sure it is possible to add a specific set of rules to sparring without fundamentally changing it's character and ultimate goal. Hey Tom, you misunderstand me, when I say sparring is "a gam...

About circling in a fight. Personally, I think you should just go up to your opponent and strike at him/her (using good timing, distance, range, etc.). If you are not ready to make that strike, stay well back out of distance. When you are ready to strike, then enter into proper range and cut! If as...

Interesting discussion. Do you ever jump? Is there a historical precedent to jumping? Some people use quite low basic fighting stances, if the legs are already in a crouch then jumping may prove natural. While I have jumped to avoid a low cut when committed to a charge, in general if you can't void ...

Hi Chris, yes it is, in my opinion, firstly for the reality, that many assumed kills aren't, and blade based martial arts reflect this.(even if the likelihood is he may die, your assumption should be he hasn't). Hi Dave, I agree with you that you should never let your guard down, and sparing to two...

Is it really necessary to quantify so many situations? 1 solid blow/stab with no response means your dead. If the opponent does not agree upon the blow being sufficiently solid, your next blow is agreed upon as being able to land with considerably more force. Pain is generally a good detractor to pr...

Question for Chris: Are katana (well, in Japanese arts) in ancient times supposed to be swung so hard that a wooden/bamboo counterpart would do such maiming and fatal damage? I handed a $4,000,000 five hundred-year old specimen that belonged to a private collector in Taiwan once, and I think that k...

Wow, lots of good replies, I didn't think it would generate so much interest. Stacy: I agree with your description of speed and power as being two different things. In practice with shinai we can never use full power, that is to say the wrist must remain loose and the impact must remain elastic. We ...

Stacy, part of my interest in HEMA (and ARMA more specifically) is of course to spar with people from different backgrounds and see how they do things and learn from them. I personally, today, cannot consider sparring using straight wood at realistic speed, even with good control, without serious ar...

Hey Andrew! I absolutely don't mind suggestions, criticism or praise, by all means. Absolutely there were edge alignment mistakes, however I assure you than Ben can without a doubt cut with proper alignment, I'll post a target cutting video shortly. We do our best to discount improper hits. To answe...

Thanks guys, it's really the damn hard way to learn about wounds, stay safe, injury sucks.