Research and Discussion Forums

I've tried to be critical-but-constructive on this thread, but I'm willing to admit failure, and move on. I wish the finest blessings of life and happiness on everyone here.

Do you think sprezzatura is a concept that can be applied directly to martial arts practice? To make it look effortless you have to be pretty damn good, and if you are doing something like Marozzo then the concept certainly applies, but what about say Fiore? As you say, it definitely applies (as co...

No one is saying this. This idea is coming purely from your emotional reaction to what people are saying. Funny, I thought it was coming from when I was called a racist . I will say that the people calling you a racist on the Schola forum are out of line. Not knowing you personally, I won't even go...

Mr. Clement's editorial IS founded upon solid history. It is relevant to historical WMA. It is not entirely free of historical content. However, it is so vague as to be misleading. Maybe that's good enough for an editorial; I suppose you can look at it that way. However, it's also clear that it the...

Want to learn WMA? Well then you have to accept that they had no social or religious underpinnings, they never acted on a noble thought, and if you even pretend they were motivated even once by anything other than avarice and greed you are labeled a racist. :x No one is saying this. This idea is co...

You could possibly find alot useful in the Poleaxe techniques of several of the masters, and some of the halfswording techniques. The there is staff stuff you could try. As for manuals I don´t recall seeing any "only-spears" sections. Fiore includes a section on spear on foot. See the Ele...

I understand your point there, I think, that democracy grew out of the Athenian ideal, into what we now think of as representative democracy. However, Parliamentary democracy is, I feel, as much a product of Germanic cultures. For example the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In addition, the granting of un...

This bit of news is also being discussed at Sword Forum (and at the Cateran Society, but as I'm not a member of their forums I don't have the URL handy). The discussion there seems to focus on the similarity of Page's manual to contemporary manuals. This is outside my area of knowledge, so I don't h...

For making wasters you should use the local wood that is most shock-resistant. For the US that's hickory or ash; for Europe it's ash, but there may be some entirely suitable wood in Australia that we here don't know about. You may have access to a tropical hardwood that's better in some ways than hi...

As good as the woodworker? :D A longsword waster should be (according to Vadi) from your armpit to the ground in length (or thereabouts). Two edges, straight blade and a cross. There are any number of makers and homemade ones out there (heck, make your own if you are able to). The main thing is tha...

Get yourself to a NTP 1.0 to establish a good base if you are able to travel. There are several coming up. FWIW, suggesting I drop bread and travel to a seminar rather than letting me see something critical is generally considered a very bad sign . If it's impossible to get any insight into solo le...

Jay Vail wrote:Mr. McBrayer, nobody who posts on this site will dare to make the claim that judo doesn't work in combat.

Please check your attributions: your message doesn't seem to be in response to mine, and your quote is from the thread starter, Mr. Hull.

Clements' books are still two of the best books on the market, especially to people new to these arts. I wouldn't go so far as to say that. With all due respect to mister Clements, those books were two of the best books on the market when they were published, and they were very valuable in promotin...

Besides, with a point in line guard of prime (ochs, if you will), you CAN swing off cuts that can take someone's head off, if you practice enough. I'm going to tentatively agree with this --- in The Swordsman's Companion , where Guy Windsor first introduces cutting on the pass, he teaches it from F...

I agree with everyone that Albion is an excellent company, but think we need to add Arms and Armor to the list. There are also quite a few other companies and individuals producing functional swords, of course, but those are the two big names for production swords that are both functional and histor...