West of Scotland...

[Jaron Bernstein]

Ye need to register with you actual full name.

[louie Pastore]

ANYONE IN THE STRATHCLYDE AREA TRAINING IN WMA?

Louie

[Gene Tausk]

Ye need to register with you actual full name.

Hi Jaron....

I believe I did that when I registered and had the email reply from ARMA telling me my registration was successful....

Apologies If I've made an error
The name's Louie Pastore

Louie

Please re-register with your full first and last name. If there is a problem with the system, please let me or another moderator know about it.

Welcome to the ARMA forums.

[Allen Johnson]

Welcome Louie! I just got finished reading the section that you and Christopher Thompson co-wrote in "Highland Knife Fighting".

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Pastore has been working on some projects with identifying Combative Techniques in the Scottish Dirk Dance and relating it to the few sources that we have on the nature of the Dirks use in Scotland. It's a new idea to me but one that has been interesting to read about. I'd be very interested in seeing the dance actually performed to get a more clear picture of how the movements work.

Im anxious to learn more about this.

Welcome!

[louie Pastore]

Hi Allen... thanks for the intro .
Unfortunately I cannot claim to be the co-writer, my contribution to Chris' book was just in my research into the application of the Dirk Dance and details I'd posted on the Cateran forum... I'm hoping to get a copy soon!

I'm hoping to do something more detailed regarding the Dirk Dance and it's applications, the dirk fencing as described by Willie Baxter, singlestick and also loads of stuff on Scottish unarmed combat....

Cheers!
Louie

[Allen Johnson]

any sources available on Willie Baxter? That name is a new one on me. It's really interesting to me to compare some of the work in Mr. Thompson's new book and compare it to Mr. Vail's recent Dagger book. Just because I've had more exposure to it, the German and Italian stuff seems to make a bit more sense, but that may change with my practicing more.

I'm looking forward to your contributions to our forum.

[Ben Michels]

As my email is already registered under my name it won't allow me to re-register.... Any suggestions?[/b]

Louie

I believe you can click on 'Profile' at the top and just change your user name.

[louie Pastore]

I believe you can click on 'Profile' at the top and just change your user name.

Thanks Ben....

That seems to have done the trick, apologies to the Mods for the hassle!

Any chance I could have my original request for training partners in the West of Scotland re-instated at the top of this thread?

Louie

[louie Pastore]

any sources available on Willie Baxter? That name is a new one on me. It's really interesting to me to compare some of the work in Mr. Thompson's new book and compare it to Mr. Vail's recent Dagger book. Just because I've had more exposure to it, the German and Italian stuff seems to make a bit more sense, but that may change with my practicing more.

I'm looking forward to your contributions to our forum.

Hi Allen

Mr Baxter is Scotland's top backhold wrestling coach, while visiting his class a few times to research & experience a bit of this traditional wrestling we got into a conversation about the dirk dance and my theory that a lot of the footwork & arm positions of this and other Highland dances relates to techniques in folk wrestling such as backhold, collar & elbow and Icelandic (Viking Glima).
After demonstrating the dance Mr Baxter told me that as a youngster in the 1950's ex-Scottish army veterans used to organise summer camps in which one of the activities was 'fencing' with practice dirks. Participants wore a protective glove, stood side on and aimed cuts at each other's wrist. (The dirk was held point up & apparently kicks to the opponent's leg were allowed).
Whether this practice evolved during the WWI & II wars or is something a lot older I don't know but it does tie in with some of the steps and dirk positions of the dance.

Louie

[Matt Easton]

Hi Louie,
You can find a list of quite a few of the British groups here:
www.bfhs.org
And I also have a bunch of links to groups here:
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/links/

Best regards,
Matt

[louie Pastore]

Hi Louie,
You can find a list of quite a few of the British groups here:
www.bfhs.org
And I also have a bunch of links to groups here:
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/links/

Best regards,
Matt

Hi Matt...

Many thanks for the links....
Unfortunately the closest on the list seems to be Edinburgh, which although I'd love to attend, is on the other side of Scotland and with the travelleing, a bit overbudget.

I train with two colleagues here in Inverclyde (singlestick, dirk/targe & unarmed combat) but was hoping to find WMA practicioners in Glasgow or surrounding area.

Cheers...

Louie

[Allen Johnson]

If it's any consolation, if it were economically practical, I'd move there in a minute.