Hello Alan welcome to the Arma forum. Our rule about using your real legal first and last name can be found here:
http://www.thearma.org/forum/index.htm
It is above the "Go on to the Forms" link in white text.
To answer your question we members of Arma go to primary source Fechtbuchs (fight books) to learn techniques that were written down by masters starting in the late 13th century. We study sword fighting manuels and that is where we get our primary knowledge of how to fight with swords. There are no professional teachers who teach what we do in California because unlike some eastern martial arts European sword techniques were passed down for a while oraly but stopped at the beginning of the 20th century due in part to the use of firearms. Some eastern martial arts had their fighting arts passed down oraly even to the present day but European sword fighting had its art transformed into sport fencing like in the olympics with rapiers or were forgotten in some areas entirely. We are trying to relearn the use of swords as a real martial art again as it was taught back in the Medieval and Renassiance periods of Europe not as a sport or as in role playing. Since we are trying to learn this art as a real fighting art we rely heavily on the words of the men who actually knew how to use these swords as fighting weapons back in the Medieval and Renassiance periods since no surviving masters exist today. That said, we form study groups all across the United States and Internationaly as well in other countries to study the words and techniques of the last men who knew how to use these swords and weapons as they were intended in a martial context. The only offical study group that we have for Arma right now in California that I know about is the one in Tustin, CA which I am a part of. If you would like to learn more about us visit our website here:
http://studygroups.thearma.org/%7Eorangecounty/
We practice every Friday at 10:00 a.m at the sports park on the site. If you have any questions feel free to message me here on the forum or post a thread asking your question as there are a lot of extremly knowledgable people here on the forum that I'm sure will be happy to help you out. Welcome again to the forum.
