An Article on Manuals

[william_cain_iii]

Hello everyone,

I write a blog for a different organization than ARMA. I recently wrote an article there I am quite proud of, and would like to share here.

However - I recognize there are certain differences of opinion between the ARMA and the HEMA Alliance. Thus, I would like to ask permission of someone such as Stacy or Randall if I have permission to repost the article or link it here.

I personally maintain a completely neutral stance in my blog and its articles about the HEMAA/ARMA split and argument, and indeed I even dedicated an entire post to saying why the argument is not something that is relevant to the beginning trainer.

I simply would like to share what I hope and feel will be an insightful article to beginners in the martial arts, as touching on how to approach reading certain manuals.

I eagerly await your reply.

[Stacy Clifford]

We may have differences of opinion with other groups, but this is a discussion forum and as long as it's on topic you are welcome to post a link to your writings here to discuss. We just don't want any "Us vs. Them" stuff turning into a flame war.

[william_cain_iii]

Those of us over at the HEMAA don't generally want that either. By and large we're all in love with the Art and just want to share and discuss it.

http://hemaalliance.com/?p=1319

Bookworms and Swordsmen

Hang around martial artists for any length of time, and you will inevitably hear, ‘hey, I have a book you have to read.’

HEMA in particular has an abundance of reading material. Just look at the list of manuals that exist sometime, it’s rather daunting. I was concerned I was going to have to read all of them in order the first time I saw the list. This is because I am a silly and easily impressionable man with a poor grasp on reality at times.

However, one of the things about this art is that inevitably, someone will encourage you to do some reading. So with that firmly in mind, here are my thoughts on manuals, the culture of martial reading, and some thoughts on how to train.

Have you trained this morning? If not, don’t read. Instead take a technique you know already, even if all you know is a single basic technique and step, and go out and practice it. All done? Good, now that you’ve spent some time improving something you already know, it’s time to read up.

There is a tendency among people with a hobby to jump into everything at once, and the martial arts are no different. People in Judo want to do the really sweet throws right away – instead we spend hours learning how to fall properly so we don’t die when someone inevitably throws us. People in HEMA want to perform amazing techniques and attacks, because they’re awesome.

The manuals cater to this mindset – in the Liechtenauer tradition there’s a quote in many of the books: The Zwerchhau (a type of cut in the German longsword material) counters (literally “breaks”) all downward strikes made from above. (source – Wiktenauer Ringeck article).

When I read that, I was hooked. Zwerchau breaks all from above? Awesome. I only ever wanted to do zwerchau from that point. I’d wait for someone to cut from above, and throw one of those babies!

Well, this was dumb, and I’ll tell you why. Gaining this little bit of knowledge eclipsed other good training in my mind. I still couldn’t do proper footwork, didn’t have a sense of measure worth noting, and couldn’t even do more basic cuts than the slightly complex zwerchau, and yet here I was convinced I knew how to stop everything from above. A little knowledge had proved a dangerous thing, and I went and overreached. A few thwacks upside the head, face, and arms from Ben showed me just how wrong I was, and I dropped my mental notions of the superiority of the zwerchau pretty quickly, returning to my focus on the basics that Ben was teaching us, as I should have been doing the entire time.

Now, before you think I’m going entirely in the ‘reading is bad, mkay’ direction, let’s reign it in a little.

Picking up the manuals I have is still one of the best things I ever did for my understanding of the Art. In studying the manuals I have and what they have to say to eachother, I learn more about each technique than I could ever dream of, and I reinforce what my teachers have shared with me. However, that is the emphasis – I am using it to reinforce things I have already learned. I’m not ready to set out into the manuals by myself right now. Remember, I was invited to write this blog because I am still a beginner, and a beginner’s place is to learn under the guidance of a teacher.

So, even though I study the English longsword material and read up on it, and practice the stuff (it’s a series of solo-practice exercises similar to eastern Kata), I don’t try to push it into class. I don’t suddenly consider myself an English Martial Artist. My primary focus is showing up at Kron Martial Arts meetings and completely grokking the lessons that Jason and Jonathan have to teach. After the lessons, I go home and pull out my manuals, and study what the books have to say about the techniques I learned that night.

So, the manuals are a good thing. I heartily encourage people to go to the wiktenauer, or to buy a copy of their preferred book online. Heck, do both. The many perspectives on presentation and interpretation are fascinating to look at, and the more widely read someone is the more they can understand about what they do.

However, remember that gaining control in the Art is about practice. Michael Chidester recently commented that meditating on a specific text and its mysteries isn’t going to magically impart knowledge of the art. Nothing will replace actually going out and training, training, training.

So like I said earlier – learn a lesson from someone who knows what they’re doing, in any way you can. Then go out to your practice area of choice and perform that technique until your muscles know no other way to move.

Then go find a text for the thing and see what the masters had to say about what you’ve learned.

Then go practice it some more.

Yours fraternally,

William Cain

Kron Martial arts, Team Katame

[william_cain_iii]

No comment at all? Owch.

[Sal Bertucci]

Don't take it personally. I just saw a huge post that I don't have time to read at the moment.

[Stacy Clifford]

I agree with Sal about longer posts, sometimes they just get filed under "read later." This one is well done though, I think it's good for others to hear this kind of perspective from a fellow beginner sometimes and not just from the veterans who have already learned patience.

[Jonathan Hill]

I was curious about the thoughts on this article are from a group that so highly values individual delving into the manuals. Does this hold with the current beliefs about ‘when’ it would be good to get into the book work or does it bring up thoughts that perhaps books work should take a back seat to working with a ‘superior’ for the first period of time. Personally I think if you have access to a proper ‘mentor/instructor’ time spent with that person is far more important than time spent in the manuals, but I am under no delusion that my thoughts on this are not the popular opinion. After a good foundation is laid I would turn people loose on the manuals.

Nicely written article, I’m glad you were willing to tackle a topic which seems to me some would consider ‘blasphemy.’

[william_cain_iii]

The problem with the manuals is that they're just techniques, and context for using them.

They don't seriously address the fundamentals of body mechanics that go into fencing, for example. Sure, we're given some basics of it in Silver and a few other places, but there's very little written treatment of footwork in the manuals.

I know ARMA holds to a doctrine of integrity of scholarship, but here's an example from Judo, another martial art I train.

Technique is important, we do spend time learning technique. However, the time spent instructing any individual technique is often broken down into a series of components on movement mechanics. So it isn't an over the shoulder throw, it's a turning step where you put your hip into position in such a way, moving your arms in such a way, maintaining balance in such a way...

These lessons don't exist the same way in the manuals, because the manuals weren't written to teach novices. By and large, I suspect they're observations by masters, for master (or at least students who already have the basics that I'm talking about).

So, if we rely too completely on the manuals without first gaining a strong basis in movement fundamentals, you have a situation like mine where I'm trying to master the zwerchau without really understanding the stepping mechanics that should power the cut properly.

But as I said, there is immense value in what the manuals have to teach us. We wouldn't be able to do this at all without understanding the techniques - we simply have to understand that the manuals are not going to turn us into accomplished swordsmen.

There's a saying in Judo - the only way to gain judo IS judo. The same is true of whatever we call these western martial arts we do - practice and effort are the only things that will gain us the art. The books are but a single facet of the whole.

[Andrew F Ulrich]

I think it depends on how you approach the manuals. Does your 'delving into the manuals' consist only of sprawling out on the couch and reading through them, finding a technique, and during practice, trying to focus on achieving the picture or description? Or does it mean taking the fundamental principles found in the literature, using them to attempt techniques with vigor and realism, connecting them with things found elsewhere in the source material, testing them with earnest sparring, collaboration, and discussion, etc. etc.? If the latter, then you will slowly discover this and that detail/connection/principle, and with an entire community using the same approach and supporting each other, discovery will build upon discovery until you have a solid foundation upon which to approach the art.

So yeah, you do emphasize both the physical and mental nature of the art, but it seems to me that you kind of end up shortchanging both of these by only seeing the manuals as 'reinforcements' to what your teachers are teaching you, rather than 'sources' from which you can learn a lot if you're willing to put in the blood, sweat, and critical thinking.

Anyway, thanks for the article, and I didn't mean to give it such a cold reception, it's just that the discussion seemed to be taking an errant direction. The article's really not that bad, and I appreciate you sharing it with us. Read and practice! Definitely!

[william_cain_iii]

Well, remember who the article is geared toward - the beginner.

Audacity is a series focused on the beginner exclusively. It's meant to address some common mistakes that I see being made across the Art as a whole, as well as to give simple, solid advice.

A beginner's place isn't in the research hall - it's in the classroom. Someone has to teach them the fundamental vocabulary, the corpus of knowledge as understood. Self-taught is possible, but it's slow and difficult and ultimately pointless to reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done much of that. So if students have access to a teacher, their focus should be on learning what the teacher has to offer, followed by a focus on the manuals.

Solo study is important, but should come after learning the groundwork that is vital to a beginner.

So yes, your points are all correct and I'm 100% in agreement with them...they just don't apply to me and my fellow beginners in the art yet.

Above all, I'm glad you get my core point that study is worthless without the practice. Thanks for your comments, they are appreciated.

[Jorge Cortines]

Hi William,
My opinion is that as a novice you should start as early as possible to read the manuals and take an effort to understand them by going out to practice, just as Master L said "For practice is better than art, your exercise does well without the art, but the art is not much good without the exercise"...
We say that the art is more of a personal journey, it is something you develop personally, no one can pass along to you his/her abilities...

William wrote: "The problem with the manuals is that they're just techniques, and context for using them." Personally I don't agree with your point of view, Masters of Defense teach much much more like core concepts for the One Art, values for when should you fight, yes technics based on principles of fighting... They say the Art is simple... they deal with violence... Probably it is us the modern men who do not understand violence... at least when I started I didn't, but when you start to deal with it the teachings start to mean something... much more than just technics...

William wrote: "I know ARMA holds to a doctrine of integrity of scholarship, but here's an example from Judo, another martial art I train." Yes we do we think it is extremely important... Ok here is the best example I can think, +3 decades ago when JC started with MARE, there was no person from which to learn, just a few manuals available to him (and some bad translations at that time)... well you can see what he has achieved (even though you may not agree with ARMA's interpretation at all or partially), he had made theories, he has made mistakes, learned from them, reformulate, learned from more mistakes... all the information you need is in the manuals, there is still a lot to be researched... this is what I mean that the art is a journey, it also help you develop character, know better yourself... I wouldn't negate myself from mistakes... Yes a knowable person helps (but the effort is mine, we hold sincerity of effort as value in ARMA too but I wouldn't want to make a habit to be lazy and just wait for someone to teach me (I don't feel that a novice should be in a give me, give me, give me knowledge state of mind...) This journey of resurrecting this lost art is what matters, because it helps me grow in different personal areas IMO...

William wrote: "... the manuals weren't written to teach novices. By and large, I suspect they're observations by masters, for master (or at least students who already have the basics that I'm talking about)." sorry don't agree, can you quote that the Masters wrote this? because I can quote Master L saying the Art is simple and that a mere novice if he understood the principles of the Art might win over a Master if he followed what he had written, and other Master said as well the art was simple... and it should be when fighting (violence)...

William wrote:"we simply have to understand that the manuals are not going to turn us into accomplished swordsmen." not by just reading them you have to read as well as practice... we need both, IMO from the start when you are novice you should go and read and practice, practice practice, read, practice... Reading and exercising are part of the Renassaince men...

The books (their teachings) are the HERITAGE the Masters of old left us

I thank you for your article...

Best Regards,
Jorge
ARMA Mexico

[william_cain_iii]

Some interesting thoughts, Jorge.

I'll respond to a few I think bear fleshing out in my reasoning.

You say that you wouldn't want to be lazy and wait for someone to teach you. At what point did my article give the impression that I wanted to be lazy, and wait for anyone to teach me?

When it came time to learn the art, I sought out a teacher in my area who came highly recommended by his peers, and invited him to come instruct my study group. I looked for advice online, from others who had started in the Liecthenaeur tradition of the art, since the teacher I had found taught primarily from Ringeck, supplemented by Wallerstein. I contacted folks, looked for videos, and sought out practical lessons.

There's nothing passive in seeking out instruction, there is nothing lazy in finding a teacher and trying to garner what they have to teach. It is high respect to them when you go to them and ask them to share their knowledge with you, and it is a realistic examination of yourself and your abilities to say 'it is time I learn at the guidance of another.'

We do not give children science textbooks and demand they figure things out. We give them lessons and instruction and guidance, and then when they have completed the basics of study that are there, we encourage them to study further on their own. While this is not always the case, for there are always those who will blaze a trail, it is by and large the truth, and can and should be so for fencing as for any other art or discipline. There is no shame or laziness in seeking out a teacher and requesting their guidance if they are willing to give it - this is the proper role of the seeker.

As for ARMA's interpretation and method:

It is not my place to agree or disagree, as touching on this article. I brought the integrity of scholarship point up as a courtesy - I am aware ARMA prefers to focus on the manuals, and I respect their right and decision to approach the matter strictly from the sources, rather than cross-study. However, I felt an example from my training in the martial art of Judo would give a bit of context, so I acknowledged that ARMA does not prefer this sort of example, but that I wished to share it out of a desire for completeness. I have a great deal of respect for what ARMA has accomplished, and would have joined ARMA had a more local group been available.

Touching on the broader issues in your post:

I think you and I are largely in the same place - the Art is neither reading nor exercise alone, it is both. We simply disagree on the point at which a student needs to be introduced to serious direct study of the manuals.

My personal approach is to begin with body mechanics and basic sword handling lessons (how not to swing it into the ground,how to do a simple oberhau, the steps in advance and retreat). Then I will perform a drill, usually based on a text from the manual, explain to them how the drill works, perform it a few times, then show them the manual references as a way to explain what we just did.

It's very similar to the school analogy: my teachers didn't hand me the Picture of Dorian Gray during my first English class - they taught me how to read.