New here

[Adam Brown]

Hello everyone.
My name is Adam Brown and I am a new member on the site. I am eager to begin my training in the ARMA system. I just have a couple questions to start with.
1) I already have a Cold Steel Hand and a half training sword that I bought for sparring with my friend who is a trained martial artist. He also taught me most of what I know to this point. My question is, should I buy a wooden or steel training weapon so that my experience is more realistic or could I stick with the polyurethane sword?

2) I seem to be having trouble accessing the "Armaria" section of the site. Is there someone I need to contact first or is there something that needs to happen before I can access that part of the website?

Thank you for your help.

[Corey Roberts]

Hello Mr. Brown.
Welcome to the ARMA forum.
The armaria section is the ARMA members only section of the website. In order to access it, one must be an ARMA member. If you have not yet applied for ARMA membership, I strongly recommend you do so if you are interested in pursuing these arts seriously.
The information for applying to become an ARMA member is available here:

http://www.thearma.org/membership.htm#M ... gistration

In regards to your question about the cold steel polyurethane practice swords; those of us in ARMA who have tried them generally find them to be very clunky and thick and have overly pointed edges for safe free-play.
I strongly recommend you and your friend invest in good quality wasters to start with. To truly study the art at its fullest potential however, you will eventually have to invest in a federschwert, which is a blunt steel training longsword.
Also, though your friend may have received martial arts instruction in a different art in the past, there are very few people who actually understand MARE today, and other Asian arts commonly taught today, though having some degree of similar principles, will not provide an accurate understanding of MARE.
Best of luck to you on your current and future trainings in the Art.

Corey Roberts