The use of medieval martial art's today

[Tony_Klabunde]

I'm talking about unarmed combat, as opposed to modern martial arts lkie kenpo and jujitsu

Again I will say it; highly effective

The fighter is more important than the style. As long as certain principles are followed, style matters little.

I'd still carry a gun though.

Wow, I guess that is my point. Thanks Will

I am a fair fighter. Period, fair, not amazing, nothing phenomenal, yet I put down more skilled fighters all the time. I bait well. But I have seen WMA fighters, I mean real fighters and they are good, Google WMA, Ringen, unarmed European combat. Some of the videos look cheesy but if you could see a real fight. You’d be like wow.

Again though it’s the fighter, the reason I used the analogy I did, is because it emphasized the mindset of the fighters of the period.

Benjamin, you can only make an informed decision by actually training and fighting someone skilled in WMA, or check out some manuals and videos and grapple and fight your buddy using just those moves.

But in the end it’s all you. I have met black belts who crumble under me, on the same note I have fought low belts who amazed my with their prowess, same with wrestlers and boxers, I have fought professional fighters who I was like, you really need to stop and amateurs who hit me before I knew it.

It’s the fighter, I swear by Aikido Bujutsu, I know it works; WMA here in the ARMA is the only other fighting style I have encountered in my 20+ years of fighting that seems as effective, But that is because of that no nonsense approach to a fight.

Practice, get some partners and practice. See if its practical.

[Benjamin Parker]

Okay thanks I was just wondering because I take kenpo and while I am a big fan of medieval martial arts I couldn't help but wonder if it was like fencing, entertaining but of no practical purpose, however I have been disabused of that notion, thanks to you guy's

[Ted Collins]

I would be inclined to say that Western Martial Arts are every bit as applicable to a modern combat situation as Eastern Martial Arts, which is just another way of saying what almost everyone else here has said.

[Adam Bodorics]

They are effective in practice. We tested it even as we didn't want to do so. We are here and can use all our limbs - the latter isn't necessarily true for those who started the tests. Attackers were both armed and unarmed - no firearms fortunately.

[Stewart Sackett]

Adam, I'm not quite sure I can decipher your post. Could you elaborate?

Specifically, What did you mean by "even as we didn't want to do so" & "those who started the tests"? Is the "we" you're talking about ARMA, or some other group of people?

[Brandon Paul Heslop]

Good point, however I am curious to know if medieval martial arts still have any practcial use today.

The short answer, if we're talking about empty-handed fighting, both striking and grappling, is an emphatic YES.

Just take a look at Fiore's unarmed material. Or Talhoffer's. Or that in the Codex Wallerstein. Or...pick any random med\Renn manual. Yes. All that stuff is still relevant and extremely useful today. The better fighter wins, though. That's always a constant. But you can become a very finely-tuned, polished fighter by studying Ringen \ Abrazare (same thing, just different names) extensively, with proper martial intent and partner\s.

Consider that this material was used extensively, over a long period, in an age when most fights were likely to the DEATH. You really think it's not gonna be effective?

-B.

[Adam Bodorics]

Stewart: "we" means my extremely close "family", more like a brotherhood than anything else, where everyone is ready to defend the other verbally or physically regardless of possible consequences. Police can't be everytime everywhere and there are criminals in Hungary as well, and neither of us can run fast (irony) thus we are sometimes forced to defend ourselves. We don't want to hurt and sometimes maim others, but if an idiot attacks me or mine with a knife or a knuckle duster or with or without any tool I will do what I have to do. These SD situations can be seen as tests of training/legal knowledge/situation awareness/situation evaluation, and the attackers are the ones who started these tests.
And before anyone of you would start - carrying a gun is not an option here due to legal nonsense, and given that most criminal attacks we experienced were in the 0-3meters range, those guns wouldn't do us much good anyway. I can legally carry a sword, and "carrying" a blackpowder-fueled Gatling is only an offence, but even possessing a .22 handgun is a crime - but the idiocy of Hungarian lawmakers is an other rant.