The 2007 ARMA IG was fantastic

[Aaron Pynenberg]

Hey Everyone I had two points I wanted to make please bear with me, if I get a little winded, here it is:

First: If anyone out there has pictures or video of the prize playing, I would very much appreciate some copies, please contact me at iceman9108@yahoo.com! Thank You!!

Second: This is going to sound a little ego-centric, but stay with me and you will understand. many have sent me e-mails giving me many congrats and praise for my performance during the prizing, but some have sounded a little confused as to the nature of that skill. Yes, I have some special training with SWAT etc...but shooting someone in combat, and fencing are related, but seperate skill sets. Yes, I am also in good shape, and a little larger, and stronger than most, (hard won, through hard training for a good portion of my life).

When I discovered ARMA and went to my first 1.0, I sucked, that is I was not sure about the techniques, misunderstood thier application, and was unable to respond bodily to the tactical scenarios presented. Bottom line, I just was not comfortable with fencing, as it was a new concept.

I set some goals, and then put my daily training, my mind, my spirit, and my money, into becoming the swordsman that I wanted to be. I trained very hard working with many, scholars, including those at Appleton to help refine my skills. In contacting and working with John Clements, I trained, LISTENED, and reflected on the ideas he presented. There are some that want to attend his training, then put up all sorts of barriers to the training he presents- not conducive to the inclusion of his concepts people. There is a time and place to challenge some interpretation, but not until you are accomplished in some basic tactics folks.

It should be obvious that the reasons I have been succeeding so quickly are not secrets, or some strange latent abilities on my part. The ARMA Curriculum, The ARMATURA, based on core concepts taken from a combination of our materials, a holistic approach fused with our training methodology thrown in with DAILY practice. These are the keys to success in this group. John's based his core concepts on his interpretations from the SOURCES.

This should all sound familiar because it's on the website, it is what John tells us at his seminars, it is what you see during prize-playing events where scholars have internalized the material, not just to think about and to ponder, but to actually DO!

So, this response may seem strange, but based on what P.M. I was getting I was starting to see a trend of responses treating me like some freak, they could never equal- NOT SO PEOPLE- that's why "The Dove of DEATH" was able to nail me right in the face, it's an Art, it's a Science, it's based on principals that you put into practice- you see?- Thanks and train hard, SFS Aaron Pynenberg- (off soap box now) -

[Randall Pleasant]

Aaron

Very well stated.

[Brian Hunt]

Hi Aaron,

once again congrats on playing your prize.

What I saw of your performance in your prize playing was a result of hard work, good training, stamina, sparring experience and a strong desire to win. You had a lot of intensity, speed and power. Your sense of timing and distance were pretty much spot on. But the thing I remember most about your prize play, wasn't your prize play itself. Instead it is the image I have of you out in the hall with waster in hand before your prize play reviewing techniques, counters and possible actions with Eric before you ever stepped into the fighting eric. Not to mention how axious you were on the first day of the IG to be able to just get it started instead of having to wait till the next day. These spoke volumes to me of your hard work and preperation the results of which were distilled out in your prize play.

Your prize play has been a needed inspiration to me. I sometimes get discouraged in my own training and desire to play my prize because I have no local practice partner. The closest group is the Provo group and that is a one and a half hours drive away. The time and money as a single father to make it to Provo sometimes seems a large hurdle to my training. However, with the image of yours and Stew's accomplishments fresh in my mind, I find myself with a strong desire to take the advice of my good friends and compatriots Jake Norwood, Eli Combs and Stewart Feil to heart on what they say I need to do to be in a physical and mental position to be capable of playing the prize myself. I therefore think that there is a second goal to a prize play, it is not just a test of the person playing the prize (though this is it's primary goal), it is also a demonstration for those who are also participating and watching of what may be accomplished if we train and try ourselves.

thanks for the inspiration.

Brian Hunt
GFS

[John_Clements]

This should all sound familiar because it's on the website, it is what John tells us at his seminars, it is what you see during prize-playing events where scholars have internalized the material, not just to think about and to ponder, but to actually DO!

...it's an Art, it's a Science, it's based on principals that you put into practice- you see?- Thanks and train hard, SFS Aaron Pynenberg- (off soap box now) -

Yep. These skills are not hard to acquire, it just takes work. Masters Liechtenauer and Fiore themselves both tell us the Art is simple, and so do many other of our sources. It may be secretive and unknown to those who don't study and practice, but it ain't hard. It may take conditioning and athleticism to be exceptional, sure, but its also not all about strength or power. That's for certain. The core principles work for anyone who learns and applies them with proper movements. That's why we practice with disciplined intent and sincere martial spirit --- and above all, without making excuses.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the Gathering:

[Aaron Pynenberg]

Ok Scholars here's and addition to my earlier post, I am still trying to make sure most of our newer Scholars understand what it was they expirenced. I am still getting some P.M.'s that I feel need to be addressed.

It’s been suggested to me that some of our novice members at the Gathering seem to have expected to enter the Prize playing bout, get to move around for 10 seconds and then exchange a few blows back and forth for another 20 or 30 seconds as if it was some casual practice sparring.

They might not have grasped that I would just fly at them and do a Vor-Nach attack to immediately dispatch them within a second or two, or instantly close to striking off their sword from a quick bind, or that if they tried to rush in on me I would do a one cut counter-hit in superior timing and distance.

Although all this is the very thing which the ARMA and John C. stress over and over, and can be seen so many of our online videos, and is also what fighting itself is all about and what the historical sources teach, it still seemed many of the newer folk still expected to just trade hits and blocks back and forth from safe distance while looking for an opening to sneak off a quick blow (like you see in so many sparring videos on the Net).

But, it’s one thing to see moves practiced in class or do them with a partner and quite another to see them actually work on you at full speed in a bout.

There is always a diffrence between, "classroom model" and "actual fighting application". In all of my Tactical training this is always stressed. The idea is however to make your actual application as close as possible to the classroom environment. Having said this though there is really only one way to learn the diffrence. This is through actual sparring practice and the use of correct distance, timing, preasure, leverage, emotional content, etc..there is just no substitute- Thanks, AP

[Randall Pleasant]

... it still seemed many of the newer folk still expected to just trade hits and blocks back and forth from safe distance while looking for an opening to sneak off a quick blow (like you see in so many sparring videos on the Net).

Aaron

This goes to the heart of a comment John Clements made in his recent article Making Better Sense ( http://www.thearma.org/essays/MakingBetterSense.htm ) where he stated that many new students "are increasingly not just without any training, or influence by different training, they have instead been exposed to significantly flawed training". Clearly exposure to the many many low quality sparring videos on the Internet can be part of this problem. Thus new members should be warned by their study group learders not to look to such videos as training aids. Another thing that we must consider is that if any of the new members who expected a long drawn out sparring match, or who held any other unrealistic expectations of sparring, are part of a study group then it may reflect a training problem within that study group.


Moderators

In his last couple of posts Aaron has hit upon some very importance concepts about fighting, training, etc., that really should be in its own thread.