Lonesome training from scratch?

[Eric Dohner]

I'm currently a student at SUNY Albany, with no prospect of making it to any current NTP 1.0 seminars, current or near future, and with no nearby Study Group. I am, however, deeply interested in studying longsword, ringen, dagger, and the like. I'm going to be submitting my application in a month or less, but for now I'm occupying myself with the translation of Ringeck and explanation of the five basic guards and the meisterhauwen on this site, not to mention the translations available on schielhau.org: I speak a poor Russian, not German or Italian.

The problems here, of course, are sparring, pell work, and test-cutting: I don't have the money, currently, for a sharp (and keeping weapons on campus is, in general, not allowed), and while I may be able to acquire a blunt, I'm wondering what equipment would be best for me to start with (especially considering I probably won't have training partners willing to actually study the fechtbuchs except, perhaps, for the occasional kendo student wishing to cross-train) on a small-to-miniscule budget. I have the tools and ability to make simple wasters on my own, but I can't seem to devise something that would function as a pell which I could store in a dorm room and then carry outside and assemble without wasting large amounts of time in the process.

Also, are there any books in particular I should try to obtain, with the obvious exception of Medieval Swordsmanship, which I can get a copy of through the university's library for an extended period of time? I've been looking at David Lindholm's interpretation of Ringeck, which is, by all accounts, superb.

And now for a more specific question: how much time should a triangle step take up? I find that I have a hard time completing one quickly enough to make use of the meisterhauwen with any efficiency.

Anyhow, my apologies for the lengthy, rambling post. I await your replies with the earnestness of youth.

[Eric Allen]

Well, welcome from another lonesome enthusiast (only I'm in Iowa)

I'm just a neophyte as well, and others here can offer you much better and more complete advice, but I'll throw out what I can.

I would saw the first and possibly most important piece of equipment you can get right now is a good waster. You can make one if you feel confident enough (I ened up buying mine). A blunt (again, a good one) can certainly help you get an appreciation for how a sword really feels in the hand and can be used on a pell, depending on the pell. I would encourage you to go with the waster first (of course, one option is to get the blunt, then try to make a waster that mimics the feel of the blunt).

as for a pell, what I did is got some iron pipe which I can assemble into a frame and made a slip-over pad out of pool noodles and canvas (in hindsight, would recommend something more durable, like maybe a cheap rug). I used the excess canvas to make a carrying bag for the pipe, though I think an old duffle bag might work as well. The pipe is HEAVY and a pain to carry around, even with a shoulder strap, but it does collapse down small enough to stick in a corner and sets up in anly a minute or two. The hardest part to transport is actually the padding. Maybe the rec center at your school has some punching bags they might let you wail on?

I can't help you witht he books. In fact, I'm curious as well. Also, how good are the I.33 translations and interpretations currently available?

[Eric Dohner]

Whaddya know, my middle name is Allen.

Well. I've been making primitive wasters (albeit with distal tapers) for a while now out of table-sawn 2x4s, so I think that with some decent wood I can probably come up with something fairly nice, given my experience at putting finicky little things together with wood now and then.

I'm not sure about the I.33 stuff -- I'm interested as well. I think that there's some in the Essays section of the site, and there are a few books out that I've heard are good.

An idea for a pell that I've been considering would be a 3x3 section of plywood with a reinforced mount for a thick piece of sewer pipe wrapped in an old blanket or carpet. It might be a little bit fragile, though, which would be a shame. And no, there are no punching bags in any of the rec centers. A friend of mine (since transferred to an art school) went on two extensive searches for one.

[Ben Strickling]

Eric,

I wish I could help you with the pell, but unfortunately I have the same problem -- no space to store one (even a portable one) in my cramped apartment.

However, as a person who also started gettting into WMA on a college campus (I'm at Univ. of Maryland) I have the say that even without a pell one of the most essential things to getting started is to find a like-minded practice partner -- or short of that, even someone who might be willing to make controlled but intentful attacks at you so you can practice countering them. Solo practice is essential, but there are just some things that take two people to practice.

I've had a little experience trying to find practice partners on a college campus and it's not always easy to find someone who is really committed. You can try putting up flyers or other kinds of ads but I've found that the best way to really find people is to be enthusiastic about swordsmanship and talk to everyone you can about it (it helps if you know a lot about your subject as well, so read as much as you can).

Just my two cents. Good luck.

[Ben Strickling]

PS. Oh yah, and as for books, Ringeck is definitely one of the easier texts to understand and Lindholm's book is a nice place to start.

[Eric Dohner]

Ben,

Thanks for all the advice. I can definitely find someone who's willing to attack me for countering practice -- two or three someones, actually, albeit none of them, I think, are interested in studying the langen schwert with any intensity or commitment (although a military type I know is interested in the rapier).

There is no fear that I'll ever be anything but enthusiastic about anything I'm interested in. I quickly earn a reputation for being "that guy obsessed with swords" wherever I go -- not a desirable reputation, but perhaps a very useful one, eventually.

Thanks again for all your help, and I'll definitely get the Lindholm book.

[Jonathan Scott]

Hello Eric D (And Eric A.! so many Erics...),
Yes, I know the feeling of being on campus and not having space to store things, so that is why I do not have a pell yet. I am moving off campus to an appt soon though, and I hope to be able to construct some sort of pell once I get settled (I'll have to wait on any actual purchases until I get a car though, since all my funds are being saved up for that endeavor, but good things come to those who wait), probably using some sort of pipe w/ padding thing. The idea of having it contracted is a good one; I'll look into that, like having two screw in three foot pipe sections with sort of a tripod or something like that supports it on the ground (with some weights added so it doesn't fall down all the time) with the pool noodles: I'll definitely have to try that. Let me know how you made it portable, that'll be useful, especially with going back and forth to my campus in florida (and at least I have some people that are interested in practicing, though they haven't gotten wasters yet so it will be a while still before I can get better practice than my rare (but good) sessions with Jay)
But yeah, I wish you the best in finding someone to practice with and getting a start on these things; it'll probably be slow at first and take a while to get all the equipment one needs (I still have to get a lot of stuff myself), but be persistant and you'll get it eventually!
And for sparring I haven't made/bought any decent paddeds yet, though once I can find the right stuff for paddeds I'll be able to make some. Jeanry Chandler makes some good paddeds, so pm him and he'll talk to you about ordering and such (something I might do too later in the fall) And I need to get some decent gloves, and maybe a helmet with better face protection (though I do have a couple baseball helmets with a face cage bar, so those will do for the moment)