New and Genuienly Confused

[Roy McKigney]

To whom it may consern,

My name is Roy, and I live in the Houston, Texas area. (In fact, I live near Huntsville.) I have always been interested in historical European martial arts, and discovering this site has brought myself a great deal of hope for my own personal development. However, there are a few concerns that I have.

First, I am suffering from the classic 'information overload'. I have no idea were to start or how, and I defiantly do not want to go around download texts willy nilly and discourage my studies. Help with this will be greatly appreciated.

My second concern is my age. I am seventeen, with my birthday on August 24. This means that in approximately eight months, I will be 18. I am not sure which program to enter, as the youth program states that it's target are 12-16 year olds. I am confused on this front, and I would like to know the best course so that my scholarship may benefit the best.

Any and all help will be appreciated, especially since I am ready to pursue swordsmanship with great expedience.

Sighed,
Roy M.

[Jaron Bernstein]

Well, you not one but 2 first rate study groups in your area. They can get you started.

[Shane Smith]

Have a look on the study group list and contact the closest Study Group Leader. Link http://www.thearma.org/Practice/partners.htm

[Aaron Kavli]

Howdy Daniel,

I am pretty new to ARMA (submission pending) with only two study sessions under my belt, though they were both awesome sessions with Jake Norwood. But being a newbie myself, here are my thoughts.

1) To start, I just worry about the basics. Aside from the "Where to Start" link, I have found the following articles very helpful and a place to start practice:

A Brief Look at Stances & Guards of Medieval Longsword <http://www.thearma.org/essays/StancesIntro.htm>

MasterCuts, What They Are and What They Aren't
<http://www.thearma.org/essays/mastercuts.html>


2) Learn some key words and phrases, as this will help you greatly in understanding other discussions, and it help cultivate the scholarly side of our study.

Sword Definitions and Terminology <http://www.thearma.org/terms4.htm>

Definitions and Study Terminology <http://www.thearma.org/terms2.htm>

3) Get thee a waster! If you have the basic tools, a starter waster can be made relatively cheaply. See the ARMA Odgen, UT homepage <http://www.arma-odgen.org> for a good article on making wasters (I've made two). Or alternately just start with an oak dowel or something for form work. Stay away from cheap wasters. As I found out the cheap ebay sort aren't cheap enough and are useless for any sort of contact work. If you have the cash, you can buy one too, look under the links for some waster makers. I suggest frugality until you have determined to stick with it. The nearby study groups probably have wasters you can use while practicing with them.

4) Start with some of the historical manuals on-line and read them. This really helps understanding what ARMA is all about and will make you (or at least it did me) really appreciate the time many ARMA members have spent figuring out what the old masters were talking about and how to apply it martially. Try working through and figuring out the moves being written about, which can be very challenging and rewarding.

I have been studying two manuscripts from the ARMA site. The first...

<http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/dobringer.html>

is very interesting as has the German next to it and is the oldest longsword text we know about (as per the article) on the Liechtenauer tradition. It is also somewhat hard to figure out, at least for me, in places. Which is why the second article I found...

<http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Ringeck.htm>

to be very useful. It is a commentary on Liechtenauer's work and written because the the old master had "recorded his teachings in secret words, so that art may not be commonly spread." and has more specific instructions on things, making it easier (for me) to study. I find it also very interesting to compare how I interpret the former document's teachings to what Ringeck has to say.

Anyway, I know that was a long post to give someone who is suffering from information overload, but there are only 6 essays and pretty basic and have kept me occupied. Keep in mind of course that perhaps I'm going about it backwards, but sometimes it is easier for Student 101 to learn basics from Student 101.1 (or 101.001, or 101.0001). Hope that helps,

Aaron Kavli

[kyle cook]

My name is Kyle Cook, i'm the study group leader of one of the ARMA groups here in Houston. You are welcome to come and join our group. We have class on Wednesday nights, here is the link where you can find more info http://armanorthhouston.org/ . If you have any questions, please e-mail me .

Kyle Cook
ARMA North Siders

[Nathan Dexter]

And, if you dont have them already, get John Clements books:
Medieval swordsmanship, and Rennaiscance swordsmanship.
(forgive my spelling. Who can actually spell "Rennaiscance" anyway?)

[Axel Pettersson]

Getting you hands on not only the manuals, but also scholars interpretations fo them is a true helper on getting started, to get a general idea of how things are supposed (as of our understanding today) to look. David Lindholms books on Ringeck is nice, as is Christian Toblers "fighting with the German Longsword", that draws from several Germans sources (mostly Ringeck, it appears to me). What I like about Toblers book is his "if he does that, do this, he then does this so you should do that"- maps, very helpfull to understand when and why to do what.

Of cource, watching someone live is hard to beat, get in contact with study groups!

I have always regretted that I did not hook up with ARMA in the US when I was an exchange student in Texas some years ago (Soccer practice ate up my entire free time), it was hard to practice alone and I was quite a bit behind when I returned to my study group in Sweden.