Advice on starting out needed

[Tyler Puorro]

My name is Tyler Puorro, and I just joined the ARMA a few days ago. I live in Clifford Township in PA(near Scranton and Carbondale).I've been studying some of the information in the members-only section, and here's what I need to ask.

You see, I'm starting at a college on the 25th, and I don't have any training tool yet. I'm planning on getting one of Albion Sword's Liechtenauer federschwerter for my birthday in November. I've already asked my college if I can have it on campus, and there's a chance I can store it somewhere and practice with it on campus. If not, I may have to limit myself to Winter, Spring, and Summer breaks. Hopefully I can bring it to campus and start up a study group there. I'm also planning to check with some of my friends and see if they want to join the ARMA and make a summer study group.

As for What I can study,I have looked at some of the manuals and studied a lot of what is on the members area, and I have a few questions:

Is the squinter essentially an oberhau with the short edge?

If you strike when your opponent strikes, aren't you bound to clash edges, or is there some way to guarantee that your flat will meet their edge?

Thank you so much for helping

[Kevin Reicks]

My name is Tyler Puorro, and I just joined the ARMA a few days ago. I live in Clifford Township in PA(near Scranton and Carbondale).I've been studying some of the information in the members-only section, and here's what I need to ask.

You see, I'm starting at a college on the 25th, and I don't have any training tool yet. I'm planning on getting one of Albion Sword's Liechtenauer federschwerter for my birthday in November. I've already asked my college if I can have it on campus, and there's a chance I can store it somewhere and practice with it on campus. If not, I may have to limit myself to Winter, Spring, and Summer breaks. Hopefully I can bring it to campus and start up a study group there. I'm also planning to check with some of my friends and see if they want to join the ARMA and make a summer study group.

As for What I can study,I have looked at some of the manuals and studied a lot of what is on the members area, and I have a few questions:

Is the squinter essentially an oberhau with the short edge?

If you strike when your opponent strikes, aren't you bound to clash edges, or is there some way to guarantee that your flat will meet their edge?

Thank you so much for helping

Hi there, there is a forum for members where I think you would get better help especially on topics of technique. This is the public one. Double check your email to see if you have received it. If not, email thearma@comcast.net and they'll hook you up.

Training gear has come up on the private side, but it is one of the things that we can talk about on the public.

That being said, I would get a wooden waster. You can do pell work with it and it isn't always what equipment you have, it is what future partners have. If you can convince another partner to join, he might not have the money for a Albion waster and you should practice wood on wood or steel on steel. Feel free to buy what you want if you have the money, just saying buying a good waster (or making one) is a better one stop shop when you don't know what other partners will have.

When I went to college, I could store my Kendo shinia. Whatever TRAINING TOOL you buy, be sure to hammer in the fact that it is NOT a real sword, just a training tool that has no edge or real point. Whatever the rules about shinai, botken, épée, etc receive should apply to a wooden or even steel waster.

[Tyler Puorro]

Thank you very much. Because my birthday is so very close to Christmas, I think I might still get the feather-sword for my birthday and the wooden waster for Christmas. I'm probably going to try to get a feel for college life before I start asking around, and hopefully I'll have a study group by Spring semester. Thank you for the advice ^V^