Recently I attended a Med Faire in Norman Oklahoma, and there was a new vendor out there letting people play with their boffer weapons. Usually I just pass things like this by, but my younger brothers were with me, and knew that I had a background in Martial Arts and Sword Training--telling me that I needed to duel these people.
I eventually gave in and decided to give it a go.
Before I continue I want everyone to know that I had just only recently started training with my good friend Jeremy Pace in the techniques which ARMA has brought back to life.
So I decided to use what little I had learned.
I fought nearly 30 people that day, including the owners of the vendor. And without a doubt, even with the lightweight-swish-and-flick rubberlike-reacting long, broad, and great swords they had, I fought better than every one of them. To score a point all you had to do is merely touch the other person with the blade, and still many had problems gettting past me. Even when I lost to the owners--people would come up to me and say, "Dude, it was just a glancing blow. You would have spilled his innards all over the ground"--I was told I looked like a real swordsman.
This may or may not be edited out, but if anyone would like to see who it was I fought, and what I fought with, you can go to BarbarianBattles.com. The guy on the left, the one with all the horns and no hair--the "Undefeated" guy, (that was what he was claiming)--would not duel me. Never in my life, in all my life in all the battles--had I felt like I could just completely own a guy. I have never thought that I intimidated anyone with my skill. That day however, I knew I could beat him. He watched me fight, and I think he was thinking the same.
Please know that I am not being arrogant in any way, I actually have had problems with confidence my entire life, but I knew I could beat the guy. And I believed I could because I know that what little I have learned about the art of the sword from what ARMA has offered--is to put it simply, superior. It is the way it should be done.
The big Barabarian did fight kids and other adults however--those who were unaware that all the beastly man was doing was hiding behind his great sword's blade at a safe distance where he could remain untouched by the inexperienced.
I want to share this with anyone who is interested in swordfighting, or learning the way of the blade. --I have been into this stuff since I was 14, at first using wooden poles or broomsticks wrapped in electrical tape with my buddies, at one time I researched the SCA, --but when I started reading about ARMA, watched the videos, tried the stuff myself and applied it to when I sword fought, it felt right. Nearly everything I have read makes good sense. It works, and it feels real. It looks real, everything flows together so well, because it is real. For so long I didn't want to believe that the weapons of the Dark Ages did not have an art. That there was no way to really use them.
Now I know better. When I use the Longsword now, I look and feel more fluid than I ever have before.
So thank you ARMA, for uncovering the past. I believe it is what I have been looking for for the past 11 years, and I know it is what other people are looking for as well.
Keep up the great work.
--Rocky Adams
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