What's your motivation to excel in the RMA?

[Stacy Clifford]

I originally found HACA when I was looking for a local fencing club on my side of town. I had done sport fencing a few years earlier in college and wanted to take it up again, but I stumbled across this Medieval swordsmanship class in the Leisure Learning course catalog and looked them up. I've always had an interest in history to go with my love of swords, so I thought I would try it out even though it was way out on the far side of town. I showed up the first night and John Clements just blew me away, both literally and figuratively. His knowledge and skill were immediately obvious, and when he put a padded sword in my hands and started attacking me I had no doubts about the intent of the training. I was hooked and it's been worth the extra gas ever since.

As for what motivates me, besides what I already mentioned, primarily I would have to say I love the feeling of moving with grace, power, speed and efficiency. I'm a bouncy, restless person by nature and I think this art suits me perfectly physically, but it also satisfies those engineering genes from Dad that make me very analytical as well. I've always enjoyed performing under pressure, and there's no greater pressure than fighting. I'm also keenly aware that I'm one of the senior students that people look up to and therefore I need to set a good example, and I'm also equally aware that all of y'all are catching up to me as we all get better at teaching, so I gotta try and stay ahead of the curve. That's plenty of motivation right there!

My list also wouldn't be complete without mentioning that I have made more friends of higher quality people in ARMA than anything else I've ever done. The camaraderie alone is worth it. Mash it all together and you can sum up my motivation in one sentence: Dude, this is FUN!!!

[Tony_Klabunde]

MY Chica!

No, she got me into this, but my Motivation is to make myself a more skilled and knowledgeable warrior and devlop some good Camaraderie along they way.

I had been in the study of fighting arts, combat and war for as long as I could remember, ok that’s a lie, I was thirteen.

BUT ARMA was known to me for a while. I knew Aaron P. even longer. Oh what memories. We were medics in The ANG together. I have been off and on with Aikido, Kenjutsu, and MMA for a long time before that.

He told me about the ARMA in an airport where we met up a few years ago and I thought nothing of it. Just buried that thought like “yeah I should check that out and look him up.”


Well anyway, My girlfriend and I were playing one of those extremely popular MMO online games, when she said out of the blue. “I want to learn to fight with one of those.” It was a halberd or Poleaxe. (So hard to tell in games) where I responded;” Well I have this buddy that does just that.” And the deed was done.

Well we went, it was awesome, I have been hitting the website off and on since Aaron told me about it. The training it great and the learning curve is awesome. My girlfriend and I are hooked; we train at home, with the kids. Its great and I am a history buff so, I love it, nothing like shifting fantasy from reality for me.

For me it’s awesome because I love combat and love to see the linear thinking between cultures and people, the same strikes, the same defenses, with the twist of little things like, different armor, metals, techniques, down to the different guards and quillians. All these things fascinate me as to why is it like that? Then practicing and seeing and finding out. “OH that’s why”


So I look forward to meeting and practicing with many of you over the next few years and engaging within the forums here.

[BRIAN.FELL]

went out to find an SCA group at a local park... thought that the ARMA group was the SCA and started training with them for the day... and then low and behold when i started asking questions I found i was in the wrong place (at least to start).... and long stroy short I have never spoken with an SCA group in almost 3 years now and still kicking but and taking names in ARMA, and only missed maybe a handful of practices....

just need to get to a 1.0 so that I can get my dang GFS!!!!!! (man having a kid puts your life on hold!!!!)

[Robert Bertram]

I'm still pretty new to the whole thing..

But a guy from Church had studied ARMA with some folks and he didn't have anyone in our area and so he invited my siblings and I over and we've been doing it with him for about ayear now.

I guess the whole sword thing dazzles everyone when they're kids and everyone is impressed with the stories on Knights fighting bravely for the things they truly believe in.

I never grew out of that. Up until the time I was 14, I was still in the woods with my friends messing around with sticks and using them as if they were swords(which is more just because we were losers than anything).

Anyways, when I started, it made me want to make myself in better shape and it made me want to be able to fight well. WIthin the first 6 months, I had gained about 20 lbs and worked out a good bit. Its really made me a lot healthier.

Its good because I've always been interested in the medieval stuff and I remember desperately wanting to fence and wanted to fence just like the real soldiers did.

[JeremyDillon]

I've always been interested in the mystique of swordsmanship, but as far as the practice of the art goes, I think the inherent brutality and efficiency of using these weapons effectively is a big attraction. It's just so different from any other thing you can do, and that's that. It really provides a good base for understanding the truth about ancient violence, and violence in general. It's also fun exercise and a chance to showcase personal skill, as well as learn and grow as a person and gain discipline.

[S. Hord]

I've always been into weaponry and history so the scholastic side of things appeal to me. Also I did some contact sports as a kid and did some "dangerous sports" as well (and subsequently am pretty mangled) yet was never able to get that combination rush/contact I was looking for.

I started looking for RMA websites to see if there were people out there really doing this stuff, and I tripped over ARMA- South FL. I've always been active so the martial side of things really do it for me.

So what keeps me doing it? It makes me happy & gives me a rush.It's the only thing that gives me a solid focus in life and when I've stayed away from it due to injury or work /University demands, it's like I hunger for it. I just hate not doing it.

[Scott W. Riley]

Well, my early memories of sword-type stuff and whatnot were of my brother and i taking the used wrapping paper tubes from christmas time and chasing each other around the house with them and beating each other over our heads with them. There isn't a man here that has heard about it, seen it, or done it (c'mon, admit it!). That was always a fun memory for me.

Then later in high school, i got on a D&D kick for a while. Also, i grew to like the movie Highlander as well. It lay dormant for a time and then *BOOM* Braveheart. That movie (regardless of its historical inaccuracies) awoke something within me. Somehow, I knew I had an ancestral tie to that time period. I didn't know how I knew, but I guess that part of my history was resurrected after seeing that movie. I knew I had Scotish heritage in my blood, but I wasn't quite sure how or if my ancestors were involved during the time of William Wallace.

It turns out that both my Scotish and Irish ancestors fought with him at Falkirk and later with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn. Recently, I also found out that one of my ancestors fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings. His involvement in the battle is uncertain, but he must have done something to catch William's attention because he was granted lands in Devon after the battle.

So I have this interesting and unique Irish (O'Reilly, widely known as lovers of war)/Scotish (Webster, sept of clan MacFarlane)/Norman (Dewey, coming from the town of Douai in northern France) heritage that has a grand history of being fighters when the cause was just. So, my involvement with ARMA is my way of honoring my ancestors and the battles they both won and lost. It gives me goosebumps to think that I might even be using some of the same strikes and patterns that my ancestors used and makes me proud of my past all the more.

[Benjamin Parker]

I've always been fasinated with ancient and medieval warfare since I was five years old, my dad would read King Arthur to me as a bedtime story, when I got older I read the story of Roland, and Beowulf and I watched all the movies I could find, imagine my dissapointment when I found out that medieval knights were clumsy, slow, dirty , that was the time when most kids when't on to become samurai freaks, but I never could see the attraction so I became a roman empire and a viking nut, then one day I came across the A.R.M.A website and I found out all sorts of cool stuff and i dedicated my life to debunking historical myth's about the middle ages. So now I'm a Romano/Byzantine empire, viking and middle ages freak .

[Lorraine Munoa]

I was always a sword and history geek. In High School I started and ran a club dedicated to researching whatever we could about medieval swordsmanship, and teaching each other whatever we could learn by freeplay and experimentation with homemade wasters. Then I went to college and finally joined up with the SCA to get my history fix. I knew their combat system was just a game, though, and I wanted to learn how to really use a sword. I asked them about historical swordsmanship and they said, "Ours isn't real fighting, it's just for fun. You want some people serious about it, go ask those guys in the red shirts."

I found those guys in ARMA Provo, and loved it, in spite of being physically ah, shall we say inept, and a slow learner.

Years later I've found myself still involved in the SCA and looking for Historical sword training on the side, and one of my old Provo buddies has moved down here to So Cal. I'm thrilled to get back into ARMA and historical training again.

Swordsmanship is brutal and tough. It's a discipline that reveals every weakness, something most people aren't ready to deal with. If you aren't in top physical and mental shape, this art will lay it bare for everyone to see plainly. We don't deal in illusions in this discipline. Improvement is clear to see as you put in effort every day. That kind of honesty is something I really need in my life, especially lately.

[Jeremiah Backhaus]

What is my motivation to excel? My motivation is two fold.

One is exterior, I want to be able to step onto the field and battle those people who I have seen are the best and not be ashamed of my abilities, to fight them and be an equal or better. Fortunately I have to men in my study group who are for me great external motivators.

The second motivation is interior. I need me to be the best that I can be. If I don't force myself to that stage, then I am being unfair to myself, and indeed a poor steward of the abilities given me.

I want to sincere in my effort, to cultivate my martial spirit, to develop self discipline, and to do my research with integrity. That is what motivates me to excel.

-Jeremiah (SA)