Arma training in Oregon success

[Steven Blakely]

Saturday 1-24-2009
was my first real ARMA experience. I spent the day being taught by trained and canny instructors. ARMA Portland are a great group of guys who are patient, clear and consice. The gentlemen who taught the "ringer " (the combat wrestling) is one of the best hand to hand combat instructors i have ever worked with. I am ADHD so anyone able to captivate my attention and teach me should consider themselves a great teacher. Oddly enough he was kinder garden teacher and he said he wes used to individuals with high energy low atention spans.
the german longsword instruction was great. I 've learned i need a lot of work on my gaurds. They were great and worked real hard with me t help me understand it. I guess its called the 1.0 is what they taught me. The introductory stuff. I love the wrestling and the sparing. I must put a plug in for the nylon waisters. The ones from the dwarven smithy. being knew i got cracked a time or two and have minimal bruising. In my own novice opiniion these should be standard for especialy for the novice.
We wrestled and spared untill it finally got to dark. I am sore and very happy. ARMA is a great group with knowledgable instructors and a true martial form. the group in oregn is tp notch and i will soon be submitting my papers to join. Thanks

[Sal Bertucci]

I'll second that statement! Go ARMA PDX!

I do have to say that I've been lucky to have experiences with two of the groups here in Tx as well as the chance to visit the PDX guys. I have always been impressed by the knowledge, competence, and instant camaraderie that I have witnessed with all of them.

[Brent Lambell]

Thank you Steve for the kind words. I know we from Portland had a good time helping you three in Eugene get off to a good start.

I would hardly call our day a 1.0, more of a truly basic crash course in what we know. I would heartily recommend an NTP 1.0 from one of the senior ARMA members to flesh out and improve upon the bare basics we showed you. There is so much more that a true NTP covers and the insight that a more experienced member can offer would be terribly valuable. Again, there is so much more the longsword that was not discussed. Portland is looking to arrange time with Stewart Feil as we mentioned, he is the kind of scholar that could definitely pick up from where left off.

I am glad you enjoyed the ringen so much, our resident wrestler makes ringen fun indeed. Just for some follow up, the techniques we covered are mostly found in the Codex Wallerstein. I recommend further research into that manual to learn more about what we started.

All the same, I hope that ARMA Portland and Eugene can stay in touch, I think we all have to lot to offer one another.