A Beginner's Questions

[CoreyGray]

Greetings everyone.

I am currently in Franklin, Massachusetts but will be moving to Roseburg, Oregon sometime over the summer after I graduate highschool. It is my hope that there, thanks to the more supportive enviroment of my family over in Oregon, I will be able to start studying European martial arts. It seems like everyone has a black belt in some Asian martial art these days but how many people can say they mastered the fighting styles of their ancestors? I'm rather proud of my European heritage and have always found it much more interesting than Asian history.

What I am wondering about right now is what kind of curiculum should I look at? My goals are exercise, self defense, and a greater understanding of European warfare. I just love knights. As I do want to learn skills to defend myself, I suspect I should learn unarmed and small weapons fighting before polearms and the like. Its hard to carry a halberd with you, after all.

One of my friends mentioned Greek military wrestling. Though he also said that a true knight was trained in armored, unarmored, unarmed, and all forms of weapon combat. That is what I would prefer to learn before branching out into other parts of Europe.

In the time between now and my trip to Oregon, what should I do to prepare myself? I know I need to work on my stamina and strength but what about mentally? Is there some research I should do?

Thanks for your time in reading this pose and more thanks to anyone who replies. I may think of more questions later.

- Corey

[Randall Pleasant]

Corey wrote:
I am currently in Franklin, Massachusetts but will be moving to Roseburg, Oregon sometime over the summer after I graduate highschool.

Drop a private email to the John Clements, the director of ARMA, so that he can put you in contact with ARMA members in Oregon.

What I am wondering about right now is what kind of curiculum should I look at?

...I suspect I should learn unarmed and small weapons fighting before polearms and the like.

Most ARMA members usually start out studying longsword, followed by sword & shield, dagger, unarmed, and polearms. On the main ARMA page there is the link Where to Start that will take you to a page that explains the basic steps for beginners.

...what should I do to prepare myself? I know I need to work on my stamina and strength but what about mentally?

First, don't be a stranger here. Don't be afraid to ask questions here on the forum.

Second, get a copy of Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods and Techniques by John Clements. This is the best book on the martket for an introduction to medieval martial arts.

Third, read the articles here on the ARMA site. Take a look at A Brief Look at Stances & Guards of Medieval Longsword . Then read How to Teach an Understanding of Parrying - Part I, How to Teach an Understanding of Parrying - Part II, and How to Teach an Understanding of Parrying - Part III: The Two Positions.

A martial way of thinking will develop as you train. Of course, this requires that you train in a martial manner. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

The most important thing is to be the type of person other people like to be around and want to train with. In other words, be respectful of other people. Also focus on actually listening to what other people are saying and be willing to learn from everyone you meet.

Thanks for your time in reading this pose and more thanks to anyone who replies. I may think of more questions later.

It is always nice to hear a young man express manners that are used far less than they should be today. However, it is not problem for us to answer your questions - what's why the forum is here. <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[CoreyGray]

I do appreciate the longsword and its my favorite weapon due to its close association with knights. However, I want to be able to defend myself and while I would like to carry a sword, is not practical much of the time. I'll have to see what permits are available. <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> As such, I wanted to learn unarmed combat to be able to defend myself when I am, well, unarmed.

Just how much training in unarmed combat is available? Is it its own field comparable to swordfighting or is it mostly used as a supplement?

I read the essay on stances and guards plus all the essays on parrying from the links you gave me and the links from those links. I'm getting excited about training just by reading about it! Those parrying essays were definetely a good start. Now I won't be making those beginner mistakes. Hopefully.

Any other essays I really need to read?

Thanks again.

[Matthew_Anderson]

Hi Corey,

If you study the manuals a bit (many are available on this website) you'll see that most masters considered unarmed combat and fighting with weapons to be two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Whether fighting with sword, dagger, polearms or whatever, striking, kicking, and grappling are still part of the overall concept. Most of us incorporate both to some extent in our training. If you are primarily interested in unarmed techniques, there is plenty of historical material to study, I would recommend "Flos Duellatorum" as a good primary reference on grappling and "Medieval Combat" by Keith Myers as a good modern interpretation of medieval hand to hand fighting techniques.

[Casper Bradak]

The majority of fencing manuals out there have one of the larger sections on unarmed combat. There are even a few on only unarmed combat.
A lot of masters rightly considered it a foundational prerequisite to the use of weapons. I think the primary reason we don't require that in the ARMA is that it would deter interest in a lot of people if you didn't throw a weapon in their hand right away (the thing that drew their attention in the first place).

[James_Knowles]

Corey,

I'm pretty much a beginner, too.

The one thing that still amazes me is how integrated all of the fighting methods are. Longsword is taught as a foundation, but that does not mean that it's applicable to only longsword. It very naturaly extends to the other weapons, including dagger and unarmed fighting.

I was really amazed at first to discover how "physical" longword is, meaning how many opportunities there are for disarming, throwing, trapping, striking, or otherwise engaging in nasty "hand-to-hand" fighting.

My first sparring opportunity with Casper taught me a very important lesson: the entire sword is a weapon, not just the cutting part, but the pomel, cross-guard, flat, etc. (He smashed me in the face with the pomel. [I had a helmet.] After I reeled back a moment he said something like, "the whole sword is a weapon." Got it! <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />)

Fighting with longsword is not just a long-distance activity, but fighting with an extra tool, if that makes sense. The first Fechtbuch (fighting manual) that I bought was the Codex Wallerstein. The bulk of that manual is dedicated to unarmed combat. Unarmed combat was a foundational subject back then. (I've barely scratched that part.)

The nice thing is that once the basic concepts are understood, anything at hand can be looked at as an improvised fighting tool. Remember that the human is the weapon; anything else is just a tool that can increase efficiency.

Lastly, for me one of the best books besides JC's great blue book has been David Lindholm's recent publication of Sigmund Ringeck's Knightly Art of the Longsword. It has helped me understand many of the basic longsword concepts.

My rambling two bits. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

James

[CoreyGray]

Make no mistake about it, I want to learn about the longsword. I want to learn about every weapon really. I just do not want to put off learning about the unarmed combat in favor of weapons and shields as there are times when I will not be unarmed.

I need to put together a list of these books people are recommending I read. What do I do with the books besides read them? Do I need to look at purchasing a waster to get a feel for the stances? I see that there are ARMA approved wasters. How do I identify an ARMA approved waster from a normal one?

In the mean time, I think I need to get in shape. This may sound wierd but I'm looking at DDR for my aerobic work out. Its fast paced and wears me out if I do multiple songs in a row. Best of all, I see DDR as a play instead of work so I actually want to exercise.

What about strength training? Flexibility? Anything else a warrior needs to work on that I may be neglecting?

[Brian Hunt]

You should get yourself a waster, I reccomend starting with longsword. Then start by practicing your basic guards, and trasitioning through them from guard to guard. Also, you will want to start working your basic cuts as well. This will give you a workout as well as a place to start. I don't remember where I heard it, but the story goes something like "what is the best exercise to improve my pushups?" the answer is "more pushups." If you want to be a good martial artist, then practice martial arts. Other exercises are supplementary to your goal of martial arts, whether it is strength training or arobic type exercises. Also as to unarmed combat, maybe Stuart Feil will chime in here, but everything you learn with a longsword can be directly transfered to unarmed combat. Stuart says that once you have learned longsword, he can take 45 minutes with you and you will know basic unarmed combat based on the longsword techniques. Also, once you have been doing the longsword for awhile, you will find that it is a very good foundation for other weapons, sword and buckler, staff, polearm, etc.

hope this helps.

Brian Hunt

GFS

[Jay Vail]

If you want to learn unarmed defense that you can use on the street today, IMO the best place to start is with Fiore. A translation of his manual can be found at www.varmouries.com/wildrose/fiore

Download or printout all sections. You must be sure to capture the introduction because that will tell you how to interpret the figures and is VERY important. When you've done that, get a training partner (you cannot train the techniques effectively alone; altho you can practice to the air you can't master them without a partner) and train the unarmed plays against the dagger and the wrestling plays. These plays, or techniques, will give you a foundation for grappling. After you've worked through these techniques for a few months, move on to Vadi and the Codex Wallerstein wrestling sections. Many people are enthusiastic about the Codex, and it has many useful and interesting things, so you don't want to neglect it. However, I think it's a little easier to start with Fiore and use his work as the foundation.

If you have trouble figuring out Fiore's manual and how it works, contact us again.

[Gene Tausk]

OK - I'll bite. What is DDR?

Those initials look like some abbreviation for a country!


<img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />


----&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;gene

[CoreyGray]

Dance Dance Revolution.

Its a PS2 game where they play music and arrows scroll up the screen in a designated pattern. You have a game pad with the arrows on the floor and you need to step on them. Its a simple concept but surprisingly fun and when you get into normal or hard mode, its a bit of a workout.

[Ryan Ricks]

that would be the Deutsche Demokratische Republik aka east germany