Hello from new registrant

[Tony_Indurante]

Going to a NTP seminar will jump start your progress by leaps and bounds. When I first joined ARMA I paid to have John come out to Las Vegas and give a class. I figured the only way to see if it was BS or not was to see it (and JC) in action. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the reality was far better than I had imagined.

While it may not be pracitcal for most folks to host a seminar- spending the $50 bucks or so to go to one will not be money wasted. I didn't look to see what state you are in, but if you are close to Las Vegas feel free to come to one of our practices and see for yourself. And I'm sure any other study group would extend the same invitation.

[Logan Weed]

If you're going to practice on your own you should stick to basics.

Two things you can never have too much of are basic cutting exercizes and footwork drills. Luckily, you can practice both at the same time, and in fact, it's best if you combine them.

Stand in any one of the basic longsword gaurds and practice each of the eight basic cuts in it, then do the same with the other stances. Go through the motions slow and fast, pay attention to every detail of the technique. Never stop doing this, ever.

After a while start to combine cuts. Vertical, diagonal right then diagonal left, left then right, rising from right side then left side, rising from left side then diagonal from left. Your goal is to be able to transition from any one cut to any other cut fluidly. Also start to practice transitioning from one stance to another.

Then start adding footwork to this. Step forward and cut, scoot forward and cut (as in, move without changing your lead foot), turn and cut, sidestep and cut etc.

Constantly compare what you are doing to what you see in manuals, what you read in manuals, and videos from ARMA etc. Use mirrors!

In order to actually learn how to fight you're going to have to spend a lot of time sparring but before you can learn from sparring, you master the basics which means technique and then integrating technique with footwork. Sure, it'd be better if you had someone more experienced to give you pointers but there's no reason you can't practice these things effectively on your own.

Later perhaps you can spend some time driving to a study group to compare notes.