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Some of you may have seen this, but the New York Times did a piece on historical European martial arts, focusing mostly on the tournament (sport) aspect of things. Inside the article is a video that covers it well, especially the points system that particular tournament (Longpoint) is using. It gives a pretty accurate overview of how HEMA is treated by its practitioners, as well as goals for the future. Not covered in the video are broader goals, such as longsword fencing in the Olympics (for which an international committee has recently been created), and a rekindling of historical fencing practices which have largely disappeared in favor of classical sport fencing. Since it was released on Monday, it has been picked up by other media outlets such as MTV and iO9, and basically it's getting much more press than it has in the past few decades combined. I've been practicing longsword for about a year now, and I have experience with other weapon systems (such as langes messer, sword and buckler, single stick, dagger, and rapier). If anyone has any questions about HEMA, you're more than welcome to ask and I will answer it to the best of my ability. I would also be happy to make a write up for HEMA (assuming that's still a thing for this thread) if it draws enough attention.
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Sep 17, 2014 19:00
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ImplicitAssembler posted:These two statements are in conflict with eachother. Look at any combat sport (fencing, TKD, judo) and see what has happened to them and ask yourself if that is really where you want to go. This is an issue a lot of people are contending with, and there are many different opinions floating around about where the future of HEMA lies, whether as purely a martial art, or purely a sport ala classical fencing. Longpoint is an attempt to "sportify" (for lack of a better word) longsword fencing while maintaining the integrity of the martial art, by enforcing a fighter's ability to effectively defeat his opponent while saving his or herself from bodily harm. The rules are trying to weed out "sloppy" fencing while also making sure the system is very difficult to game. In theory, the "best" fencers come out on top, rather than the ones who practice specifically to fight in a tournament sport setting. Internally, at major HEMA tournaments, the biggest prizes and most admiration typically go to the open longsword winners and the "triathalon" winners, which are people who throughout every event have competed strongly. You could, in theory, lose the open longsword competition, but still win the triathalon because you competed well in messer, and singlestick, and cutting, and ringen (wrestling), etc.. It's another attempt by HEMA to self-correct itself. There is no one answer to this. I'm personally all for the potential of longsword becoming an Olympic event, so long as it's trying to maintain that martial integrity, but the range of opinions beyond mine is incredibly complex and goes from people hating competitions entirely, to people hating historical contexts of techniques, and blah blah blah, etc. etc.. KildarX posted:Whats the difference between HEMA, Battle of Nations, and Empire of Medieval Pursuits if you know? Battle of Nations and Empire of Medieval Pursuits are, effectively, games people play, with little to no basis in historical martial arts. That's not to say that practitioners within those don't practice or apply these martial arts (many of them in fact do), but they're connected to HEMA only in the sense that they are "medieval" inspired and use weapons. I'm not too familiar with EOMP, but BON in particular has no historical basis, as it depends entirely (as far as I know) on knocking your opponents down while wearing full harness. Actual armored fighting (called harnischfechten) exists within HEMA as an actual martial art with treatises written specifically for it, but it's about actually killing someone in full harness, where the sword (which cannot penetrate steel armor) is gripped halfway up the blade (half-bladeing) and turned, essentially, into a spear and a lever. For more information on fighting in armor, here is an awesome 6 part video on the subject. edit: a (now former) friend linked me this video saying "the only martial art worth practicing is drawing your gun faster than your enemy". 
Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Sep 17, 2014 20:00
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02-6611-0142-1 posted:So the weight cut I was whining about was in fact the easiest thing in the world. It's really upsetting how much fitter I could be if I exercised a little self control over my eating. Speaking of which, does anyone have any decent guides on cutting they can share?
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Sep 20, 2014 22:25
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Can anyone give me their ideas on traditional martial arts like kung fu/wing chun and their practicality? I was watching some kung fu people in New York and it seemed pretty hokey. Stuff like "If you attacked me from here, you've exposed this area, so I'm going to do this..." and then they proceed to do like 3 or 4 different punches and grabs and it looked really impressive but it also seemed really impractical. I have a friend who used to practice kung fu (at Bo Law kung fu in NYC) and he has a similar way of showing techniques. I never said anything because I didn't know any better, but looking into it I'm beginning to realize that a lot of that stuff seemed needless and impractical. I'm just curious for the most part, not trying to put down anyone's chosen martial art.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:50
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A Keg posted:Wing Chun sparring vids I found on youtube look like this to me: Some of the kung fu full contact vids I watched last night looked pretty ridiculous. Even the world championship videos I was watching of (mostly Shaolin) kung fu ultimately turned into some kind of boxing style, since they have to wear great big gloves and shin pads. They don't look particularly kung fu-y, and my friend's response to that when I asked him about it was "well, you're not going to take a Shaolin stance in a fight, you're just gonna box and grapple when you can". My thing is if the form devolves into boxing and grappling, then why doesn't it teach more effective boxing/grappling? What's the use of drilling tiger techniques and dragon style if you're just gonna stance up and punch a dude? Not to mention that his school and apparently many others like it don't practice full contact sparring, so you're relying on techniques you (seemingly) won't use in a situation you're not prepared for. I'm not using MMA as an ultimate metric here, but does anyone in MMA use kung fu? Perhaps not as their preferred style, but perhaps a portion of it that they think is effective in that context? Mechafunkzilla posted:Any technique that isn't reinforced with many hours of live sparring against resisting opponents isn't worth a whole lot, which is why the most effective martial arts for 'real' fighting (whatever that means) tend to also be combat sports -- the sport component is incredibly important for being able to safely practice the techniques at full force. Then you build on those fundamentals and adapt them to more dangerous non-sport situations. Hey, thanks for the pretty comprehensive post! I own a copy of Codex Wallerstein and it's as baller as I thought it would be. Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 18:00
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Lamadrid posted:I base my handwrap buying decisions in the ridiculousness of the colours , my current rotation is purple and neon green and will add bright orange and rainbow.First rule of contact sports is to look baller as gently caress. I'm gonna pass this on to my girlfriend, who has been practicing muay thai for a few weeks and owns pastel yellow/pink hand wraps. There is some decoration in HEMA that mostly revolves around custom colors for fencing jackets and painting fencing masks. Most of it is bad, but sometimes you get someone talented with an airbrush. Check out an album here.
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Oct 5, 2014 19:38
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Alder posted:I read the OP a while ago and now that I have free time I'm considering looking into martial arts. Oh and I'm out of shape if that matters but I'm not exactly going into it 24/7 anyways. If you're interested in something a bit more eclectic, our school Sword Class NYC has been showing enormous growth and new comers seem to enjoy the atmosphere. We've expanded our European weapons from just longsword and lange messer to arming sword + buckler and dagger fighting, and we also offer ringen (wrestling). There's a groupon available that will give you three classes of your choice for $30. As for your size, in weapons-based systems size is somewhat of a limiting factor but ultimately technique will beat out pure strength/speed/size. A clear case of this is when Kristine Konsmo (a woman not too much bigger than you) beat someone more than a foot and a half taller than her (and not to mention much stronger/quicker) AFTER he broke her arm halfway through the fight because her technique is practically flawless (you can see the fight here). We have several girls in our school around your size, and so long as you have the right attitude you can still perform alongside the best.
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Oct 26, 2014 16:11
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BirdOfPlay posted:That sucks. But once you're of drinking age, there are a fair number of drinking clubs with a fencing problem out there. Do Olympic fencing clubs drink too? I thought that was a HEMA thing. I guess swords and beer go together well. As for injuries, that broken arm was a bunch of different factors all coming together at once, and since then (2011) the quality of protective equipment has increased dramatically. Nowadays decent hand protection and jackets exist, in part because Olympic fencing companies have started producing HEMA equipment of their own. But things like tennis elbow and tendinitis can still sneak up on you if you're not careful. I don't know any Olympic fencing schools that I'd recommend, but the Martinez Academy of Arms offers classical fencing on top of historical, and the maestros there are quite literally some of the best in the world. I know a couple people on university teams who practice there in their free time.
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Oct 27, 2014 21:26
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Christoff posted:Question - does watching the Rocky movies ever get old? No. Also Rocky V is actually good I don't know why it gets so much flack.
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Oct 29, 2014 06:24
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It's a couple months old, but Bloody Elbow put out this article on Historical European Martial Arts (specifically longsword fighting), and all told it's a pretty accurate representation of what we do. If anyone's interested, it's a pretty solid outside perspective on things, and includes videos to explain certain basic concepts.
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Oct 29, 2014 14:36
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So I have a small apartment and my gym is over an hour away. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for basic exercises someone can do at home without any equipment? I /do/ have a pull up bar but that's about it.
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Oct 31, 2014 15:41
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kimbo305 posted:Is it from the all lunging? I assume in a lunge, you get lower down and thus put your knees through more acute angles? How does that translate to a better attack for a long pointed weapon compared to an arm and fist? In fencing (and lunging in general I suppose) the general rule of thumb is during a lunge never extend your knee past your foot, and try to maintain your knee perpendicular to your ankle. You recover faster from this position than you would if you overextend, and overextending can cause serious injury especially if the movement is as explosive as you want it to be. It translates because of the distance and speed of the lunge, but also the ability to effectively penetrate your target. It in part derives from fencing with actual thrusting weapons (rapier, smallsword, etc), where thrusting with the arms isn't nearly as effective as using your entire body.
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Nov 3, 2014 15:54
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The unofficial world HEMA tournament Swordfish wrapped up this past weekend, and Al Jazeera was there to document it. Here's the video they published, featuring my friend and colleague Axel Pettersson, arguably the world's best longsword fencer, who went on to take first place again this year.
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Nov 5, 2014 23:16
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Senor P. posted:I might be mis-interpreting what you said. What I appreciate a lot about practicing martial arts is that they've opened me up to meeting and getting to know people with wildly different political views than my own (though rarely racism, although the occasional "white men have problems too" type seeps through the cracks). I'm very liberal, and there are some people who are very conservative/libertarian leaning, and they'll post online non-stop about guns and dumocrats and that level of poo poo, but then you meet them in person and they're just the sweetest, most accommodating people ever. In my mind I always assumed that they existed, but assuming it and actually being involved with those types of people are two vastly different things. I feel like the worldview I have now is far more balanced than it was before, after having given in on some of their political points like gun control, while watching them concede to my own brand of politics on things like feminism. Honestly, the worst personality trait I've had to deal with is elitism and arrogance, particularly when it comes to what people think HEMA should be. Some hate the tournament scene because they think it's turning longsword fencing into a sport, while others think drilling is worthless and you should only spar or vice versa, and all of these other very intense, very absolutist concepts that don't really help anyone or anything. They end up taking part in only one small facet of the art, which is fine and they're welcome to do it, but they're hurting themselves in the long run because their own arrogant notions stop them from trying new methods and improving their martial prowess. You'd be surprised how many people refuse to do test cutting with sharp swords because they'll never actually cut another person with a sword IRL, but that misses the point entirely. Syphilis Fish posted:Generally, if you're a racist/sexist/whatever you don't really get martial arts by disrespecting/underestimating a whole segment of potential opponents. Anyone with a belief like that is faulty in their spirit and will never achieve sword saint hood. Someday. 
Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 10, 2014 06:38
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KildarX posted:Ask to see if the lady would like some help, and take steps from there to try and defuse the situation with words and hope to poo poo it doesn't come to blows because this is a litigious rear end society and with my luck I'd get beaten up for the trouble. This is always the best thing I think. I often feel like straight out aggression is more of a macho thing than actually defusing the situation with your words. If it comes to blows, let it be because of them and let your training help you subdue them. There are two videos floating around right now about fights breaking out in the subway. One where a man is hit by a woman who he then slaps, and another where an argument between a young dude and an old lady comes to blows when the young dude pushes the lady. In the first video the dude slapping the girl was stupid even though she provoked him. It's satisfying to see someone in the wrong get smacked, but ultimately that dude was arrested for misdemeanor assault because really he should have avoided the situation entirely. The girl in question was arrested for felony assault.
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Nov 12, 2014 20:50
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Rikthor posted:Any of you guys involved in running of a school or own your school/club/program? I was approached by a friend who is interested in potentially partnering up to open one since he is not happy where he teaches at currently. I have been involved in martial arts for 20 years and feel like I have seen plenty to know some potential trapfalls in dealing with a school, plus I run a small manufacturing company that was started by two partners. I have seen what happens when two partners no longer get along so I am very leery in that respect. I'm good friends with the guy who runs our school, and the majority of the stuff he does is business and marketing related. He networks like crazy, and is constantly in the process of making promos for the school, setting up demos, and also trying to become a distributor in NYC for the specialized equipment we use. Some students criticize him for being all business, but without his savvy we'd probably have much less than we do, and we're even buying our own dedicated space for the school soon.
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Nov 12, 2014 23:18
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Speaking of mouth guards, is it normal to have difficulty getting used to breathing with a mouth guard while sparring? I've only used it a few times and I get winded far more quickly than normal when I did.
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Nov 19, 2014 14:30
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General Emergency posted:Went to BJJ last night. Learned a new sweep, pulled some muscle in my back and now it hurts when I breathe too deep. GG. Where's my aspirin and icebags...? A martial arts poem~
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Nov 20, 2014 15:18
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KildarX posted:Holding the pads wrong, Hmm, yes. There are many layers here.
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Nov 24, 2014 05:36
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Here's a neat video showcasing Jujitsu vs Aikido. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXO9FrZ1N9s
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Dec 17, 2014 20:53
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Lamadrid posted:
I went to a comedy club last night and Artie Lange was one of the stand ups. He had a joke that went something like "MMA looks like two guys having sex and eventually one of them realizes they aren't gay."
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Dec 21, 2014 21:20
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Lt. Shiny-sides posted:OK since that link doesn’t work here is a brief summary: With cutting weapons we practice something similar, where just before reaching the target (the first burst of activity to propel the weapon forward) we squeeze with our pinkies and ring fingers to give a secondary acceleration to the weapon. It makes a tremendous difference and for some people it's the difference between cutting and not cutting at all.
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Dec 30, 2014 01:00
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ICHIBAHN posted:I too am 100% up for a separate fencing thread. Me too, especially if I can contribute some historical fencing stuff.
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Jan 2, 2015 16:04
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Omglosser posted:There is a fencing school about 45min from where I live, anybody know anything about it? http://nwifencingclub.com/2401.html I know assistant teachers who have been practicing for about a decade (maybe 8 to 10 years) who are still considered provosts by their masters. There's always something to learn with fencing, which is pretty amazing. Speaking of which, I just finished my 1000 cuts experience at a dojo in NYC. It's my teacher's teacher's teacher's school, and despite being in his mid thirties he has been practicing katana-based martial arts for nearly thirty years. His speed and precision is unlike anything I have ever seen, and he does it all with a smile on his face (here's his youtube channel to give you an idea of what I'm talking about http://www.youtube.com/user/ricehatman/videos). Basically 1000 cuts is a new years tradition and it's exactly what it sounds like: you do 1000 cuts over the course of maybe 30 minutes. The callous on my left big toe tore off and I have fresh callouses on my hands, two things I haven't had since I started fencing almost two years ago. Afterwords we went out for Japanese food and beer, which are apparently very traditional to the art. I went with my teacher, we both got drunk, and we're both completely wiped out by the experience. It was great fun, and it's one of the reasons why I appreciate martial arts so much. It helped me set personal goals for myself this year, and I hope you all do the same.
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Jan 4, 2015 05:15
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Crazy Achmed posted:This is basically sabre fencing technique. Most of the speed of the cut comes from the wrist and fingers. (Too much arm is discouraged as it adds force but not really any speed, which is bad in this case.) I've been told it's much the same in badminton as well... While hanging out with the katana students the head instructor told me that the person who developed the lightsaber fighting style in the Star Wars prequel trilogy took influences from a bunch of different weapon-based martial arts and...tennis.
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Jan 6, 2015 19:45
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We've had people stop coming when they realized the beginner classes don't have blade-on-blade contact and they're given nylon swords for those classes rather than steel. I mean, if you make it past the 3 beginner classes you can immediately take intermediate, which is all working with a partner, but whatever. Also someone mentioned masturbation on the parent group's Facebook page and someone quit because of that, but honestly if you can't enjoy a good masturbation joke we don't want you. Do any of you have experiences with people coming in thinking they're hot poo poo, but it's plainly obvious that they have no technique whatsoever?
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Jan 7, 2015 16:39
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Omglosser posted:To jump back to the previous discussion about newbie egos, when I was brand new, after having it ground into my head by certain male role models that "anger increased strength", I was developing my own "style" in my mind that involved "getting increasingly angry" and using that to "explode" out of anyone's grappling. That lasted all of 5 minutes during my first roll. Ah yes, the Hulk maneuver.
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Jan 9, 2015 16:19
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canoshiz posted:How did Krav get so huge anyway? Was there a big crossfit-like push for it at some point in time? Was there some sweet movie where the protagonist was a Krav master? I feel like there was a big push to make it seem like some crazy commando poo poo that's brutally effective, while simultaneously being the only widely distributed "self-defense" art on the market. Any decent martial arts school won't advertise itself as teaching you "self-defense", since that's effectively BS. I mean, some people just want to learn how to defend themselves (dropping the quotes from now on) from rapists and muggers but there's also a stigma against learning a martial art because that takes hard work and dedication as opposed to a couple classes a month where you work up a sweat and pretend to knee people in the balls for an hour and a half.
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Jan 12, 2015 16:30
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Mechafunkzilla posted:We used to do a warm-up drill at combat sambo where you basically stand a few feet apart, plant your feet, and just trade 3-4 hit combinations back and forth quickly for a few rounds. You're hitting really light, tapping basically, but you're only allowed to block and check leg kicks -- no footwork or slipping/ducking. You should establish a rhythm where as soon as one person finishes their combo, the other person begins -- no pauses where you think about what you're going to do, you have to be thinking about that as you're blocking and be ready to throw as soon as it's your turn. I found that it was really helpful for staying composed and keeping your guard up (and your eyes on your opponent) as strikes come in, because at least some are going to get through, and the sheer volume helps get rid of the automatic blink/turn reaction. It's also good for establishing the instinct to throw some strikes once your opponent finishes a combination. Gonna steal this for longsword. Flinching is a problem I have and this solution sounds better than my great grand-teacher's, which is he hits you hard, and then hits you harder if you flinch.
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Jan 15, 2015 00:45
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Small snippet from a Facebook flame war a friend has gotten herself into with a very smug martial artist. "I'm not interested in learning Japanese martial arts from a Korean." I checked his FB page. Dude's white as hell.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:00
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Can anyone suggest a Kung Fu/Wing Chun school in NYC? Looking to give someone the gift of violence, and I'm afraid of searching on my own since there are many McDojos in the city.
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Jan 25, 2015 17:25
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Ligur posted:Now THIS GUY is a martial artist. Crazy! Insane! Didn't check any sources if true though but God drat. As far as I know (from friends who do historical and modern archery) it's legit, though some people were questioning the pull of the bow he uses. Holding arrows in the draw hand makes so much sense that it boggles my mind how people kinda "forgot" how to do it. That's the nature of historical martial arts though. But seriously. The dude shoots an arrow flying towards him in half with his own arrow.
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Jan 27, 2015 01:07
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Mechafunkzilla posted:http://www.williamccchen.com/ You're not the first person to suggest that school! I'm gonna go today and speak with them, see what they're all about.
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Jan 28, 2015 15:32
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I'm usually against martial arts shaming but seriously, what is it with ninjitsu? We've had at least a handful of new students come in who claimed to have practiced ninjitsu in the past (some for several years) and they almost universally have really, really bad body mechanics.
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Feb 23, 2015 15:13
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Ligur posted:Here's a clip of what it is. A friend did/does that lol "Oh god he's throwing cards at me!"
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Feb 23, 2015 17:11
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Ligur posted:i liek burpeez I had to choose between doing 50 squats or 50 burpees for losing a sparring game at my JSA dojo. It was the easiest decision I've ever made in my entire life.
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Feb 28, 2015 23:41
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Ligur posted:edit: as an example, I don't think a lot of the HEMA guys do something very "useful" when it comes to competing in any modern ring (or even the night grill if it comes to that...), but they never cast any aura of mysticism over it or never go about it like they do anything apart from having a good time with medieval European martial arts with old manuals and armor and swords and shields and trips and fun - and I can't remember them getting any poo poo over it either, the opposite if anything I was surprised that this is the general reaction HEMA receives. I fully expected it to get lumped into the ninjitsu/krav maga poo poo tank, but many of the even really intense martial artists I know think it looks fun. They don't perhaps take it as seriously as they do more contemporary martial arts, but there's definitely a respect there. the JJ posted:Apparently they have their own schisms with manual purists/sportsy focused/my school is better, that stuff. I only know this because of chill HEMA folks complaining about unchill HEMA folks though, so that's cool. The well runs deep with unchill HEMA folks. Most, however, are pretty rad and the funnest part of tournaments is getting smashed off homemade mead served unironically out of a drinking horn. Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 05:08
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Sniper Party posted:That's probably because often the guy we're trying to whack with our steel sticks is also trying to poke us in the face with his own. It's the opposite of the bullshido-TMA way of trusting that a thing will work because tradition says so; we look at the super badly drawn manuals, go "what the gently caress is happening here", and then figure out what it probably is by testing out interpretations against resisting opponents. Sweet avatar and text combo! And yeah, there is some pressure testing there. Honestly the only flack I've seen HEMA receive comes from JSA people who think the katana and its related arts are the most effective. I'll admit that the overall skill level in most JSA tournaments is several degrees higher than HEMA, but also HEMA has only just recently picked up steam. Also the art works just fine, and many of the concepts are literally exactly the same as JSA concepts. Haters gonna hate though. Verisimilidude fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 15:15
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So the Americans at the most recent HEMA tournament in Texas got crushed by the Swedes and other Euros. Conditioning is a big problem in American HEMA, and I'm wondering if anyone knows any stamina drills or exercises we could do as a group to help fix that issue. If anyone has any suggestions, whether it's for individuals or groups, I would greatly appreciate your help. We're already the best cutting school in the country, and we want to at least put a dent in the image that American HEMAists are terrible athletes.
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Mar 24, 2015 00:13
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02-6611-0142-1 posted:How long are the round times and how many are there? They vary anywhere from a minute and a half to three minutes, usually with quick breaks to judge. 1st AD posted:And what cardio were you doing before that? How's everyone's diet? I was doing none, but I also wasn't competing. Started running today, and once I find my jump rope (or buy another one) I'll be doing runs + jump rope every day at minimum. Goffer posted:http://www.thearma.org/essays/fit/RennFit.htm#.VRC9b_mSx8E This is pretty neat, thanks! We also desperately need to wrestle, but our space doesn't have mats to fall on.
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Mar 24, 2015 03:39
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