Medieval Martial Training

Maybe i should do a WMA video.

2006-04-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Lately i have been thinking about doing an instructional video on The basic's of fighting with the German Longsword, I don't know how it would be recieved by some people, i realy don't care though I am not claiming to be an expert i do know the basic's of swordsmanship though, I have been working on an outline of what to include i think it may take a bit of time to actualy get it on film/video.

There are a couple of Video's that a German group(Ochs) has done haven't seen them heard through the grapevine they are ok though, I think it is time to start putting real Medeival/Rennisance fighting art's down on some sort of multimedia, There are alot of group's who are doing good research in recreating these art's, ARMA, Ochs, Schola Gladitoria, Schola St. George, are just a few no one other than Ochs has realy done much other than a few video clip's and book's this is a very visual art it is easier to demonstrate how to do something than it is to desribe it on paper

There are more and more book's out there every year on these art's and some are fantastic, and you can learn from them I am not realy looking to be a film maker or make a ton of money, i would like to show what real Medeival martial art's are and how they work.

Jeff

Fighting outside the cage

2006-03-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

Hello Folk's

Well i was at our ARMA practice tonight and we were having a discussion about the reality of fighting as opposed to training to fight.

I am of the opinion that most people aren't going to be trained fighter's and so are going to be unpredictable and if we train in the right way it is not going to be a problem dealing with them, most of the time, unless you go around starting fight's you will be the one who is being attacked and you will have to effectively defend and go on the attack the fight master's who penned there fight book's from 1250-1650 gave us the tool's to effectively do this.

The problem that arise's in training is training against another trained fighter who usualy will react to your technique with a counter technique which could happen I doubt it will be very likely, usualy the initial attack will be all out and very aggressive catching you by surprise so how do we deal with the aggression with the intent to do you harm, I think you have to immediately go to the same intent and comeup with a defense that will like Lichteauer said "set yourself for advantage" his whole quote on the matter was " before defending, set yourself for advantage" if your defense does not do this it is inadequate and not as effective.

I have seen and talked to many Martial artist who go though training with the perception that they should alway's attack and never defend, this is a circular argument and does not make sense, if your attack is your defense then you are alway's defending, attack and defense cannot be seperated and they are two totaly diffrent animals, your initial attack is made from a defensive posture so you initialy were on the defense and used that to Launch your attack so when someone attack's you, you must stop there attack with a good defense that will "set you for advantage" if you try to attack an attacker before breaking his attack then you may hit him and get hit in the process which is not what you want, in unarmed combat or stick combat you can accept a substantial amout of damage before going down, with a weapon such as a knife or sword it take's much less to do you in, the Master's who wrote there book's between 1250-1650 know this full well because they lived in much more violent society people were polite to each other because of the threat of physical violence.

Most people in our era do not have to worry about insulting some who will physicly attack them because the attacker would go to jail and dueling is now illegal, there are those who would harm other's for many reason's or no reason at all except for the joy of doing harm to someone else.

When we sparr we need to alway's keep this in mind and when we sparr we need to have one or two attack's that do not rely on the attacker to be trained only on his aggression and sudden attack so that we get real training as it would be used n someone we do not know.

Jeff

One way to achieve some fitness with out weight's

2006-03-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

Wrestling for fitness

In Medieval and Ren. Europe and up until the 19th century from my research it appear's that wrestling was a popular recreational activity.

In the Codex Wallerstein In the begging we are told by the author
"It is to be noticed that close quarter's fighting should have three element's: strength, reach, and agility."

In our modern definition of strength we usualy think of a power lifter or a body builder and being able to lift great weight when we talk about strength, when was the last time one of us had to benchpress 300 lbs outside the gym? Strength is more useful for maintaining balance and pushing and pulling such as is done in wrestling.

The next thing we see is reach Hmmm what does he mean by reach, In my opinion it is knowing when to move into throw or keep from being thrown, it is basicly knowing how to move your hand's and feet to counter your opponent's move's.

We then see agility as the third thing in the list, agility is important in order to properly place your body in a balanced position with accuracy quickly and to move in or out of the reach of yourself and opponent, dancer's and gymnast have fabulous agility.

if two people are fighting then we have a few thing's to keep in mind, 1) fight weak with strength 2) fight equal with reach 3) fight strength with agility this is from the German school of fencing we also see this type of thing in the Italian school in Fiore Dei Liberi he say's this.

"I say that wrestling requires seven thing's; which are strength, speed, knowledge, that is, knowledge of binds of advantage, knowing how to fracture, that is how to break arms and legs, knowing binds, that is how to bind arms so that the man has no defense anymore, and can not leave freely, and knowing how to injure the most dangerous points. Also knowing how to put someone on the ground, without danger to himself. Also knowing how to dislocate arms and legs in diffrent ways. which things I will write about and draw in this book, step by step, as the art requires."

these can be simplified thus.
1) strength
2) speed
3) knowing how to clinch(bind)
4) knowing break's arm/leg
5) knowing how to control the opponent and hold him to you in the clinch
6) knowing how to throw
7) knowing how and what can be dislocated

now what do these have to with fitness? well if we wrestle we develope these skill's along withour endurance, and ability to think in stressful situation's.

I just recently discovered this site and it is fantastic.

crossfit

Here is what they consider fit which is very applicable to what i the was Medieval fighting fit.

Fitness

I think wrestling is a very good exercis eto engage in, in addition to the crossfit workout's

Jeff

Changing face of fitness

2006-03-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

Well I was at the Arnold classic this weekend and saw all the requisit excesively huge people and all the "dietary supplement's" and fake food i.e. Low/No fat, low/no carb, whey protein etc.

It amaze's me how people spend so much time "researching" all these when that time could be spent training. In Medieval Europe, people had none of these thing's heck up until the 1970's we didn't have these. I look at people like Sandow, "Farmer" Burn's, The Mighty Young Apollon(J.C. Tolson), Edward Aston, these men were in at the "ground floor" of body building strength training the trained with primitive bar's and dumbbells, kettlebell's and many calistenic's and these men were extremely strrong and in good shape.

I think we are seeing a rebirth of this type of training there were a few people at the expo who were selling thing's for doing body weigth training combined with weigth lifting, when you spend the morning doing handstand pushup's and pull up's then doing deadift's it will benefit you mentaly and physicly more than an hour in the gym doing chest and tricep exercise's.

hopefully this trend of training will continue, I do not think body building will ever go away and the supplement's i think are here to stay, if people would just eat square meal's there would be no need to "supplement" anything, fruit's, veggies', meat, grain, dairy, the four food group's is all you need.

Jeff

Fitness for fighting men in Medieval Europe

2006-03-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

The role of physical fitness was recognized in Medieval Europe we see alot of iconographic evidence of this in art work with picture's of men throwing heavy stone's, wrestling, vaulting, doing acrobatic's, and swinging heavy stick's.

It is also discussed in literature of the period by such author's as, Eustance Deschamps in his saying that men in his day were not as strong or fit as in earlier day's, also Jean Le Meingre who was the Marshal of France during the reign of Charles VI, and how he would walk and run in his armour, and do sommersault's while wearing a full suit of chainmaile, and practice jumping on and off his horse while in armour, climbing up and down between wall's using only his hand's and feet while wearing armour. Alberti Battista in the mid 1400's wrote "In all training no end may be prefered to that of physical soundness".

These men didn't have sophisticated gym's they lifted heavy stone's, swung heavy stick's, they did not have hammer strength machine's, now these thing's are not bad they have there place in building strength we are though seeing a rise in body weight and limited free weight based exercise program's using certain free weight exercise such as the clean and jerk, the snatch, squat's, deadlift's and the use of kettle bell's seem's to be increasing, the type's of exercise's that incorporate the use of these are more round and general in there building of strength, power and muscular endurance, and very good for all around fitness for everyday living.

I think most in the period of 1400-1600 understood all around general fitness was necessary to being a well rounded person a book of c 1482 show's picture of knight's training consisting of stone throwing, stick play, staff fighting, and longsword's laying around on the ground, the accompaning verse read's "All morning long to god they pray, and afternoon they laugh and play. They wrestle and they fence with sword's, they throw big stone's, and serve great lord's. Manly exercises are there sports, they have good luck in Princely courts."

Jeff

First post to the page

2006-02-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

Well folk's this is the frist post to my Blogg, I will be making other's as I discover thing's and get my thought's in order on diffrent thing's hope you learn something's and maybe even gte a laugh or two.

Jeff