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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2006 22:22:05 GMT
It's a tentative title, but my best friend and sparring/training partner for several years and I are staring construction on a nice little how-to website. It will also be available for download in PDF format.
We've seen several books on european swordsmanship, we own several others, and we find them all very good in some areas, but lacking in others. For example, the 'Swordsman's Companion' by Guy Windsor has a great information on guards(in the italian tradition anyway), but he doesn't cover any German stuff, which means he's lacking the 5 meisterhau that I love so dearly. 'Secrets of the German Longsword' on the other hand, by Tobler, is purely german, and has a good enough base of techniques, but is more or less just a translation of an old manual with his notes on it. Tobler's later book, 'Fighting with the German Longsword' is better, as it offers drills and techniques, but is more or less a glorified book of drills. I also disagree somewhat on the finer points of tobler's technique, as in his pictures, he constantly has his knee torqued in, and the way he grips his sword is... not amazing.
This all being said, my buddy Tom and I are making our website as a kindof all-in-one reference to beginner swordsman, and a good companion for the experienced ones as well. We've drawn on practical martial knowledge as Tom and I are both long-standing martial artists(with experience in Aikido, Kendo, wrestling, Iaido, knife-fighting[which I learned from a Vietnam Vet], a little bit of escrima, and some bits from other arts like the russian 'Systema'), as well as long analysis of each technique and guard, and of course, a lot of backyard practice.
I've been to a few ren. faires where I've put my skills to the test against both SCA guys, ARMA guys, and unaffiliated guys. While I didn't always beat them all, I did do a dang good job of giving the ones I didn't beat a run for their money. I know this isn't a huge prestigious background like some other authors of martial technique, but it's all I got.
Anyway, we've got what we think is a good solid foundation of guards, techniques, principles, and a few drills, to form what we think is a good beginning training program - accessible to everyone with an internet connection. I'll let you guys know more as we get more of it done.
I was just wondering if this idea has any initial reaction - would you guys at all be interested in something like this? Would you reccomend something like it to friends?
Let me know.
P.S.: Also, if you feel you can contribute anything to it, either before or after I get it up, feel free. We're always looking for good images and videos of guards, cuts, and partner work.
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Post by rammstein on Dec 7, 2006 22:39:43 GMT
Hm, very interesting! I'd love to see this site once its up! Your martial arts puts me to shame though . I've only done mauy thai, taekwondo, and a bit of fencing. I have done a tiny bit of german longsword fighting, but I have never seen italian, so please put that up. Anyway, good luck with this, I'm sure you'll get a lot of other support as well!
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admin
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Post by admin on Dec 7, 2006 23:41:21 GMT
Great idea Adam! ;D I often get emails from SBG visitors saying "do you know of any sites that teach basic swordsmanship" and while there are a few here and there, most are sketchy at best and hardly worth reffering someone too... Anyway, your idea has my wholeheated support - indeed, if you are interested I'd even be willing to host it for free on SBG under a new 'sword training section' (something I have been planning to develop for around 12 months now!) or at least give it some solid plugs and links once my sword training section is up and running. The great thing about the net these days is that such a site could be very illustrative. For example, as well as pics, it is possible to upload vids to youtube and the like and then embed them in your site to show exactly what a specific technique looks like in motion - something that books and still images often fails to capture. Oh, by the way - since this post is pretty much about sword training I think it might be better served by moving it to the sword training sub forum, hope you don't mind. Cheers, Paul
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2006 17:55:39 GMT
Sounds like a great Idea Adam. I have been working on revising one of my sites to demonstrate some ofthe swords and shield attacks. There are no books out there that realy cover this basic fighting style. There are no medeval/ renesance manuals either to go on. The sword buckler stuff does not apply well. I have to go with what works in SCA fighting.
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Post by rammstein on Dec 8, 2006 20:43:38 GMT
Wow...Paul and adam in business ;D That would be a great addition to sbg; a do it yourself type of swordfighting guide. Can't wait
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2007 0:23:00 GMT
I've got numerous pics of all the primary and secondary guards loaded into the site... It shouldn't be more than a few days now until it's ready to be hosted.
Between now and then I'll be adding some pics to the MasterCuts pages as well as getting some pics and short clips into the 'drills' section. The drills section will still be pretty bare, but it will be added to as time goes on. Also, there will be no definitions in the glossary(I just need to sit down and do that, I haven't yet).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2007 0:25:29 GMT
By the way, Paul, is that offer to host this thing still valid?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2007 23:26:00 GMT
Paul...? You there buddy?
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Post by rammstein on Jan 22, 2007 23:58:14 GMT
Pm him, he may have msised this thread.
On topic, I can't WAIT to see this finally up!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2007 1:54:38 GMT
Update:
I've sent Paul what I have, and he's working on hosting it on SBG. Unfortunately, it's coded in HTML which his website designer doesn't understand for some reason, so it's taking a bit longer than expected. I have it from Paul that it'll be up by mid-february at the latest. I personally am hoping for ASAP, though things like this are worth waiting for to make sure they're good.
As he's working, I am too. I'm still working on getting more pictures and pages written up. My next big milestone goal is to have a page dedicated to 'Binding and Winding', and also a subpage of that page about 'Fuhlen'(feeling at the sword).
Currently, there are no drills there yet, but I'm hoping to get at least 3 by the time it's up. This is the most difficult part, as I don't have ready access to a 3rd party who can film a couple of guys beating on each other with wooden swords - this same problem is hindering the pictures of the meisterhauen pages, but it should be fixed by next week. Of course, drills will hopefully be added regularly. My goal is at least 3 every month, hopefully more.
After I get the Mastercuts pages in, as well as the binding/winding pages, i'll begin work on a page called 'Grappling at the Sword', which I won't put up until I get at least 3 different sword grappling techniques drills recorded with little videos to upload.
That, and there is a final section which has links to pages that don't yet exist. This page is 'Fighting Principles', and the pages that don't yet exist are 'Initiative', 'Grounding', and 'Perception - Decision - Action'. More pages will be added to that section as time permits.
Lastly, and it's just cuz I'm lazy that I haven't yet done this, I'll add definitions to the glossary page. Right now it's just a list of LongSwordsmanship jargon.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2007 2:00:03 GMT
AAAHHH!!!
I just realized I'd completely forgotten that there's nothing on 'half-swording' written up yet. Shove a page about that in my above to-do list for the next week and a half.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2007 10:40:58 GMT
this sound like it'll be awesome. no updates for awhile though?? you should also include a page "the blade isn't the only deadly part of a sword" dedicated to "pumeling" useing hand guards and such
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2007 20:36:41 GMT
I've been very busy with work and other things, but there will be another update on the site shortly. And the next section Tom and I are going to compose will be related to grappling at the sword, as that's a VERY big part of both the german Kunst de Fechten and the Italian system.
And of course with that comes the many techniques utilizing the pommel and hilt of the sword.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2007 13:18:49 GMT
does the site have a home or is it offline at the moment I'd love to see it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2007 22:17:14 GMT
Right now Paul is Hosting it, but soon I'll have to get it a standalone site.
I'm based in Fresno, which everyone knows is spanish for 'Ash Tree', so we're plaing with names along the line of 'White Ash School of Arms' or "Mountain Ash School of Arms"(i'm leaning towards the latter as that's the actual species of ash that fresno is named for), or MSA for short.
We're hoping to get a sortof club/organization running soon, but are having a bit of trouble finding enough students. I've got about 4 or 5 enthusiasts in my area apart from Tom and I, but we'd need more to become more legitimate.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2007 22:18:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2007 5:40:23 GMT
Adam, the hype is killing me! When I click on links for your new site/page, I get a "no url" message! Is it something I said?
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2007 21:18:56 GMT
No actually... There were issues with search engines getting mad at Paul for having it up, so he took it down...
I'm compiling everything I wrote(and revising it as well) in a more flowing format along with more pictures and so forth into a PDF file that Paul is gonna host... sorry about that...
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Post by rammstein on May 2, 2007 21:31:40 GMT
um...since when do search engines influence the sites that THEY host?
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admin
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Post by admin on May 2, 2007 22:41:23 GMT
There were a couple of related reasons for removing the trueswordsman from SBG. On the one hand Adam was planning on creating a standalone website for it in a few weeks anyway, and the number of pages that it consisted of (linked in only 1 place) caused the search engines to view it as a kind of 'abnormal growth attached by a stalk' in SBG's website structure. Search Engines tend to penalize sites with this kind of structure, and as I want SBG to be seen by as many folk looking for info on swords, I had to do something as SBG as a whole was being dropped back by the engines... Anyway, its all only a temporary thing - once it has been reformatted to a PDF these hosting issues dissapear and I will upload it to SBG and provide a link so that all and sundry can enjoy and benefit from Adam's excellent work.
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