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Showing posts from November, 2016

Some thoughts around "warm-ups" and the proper order of training

Firstly, I'd like to correct some misconceptions about what a warm-up is: "a period or act of preparation for a match, performance, or exercise session, involving gentle exercise or practice" A warm-up is the five minutes you spend at the beginning of a session prepping your limbs for the physical activity that's about to happen. This is important because with a little warm-up your body prepares itself physiologically for the exercise that's about to happen and this keeps injuries to a minimum. A few key points about warm-ups: Your action should closely mimic the action that you're about to do Your body only needs a few reps to get up to speed with what's happening (if we needed 30mins of warm-up we'd all have been eaten by tigers a long time ago...) Stretching is not warming up. You can do a warm-up then a few stretches once warm because you're feeling a little tight, that's cool, but stretches are not substitutes for warm-ups. Coo

Kit review: Rage Pro Gloves

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"Pro Gloves High Grade EVA (Pair). International standard poly-ethylene front, EVA foam padding interior for comfort. The most widely used molding shape." You can find them here . Firstly, I should outline what use I'm reviewing these gloves for. For me, I use these gloves as day-to-day instructing / training gloves and as a full intention sparring glove for a single-handed sword with a knuckle-bow. Primarily for use with synthetic weapons. I'm reviewing them on this basis. I wouldn't use them for full intention longsword sparring and I'm not reviewing them on that basis. I've owned these for four months and have used them at most, if not all, training session. Ordering I ordered these directly from Rage Field Hockey website and at $35 USD plus postage this was a very reasonably priced glove. Ordering through the website was easy enough and they posted the next day. Nothing noteworthy or to complain about here. Pros Well at $35USD I'm

Great time for quotes at the moment: if you're asking what is HEMA? STFU.

Is it HEMA... Is it HEMA if we use this weapon or that? Is it HEMA if we add to the texts? Is it HEMA we compete in tournaments? Is it HEMA if we train against multiple opponents? Is it HEMA if we grapple? Is it HEMA if we train to the touch? Is it HEMA if we study Japanese sword fighting? Who care's if it is "HEMA"? You can do whatever you want. Some people will think it is cool. Some people wont. Nobody owns any of this stuff. You can manifest your love of history, swords, martial arts, etc... however the hell you see fit. The only thing that is important is that *you* know what *you* want from *your*self, and you have a way to measure that. If you want to be the best larp fighter ever, than all you have to do is win all the larp fights. If you want to be an expert on Capo Ferro, than all you need to do is know everything there is to know about Capo Ferro. If you are looking for approval, acceptance or status in an established community of people who have already

Moral of this story: read the sources, it's not difficult!

"most of my understanding of Hema comes from the sources but I could never tell you where because I rely on people like you to read and relay the techniques.  It saves me from having to read the treatises directly myself which I’m more than happy to do because, yes, I’m lazy and more than happy for others to do the hard work if I can still benefit just as much :) ^_^  In the end though it leaves me with little ability to point out or even know which treatise contains the things I’m absorbing and learning."  - Shadiversity8 I don't really engage much with people online these days but when I do it tends to be to simply drop a knowledge bomb on them in terms of a direct quote from a source that discusses the topic they are asking for information on. Really, often that's all there is to a discussion. Perennial classics are: Silver says you should never do "False times" "If you meet with one that cannot strike from his ward, upon such a one you ma

Michael Chidester on "Control"

"Control is not some magical trait that a martial artist automatically develops with experience; contrary to popular belief, the ability to correctly perform an action slow does not automatically impart the ability to do it quickly, and neither does the ability to do it quickly allow a fighter to slow it down. Rather, control is nothing more than choice, the ability to choose in any given moment where to strike, where stop that strike, and how much speed and force to apply. Since you can only fight the way you've trained to fight, if you only train in one way then you have no choice, and therefore no control. Developing control therefore requires mixing many different approaches and training in many different contexts, with different tools and different constraints, and striving to apply the specific lessons from each one across all of the others." - Michael Chidester