# Howdy!



## Matt Anderson (May 21, 2005)

Hi,

I just found this forum a few days ago, so far I like it very much. I have a background in Judo but haven't trained in years. 

I'm currently very involved in what most folks would call "Western Martial Arts" via the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA). Although most people are unaware of it, the Western world has a long tradition of sophisticated, systematic fighting arts going back at least as far as the Greeks and Romans. Our particular area of interest is in the teachings of various European masters from the 13th thorugh the 16th centuries. Unfortunately, there really is no living lineage of masters and students of these techniques to pass on the tradition to us. Fortunately, it is also a big part of the Western tradition to write things down. So we have quite a few manuscripts from the period, written by contemporary masters at arms that we are translating, interpreting and using to form the core of our study. Anyway, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself, I also posted in the WMA forum.

Matt Anderson
ARMA VAB
http://www.thearma.org


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## Rick Wade (May 21, 2005)

Welcome to martial talk and Happy posting i look forward to learning about your art.

V/R

Rick


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## arnisador (May 21, 2005)

Welcome!

 Having to recreate the systems is unfortunate in one sense, but an interesting intellectual challenge in another sense!

 The ARMA is a great site, by the way!


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## Bammx2 (May 21, 2005)

Welcome and Outstanding!


I like the site too!


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## Matt Anderson (May 21, 2005)

arnisador said:
			
		

> Welcome!
> 
> Having to recreate the systems is unfortunate in one sense, but an interesting intellectual challenge in another sense!
> 
> The ARMA is a great site, by the way!


Yes, exactly, we are comitted to achieving a martially sound and combat effective understanding of these arts and that requires a lot of realistic physical training. But it is also an academic activity and lots of people who are much smarter than me are working on translation projects and understanding the historical context, etc.


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## TigerWoman (May 21, 2005)

Welcome to MartialTalk, Matt!  Enjoy posting and learning about the other arts as well!  TW


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## MJS (May 21, 2005)

Welcome to the forum!!  Please look around and ask any questions you may have! :supcool: 

Mike


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## Paul B (May 21, 2005)

Hi Matt! Welcome to MT!

I had a read through several of the articles on the site, outstanding work. Thanks for that.:supcool:


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## 47MartialMan (May 22, 2005)

Welcome


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## still learning (May 23, 2005)

Hello, Welcome and enjoy this site. Best of luck in your research.....Aloha


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## Rick Wade (May 24, 2005)

I was looking at the website and I noticed the videos they are very intresting in the fact that the swords don't have an edge.  Because of this fact you have to have good technique and strength to accomplish your desired effect.  Am I correct in my asumptions?

V/R

Rick


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## Matt Anderson (May 24, 2005)

Rick Wade said:
			
		

> I was looking at the website and I noticed the videos they are very intresting in the fact that the swords don't have an edge. Because of this fact you have to have good technique and strength to accomplish your desired effect. Am I correct in my asumptions?
> 
> V/R
> 
> Rick


Hi Rick, I'm not sure which videos you're referring to but yes, good technique is critical to everything we do. We use four types of training weapons. Wooden "wasters" (something like boken) are employed for drills, excercises, and light contact sparring. Blunt steel (real swords without a sharp edge or point) are used for much the same, although free play (sparring) with steel is only for senior students as this requires a great deal of control. We also use special padded weapons for full contact, full speed sparring. The padded weapons are very carefully constructed to replicate the weight and balance of a real sword, they hurt if you are struck with a solid blow, but will not cause serious injury. And lastly we use sharp swords for cutting practice against various targets like straw mats, cardboard tubes, rolled up newspaper, etc.

There are some videos here of training with various weapons:

http://www.thearma.org/photos/Gathering03/G03vids.htm

-Matt


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## Rick Wade (May 24, 2005)

I was watching "Raven blunt cutting --showing how easy straw mats can be cut by a well-honed but even completely unsharpened sword"  and I assumed that you guys used dull swords all of the time.  Now if you use a sharped sword how important is that edge?  I mean do you want a razor sharp edge?  The reason I ask becuase with the untrained eye it seems that a sharp edge isn't as important as the pure striking power because of the definate bone breaking power that "Raven" was demonstrating even with a dull blade he was still going through that mat.

V/R

Rick


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## Matt Anderson (May 24, 2005)

Rick Wade said:
			
		

> I was watching "Raven blunt cutting --showing how easy straw mats can be cut by a well-honed but even completely unsharpened sword" and I assumed that you guys used dull swords all of the time. Now if you use a sharped sword how important is that edge? I mean do you want a razor sharp edge? The reason I ask becuase with the untrained eye it seems that a sharp edge isn't as important as the pure striking power because of the definate bone breaking power that "Raven" was demonstrating even with a dull blade he was still going through that mat.
> 
> V/R
> 
> Rick


Well, yes, that's a really good point and something that is often debated. John was demonstrating in that video that yes, even a "blunt" sword can do a lot of damage. We don't know for sure how sharp medieval swords really were and it probably varied somewhat depending on the weapon and its specific purpose. One Italian master wrote that a sword for fighting in armour (where cutting isn't really practical) should only be sharp "four fingers from the tip". Generally, most swords were probably not razor sharp but had a keenly beveled edge, more like a really sharp chisel. Our own experimentation shows that a sword sharpened this way cuts very well with not all that much effort if good technique is applied. An edge that is too acutelly sharp would be damaged, chipping or bending on imapct with harder targets.


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## James Miller (May 24, 2005)

Welcome aboard! artyon:


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## Lisa (May 25, 2005)

Welcome and Happy posting!


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## shesulsa (May 29, 2005)

Welcome! I look forward to reading more of your posts.


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## jfarnsworth (May 29, 2005)

Welcome and happy posting.


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