I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this.
Don't get me wrong, I completely understand where you're coming from, and I still say there's more than just ARMA if you want to take it to that level. Each group has their own threshold of acceptable risk. Most of the local groups I interact with (Selohaar, MASHS, MD-KDF, VAF) train to strike with intent. ARMA does have a higher tolerance for risk than a lot of other groups, but they're not the only ones doing so.
Every time I pick up the swords, I know there's an inherent risk of injury. But that doesn't mean I'm going to intentionally try to hurt my training partner in spite of the safety gear he's wearing.
Also another consideration is that many of the sword techniques actually don't require much power to be effective against an unarmored opponent. It's a bit of a myth that you have to wind up and make a really powerful swing for it to be martially sound. Particularly in the thrust, it can only require a few pounds of force to pierce a person. Much of what we learn can be done elegantly and efficiently, in a way that is safe to practice, but also completely sound in an actual fight.
However, part of the problem is that some other techniques are so inherently dangerous or lethal that there simply is no way to train them safely, without hampering the martial effectiveness. An example would be some of the arm-breaks, that are intended to break the elbow or shoulder. So there will
always be some considerations taken, just like any other lethal martial art.
This has to be true of military training. Unless you use live rounds aimed
at each other in training, there are safety considerations being taken. I haven't been in the military myself, so correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't actually shoot
at each other with live rounds in training, do they?
What most practitioners will do is take a combination of approaches. For instance, you can use a variety of cutting materials to see how the sword behaves in cutting through targets, combined with training with steel simulators to get the proper feel for bind-work, while also fighting with synthetics for safer full-speed bouting (though arguably steel can be one of the safer materials to work with in general), and so on. Just as you would train with firearms in a controlled firing range, and do other wargames without live rounds, you can train with mixed simulations for HEMA/WMA as well.
I'm not arguing with you, you're right that not all people take it seriously as a martial art. Lots of groups are turning it into more of a sport, and most treat it as a hobby. Many are interested from the historical aspect alone, and don't care about becoming truly proficient. But we're also talking about an obsolete martial art. You're unlikely to need to defend yourself in a dark alley with a longsword. No one has a need to learn it from a life-and-death standpoint as our ancestors did, so we're all approaching it from some other angle to begin with.
So the "tl;dr" point I'm making is that there are a wide range of approaches with different goals, and all martial arts training has some level of safety built in by necessity. Risk of injury is part of the game, but there's a difference between taking a risk to practice your art, versus getting reckless, or even following through with potentially lethal maneuvers with your training partner.
And some of the groups that "take it to the extreme" are also not learning the arts correctly either. They're so intent on making it "hardcore" that they're not learning from the period manuscripts, they're not training a particular cut or "play" with the necessary repetition to get it right. If the risk outweighs the martial training, you're not representing the art.
Which school do you want to go to? I know my answer. I just feel like so many HEMA/WMA schools are fall in to school 2. I want to go to school 3. That element is missing from the schools I've been exposed to, and I have a feeling that masters of defence in the 14th and 15th centuries tended to employ their skills at School 3 as well.
I see your distinction, and I wrote most of the above before I read your second message.
That's true, it's hard to find groups that are fire-breathing athletes, but not impossible. The MD-KDF group I mentioned earlier is headed up by a former ARMA member, and they're a pretty athletic bunch. Some of the MASHS guys are fast and hard-hitting. At Longpoint last year, we saw quite a few injuries as a result of the intensity in the competitions, since people wanted to WIN.
These things aren't completely absent from the community.
