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Great longsword videos
Sir Wolf:
hey now, a pear and oval are a shape too!
Sir Edward:
--- Quote from: Das Bill on 2008-02-29, 06:08:09 ---I'm the guy who teaches Sir Edward and Sword Chick how to beat each other senseless (but with style, of course).
--- End quote ---
And you do it quite well, I might add!
Sir Griff:
Since Das Bill is an instructor when it comes to swordsmanship I'm assuming he has better than average knowledge on the subject. Now, I sometimes like to practice fighting with swords with a friend of mine and, in to that end, I've made myself two wooden swords complete with make-shift cross-guards. Now, whenever we spar we use a point system, wherein the first guy to touch his opponent gets a point and it all stops there then begins anew. Who gets three points wins a hypothetical 'match' though we always spar beyond three points.
Now, I feel that I'm somehow getting the short end of the stick since I tend to get touched more often than he does, though I tend to move around more than he does. It's all pretty annoying since we're both untrained and we're basically pulling moves out of our arses, though his arse seems to be offering better moves than mine. I always dismiss him telling him that's he's lucky, but we both know how faint my arguments hold.
I'm both taller and heavier than he is, so technically I should be winning more often with my advantage of reach.
Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?
Sir Wolf:
--- Quote from: Sir Griff on 2008-07-06, 19:59:10 ---
Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?
--- End quote ---
buy a bigger gun? ;) I'm sure Bill can help you out here
Das Bill:
--- Quote from: Sir Griff on 2008-07-06, 19:59:10 ---Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?
--- End quote ---
I know you're going to hate this answer, but here it is nonetheless: Stop sparring. I'm serious. First of all, its dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Second of all, you will only get worse, and it gets harder and harder to fix habits that are ingrained. YouTube is a perfect example of how awful you will get by sparring without an instructor helping you... it is littered with really terrible free fencing videos.
Second thing: If you can't find an instructor, then get some books. I highly recommend Christian Tobler's Fighting with the German Longsword. It will give you a broad overview of the Liechtenauer tradition of fencing. If you want a more immediate solution, here's a very generalized article I wrote a couple years ago:
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_arms_gls.html
It isn't perfect, and it is only a "teaser" article, but it can at least give you a taste of some of the core actions of the system.
And then you need to start drilling the actions with your partner. Not just once or twice, but over and over and over, until it becomes part of your muscle memory, so that when you see "X" attack you automatically respond with "Y" counterattack without thinking. And after it become second nature, then *maybe* it is time to start pressure testing it by doing free fencing.
But I'm serious: Without an instructor, any free fencing you do is likely to result in you using techniques that work to "get the point" as opposed to actually using realistic martial techniques, let alone the risk of injury. The analogy I like to use is learning a foreign language: At some point, yes, you need to start conversing with another person. But if all you've done is memorized a few words, and you never learn the theory, the structure, how to form tenses, etc, and if the only person you ever talk to is equally ignorant of the language and says, "Let's just learn as we go," then all you'll get good at is learning to speak gibberish. Which is exactly what will happen to your sword technique.
Understand that I'm not saying this to give you a hard time: I'm saying it because its what I see constantly, and then I see people online acting like experts just because they've spent the last few years beating up their friends with sticks in the back yard without ever having learned a single thing about an actual martial art.
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