2 Generations

Apparently the ARMA is at least two generations ahead of everyone else.

Whilst I'm a little puzzled as to how they'd know as I don't recall spending much time with anyone from the ARMA recently I'm not too bothered by their claim.


After all this man is also two generations ahead of me. If that's how ARMA see themselves then good for them!

Source material

The tournament debate seems to be dying down a little now thank the Lord, but not before it has found it's way onto pretty much every forum on the internet. One line that I found particularly memorable was “2 people square off with faux swords (bamboo or plastic) and they try to hit each other for score”.

Don't worry, I'm not going to keep flogging the dead horse that is the tournargument but I simply can't ignore that line.

Before I go on I'd like to direct you to one of my older posts.

Specifically the one currently labouring under the title of “Removed Post 3”. I'd like to further draw your attention to the part where I say:

“You are an idiot.”

I'll leave it up to you to figure out who I'm referring to this time.

Now that's out of the way lets get on with this post.

“Faux swords”?????

I've got some news for you Mr Poster who I shall not name. Nylon and bamboo simulators may well be faux swords, but so are blunt steel simulators. Unless it is sharp it isn't a sword, it is a simulator. Or to use your eloquent turn of phrase a faux sword.

Now I'm assuming you don't train with sharp steel, because if you did you would be a fuckwit beyond all measure, so you are making a compromise. You are accepting that different blade geometry is ok for you and that the material is the most important thing.

Here's some more news for you.

Blunt steel is not the same as sharp steel. The very thing that makes it safer than sharp steel changes the way it reacts to impact and pressure.

Shinai aren't perfect, wooden wasters aren't perfect, nylon wasters aren't perfect and blunt steel isn't perfect.

Live with it.

Train with the lot and accept whatever compromise you have to make. Just stop pretending that because you use steel you are more of a martial artist than people who happily train with any material.

You aren't.

Incidentally, it may be worth mentioning that a tournament competitior was hospitalised recently after a steel weapon snapped and ended up in his chest.

Steel breaks. Bend it enough and it will snap. The problem is no-one knows how many times "enough" is. Steel is inherently more dangerous than the alternatives.

Now I'd like to direct you to the post entitled:

“There is no point in arguing”

Stop pretending that using only steel shows you've got massive balls. It just makes you look like a twat.

Here's a picture of a puppy in case all that ranting made you sad.

Chivalry, Idiots and Historical Justification

In 1344 Edward III, disappointed at the dropping standards of chivalry amongst his knights, announced the formation of a new order of chivalry. The Order of the Round Table was designed to draw directly on the legends of King Arthur and his Knights to set an example of the kind of behaviour the King expected of his peers.

It was a nice idea, but it smacks of the kind of behaviour you expect of a grumpy old man. Odd for a King only 32 years old. Perhaps it was the start of a mid life crisis.

Where is this going I hear you ask?

Well it is simple.

There seems to be a section of the WMA community (I know, I know, it's a handy term though so I'm going to use it however hypocritical that makes me) that claims we can only ever truly master the arts we study if we also take on the ethical framework of those that practiced it originally. They claim that in order to learn to fight with a sword we must also give of our time to help those less fortunate than ourselves. They don't tell us how this helps, but they insist that it is necessary.

Perhaps they are right.

Perhaps we really do need to hand out food to the homeless so we can more effectively hit each other with swords.

Or perhaps not.

Perhaps the two are completely unconnected and these people are simply brainwashed by the myth of Bushido. That to be balanced fighters we also need to become better people. That we should study combat and flower arranging. That martial arts are a way of life that make us better people and the improvement in our ability to fight is simply a side effect of this personal improvement.

Of course this is utter crap.

If we want to give more to charity we don't go out and get into fights in the street so why is the converse true?

It isn't.

However it would seem that Edward III thought the same so maybe it's historical after all. It's worth bearing in mind however that The Order of The Round Table was never formed. It was never anything more than a whim.

Perhaps he was an idiot too.

Oh yeah.

Happy New Year.

Masters and spoilt children

When I was at school my biology teacher hated me.

Not a surprise I hear you say, we don't even know who you are and already some of us hate you.

I suggest you learn to live with it. I manage somehow.

Anyway we were talking about my teacher.

He hated me because I hated him.

Actually it wasn't quite that simple. I didn't just hate him. I went out of my way to prove him wrong at every opportunity because he simply couldn't abide to be wrong.

I'd sit up long into the night watching the Open University on tv and reading my dad's geology books in order to be able to prove him wrong. It was the high point of my week if I could do it in front of the rest of the class. I managed it quite a few times, and so he grew to hate me.

What on earth does this have to do with WMA I hear you ask.

Well it's simple.

I hate people that can't admit that they may be wrong.

We are recreating lost arts from historical texts. There is no direct lineage, and there are no masters, so anyone who won't admit that they might not have all the facts is either a fool, or a conman.

Possibly both.

The great thing is that, if you only let it, this becomes your biggest strength. You don't have all the facts, and so you better yourselves and your martial abilities by constantly striving to improve your understanding. Every facet of every interpretation is tested to the extreme, and then tested again. Every single technique is shown to work or it is abandoned and you go back to the drawing board.

If however you choose to stop questioning and start to believe that you have all the answers then you have failed. You have no masters, no direct lineage and no desire to better yourselves. You have nothing.

You might think that it makes you look as if you are a master in your own right, but to the rest of us who are still learning, questioning and growing, it makes you look nothing more than a spoilt child who can't bear to be proved wrong in front of other people.

Much like my old teacher.

He got away with it because he was a washed up old cynic who never taught anything more important than high school biology.

I'm aiming for something better.

How about you?