(no subject)

[mr_bad_example]

I received a nice compliment tonight from the leader of my German Longsword study group. He said I was picking things up really quickly. I'm not surprised that I am, and I say this with all humility. I've been studying kenjutsu for nigh-on six years, so I'm able to approach the new art as a fully-formed swordsman. (By this, I'm not implying that I'm any kind of master in any sense, but I am able to approach the entire thing from the perspective of someone who has studied combat in a systematic manner for a good length of time.) The other part of the equation, of course, is that there are only so many ways to fuck somebody up with a sword.

I also realized something about myself tonight. I've been a little bit lax lately about going to my regular martial arts class, and I'd been having a disproportionate amount of guilt about it. I realized that in order to justify the guilt I've been having about not training, I'd basically have to be a professional warrior. And I am most certainly not. So I've decided that I'm OK with being serious about it when I can. Instead of lamenting that I want to be a Serious Martial Artist, then not going to class for a couple of weeks at a time, I'm going to embrace it as another facet of my dilettantism. I've chosen to integrate my thoughts on martial arts into my general Renaissance man self-image: I know a little art, I know a little literature, I know a little fighting. From now on, I'm going to start asking myself, "What would Quevedo do?" (The answer is usually, "Write a particularly vulgar sestina attacking someone's ancestry, then limp out into the street for a duel." I'll let you know how that works out.)

Comments

[wiskeyjac.livejournal.com]

Dammit, why do you get the fun martial arts up there in Minneapolis. I have to drive 6 hours north, or 4 hours east to get good european martial arts classes.

All we have here in Iowa is capoeira, and arnis, and bagua, and...ok, so maybe we're not so starved here after all.

If anyone asks, I'll just be over in the corner doing sumbradas to berimbau music.

[mr-bad-example.livejournal.com]

Man, I miss Capoeira. Of course, after 10 years and 80 pounds, I'm pretty sure my flying martelo isn't what it used to be.

Our longsword studies are taken straight out of Tobler's Fighting With the German Longsword (http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/fighting/Fighting.htm). Get yerself a copy and go to work!

[wiskeyjac.livejournal.com]

I actually spent the better part of WW (Warriors and Warlords, the SCA event over in Wisconsin) going through Fiore Dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum manual. It was a lot of fun seeing a different twist on some of the stuff I've done in arnis.

[mr-bad-example.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd gone to that. Maybe next year.

[wiskeyjac.livejournal.com]

Well, if you don't have a group from home to go with, Two Snakes^{1, 2} ought to have an encampment somewhere. There's always room for one more.

_{1: Rakamuffin, myself, and some other folks I doubt you know
2: You know how the SCA will take a stupid joke, drive it into the ground, pound on it some more, then resurrect it again every summer? Yeah, that's where the name came from.}

[mr-bad-example.livejournal.com]

And by the way, tell Rakamuffin to freakin' email me already, would you?