Saturday 21 August 2010

Just a quickie

I'm terrible at multitasking. It's really easy to carry conversations across people. Still, thing one that I am not talking about went well. Thing two also went well- it seems I'm being much more mobile in fighting (a long running fault that I have been frustrated with)

Ps. Experimental archeology sounds great fun.

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Future Developments:

Something is happening soon. It will be the start of me having a new kind of relationship with HEMA and I don't quite know what that will be or how it will develop. I won't talk about it just yet as we're still working out the details and I'd rather let other people sort out the politics of it all. Besides, in a way, it doesn't involve me. That's not a negative thing, just a simple fact- I'll explain more later.

The one thing I will say about it is that I'm pretty optimistic about what's going on and hopefully it will mean that we forge stronger ties with other groups.

I like seeing HEMA as a community, we are an eclectic lot with a very simple connection (swords are cool), there's so many opportunities for learning and so many people with different focuses and attitudes that it's foolish not to use them. Almost everyone takes a different thing away from it- a sense of history, faith in themselves under pressure, self defence, the dashing swagger of a true swashbuckler, or even just a damn good workout that's infinitely more fun than the gym. And probably hundreds of other things I have forgotten to list.

It is a case of no man is an island. Good, clear, solid communication between groups (not just on instructor level) will benefit us all, even if it just means we get to fight more different people. It can do so much more though, if you know the groups well, you will know their strengths and weaknesses and you will know the way to ask the right questions to the right people.

Monday 16 August 2010

Fightcamp Summary: The quick one.

One of the 'problems' with Fightcamp is that there is always a lot happening- fighting, learning, chatting with new groups and catching up on the past year with others and there are also things afoot that I will be vague about until things are clear and the new direction is signposted and made all pretty.

With that in mind I am still processing information from the weekend and a more HEMA focused entry will appear later.

Things I have learnt very quickly: Slow motion drills are surprisingly stressful on your body. When something goes wrong there are only a few inches between a scare and a tragedy. Finding a good teacher is more important than finding a weapon you like.

And rain is a great way to kill enthusiasm. It was wet this weekend- not just a bit of rain. I'm English, a bit of rain is as much a part of summer as Pimms. This was biblical stuff, and unpredictable- in fact, if I didn't know better, I'd suspect that we were being used as a front for Immortals and that the storms were a result of the Quickening.