Rituals.

Your tongue contains quite a lot of nerves and provides your brain with an unceasing torrent of distracting information. You will find this information slows to a trickle if you hold your tongue between your teeth. However, this is a stupid thing to do during a fight. If you find yourself doing that, stop.. Then press your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It has the same effect and you don't risk serious injury.

Why do I mention this? Well, it has struck me that we all have our little quirks with mask on head and sword in hand. The master that I have the honour of being trained by reacts very differently in competition to how he does in freeplay, and as such he encourages his protegés to engage in competition even when the odds are against them.

I have noticed that my mind goes blank shortly after the salute, not in a bad way- I've just stopped thinking and.. well.. fight.. This can lead to problems, since I have noticed a tendency to mirror other people's fighting styles. This will probably fade once I know what I am doing and have learned enough to develop my own preferences, but then again, I would like to keep a little of that chameleonic tendency- knowing how your opponent fights on an instinctive level is a useful tool.

But I digress, rituals are important in their own way. In my opinion, Oriental martial arts overruse them. I could do some psychobabble here but quite frankly I find it insulting when people use long words to prove that they know what they're talking about, so I try not to do it as much as possible.

So the importance of ritual? Well, since it is becoming obvious that I am a fan of magic, I shall explain using Derren Brown as an example. Mr Brown is a sneaky, conniving git- he has, through the use and understanding of ritual, persuaded someone to be drunk every time he sees a certain word. This is allegedly through the use of something called Neurolinguistic programming. Although, you may as well call it semi-hypnosis. The concept involves tying a certain psychological state to a sensation, a Pavlovian response ¹ if you will. This is the mechanism behind a ritual. You also have something known as state-dependent memory- this basically means we're more likely to recall something if we are in a similar state to when we learnt it.

So, we have the mechanisms, or at least some of them. Ritual allows you to step in to 'character', we use it all the time- you hear actors saying that the defining moment of their character is stepping into those clothes for the first time. People have their routines that get them into driving mode. Every one of us has something that brings us luck in certain situations.

This doesn't bring us luck by being lucky- it does it by allowing us time to access the right parts of our brain and tie everything together into the structures that make us better fighters/drivers/pass our exams. It can act as a placebo, allowing you to become calm again and be in the original state that you were taught in. From what I have heard about the Beast's self-defence training, he knows this- but because you cannot calm down when surprised, he tries to control your emotional state to replicate how you would be feeling in a dangerous situation... but my thoughts for teachers and what aspects I think they excel at is for a different post.

So, what are your little rituals?

¹ Pavlov- Russian bloke, discovered classical conditioning. Made dogs salivate to the sound of a bell by ringing the bell and producing food at the same time. Eventually the food was not produced, but the dogs still salivated. Internal physiological effect produced by external, artificially related stimulus. If you spend a lot of time being beaten up whilst wearing a fencing mask, putting the fencing mask on should persuade your body to produce fightystuff before you get hit.

The true detectives.

The world's greatest detective (no, not Batman, the other one, comes from London, wears silly hats, smokes and shoots up) had his own martial art you know.

When people think of Mr Holmes, they think of an inquiring mind, but they don't think of a man who could soundly thrash an opponent. Despite the fact that he was no bookworm when it came to thugs. Victorian London wasn't exactly a safe place. Gaslight made the shadows darker. Thugs and garotters hid around the corner and most streets were not safe to walk down.

Enter a Mr Barton-Wright. A fellow who spent an appreciable amount of time in Japan, doing railway-type things that the Empire used to be good at. A time of Isembard Kindgom-Brunel and the building of Tower Bridge. A time when the British could do anything.

So, what did this Barton Wright fellow do?

He took time during railway laying to learn aspects of oriental martial arts, specifically Ju-Jitsu. he then brought it back to London, and taught it as one aspect of a system involving historical fencing, cane fighting, boxing, savate and generally anything that worked.

Stuff happened and Barton-Wright died a pauper. The two fellows he brought over to help teach Jujitsu helped fan the Victorian desire for the Orient and ended up eclipsing Barton-Wright's self defence for ladies and gentlemen. (or as he called it, Bartitsu)

And that, really is where the tale begins. Bartitsu lays forgotten, Barton-Wright in an unmarked grave and forgotten by all those who would never have practiced Karate if it wasn't for his visionary attitude. One comment kept this fighting system alive.

It was more of a throwaway remark in The Final Problem where Sherlock Holmes explains that he defeated Moriarty by use of Baritsu. People started to wonder if it was a real system. It grew from there.

Barton-Wright published a few articles in, if i am not mistaken, the same magazine that first published Sherlock Holmes. A lot of hard work has been put into this and the articles have been collated and re-published. (Mr Beast- I believe this is where the plug should go)

This is a fascinating fighting system, and I hope it is the time for this to re-surface. The historical significance is astounding, the techniques are for civilian, suit wearing combat. So even today it could be used as an effective self defence system. (Umbrella fighting, including how to use the crook to trip, ok the hat as buckler stuff may be a little inconvenient, but then again- why not bring back hats?)

More magic and swords.

didn't intend this to become a blog with lessons on the principles of magic. Unfortunately I see quite a few links between magic and fighting and by explaining things in the language of one, I understand it in the context of the other.

There is something known as contact mindreading. During a mindreading show a member of the audience was asked to hide an item in the theatre. The magician would then take the audence member by the wrist and lead them to the hiding place. No stooges were involved and the magician honestly had no idea where the item was. I think the most skilled practicioner of this type of magic could find a ring hidden no higher than the first floor of a building in the City of London (or to be more accurate an urban area of one square mile)

My memory for dates is poor at best, but I believe this kind of thing was fairly popular in the early '20s. At one point, people did this with their only contact being copper wire. (had to be copper, otherwise the electricity from the brain couldn't reach the magician.. or some reason like that).

I do a much lower scale version of this, and it is one trick that I'm happy to 'expose' (or even teach) in the pub because I believe it adds to the wonder of magic in general rather than destroys it.

How does it work, I hear you ask?

It works, more or less, in exactly the same way as the bind. The bind, for those who are uninitiated in the ways of the sword, is the position where you trade witty insults in movies. Naturally, it barely lasts long enough for you to swear but artificially you can manage things like "Join me, my son and together we shall rule the Empire" and so-on.

This connection is a novel realisation for me (although, I think I've been doing it naturally)- Using magical techniques, you can read the mind of your opponent through sword contact. The resistance he places on your sword not only gives you extra momentum on a move, but also tells you if he is about to disengage and a host of information. This is certainly something I want to learn to exploit.

Glossary

Since I'm writing this for both old hands and people who have no idea what I'm actually going on about, I suppose I should give a little glossary. If I'm wrong, someone's going to correct me.

HEMA- Historical European Martial Arts
HES- Historical European Swordsmanship
Historical Fencing... Self explanatory.

These are, more or less the same thing. If you want to do something cool with swords, try putting these into Google.

Weapons:

Broadsword- a cut and thrust weapon with an enclosed hilt- you can't lose your fingers, so the style is more upfront. Weighs between one and one and a half bags of sugar.

Rapier- Mostly a stabby weapon with limited cutting ability and hand protection. Weighs around one bag of sugar.

Longsword- Your traditional two handed 'knightly' sword- fingers are vulnerable and the styles reflect this. Weighs between one and one and a half bags of sugar.

Sabre- has two flavours, one is sport sabre and the other is martial. The sport one is considerably lighter. Not too sure about the real sword.

Epeé and Foil- Sport fencing swords. Have no real idea about the weights, but they are stupidly light.

Grosse Messer- It's a big knife (literally, Grosse- big, Messer- knife ah those crazy germans) Think lovechild of a machete and a knightly sword.

Main Gauche- Left handed dagger, usually paired with a rapier. Used for parrying and stabbing if your opponent gets too close.

Buckler- Small shield held in the fist.

People:

Silver- wrote in 1599, rampant xenophobe, tells some good stories. Remembered that his fighting manual didn't have much in the way of instruction and started writing something else. This got lost before publishing and rediscovered later. Mainly concerns himself with
broadswords.

Vincentio- Does rapier. Silver hates him, has a manual somewhere.

Cappo Ferro- I think IronHead sounds much better, but that's far too manly for a rennaissence italian obsessed with rapiers. Had cameo in The Princess Bride.

Lichtenheur- Medieval German. Does lots of stuff on blade awareness and feeling the movement. Mostly Longsword, but has a comprehensive system.

Fiore- Medieval Italian. Inspired by animals. Strength of the bear, Speed of the puma, Eyes of the hawk, Ears of the wolf.. kind of thing. Mostly Longsword, but has a comprehensive system.

Drilling should be boring

Drilling is not the be all and end all of martial arts. Boredom is.

Think about how you are behind the wheel of a car. You drive with a knowledge of your lead foot, or at least I hope you do. The idea behind driving lessons is exactly the same as those behind drilling. You need to stop thinking about things.

As you learn to drive (and I apologise to the Colonials) you will spend quite a lot of time feeling for the clutch. You will spend hours trying to build up those routines and awareness that allow you to hold a conversation whilst processing one hell of a lot of information.

You shouldn't think about reactions, guards, positions, spoons, distance, True Times, the aesthetic pleasure gained from the woman behind your opponenent (if it's remarkably more pleasant weather than it is now).. You build as much as you can into your kinesthetic sense and work from there. You stop trying to drive and start reacting to the conditions.

Drilling is not trying to win, it is trying to minimise risk. With a drill, you know where the blow is coming from. You should have one movement needed to block it (or a group of plays). Your partner is helping you learn, not trying to make sure you carry your hands home between your teeth. Even in non co-operative drills.

Once you become so bored with a specific drill that you can do it blindfold, then you might- and only might- not need that drill.

Instructions on card tricks.

I dabble a little in card and coin tricks. Nothing big or clever, just enough to keep me amused and to build up my dexterity. This has given me what appears to be a novel view of muscle memory- but I will share that at a later date.

This is more about manuals and the difficulties in creating a workable motion from the written word. Below is an extract from 'Expert at the Card Table' by Erdnase (Dover publications, reprint of a 1902 book about cheating at gambling)

To cull two cards-
Undercut about half deck, in-jog first card and shuffle off. Undercut to in-jog, run one less that first number running one more and second number out-jog. (The two desired cards are now located at top and bottom of the middle packet, which is held by the in and out-jogs) Under-cut to out jog, forming break at in-jog, in-jog first card (a desired card), throw to break, and shuffle off. (The two desired cards are now together, being the injog card and the next above it.) Undercut to in-jog and shuffle off. This leaves the two desired cards at the bottom.

Confusing isn't it- and the bloody thing has no illustrations. The thing is, it is really hard to explain magic using a static medium. It has it's own set of dynamics that the uninitiated will not understand. Also, this is not the only way to cull two cards- once you get the principles and the basic moves, you will find your patterns altering towards a way that is more natural to you.

I don't know many magicians who Lay Down The Law. They are more concerned with the effect rather than the method. This may be one of the better, harder to detect methods of culling cards. However, if you can just put the two cards where you want then do it.

Essentially, you take a base set of manoeuvres and principles, then adjust them to fit your own body mechanics and produce a desired effect. If you can produce that effect with less mucking about, then aren't you going to do that?

Magicians can't guarantee that their interpretation of the instructions are correct, and they are written in modern English.

Is any of this that different to HEMA?

Let's defeat Knife Crime

There is all this bollocks about how to make carrying a knife less cool.

As anyone who has held a real sword can tell you, they are cool. There is something in holding a few pounds of metallic death that sings to the soul. Even oriental swords have a weak echo of this feeling.

We will never stop this being cool, so why not make it realistic?

We can get daggers with fencing blades and safe messers, there are people out there who would be good judges of the injuries collected. Let's just let kids stab each other in safety (with bare minimum of actual instruction- try to reflect exactly what would happen if they pulled a knife on someone).

Since practically everyone has a mobile phone, send them a text message saying

You are now a murderer, oh and by the way unless you look after the wound you got you will die from bloodloss soon. Good luck approaching the hospital- they've been told to look out for people who have been in a knife fight.

Get the loser to lie in situe for an hour or so. Maybe even draw a chalk outline. Send the message 'do this for real and you will die'. Give them tales of duels where the 'winner' was the chap who died second.

Make them realise that there is no such thing as a knife fight, it's a stabbing competition. The idea that you will come out of one unharmed is ridiculous. Do this for real and you will die. If they still want to fight, then help them do it safely.

Drum it in- swordplay and knife fighting is cool, it's great fun, it provides lots of benefits like improved health and so on.

Swords and fighting are cool. Killing people isn't.