The Armour Archive

Leo Medii

I agree with his view of the situation. I was just trying to state it generally. I don't mean to put a spin on that. Thank you for clarifying. I could sense my "prove it" meter rising, which I have been trying to keep out of this thread. And, I really am concerned about the fact that all ...

Leo Medii

We, I, am saying that in ARMA we train to fight in earnest life-or-death combat and the SCA are not. And I'm an elf and can cast magic missile..... I'm sorry, but I can't help but snicker every time I read the phrase earnest life-or-death combat. As a practitioner of WMA and a person who often disa...

Leo Medii

This is what ARMA is about. Not that hitting hard is the same as fighting effectively. But what works in earnest fighting is exactly our measuring stick for all that we do. All I know how to do is kick people in the balls, or stab them in the face with a knife. Seems pretty effective against both t...

Leo Medii

This forum thread started because someone disagreed with the way ARMA views the SCA. Not for me. This thread started because a person was excluded from learning from ARMA and attending a school because they were a member of the SCA. I don't give a toot what some wannabe hero's behind thier own curt...

Leo Medii

My claim here is really the whole claim of the rest of the WMA community besides the SCA. Whoa there sparky.... I may be a nobody to a huge chunk of the WMA world, but I've studied a damn long time the artists, masters and fighting of the middle ages. Probably a lot more close to hazard than most. ...

Leo Medii

I was actually looking at the clamshell version for jousting. Anyone have a pair that could comment?

My Moore gaunts work fine for our style of jousting Lloyd. I took a couple hits with a balsa tipped HE lance and no hand injury.

Glad to hear your back!

Leo Medii

My biggest criticism of many HWMA folks is the need most people have to jump straight to the longsword. Wrestling is the basic first step we should learn because all sword fighting is based of the same movements and many fights, especially in German books, end with grappling. Wrestling is just not ...

Leo Medii

We are talking about so much more than that. We are talking about learning how to fight effectively in earnest combat, using the weapons and tools of the renaissance, in the conditions of the renaissance, from those who did all of those things in the renaissance. I do not gather this from the conve...

Leo Medii

I'm actually liking this idea. Sounds like a blast. I can tell you, that if you are into that thing it IS a blast. You have to have a special bond with those you are doing it with though, as you have to be able to realize that through it all, that you are with your freinds taking as much risk as yo...

Leo Medii

And how often are these guys black belts in SPORTS like Tae Kwon Do or other McDojo sport 'martial arts'? I'm guessing you are just here to troll? Or, are only those who have killed actual martial artists to you? All comes back to the ideal- There are no superior styles, only superior practitioners...

Leo Medii

Which bring me back to a question that drives me crazy. How did They do it then? That'll be my holy grail. Seems you and I have a lot more in common than we don't. This from a guy who has spent his life living like a medieval knight, and being lucky enough to try to get as close to it as he can. An...

Leo Medii

I don't see the SCA or any other combat game, LARP/paintball, as doing that either. People train to be good at the game. Not all true. I don't throw wraps in the SCA. A choice of doing it better over being better? Now, after 12 years I can throw wraps ( I must admit to throwing 5-6 over the last ye...

Leo Medii

Very true.... that's why in ARMA considered that you have not learn to execute a proper technique until you've succesfully done so against an uncooperative partner, in a non-choreographed setting. Excellent! I can see this as being a bit dangerous though without protective gear? My buddies and I do...

Leo Medii

Undoubtedly, many were trained, as you say, by household knights, family members, and the like. But what did they use, and where'd they learn it?

John Clements.

Leo Medii

If SCA heavy is a martial art, so is Amtgard and NERO and freaking Dungeons and Dragons. There's nothing wrong with the SCA and SCA heavy is a great sport but that's all it is; a sport. A game. A combat sport, if you will. I'm sure you could kill someone with a rattan stick with a flat snap. But yo...

Leo Medii

Can you elaborate?

If you cannot see a parallel of a period instructor bagging on another form of teaching and practicing, and a modern one doing the same today I fear that I can not elaborate it enough.

Leo Medii

are what get you killed by a skilled fighter. Everyone can do basic idiotic moves. The "art" of martial arts is the elevation beyond the basic idiotic moves so you can keep from getting killed by those who don't know anything more than the basic idiotic moves. And, anyone can attempt to p...

Leo Medii

Silver is arguing for the futility of the rapier. His comment is a hyperbole than the rapier sucks so much that someone unskilled with it can fight better than someone trained in the Italian or Spanish way, which Silver equally despises.

Sounds like Mr. Clements and his ideas on the SCA......

Leo Medii

The book is a record of what was taught by a professional master at arms. What if it was taught by a guy that really just wrote a book because he needed to make the rent? I've seen a lot of books today written by "masters" in both eastern and western traditions that really weren't real &q...

Leo Medii

I love you Dilan.

In that you're the awesomesauce kinda way.

Leo Medii

If you are a current SCA member you cannot at the same time be an ARMA member. This is the direct answer I was looking for. Thank you for clarifying the position of ARMA the organization when it comes to the idea of membership in other groups. The two styles of fighting and teaching are completely ...

Leo Medii

I should definitely look into the matter if anybody in MSU would like to spar out of the SCA rule system. I know of several folks in Michigan who are SCA members who also do WMA, and some of them are the crazy people that use full-body target, grappling, plate as proof, full-contact, kick you in th...

Leo Medii

I have no idea who John Clements is.

Leo Medii

And, I like the SCA for about the same reasons that Edmund has said. I can pick any time that weekend and live in it, and play in it. And, there is simply nothing I can find in the USA that can give me the feeling of a medieval war environment than the SCA. My second SCA event was the Pennsic War, a...

Leo Medii

I understand that this may exclude potentially good people, but it seems that the potential for wrong doing clearly outweighs that. I have never been a big supporter of "ninja secrets" in the realm of combat study. No one has a magic death touch that should be kept secret from all but the...

Leo Medii

Damn....and here I thought I really was a medieval knight......

Leo Medii

As long as I do not perceive conflict among the two activities that impair the development of the ARMA curriculum, I guess it would be fine. Understandable, unless the only reason for conflict is being an SCA memeber. However, there are certain rights and duties that come with membership. Just as a...

Leo Medii

I would - especially after the crotch hit!

Yeah, they are a real bummer when they catch you off guard.

My outside the SCA activities are often far more interesting in terms of combat.

Leo Medii

That really does beg a question - exactly how did you find out?

I kicked an opponent in the crotch while bound up and then drove my shield into their right arm and disarmed them. Then I kicked them in the side of the body harness and asked them to yield.
They did.

Leo Medii

From what I've gathered from reading this post, I would not be allowed membership in ARMA, even though I've studied several authors of medieval martial study, attempted to extrapolate what they did, and what they performed from very sketchy resources, and attempt to put into practice that research,...

Leo Medii

This is what I'm saying: SCA combat is not real historical martial arts. Have you ever seen or read any of the accounts of tournaments of the actual time period? Have you seen the woodcuts and illustrations of the tournaments and even the judicial duels of the time you are speaking of? I have to sa...

Leo Medii

Yep, that is what I'm saying Greg. Guess we are on the same page, just reading different lines of it!

Leo Medii

I'm most interested in disarms, but learning anything else would be useful.

I have found that if you kick your opponent right square in the scrotum while bound up that a quick wrist flick with the shield in the wrist holding the sword it will usually disarm them.

Leo Medii

What I do is training on how to kill people. In very simple words. Does it work? I mean, you have seen it be more effective than some SCA flunkie beating someone over the head with a bar? In the terms of medieval warfare on the battlefield I do not see any evidence provided that an ARMA trained pra...

Leo Medii

So why should I bother with learning SCA combat if what I want to do is the real stuff? And, if I want to learn the real stuff? If I am a member of the SCA and decided I want to learn the "real stuff" and sent off a membership application ARMA? I am a student of the western martial arts. ...