DukeAlaric (George S.) wrote:I was a tennis instructor for years, and I never sat down and read a manual on how to play tennis. I played, took lessons, played more, and got to be pretty good. I generally found that such things as manuals and written descriptions didn't work quite as well as someone just demonstrating the technique. Similarly, I never wrote books for my students to read, or drew diagrams for them, we worked on shots and strokes until they got things down correctly. At several times I was invited to discuss and help interpret how a "shot" that someone read about in Tennis Magazine actually worked in real life. It was often times very different from the way they imagined it to work and/or the way they were attempting to accomplish the shot.
I think that fighting is similar to this, and that is why the manuals are few and far between, are likely to have huge gaps in what they show, and are subject to interpretation.
I think that it is great that people are learning some about period techniques from these books, but I imagine that there is a whole host of practical knowledge gained from personal experience that is being overlooked. I also think that a lot of this knowledge is evident today either in relic form in other sports, or has been re-discovered by any one of several groups out there.
I don't think that these "Buddhist Palm" manuals are the end all be all of medieval fighting, and they certainly shouldn't be treated as such. The only way to learn fighting is to go out and fight, unless you are a Kung Fu Genius.
Alaric
I agree completely, you can't learn to fight well just by studying books. Actually, I'm pretty sure no one in this thread has suggested that. But the fact is, the books are the only real connection we have to medieval fighting. By studying fechtbuchs, period art, accounts of tournaments and battles, we get an insight into how medieval weapons were used and how these men trained and fought. Not a very clear picture, but's that's all we really have to go on as a starting point to recreate the art. If you're making up an art as you go, learning by trial and error what works and what doesn't, importing principles and techniques from other martial arts, with the more experienced fighters passing down what they have learned, that's great. But it's not "medieval fighting," it's something new. But really, even in the SCA, you are trying to recreate fighting as it's depicted in historical sources right? I mean, you aren't using modern weapons, you're using something that simulates medieval weapons and armour. You are fighting in a simulation of a medieval tournament right? How do you know? From books! Maybe you haven't read them, but someone in the SCA did and they continue to influence your hobby, even if indirectly. I really believe that if you want to learn to fight with a 15th century weapon, you're not likely to improve on the techniques and principles taught by 15th century masters. If Sigmund Ringeck were still around, I'd be very anxious to become his student, but all we have left are his books.
So all we have are these manuals. One doesn't learn to fight by reading them, one learns to fight by reading them and DOING! One only has to look at any of the top WMA practitioners (many of whom were once or still are SCA fighters, BTW) to see that a complete and effective system can be built out of the manuals we have access to.
