Hey all, here is an article that someone posted on another forum that is worth checking out. Thoughts and opinions?

http://www.newyorklon...

good stuff, I'll read all of this a little later. Thanks for the post.

Just finished reading it, and though I found it interesting, most of it is just common sense for people that are trying to be as "realistic" as possible in their approach to longsword fighting. It is a very good article in the sense that most of the things it discusses are issues that most of us couldn't really explain in a few quick words, but we still understand that that would be the case. Example: Most of us know that fake swords "bounce" more than real swords, and that we should try to use the closest thing possible. I did find the part about "glancing blows" to be something I hadn't thought about before, and I have seen many bout videos where the combatants do stop and show where they were "tapped" by their opponent, even though in real life, it might not be a cut that affects the fight at all, and yet the bouters fully stop, instead of keeping in mind how they might really react to a minor slice.

Also, it's a very good point to treat the swords of yesteryear as the guns of today, in terms of fearing and respecting them. Even when I used to briefly train with a dull steel katana, I ALWAYS corrected my self if the would-be sharpened blade touched ("cut") my leg as it passed by in the form I was practicing, or if I "cut" my thumb webbing as I re-sheathed the sword. It's super important to treat every waster as if it were a sharp, and although that's probably redundant to say to this meetup group, it's always good to keep drilling into your head, especially those that can't afford the 500 dollar steel blunts yet, ha ha. When I was in kung fu, we were trained not to fear a punch or a kick, but the same does not apply here, since punches and kicks don't usually end someones life like a sword would, or even a cut from a sword (infection and all that).

The article definitely did sound negative towards sparring, even though the author said that wasn't his intent, but overall -- redundant and drawn out specifics aside -- it seems super important to keep our minds on the sense that this is real, otherwise it just becomes a sport, and that would just be lame, haha.