Open Thread, Jun. 15 - Jun. 21, 2015

Gondolinian

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Notes for future OT posters:

1. Please add the 'open_thread' tag.

2. Check if there is an active Open Thread before posting a new one. (Immediately before; refresh the list-of-threads page before posting.)

3. Open Threads should be posted in Discussion, and not Main.

4. Open Threads should start on Monday, and end on Sunday.

HEMA/Fiore is the rapier-fencing stuff that I've been doing. I've enjoyed learning footwork from the more formal setting I've found with the rapier people I know.

The other stuff I've done (which makes up the majority) is more freestyle rattan dual-wielding and freestyle shinai fighting that uses a mix of japanese fighting (less kendo, more musashi), filipino stick fighting, and some HEMA twohanded sword fighting (this stuff is weird). This resembles the dogbrothers videos more than anything else (although we both don't wear much padding and don't hit anywhere near as hard as we could).

I've tried brazilian jiu-jitsu with a focus on very close sparring but I didn't enjoy it very much at all and found it to have limited usefulness. I don't think the place I went to gave very good instruction or had the right focus.

I would rate the above as follows:

Rattan dual-wielding fun 10 (12 if i can go above 10 in the 1-10 scale), fitness 8, feeling confident 9 , feeling sexy 8?,

Rapier fighting fun 7, fitness 6, feeling confident 3 , feeling sexy 6? (dressing in armor probably contributes for 4 points and the other 2 are from actual rapier fencing)

shinai fighting fun 6, fitness 5, feeling confident 4, feeling sexy 3

brazilian jiu-jitsu (unoptimized dojo) fun 1, fitness 3, feeling confident 2, feeling sexy 0

Rattan (kali stick) dual wielding wins by a large margin and is probably the most fun thing I do in my life. It accomplishes the all-important task among sports of creating a strong cardio and muscular activity that is fun to the point that you will do it for hours on end. It has also taught me a great deal about myself physically and about states of mind that I can use to achieve higher functionality when necessary. It has strongly boosted my confidence and gives a strong sense of physical empowerment (you might call this "feeling sexy"?) that has been a refreshing change in my life.

This is fairly awesome. I was actually speculating something like this. For some reason, I feel fencing / armed fighting is "more natural" than unarmed martial arts. This makes no sense - I think it is far more likely that it has no biological basis but simply a specific application of human generic intelligence / tool-using, I don't think have evolved specific circuits for beating things with sticks in a skillful way. Yet, it does feel exactly so. I cannot really tell why, maybe just the effect of too many movies, but it does feel so that a huma... (read more)