Everyday Systems

Has anyone ever participated or is a member of a historical stage combat school or a medieval combat groups? They use padded weapons and train to fight battles, or do hand to hand combat drills, etc. I'm not sure how I started on this Internet search - I either saw something related to it on this site or somewhere else. This amazon link started me to looking: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156975 ... e&n=283155 for Forza The Samurai Sword Workout

I found a few sites:
http://amtgard.com:8080/
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Boffer/
http://www.the-aes.org/

I googled for "boffers" and "swordsmandship" and "sword skills".

I emailed two groups, one on Beaumont, CA and another in Riverside, CA. I'll let you know how it is. It seems like it would be fun, give me incentive to get into better shape and give me some social outings.

Creaky

I haven't, but it looks fun.

I imagine my opponent would need a lot of padding if I brought my warhammer...

Reinhard

I've joined the group in Riverside - Bankeside School or Defense http://bankeside.org/. A nice group of people and something that I will enjoy doing.

Creaky

Reenactment-groups are more comon here in europe. There are different themes (Vikings, swordplay, fencing).

In the town i live is such a group. There is one man in this group. He is english-teacher and looks like a model. But all he does is practicing 3 times the week in his group. He wields a 30 pound- warhammer

Wow. 30 pounds. Tell him about shovelgove. Maybe he'll have some tips for us!

I joined the group in Riverside. A nice group of people, then they went on break as they went to participate in the Renessaince (sp) Faire so the training stopped. Then I broke my right ankle riding my bike 10 weeks ago and just got back on my feet this past week.

I hope to get back to the swordfighting group in a few weeks after some physical therapy and strength building. I must say that 9 weeks on a walker has really helped my upper body strength.

Christy K.

Thanks for the update, creaky. Sorry to hear about your arm... I guess it's still going to be a little while before you start swinging around a sledghammer again?

I see the list does not including the venerable Society For Creative Anachronism

www.sca.org

They have groups all over. The "fighting" is more involved that just tossing on suits and swinging though. So you can't expect that really. I've seen people in SCA heavy combat use a "maul." It was basically a cinder block on a stick wrapped in duct tape. Preferred weapon of monks the guy said.

Never mind a 30lb Warhammer - that's for the Ladies. Check out these big boys.. http://www.warhammers.co.uk/



I think I'll build up from my garden shovel slowly........

Gareth

British Chap wrote:Never mind a 30lb Warhammer - that's for the Ladies. Check out these big boys.. http://www.warhammers.co.uk/



I think I'll build up from my garden shovel slowly........

Gareth

Yes there are greater weights, but i believe, that the key is the use of its weight.

This guys train to "fight" with this weapons. More Movment and so on. After one round of "scenario" with my 10 pound SG i'm a quivering mess. I can't even imagine how it would be to yield a hammer of this weight against a real opponent.

Great to see you here again, Herman.

The huge hammers are fun to gawk at, but they shouldn't make anyone here feel inferior. For one thing, I don't think they're realistic for anyone except competitive strongmen. For another thing, I don't even think they're necessary for such strongmen. As I mentioned in another post, world class strongmen have gotten ridiculously strong with just 10 pound weights. You can get very strong with regular hardware store sledgehammers -- in a fun, relatively safe, and inexpensive way.

And anyone using a 30+ pound hammer in combat would be begging for a reenactment of that scene in Monty python's Life of Brian, where a lightly armed gladiator runs away from a heavily armed one until the latter drops dead from exhaustion from chasing him under all that weight.

Reinhard