Newbie Greeting

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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Djemps
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Newbie Greeting

Post by Djemps » Wed Dec 02, 2009 2:31 am

Hi everybody. I just wanted to introduce myself as a new member of the forum and give a quick summary of why I'm doing Shovelglove.

The first thing that interested me was SG's focus on recreating natural work movements that people have been doing for centuries in forests and farms all over the world. I'm a student of Historical European Martial Arts with a niche focus on peasant weapons like Sickles and Flails. So exercising like a peasant seemed like a perfect fit. I've got a Youtube account with some videos of various peasant weapons if anyone is interested in checking them out...

The second reason for adopting Shovelglove is my recent change in 'employment'. Up until recently I've been the "bread winner" of my family while my wife took maternity leave to care for our newborn baby girl. Starting in the new year she will be heading back to work while I quit my job to stay home to look after the baby and take online college courses to finish up my degree. There was a gym at my work that I attended regularly. But now that I'm becoming Mr. Mom, I realized that I needed to find an efficient exercise routine that I could do in the house. Shovelglove is truly a perfect fit.

I've been using 15lb-18lb body bars at the gym to do various mace swing routines. Now I'm doing the same swings with a 10lb Sledge. Because the body bar's weight is distributed evenly through the whole length of the rod I've found it is not as tough as the 10lb hammer head. I'm still trying all of the other SG moves to find which ones I like the most.

I also have an idea for a new exercise that imitates a work movement, but I thought I would hold off and just be part of the community for a while before making any new suggestions. :D

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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:04 pm

Welcome!

I didn't know European peasant martial arts existed (as something practiced today). I'd love to see those youtube clips (did some random searching, but you probably know the good stuff). Does seem like great overlap with shovelglove.

Reinhard

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Djemps
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Post by Djemps » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:46 pm

Thanks for the kind welcome. Just click my WWW link to find my channel. You probably found some of my stuff if you've already gone searching around the net. There isn't much out there right now.

I have found myself doing several shovelglove "snacks" through the day instead of a 14 minute block. I still get in a full 14 mins, just not all at once. Not a big deal, I suppose. But I'd like to make the effort the shug the whole time in one shot to experience the full effect.

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Post by chiangmaiboss » Fri Dec 04, 2009 11:55 am

Welcome Djemps. We have much in common. I lived in Rome, New York for 15 years and have been to Rochester a few times. Also I have interest in peasant weapons as I have studied Chinese martial arts for 16 years and as you probably know CMA weapons are based on peasant tools as traditional weapons were outlawed.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

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Re: Newbie Greeting

Post by Kevin » Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:13 pm

Don't hold back. We'd like to hear it.
Djemps wrote: <snip>
I also have an idea for a new exercise that imitates a work movement, but I thought I would hold off and just be part of the community for a while before making any new suggestions. :D
Kevin
1/13/2011-189# :: 4/21/2011-177# :: Goal-165#
"Respecting the 4th S: sometimes."

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Djemps
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Re: Newbie Greeting

Post by Djemps » Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:09 pm

Kevin wrote:Don't hold back. We'd like to hear it.
Djemps wrote: <snip>
I also have an idea for a new exercise that imitates a work movement, but I thought I would hold off and just be part of the community for a while before making any new suggestions. :D
Hey, why not. Maybe I can even put up a video.

Artekus
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Post by Artekus » Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:43 pm

Hello fellow newbie! :D


I know exactly what you mean about the 'snacking' approach...I often end up doing several 10min sessions across an evening, which is somehow easier to allocate than one 14min one.

Your history topic sounds really interesting - is your Youtube name the same as your Everyday Systems one?

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Djemps
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Post by Djemps » Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:59 am

Artekus wrote:
Your history topic sounds really interesting - is your Youtube name the same as your Everyday Systems one?
Yes! You can find me as Djemps on YouTube. But you could just click the WWW button at the bottom of my post.

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Post by Artekus » Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:53 pm

For some reason I don't see a link, but I checked out your youtube!

Always had a thing for those hand and a half swords...if I was a nobleman off to whack the Saracen it's most definitely what I would opt for.

Although the sickles looked vicious as well - they seem quite similar to ju-jitsu kamma. I wonder why our own native solutions are so obscure, in comparison to their Far East counterparts?

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Djemps
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Post by Djemps » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:56 am

Artekus wrote:Although the sickles looked vicious as well - they seem quite similar to ju-jitsu kamma. I wonder why our own native solutions are so obscure, in comparison to their Far East counterparts?
Ha, I could write a whole essay about that! It really boils down to cultural values, which ultimately boils down to religion.

Western Christianity taught that this current life is temporary, and much of what we do or accomplish will mean nothing once we pass away and stand before the throne of judgment. So everything in life was viewed in a practical manner. As soon as a skill, or item began to lose its value it would be discarded and replaced with the next best thing. This is a pity because plenty of knowledge was lost forever in this way. On the plus side, when we do find existing manuals about a skill or technique we can be sure that the information is 100% reliable and not warped by subsequent interpretations.

Eastern religions like Buddhism taught the idea that you can find enlightenment in your current lifetime and many normal activities like playing the flute or pouring tea can be used to open the path to deeper understanding. So when the various warrior systems like the Samurai realized that their skills and knowledge were no longer needed on a practical level, they found ways to maintain their traditions by ritualizing and spiritualizing them. The benefit is that there is some kind of surviving tradition for many of these skills. But in contrast to Western philosophy; we can't be certain how much of these surviving traditions are in any way accurate compared to their original form. When you make sword fighting about achieving zen instead of killing your enemy, certain key elements of the skill will have to change drastically.

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:52 am

Hi and welcome.. from reading the posts here, I am wondering if you've read one of my fave books.. Zen in the Art of Archery, by Eugen Herrigel...
I'm guessing you probably did :)
Have fun with SG and good luck being Mr. Mom ..
8) Debs
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by chiangmaiboss » Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:25 am

There is an excellent sword school in Bangkok which teaches traditional sword fighting and also a school here in Chiang Mai which teaches krabi krabong or weapons fighting utilizing swords, daggers and various lengths of sticks. However these schools accept only advanced students and Bangkok school usually does not teach foreigners. There are reswtrictive weapons laws here and a couple of years ago when rice prices were high there was a problem with thieves stealing rice crops at night. At the time I had a farm myself, though not a rice farm as foreigners are prohiibited from this. Farmers were only allowed to use sticks to defend crops, and as I was baton instructor during my career in law enforcement I taught stick techniques to farmers and in return a farmer who had studied a Khmer stick fighting system taught me also. it was very interesting and resembled arnis in some ways.
Chiang Mai and Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

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