I think the shinaï was invented in the XVIIth century, quite some time before the change from martial arts to sports then. I am no specialist ofJapanese martial arts...anyway its origins are irrelevent to our choice as HEMA practitioners to use a modified version (clearer visibility of ...
As the article that started this discussion and the people taking part to it, I wasn't talking about ARMA groups...not even about myself :). My comment was aiming to say that the sparring tool "shinaï" isn't the only tool used to get a feeling of how a sword reacts in one's hands in the ...
Alexander, I'm a lawyer. So that entitles me to the title of master? BTW, in the US a lawyer is a JD, juris doctor. This entitles me to be called Dr. as well? Either title is presumptuous and arrogant. You may call such people "masters" in your country, but we don't call them that here. We call ...
You might have noticed it, but for the ones who don't take a regular look at the HEMA youtube group, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hBPv8GdS_Y
"Like steel waster" poduced by AEEA (Spain), they look quite good to me...more info in a week apparently.
You also have 6 plays in Lovino's book (I do not know its current availability in English, however there is an Italian/French version available here: http://ardamhe.free.fr/biblio/Lovino.pdf).