The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts

Other than getting real training in person, the best thing a beginner can do, in my opinion, is become an ARMA member. There is a ton of instructional videos, articles, podcasts, study guides, and other stuff in the member's section of the site, and lots of supportive members on the member's mailing ...

I have a red oak staff, and it's slightly warped. Red oak is porous, so you need to make sure you seal it off from moisture with some kind of oil or varnish or something. It's got a nice heft to it, which I like. My other red oak staff was broken during a prize play.

Hi Cory, welcome to the forum.

As in any skill, there are many different certifications from many different places, however some are worthless, while others are quite meaningful.

In ARMA, we have different ranks, which you can read about here:
http://www.thearma.org/RANKING.htm

Most people will ...

I would categorize a pre-emptive strike as striking in the vor. The blow struck in the "vor" would be the "vorschlag". You could view this as sort of interrupting.

Acting right after is basically acting in the nach. The after-blow is the "nachschlag".

The ability to act "in des" in order to react ...

Looking good, man! Nice design and reorganization.

Cool stuff! Great job, and thanks for sharing!

There have been a few authors who have visited this forum in the last few years. Here is a recent thread started by a novelist:
http://www.thearma.org/forum/viewtopic. ... light=book

I think there was another thread too but I can't seem to find it at the moment.

Welcome to the ARMA! It's always cool to hear from new members. Best of luck in your training and recruiting!

Given the two stated options, I would recommend the membership. There's a bunch of videos, podcasts, and articles in the members area, and you would also get access to the members mailing list, which has a backlog of a ton of scholarly discussions and shared experiences.

That being said, it may ...

As far as higher resolution,Paulus Hector Mair's manual has some excellent artwork:
http://www.slub-dresden.de/sammlungen/digitale-sammlungen/werkansicht/cache.off?tx_dlf[id]=51335

One of my favorites aesthetically, the woodcuts from Joachim Meyer's manual are very impressive:
http://www ...

Sickle is one thing, scythe is something else.

Oops, good catch Stacy.

My impression is similar to Roger's first statement that the text probably had to do with quick self defense with a common sharp tool. I need to look at the text more closely, but I would imagine similar hooking techniques as ...

Congrats on the move, and best wishes on getting a study group up and running over there!

ARMA Quad Cities is actually having a presentation in a few weeks on their Mair sickle research (among other things) . Maybe afterward I can give you a more informed assessment afterwards, but my guess is that they've found it to be pretty effective.

There's a sort of void in Ringeck where he zwerchs and you zwerch the other way but a little lower so that you cut him underneath his cut:

"A defense against the upper Zwerch:

When you bind at his sword with an Oberhau or another strike from your right side and he strikes with the Zwerch at your ...

Thanks for sharing. I saw that on facebook too and look forward to getting over there sometime.