Just Starting Out

[William Ashley]

Hello my name is Will and i am very new to sword play. i was hoping to find some one who was in the San Diego area that knew two handed spanish sword fighting technics. There are a few HEMA groups near by but none are of the Spaniard art. I dont know if ARMA is related to HEMA but they where extremely nice people who helped answer all my questions and i hope you all are just as helpful
thank you for your time

[Randall Pleasant]

Hello William

ARMA is an organization that studies the Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (MARE), which is a sub-set of the Historical European Martial Arts. For example, we do not study small sword or saber.

[William Ashley]

Thank you for clarifying. and im sure id there where any teacher in my area u would have said something i guess ill look for a group then. thank you again

[Randall Pleasant]

Thank you for clarifying. and im sure id there where any teacher in my area u would have said something i guess ill look for a group then. thank you again

William

There is an Orange County group (see the Link page for their contact information), which my or may not be within your driving range. I will try to find out if there are individual ARMA members in your area.

[William Ashley]

That would be fantastic, even if you don't find any at least you helped me look. I really appreciate you taking your time to do this. Looking forward to your findings.

Edit: i have watched many videos(some from ARMA) about this activity and it just looks great, its something i would definitely be interested in. i also looked at that orange county place and yes they are out of driving range for me. i was wondering how you make new groups in new areas. would i have to find the people myself? or would you guys play an active roll in finding new people?

[Tim Rivera]

If you're interested in Spanish two-handed sword (montante), there are a number of resources online, such as the transcription and translation of Figueiredo's Memorial of the Practice of the Montante here: http://www.oakeshott.org/Figueiredo_Mon ... ick_v2.pdf

There is the Sacramento Sword School, run by Eric Myers (who translated the above) and Puck Curtis (known for his work with Spanish swordplay). It's a long drive, but maybe not too far for an occasional road trip. The good thing about the montante is that you don't really need partners.

[Stacy Clifford]

Edit: i have watched many videos(some from ARMA) about this activity and it just looks great, its something i would definitely be interested in. i also looked at that orange county place and yes they are out of driving range for me. i was wondering how you make new groups in new areas. would i have to find the people myself? or would you guys play an active roll in finding new people?

We have plenty of study groups that were built starting with a single person, so while you are responsible for recruiting in your own local area, you would be able to draw on the experience of many of our members for tips on how to go about it. We are very supportive of members starting out solo.

[William Ashley]

So I would find my own group, which i guess is minimum of 1 more, but what should we do for a teacher? I see in other posts that you can do this with only one person so there would be no instructor in that situation but wouldn't it just be madness if 3 or 4 people where looking at these manuscripts and all interpreting things differently. So I'm not sure what my question is, but is there any way to get an instructor in my area for this if my group reaches a certain size? And if I'm going to be looking for a group that would be affiliated with ARMA then do you have a pre made flyer that i can use and change the address and stuff on then submit it for approval then post it after checking with my activity center. I just need a place to start really. i suppose if i had to i could try to ask my activity center if i can post a flyer not associated with any one they can look into, but i don't see that going well. Sorry for all the questions guys i really am just starting out and not with just swords but also i have never made a group for anything. Hope I'm not bothering any one. Thanks for all the information so far.