Well everyone here is well aware on my stance on training with steel weapons. However, I have an under 18 club member now so I bought two wooden wasters and last night and this morning myself and my good friend Mr. Blood decided to freeplay with them to test them out. We fenced unarmoured except for a fencing mask. The wasters where from the knight shop in UK. I think manufactuered by Windlass in India and costing the princely sum of £37.50. I have to admit it was fun. We were able to bring the fight almost up to full speed and managed to continually fight for 40 minutes with only two 3-4 min breaks. I have to admit there is now alot of pretty severe bruising arms and bodies and without masks A&E would have been a certainty. Fighting unarmoured and outside contributed alot to being able to fight for so long as we didn't overheat quickly. The lack of gloves gave alot more free movement and techniques were much cleaner for it. Fight on long grass was a revelation as the need for good footwork was immediately evident. Would I trade steel for wood in training ... no, but I will train this way again especially as I can do it in public and it's a real treat for me to be able to move at full speed without causing serious injury. The Bear.
Hands up everyone else who wants to see some video of Bear and his merry crew going at it with wooden swords! You could probably even do it as pay per view..... paul
Well I'm afriad that isn't going to happen in the forseeable future. As I've always stated the club door is open and we practice in a glass walled area where the public can watch. We're also currently working on public education projects with the National Museum of Scotland. However all of this is about making people come in person to experience what we do. We're running the Celtic Exchange this year as our first national event but I'll post more on that later. Hopefully later his year we'll be sending representatives out into Europe. After that the rest of the world. I'm just not buying into the youTube armchair martial arts game. I will take our training out there and stand before those I want to convince and prove it in person. The Bear.
awww, but I am such a long way away.... actually my request was mostly in jest, and I fully get your reticence to get invloved in the endless armchair critique. So I will settle for particularly graphic photos of injuries, mwa ha ha ha Actually, I will be in Liverpool for a conference in mid July, how long would it take to sneak up to glasgow by train, have just started doing FMA and would love to see what you get up to... paul
Hi Paul, Ha ha, I should have photographed Mr. Blood's arms. It looked like he had golf balls under his skin. Next time. Glasgow is 2 hours by train. You'll be most welcome. I'm sure we could arrange digs for you if required. The Bear.
Hmmmm, very tempting.... sneak away from the conference for a little bit, no one would notice... Except of course the brand new Mrs Komuso - reason two for the trek to europe is to get married to my lovely French lady. Still, with enough notice a sustained campaign of convincing is possible, might even be able to go and watch Koyo and his folk train as well. This is all a perfectly normal honeymoon, right? paul
Of course, Glasgow is a modern cosopolitan city. Lots of shops, museums and cafes to entertain any new bride for a couple of hours. The Bear.
Well we managed to break the wooden wasters on Sunday. So they lasted two sessions. Perhaps our level of contact was a little high but I would have hoped they would have lasted alittle longer before we had to do major repairs. So now we are off to look for a more durable full contact sparring weapon. The Bear.
I like the fact the stereotypical insane hard-man Scot is alive and well. Watching you lot train must be fantastic
Well I'm a Scot my training partner in these sessions is Italian. As for the hard man thing, well, I certainly don't consider myself a "hard" man. I doubt Mr. Blood would either. We enjoy what we do so we take it as far as we can. I guess sometimes we push it alittle far. The early morning runners and dog walkers in Pollok Park were certainly entertained. In fact at points some heads nearly unscrewed watching us. Just waiting for the first police visit. The Bear.
We had one when we trained on Glasgow Green a few years ago. Policeman 1 "What are you doing guys?" Me "Bujinkan Taijutsu" "Never heard of it, looks Fun" Me " It is" "Any weapons?" "Not today but we do stuff with wooden swords and sticks sometimes." "Well make sure you bring and take them away in a bag after you are finished guys, we don't want people mistaking them for the real thing" Some more chat in which we discovered he was a Judo BB and his mate had done some Hapkido and they went off leaving us alone. All the Rangers and Police crossing the green used to wave to us after that. (The Police rowing club meet there amongst others).
Now that's the equivalent of a saying a Scottish family had on a childhood holiday on the Isle of Man. When it was ****ing down they would state "It's nought but a wee Scot's mist" We used to have sparring sessions in the back garden. The neighbours would be hanging out of their windows to watch. I think some folk think we're mad around here.
Anyway a group of enactors were battling in a park when a wee scotsman was passing in full highland dress. They mocked him and in an instant he grabbed the sporran from his kilt and using it like a nunchaku he laid them all out. Moral of the story..Hell hath no fury like a wee man's sporran. regards koyo
Mock me at your peril dad!!! But you should know that when I told my students that I had a great sense of humour..they laughed too. THEN I started to tell them jokes and THEY ARE NOT LAUGHING ANYMORE!!!! Regards koyo
See what I mean a cruel and unsensitive jock lacking in the subtlety and profundity that I use. Anyway "zipperhead" was back the next day..the stitches made great target practice. regards koyo
cruel and unsensitive, that's what my ex would say, oh you're just strumming my pain with your fingers now. The Bear.
Killing you softly?? Jan and I are off to see Dr Hook tonight courtesy of the foks at makotokai. Sorry to hear about the wasters. Had the same problem with the jo at the beginning til I realised you dont hit the jo you hit the other guy. There is a joke there about ken and jo fighting but I am still smarting a little after dad's cruelty. regards koyo
