ARMA, help please.

[misanthropic777]

Man, I love it when a chick whose avatar is standing in Pflug starts talking about being strong in the bind and then grappling. Awesome.

[SBG-ape]

Chi-sau type stuff is a lot more useful with weapons because instead of touching you with some weak backed ho **** I can cut ya.

Personally I love using the bind to close to ringen am schwert range and fighting from there.

Yep.

I tend to think that all the chi-sau nonsense came from a misguided attempt to apply certain principles of weapon fighting to the empty hand. The bind works because of the reach of the weapon & the fact that cutting/stabbing someone does a lot more damage then a blunt strike delivered with equal force.

Also, I second the whole bind to ringen thing. Guy drives forward, you let his point go past you & hit him in the face with your pommel. Then hook the pommel on his neck, sweep the leg & stab him while he's on the ground. It's just good fun.

[DdlR]

Another reason "bind to ringen" works so well with a two-handed sword is that the "closed frame" created by gripping the sword with two hands makes it much easier to exert leverage; your elbows reinforce your hands, your hips reinforce your elbows and your stance reinforces your hips. Big biomechanical advantage.

[selfcritical]

I agree. The hard part so far is that my experience with shorter weapons has been to disengage or clinch once I have that contact. The austin group I don't think has worked much of the Ringen in general, so the range isn't very present in the drills or sparring.

[Skiritai]

To respond to the OP's original concerns, two-thirds of all senior members and at least half a dozen entire Study Groups have left ARMA over the past two months precisely because of the ultra-authoritarian (or, as many would say, "cult-like") way the organization is run.

I have discussed these issues at length on my blog: http://blog.paulushectormair.com/

ARMA's training methodology is excellent, yes, but that does not make up for the many, many problems with its leadership.

[Anna Kovacs]

Wow...the fact that Jake Norwood (who was my instructor in ARMA and changed the way I looked at martial arts training) resigned really settles it in my book. Jake was awesome so if he has beef with John then I know it's for real.

Last time I emailed John about possibly getting involved with ARMA again after a hiatus he responded back that my cup might be to full and that left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Sucked cause I was really eager to get back involved in HEMA and I feel that I would have been an asset to the organization.

[Donnerschlag]

I'm a member of the ARMA (DFW branch specifically)

if you look at clips of Jake when he was a member of The ARMA, and how he spars now, he has degraded significantly. Such a shame. :P

He could still beat me, of course. I'm just saying that even I can see how bad it is.

[Wounded Ronin]

Whoops, responded to OP. My bad. :)

EDIT: I'm am an ARMA member. I really just focus on my local group and don't get involved with internet discussions etc. for the most part.

[misanthropic777]

I really just focus on my local group and don't get involved with internet discussions etc. for the most part.

Smart, that. We try to do the same with our group (not ARMA, BTW).