Classical/Historical Fencing in Birmingham, UK?

**Letum** · Posted On: 6/15/2007 2:07pm

Not the most imaginative of titles admittedly, but it's something I've been thinking about increasing lately, though I can't seem to find anything but "normal" Fencing around here.

Does anybody know of anything around here? Or perhaps it would be wise to attend "normal" Fencing classes and consult instructionals or something?

**PointyShinyBurn** · Posted On: 6/16/2007 4:45am

Speaking as a 'normal' fencer. Every 'classical', 'historical' or whatever other brand of play-acting 'fencer' I've ever met sucked total and utter donkey balls to the nth degree unless they were also sport fencers.

**Aristobulus** · Posted On: 6/17/2007 6:54pm

www.thearma.org

Check this site out.

**slvrmane** · Posted On: 6/19/2007 1:28pm

Originally Posted by PointyShinyBurn

Speaking as a 'normal' fencer. Every 'classical', 'historical' or whatever other brand of play-acting 'fencer' I've ever met sucked total and utter donkey balls to the nth degree unless they were also sport fencers.

Speaking as a historical fencer every "normal" fencer, except for 1 (And he does both collegiate and historical), I've ever met has sucked balls. They all need to be completely retrained how to use an actual sword rather than a glorified car antenna.

As to the original post. If you want to learn to use a rapier, find a classical school or historical society. The caveat to this is many places don't stress the athletic body conditioning as much as techniques. On the flipside collegiate schools will often do much more for body conditioning but their application to real sword use is dubious depending on form.

See if you can find an Arma or Aemma chapter locally. Or, failing that your local SCA group (You're in Drachenwald I believe). The latter is more a hybrid between historical and sport fencing. Kinda funky rules because of insurance issues.

**misanthropic777** · Posted On: 6/19/2007 9:01pm

Take a look here:

http://www.bfhs.org/html/home.htm

Avoid the SCA unless you really, really don't want any actual instruction.

**HappyOldGuy** · Posted On: 6/19/2007 9:56pm

SCA is tons of fun. And depending on the group, a pretty entertaining sport. Historical it's not. The fighting is entirely a product of the sport rules.

**misanthropic777** · Posted On: 6/20/2007 1:16am

Originally Posted by HappyOldGuy

SCA is tons of fun. And depending on the group, a pretty entertaining sport. Historical it's not. The fighting is entirely a product of the sport rules.

I know - been hanging around hitting people for 15 years *g*. That doesn't mean you'll get any decent instruction - that is very hit or miss depending on the group you find.

**slvrmane** · Posted On: 6/20/2007 10:16am

Originally Posted by misanthropic777

I know - been hanging around hitting people for 15 years *g*. That doesn't mean you'll get any decent instruction - that is very hit or miss depending on the group you find.

That's the real problem with the SCA. The rules aren't really sport fencing rules. They are the old duello rules with some modern insurance mods. Which is still far better for learning to use a sword than collegiate.

But you are very right that the SCA provides little to no instruction. Too many people who want to horde their knowledge and get all cliquish about it. It's one of the many things about SCA rapier that was more like Hardsuit. Hardsuiters at least go out of their way to instruct newbies in many cases.

**ar549** · Posted On: 6/20/2007 6:55pm

Originally Posted by Aristobulus

www.thearma.org

Check this site out.

The ARMA is the place to go, See about starting your own group using them as the organization and for source materials. The website could use some work but there is bigtime information there for both starters and experts.