ARMA demo at a Nerd Party

[Styygens]

Science Fiction blog io9 hosted a party at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas last night.

ARMA provided a longsword demo:
YouTube- Gawker/ io9.com SxSW party - Swordfighting demo

Men in tights, longswords, fighting in the grips, wrestling, lightsabers, Imperial Stormtroopers... what's not to love? Plus at 19 seconds, it's way shorter then a Mountainous video.

[evol1349]

Whoa..is it weird to be aroused by this? But wheres the sith? No jedi mind tricks?
Nope much better then jason stumblenuts stork. At least they look like there having a good time.

[P Marsh]

So it's crappling but with dull broadswords on the ground?

[Wounded Ronin]

So it's crappling but with dull broadswords on the ground?

Hey, if you tried to grapple but added swords to the equation, there'd be a lot of techniques you wouldn't use since you'd have to be focused a great deal on immobilizing the other guy's weapon. Grappling with dull swords causes me to crapple for the most part.

By the way, longsword would be correct terminology, not broadsword.

[P Marsh]

Hey, if you tried to grapple but added swords to the equation, there'd be a lot of techniques you wouldn't use since you'd have to be focused a great deal on immobilizing the other guy's weapon. Grappling with dull swords causes me to crapple for the most part.

By the way, longsword would be correct terminology, not broadsword.

If I added swords to grappling I'd learn some goddamn swordsmanship to make use of the damn thing. The clip was far too short to judge the skill of the fighters but from what I saw it was a weird tackle done by a tubby guy by on another tubby guy.

[jnp]

Small world. My wife was at this party last night. She told me about it this morning.

[CarlosJesena]

If I added swords to grappling I'd learn some goddamn swordsmanship to make use of the damn thing. The clip was far too short to judge the skill of the fighters but from what I saw it was a weird tackle done by a tubby guy by on another tubby guy.

Hence, Arnis/Kali/Escrima.

[Sley]

If I added swords to grappling I'd learn some goddamn swordsmanship to make use of the damn thing. The clip was far too short to judge the skill of the fighters but from what I saw it was a weird tackle done by a tubby guy by on another tubby guy.

So do we now all need to add Arma to our Muay Thai/Judo/BJJ mix in order to stay cool, cuz I have low self-esteem and need to be a cool kid ok.

[100xobm]

Small world. My wife was at this party last night. She told me about it this morning.

Was she the blurry sith lady?

Nice lightsabers.

[Hiro P]

Well shit - I guess I've arrived. Being the subject of a YMAS thread... fulfills a life goal? This is a 20 second video of a 5 minute bout, taken by someone in the audience, I guess. We're fighting on a hard concrete floor so takedowns weren't really an option - this is me wrenching [the other guy] down with a halfsword grip, a somewhat gentler way of putting someone on the ground. I don't know if he gave it to me or not, but I do know that if he'd gotten into a good position on me I probably would have let him have it, as opposed to going down hard on the concrete.

Once we were down I held him with the knee and set up for punches, giving him the opportunity to yield. When he didn't I reached for my sword - he saw this and rolled on top of it to take it himself. While he did this I grabbed his left arm for a break, but waited to see whether or not he could get a hold of the sword before committing. When he did I dropped his arm, pulled mount, and wrestled the sword away, putting the point to his throat.

Like Wounded Ronin said, grappling with weapons changes the game completely - if we had been wearing daggers (the REAL anti-grapple) that would have changed things as well. Hopefully we'll have one of our copies of the video up soon, which should display enough "goddamn swordsmanship" to go around.

[khallenb]

I'm [the other guy]. Hiro described that engagement pretty well. Here is a link to a longer vid showing some bladework.
http://www.vimeo.com/10176730

[Petter]

If I added swords to grappling I'd learn some goddamn swordsmanship

The clip was far too short to judge the skill of the fighters but from what I saw it was a weird tackle done by a tubby guy by on another tubby guy.

So you lack the skillset on display, and acknowledge that the clip is too short to judge the quality anyway, but for some reason you feel qualified and motivated to comment.

Hm.

[Styygens]

So, for those of you who were there: How was the party?

It looked like fun...
http://io9.com/5493076/stormtroopers...yline=true&s=i

and

http://io9.com/5493130/music-and-swo...mebender-party

[Lebell]

Small world. My wife was at this party last night. She told me about it this morning.

aah you're having one of them modern marriages eh?
i couldnt do that.

[P Marsh]

Well I do have observational skills and deductive logic so I can comment on what I see. I mean, these guys are training in a style that is outdated for self defence and sport but as long as they don't pretend that their mad longsword skills will save them from a mugger and its just for fun I see no problem with them doing what they do.