Inspiration

[Zaine]

During the course of this month, I've made connections with another school and have been going to their sparring night. I find the CI to be inspirational in his journey. He's an 8th dan and is still trying to learn. We talked about how he has goals to start up Goju Ryu later this year. I respect him a lot. It got me thinking about my own journey, and how I approach martial arts in a very similar way. I am always seeking to learn different styles and perspectives, even within the things that I know. I often joke that I like to collect kata. I know 3 different ways of doing the Pinan kata, 3 ways for Seisan, 2 ways for Ananku... the list goes on. I think that it makes me a better Karateka. In that, I want to return to something that isn't Karate or Eastern Martial Arts at all. A few years ago, I had begun to get deep into HEMA, and I stopped for a variety of reasons. This year, I have added to a my resolutions to get back more into HEMA and WMA in general. I'm saying this hear because I like typing out my thoughts, it helps. Also, I want a way to hold myself accountable. There are a few HEMA gyms nearby, but they tend to be prohibitively expensive. However, I know a few people who are also interested and who would be interested in learning this with me. A lot of HEMA is literal book learning. Wiktenauer is a wiki site that has a lot of WMA fighting manuals that would allow me and a partner to parse out how a technique is done. As an accountability thing, I'm going to start posting the weapons forum about what I have learned with the various weapons that I will be going over. I think it will be a fun read for others, as well. It will give y'all a chance to see another MA that isn't often talked about here, and give me a chance to do something of a post training debriefing.

I'm excited. I have a life-long love of longswords and other medieval weaponry. I hope that I can impart that passion onto others.

[sensei8]

What I love is that your MA journey is YOURS and while your inspirations have helped to formulate the MA journey that you're on. Your eclectic training catapults your core into other effectiveness that heightens your training.

While a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick, your MA betterment finds that ideology to not be accurate, which is Shu Ha Ri over and over again. I'm so glad that you've found the inspirations that you've found, and that they've been positives in your MA journey.

Brain, here at KF, and yourself certainly have the same drive for the longsword and other medieval weaponry.

[Zaine]

Brian, here at KF, and yourself certainly have the same drive for the longsword and other medieval weaponry.

There's just something so fun and satisfying about it, for me. Maybe it's my love of fantasy novels, or maybe just swinging a sword around is just plain fun, but I find myself thinking about fighting with swords a lot.

[bushido_man96]

I envy your, Zaine. I'd love to be able to work with something like HEMA. I've got a whole bunch of books on various styles of sword fighting and other medieval weaponry. It would be just a blast to do. Go for it. I look forward to your posts.