I think it ranks insanely high on the fun level but does it do anything for fitness, self-confidence or feeling sexy?
Also, have you tried empty-handed martial arts like boxing, wing chun, karate or bjj? How would you are empty-hand vs. weapon on these four axes: fun, fitness, feeling confident, feeling sexy?
HEMA/Fiore is the rapier-fencing stuff that I’ve been doing. I’ve enjoyed learning footwork from the more formal setting I’ve found with the rapier people I know.
The other stuff I’ve done (which makes up the majority) is more freestyle rattan dual-wielding and freestyle shinai fighting that uses a mix of japanese fighting (less kendo, more musashi), filipino stick fighting, and some HEMA twohanded sword fighting (this stuff is weird). This resembles the dogbrothers videos more than anything else (although we both don’t wear much padding and don’t hit anywhere near as hard as we could).
I’ve tried brazilian jiu-jitsu with a focus on very close sparring but I didn’t enjoy it very much at all and found it to have limited usefulness. I don’t think the place I went to gave very good instruction or had the right focus.
I would rate the above as follows:
Rattan dual-wielding
fun 10 (12 if i can go above 10 in the 1-10 scale),
fitness 8,
feeling confident 9 ,
feeling sexy 8?,
Rapier fighting
fun 7,
fitness 6,
feeling confident 3 ,
feeling sexy 6? (dressing in armor probably contributes for 4 points and the other 2 are from actual rapier fencing)
Rattan (kali stick) dual wielding wins by a large margin and is probably the most fun thing I do in my life. It accomplishes the all-important task among sports of creating a strong cardio and muscular activity that is fun to the point that you will do it for hours on end. It has also taught me a great deal about myself physically and about states of mind that I can use to achieve higher functionality when necessary. It has strongly boosted my confidence and gives a strong sense of physical empowerment (you might call this “feeling sexy”?) that has been a refreshing change in my life.
This is fairly awesome. I was actually speculating something like this. For some reason, I feel fencing / armed fighting is “more natural” than unarmed martial arts. This makes no sense—I think it is far more likely that it has no biological basis but simply a specific application of human generic intelligence / tool-using, I don’t think have evolved specific circuits for beating things with sticks in a skillful way. Yet, it does feel exactly so. I cannot really tell why, maybe just the effect of too many movies, but it does feel so that a human was “born” for holding a sword much more than for making a fist.
May I ask what makes rattan dual wielding so special? From a fitness point of view, they are lighter than metal weapons / feders ? And what makes it more fun? Is it the coordination thing? From my limited experience, I don’t really like that kind of one-handed fencing where I put the other hand behing my back, it is not natural at all. But holding a buckler, or using a two-handed longsword that feels natural enough. I never tried dual-wielding. What it is really like?
Dual wielding is strange, cumbersome, uncomfortable, and amazing since all of its starting flaws decrease as you build proficiency over time.
Dual wielding requires coordination and ambidexterity but you build both of them as you practice regularly. I do practice swings with both arms every day independently and then together. When you dual wield you need to be a proficient fighter with each arm independently and with both arms together. When you fight you need to be able to (attack-left defend-right), (attack-right defend-left), (attack-left attack-right), and (defend-left defend-right) with each mode all being the same mode and switched in between seemlessly. This is harder and easier than it sounds. It also has major psychological benefits when fighting someone since any sort of “mode” that gets adjusted to can throw them off significantly when you switch to another.
Idealy every movement involves both arms simultaneously. However,i’m not quite there yet so there’s a lot of switching between which arm is my attacking arm (with the other defending) back and forth. (With both arms attacking occasionally or when there’s an opening, of course.)
Dual wielding has a reduction in reach compared to a twohanded weapon but it also provides you a constant extra source of defending yourself and harming an opponent which most competent fighters will approriately be very careful against.
The actual experience of fighting with two weapons at once is likely beyond my abilities to describe. It’s quite different from everything I’ve put in my posts and may be very different for me than it would be for you.
Rattan dual wielding is more fun for me personally and complex in a way that is really fun. Kali stick fighting (which i have only learned informally) is interesting because it uses the rattan sticks as a practice weapon that can easily be replaced with something more dangerous (mace, axe, sword, etc.) or anything that you happen to find around you when you need it (pipe, stick, glass bottle, etc.). It builds coordination, control of your off-hand, and allows for a lot of creativity.
The rattan sticks are useful instead of a metal stick due to their light weight, grip, and how easily they bounce off of other rattan sticks. (They also have a very satisfying sound.) Lots of the practice drills i’ve done involve both people using them and executing repeated patterns (occasionally with slight deviations) over and over and over until you fully engrain the response in System 1 and can do it as an immediate reaction to a given stimuli.
Lots of things make it more fun than the fencing for me(which i haven’t done as much of). The extreme coordination, sensation of slashing rather than stabbing, and the strange moves i’ve learned to do with them are really fun. The creativity, spontaneity, the flow of body movements and impacts, the mental reactions, psychological warfare on the person opposite you (learning how to terrify people with a look or yell is fun), and entire experience is awesome.
The fencing that I’ve done was more historical in nature rather than modern fencing. It used a rapier and a dagger rather than just a single foil. I don’t know if I’d reccomend fencing with a foil. It looks interesting but kind of boring. (I would likely learn it just to know how, but not want to do it often.)
Dual-wielding itself is strange. I will have to write more about it a bit later.
HEMA/longsword/Fiore/Marozzo.com/Liechtenauer/Wiktenauer.com/hroarr.com? That stuff?
I think it ranks insanely high on the fun level but does it do anything for fitness, self-confidence or feeling sexy?
Also, have you tried empty-handed martial arts like boxing, wing chun, karate or bjj? How would you are empty-hand vs. weapon on these four axes: fun, fitness, feeling confident, feeling sexy?
HEMA/Fiore is the rapier-fencing stuff that I’ve been doing. I’ve enjoyed learning footwork from the more formal setting I’ve found with the rapier people I know.
The other stuff I’ve done (which makes up the majority) is more freestyle rattan dual-wielding and freestyle shinai fighting that uses a mix of japanese fighting (less kendo, more musashi), filipino stick fighting, and some HEMA twohanded sword fighting (this stuff is weird). This resembles the dogbrothers videos more than anything else (although we both don’t wear much padding and don’t hit anywhere near as hard as we could).
I’ve tried brazilian jiu-jitsu with a focus on very close sparring but I didn’t enjoy it very much at all and found it to have limited usefulness. I don’t think the place I went to gave very good instruction or had the right focus.
I would rate the above as follows:
Rattan dual-wielding fun 10 (12 if i can go above 10 in the 1-10 scale), fitness 8, feeling confident 9 , feeling sexy 8?,
Rapier fighting fun 7, fitness 6, feeling confident 3 , feeling sexy 6? (dressing in armor probably contributes for 4 points and the other 2 are from actual rapier fencing)
shinai fighting fun 6, fitness 5, feeling confident 4, feeling sexy 3
brazilian jiu-jitsu (unoptimized dojo) fun 1, fitness 3, feeling confident 2, feeling sexy 0
Rattan (kali stick) dual wielding wins by a large margin and is probably the most fun thing I do in my life. It accomplishes the all-important task among sports of creating a strong cardio and muscular activity that is fun to the point that you will do it for hours on end. It has also taught me a great deal about myself physically and about states of mind that I can use to achieve higher functionality when necessary. It has strongly boosted my confidence and gives a strong sense of physical empowerment (you might call this “feeling sexy”?) that has been a refreshing change in my life.
This is fairly awesome. I was actually speculating something like this. For some reason, I feel fencing / armed fighting is “more natural” than unarmed martial arts. This makes no sense—I think it is far more likely that it has no biological basis but simply a specific application of human generic intelligence / tool-using, I don’t think have evolved specific circuits for beating things with sticks in a skillful way. Yet, it does feel exactly so. I cannot really tell why, maybe just the effect of too many movies, but it does feel so that a human was “born” for holding a sword much more than for making a fist.
May I ask what makes rattan dual wielding so special? From a fitness point of view, they are lighter than metal weapons / feders ? And what makes it more fun? Is it the coordination thing? From my limited experience, I don’t really like that kind of one-handed fencing where I put the other hand behing my back, it is not natural at all. But holding a buckler, or using a two-handed longsword that feels natural enough. I never tried dual-wielding. What it is really like?
Whoops. Forgot to post this:
Dual wielding is strange, cumbersome, uncomfortable, and amazing since all of its starting flaws decrease as you build proficiency over time.
Dual wielding requires coordination and ambidexterity but you build both of them as you practice regularly. I do practice swings with both arms every day independently and then together. When you dual wield you need to be a proficient fighter with each arm independently and with both arms together. When you fight you need to be able to (attack-left defend-right), (attack-right defend-left), (attack-left attack-right), and (defend-left defend-right) with each mode all being the same mode and switched in between seemlessly. This is harder and easier than it sounds. It also has major psychological benefits when fighting someone since any sort of “mode” that gets adjusted to can throw them off significantly when you switch to another.
Idealy every movement involves both arms simultaneously. However,i’m not quite there yet so there’s a lot of switching between which arm is my attacking arm (with the other defending) back and forth. (With both arms attacking occasionally or when there’s an opening, of course.)
Dual wielding has a reduction in reach compared to a twohanded weapon but it also provides you a constant extra source of defending yourself and harming an opponent which most competent fighters will approriately be very careful against.
The actual experience of fighting with two weapons at once is likely beyond my abilities to describe. It’s quite different from everything I’ve put in my posts and may be very different for me than it would be for you.
Rattan dual wielding is more fun for me personally and complex in a way that is really fun. Kali stick fighting (which i have only learned informally) is interesting because it uses the rattan sticks as a practice weapon that can easily be replaced with something more dangerous (mace, axe, sword, etc.) or anything that you happen to find around you when you need it (pipe, stick, glass bottle, etc.). It builds coordination, control of your off-hand, and allows for a lot of creativity.
The rattan sticks are useful instead of a metal stick due to their light weight, grip, and how easily they bounce off of other rattan sticks. (They also have a very satisfying sound.) Lots of the practice drills i’ve done involve both people using them and executing repeated patterns (occasionally with slight deviations) over and over and over until you fully engrain the response in System 1 and can do it as an immediate reaction to a given stimuli.
Lots of things make it more fun than the fencing for me(which i haven’t done as much of). The extreme coordination, sensation of slashing rather than stabbing, and the strange moves i’ve learned to do with them are really fun. The creativity, spontaneity, the flow of body movements and impacts, the mental reactions, psychological warfare on the person opposite you (learning how to terrify people with a look or yell is fun), and entire experience is awesome.
The fencing that I’ve done was more historical in nature rather than modern fencing. It used a rapier and a dagger rather than just a single foil. I don’t know if I’d reccomend fencing with a foil. It looks interesting but kind of boring. (I would likely learn it just to know how, but not want to do it often.)
Dual-wielding itself is strange. I will have to write more about it a bit later.