Going to fencing practice this weekend

[Sō Haruko]

First time ever. We may be meeting with Don Avenel Kellough. I haven't met him before. There are apparently a lot of teachers and loaner gear at the Allied Gardens practice in San Diego.

I've already asked him, but I also wanted to ask you all -- what should we bring (aside from water and ourselves), what should we wear, and what should we be prepared for? I haven't done martial arts since I did iaido several years ago. I still have my (fabulous, custom-to-my-tiny-height) purpleheart-wood bokken, but I suspect that's not actually useful to bring?

[Shinomori Haku]

i do fencing a lot . you will need to cover up so no part of ur bare skin is showing . they will supply you with head gear if they have loner equipment. in my barony we have legalized kendo tops because mine passed the punch test and my rapire katana from james-the-just pasted the flex test. i just painted kanji on my mask but .... the gorget is hard to make japanese looking. some advice ill give you from my 5 months of fencing experience do not use any kata that is made to fight a katana such as chudan no kamae, unless you get a O-katana or a odachi the range is horrible compared to the 40 and up inch rapiers. i hope you enjoy it!! at uprising i was the only japanese persona fencing. it feels like ur a crane dualist in rukugon fighting gijin lol. please comment on how ur time was im vary curious

[Saionji Shonagon]

Went to my first one a week and a half ago. Actually, I went there to meet up with someone and got connedcharmed into picking up a rapier. (What IS it with all these 20-something male friends? They're like puppies only more dangerous.)

Wear clothing you can move in comfortably and decent footwear. Sounds like loaner kit and weapons are not an issue. Leave your iaido training in the back of your head (a one handed rapier is not a katana) and do what the nice marshal tells you. You'll be fine. Have fun.

(*I, on the other hand, have no martial arts training to learn, merely a lifetime of natural clumsiness to overcome. I have determined that I am not going to spend a dime on kit until I'm certain I'll stick with this, but I did attend a class on construction of rapier armor at Kingdom A&S this weekend....)

[Momotaro Masato]

Good gloves. Good luck, and enjoy your time!

[nana]

Don't be afraid to hit anyone! Have fun!

[Sō Haruko]

Thanks everyone! I'll do my best. (:

[Sō Haruko]

I went, I had a good time, and I am likely to be going back. We actually got to look at some unarmored combat too. That was pretty cool.

I think my general assessment is that I'm going to want to study a bit and see what I can learn before trying to take it in a more Japanese form; rapier is definitely a thrusting and short-distance cut game here in Caid. (Cuts must be a minimum of 5 inches or the width of the cut limb, whichever is smaller.)

Unarmored combat is a whole different ballgame, and apparently currently unique to Caid. They are reproducing period longsword and sword-and-buckler techniques with synthetic nylon swords. This is much more of the slashing-cutting game. One of the Dons is currently teaching from an Italian manual, but the requirement is that you select a period manual to learn from. I may have to hunt a Japanese one up in addition to the Italian, but I am inclined to learn ...

[Yawata Saburou Tadamori]

That is indeed unique to Caid. In many other kingdoms, the Middle included, cull steel cut and thrust is coming into its prime.
With cut and thrust we use stiffer blades and a little heavier armor. but allow full cuts like in heavy combat, just not with the same power.

[Sō Haruko]

Oh, we have cut-and-thrust too, but you are required to be registered as a heavy rapier fighter for a year before you are permitted to do cut-and-thrust. Unarmored is an entirely different beastie that started out as an A&S thing, actually -- heavily into reproduction of period technique. Our Calafian group is currently studying and reproducing techniques from the Marozzo text, but we've been told that if we can come up with a period Japanese text, we are welcome to use it.

On that note -- I know that Five Rings is too late, but I recall that there is an earlier text. I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. Does anyone know? (:

[Yawata Saburou Tadamori]

Interesting. I will have to look into unarmored more.

[Sō Haruko]

It is really very interesting! And many of the sword techniques that were shown to us looked very similar to ones we had learned in iaido.

The swords they are using are from Purpleheart Armory, found here: www.woodenswords.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1837

I am hoping that when the Purpleheart Armory people return to their site, they will post up the synthetic saber; I think that will probably be a better katana substitute than the longsword, and if it is built similarly to the short and longswords, it may only need a hilt/tsuba replacement.