I don't care how you "feel." You are going out of your way to find insult where none was intended. That's not a feeling, that's just foolishness. ...or looking for an excuse to start a fight. Is that what you're doing? Trying to start a fight?
100% horse crap. The point of HEMA is to try to learn how to fight in historically accurate methods. The "MA" in HEMA stands for "Martial Arts." There's no HEMA bread baking classes which study the art of baking.
Honestly, check in with your local SCA chapter. I joined mine's fb group just out of curiosity, and get to see the events they do. One of the things that pops up every once in a while is medieval cooking classes, which may or may not include bread-breaking.
Yes.
As I said before, I think he's referring to the fact that not all LARPers are concerned about functional skill. That many are doesn't change that this is a distinction between the groups. There are plenty of LARPers who just want to play, and some who just want to look cool. Both are worthwhile, but don't have that focus on usable skill.
Check your local SCA branch. There's a lot more than just HEMA done by those groups.
That may be true. You'd have to argue that with someone hwo knows HEMA better than I do. I'm just going off what Tony posted. His assertion is that HEMA has that focus.
How did I know you'd have links handy for these? 😁
SCAdians who "just play dressup" are a small minority. Sure, there are lots of people in the SCA who don't fight. But they do weaving, brewing, armoring, smithing, cooking, dancing, music... Those who "just play dressup" are most likely to be people who are very new to the SCA and haven't really figured out what, specifically, they are most interested in doing.
Do you make a habit of deliberately misinterpreting what people write? This is 3 times now.
Sorry for taking so long to get back to reply to your comments in this thread and in the other one. I've been pretty busy this week.
You'll see that I stated that LARP sparring had both overlap and important differences with actual stick fighting. (I'll discuss the differences a bit later, possibly in a separate comment if this one gets too long.) I did not say that LARP sparring was fake, just that it was different. I will add that someone who understands the overlaps and differences between different systems of weapon sparring (LARP, SCA, real stick fighting, kendo, modern Olympic fencing, HEMA, etc) could use one as a form of supplemental training for the other. Some people do that. Other people engage in more than one of those activities just to enjoy each for its own sake. However being good at one of those does not automatically make you good at one of the others.
For the record, my primary arts currently are also BJJ + Muay Thai/MMA. My weapons background is primarily FMA & SCA, with some other stuff mixed in over the years. HEMA is a relatively new art for me. My group is focusing on Meyer, but I've played a bit with other systems. I did a little bit of LARP sparring (Amtgard) before the pandemic hit. The local Amtgard group just started back up in-person events a few weeks ago, but I haven't found time in the schedule yet to make it back, due to some family responsibilities. Hopefully I'll be able to slot that in sometime in the upcoming months. I don't claim to be a great fighter in any weapon art or combat sport, but thanks to 40+ years of martial arts training I'm generally able to jump in at better than the typical beginner level of sparring.
First part yes. LARPing is a real skill set. Second part no. There's nothing particularly historical about the sparring methods. I'm sure there are HEMA practitioners who also LARP and will slip in a historical technique if it works well under that particular skill set, but fundamentally the rules of LARP sparring are not designed or optimized to encourage the body mechanics, tactical approaches, or specific techniques of historical swordsmanship. Or to put it another way, the best training for surviving an historical fight with real swords is not the best preparation for excelling in LARP battles.
As I said earlier, you’re taking his comment as a personal attack. Not sure why you’re so worked up. It seemed quite different when I read it.I thought what he said, overall was pretty good; with the exception of him taking huge shots at LARPING. Which probably means that he's not that experience in HEMA.
He also took a shot a LARPING in another thread when I suggested to another guy who was training with a cane for SD; that he'd need to spar (which he didn't at all). He was worried to spar due to his older age, and I told him that LARPING is relatively safe as the weapons are foam padded & the skills do transfer over to real life. Your buddy said LARPING is fake, IIRC. So see, I'm not imaging things
I’ve known a few LARPers, including some re-enactors. None were concerned with usable skills. Some (the reenactors) we’re concerned with some level of historical accuracy, I assume some are also interested in working skills in whatever their area of specialty is.
