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[druminmychest]

I was recently ruminating over a conversation I had with another Rattan Fencing enthusiast a couple weeks ago.

His approach has always been “experience” based, whereas I try to drive my improvement through a greater understanding of the art.

I would venture to say that 98% of all rattan fencers really fall into the “experience” category. I also know

Comments

[jamey1138]

What you're talking about, really, is the distinction between raw talent and athleticism, on the one hand, and rigorous systemic practice, on the other.

To his credit, I think that what Rob is describing (as the thing we have *not* yet seen, but are on the cusp of finding) is the person who has both, in sufficient quantities to really rock the universe of SCA fighting (in the way that Bellatrix or Brannos did, in their turns).

The knight to whom I'm squired (who is, by his own admission, a cranky old fart) has often noted that he was knighted some decades ago based on his athleticism, and that he has damned little of that left hanging around him, currently. He still beats the hell out of people, routinely-- but he relies now upon art, tapping into what athleticism he has left to augment it. He's not in a position to revolutionize SCA rattan (because that will take both physical skill and mental analysis-- just as it did with Bellatrix and Brannos, in their turns!)

Interestingly, we saw all of this with rapier, years ago: many of the more capable fighters started looking at WMA sources, because they were cool and fun and because a couple of leading fighters were encouraging people to do so. A few years later, all of the top and up-and-coming fencers were integrating some amount of historical martial arts into their foundations, because it was what worked, and it was winning us fights.

The perception that grew was "You have to be studying WMA in order to be recognized as good," but the reality was more that "If you're not working from some kind of fundamentally sound art, you're going to have a really hard time being good enough to beat people who are..." Not impossible, and there are still talented and athletic people who are completely unanalytical, who are winning fights... but they're the ones who are now clearly "doing it the hard way."

[norfacoflandra]

I'm afraid I didn't clearly elaborate on my point, and you missed it entirely. It's not "raw talent" vs. "athleticism". I had neither, yet I achieved a measure of success by being as quickly adaptable as my limited physique allowed.

More broadly, in general, and I have a lot of 'general' to observe from, acedemic pursuit never gets to the goal because it gets waylaid due to the fun of the journey. Focused intent takes whatever road needed to get to the goal.

Having the study and being able to adapt rapidly based on that knowledge is powerful. But the key is split second adaptation and recognition and change.

Also, a good area to reference are database searches and decision trees. Traditional trees get you there, but not efficiently. Google is taking over the internet because they understand the power of fast searches to present a more limited selection of options.

Same idea.

[cav_attitude]

I don't think you understand "scholarship" in the martial arts, western or eastern. It is not limited to reading/interpreting a treatise, but much practice at applying the enumerated techniques both through drills and bouting. Learning from experience is all well and good, but if you wanted to learn an eastern martial art, would you be so foolhardy to discount the teachings/techniques handed down through a school because you have enough experience to invent your own style? Yet that is precisely what many SCA practitioners do when they discount scholarship/research in western martial arts. Admittedly, there are many WMA enthusiasts who do not apply their studies very often, and SCA combat does let people fight with intensity. But to assume just because you have experience "fighting" in extremely rule-set limited scenarios that you can disregard the lessons from those who fighting was a way a life is the height of arrogance.