I don’t know if HEMA loses people on a regular basis or not, but if they do, I bet I know where that happens. I suspect it happens in most other martial arts as well, to be fair.
You see, people get bored with the early days when they’re learning the basic foundations.
I know, because I’m there.
Real-world fighting isn’t a lot of fun. It’s nasty, brutal, and the anything-goes nature of a fight means people can get hurt. Badly.
Yet, let’s be honest for a second. Learning to fight can be a blast. Especially if you’re a history buff and are learning a historical method of fighting.
However, the question I’ve asked and seen asked more than almost any other is whether or not any of this is practical for the real world.
I took a look at that question myself a while back, as an outsider to the world of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and offered my take. Over a brief time, I’ve started modifying some of my thinking a bit, but I’m fairly well settled on the validity of pugilism as a valid style of fighting for both HEMA uses and application on the streets.
I’m not the only one who thinks that, either. Continue reading “Pugilism For Real-World Fighting?”
When people familiar with Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), their first thoughts tend to be using a sword. It’s certainly mine. However, as I noted earlier this week, HEMA in real life can totally work for self-defense.
Unfortunately, it’s not just so easy as hitting up the internet, watching some YouTube videos on HEMA, and getting rolling.
No, you need to know where to start. As such, here are my thoughts on viable places to begin HEMA training if you’re interested in real-world applications.
I’m generally not someone who automatically assumes we in the West have gotten it all wrong. I’ve known people through the year who are convinced that anything that comes from India, or the East in general, is somehow superior, more “right” than anything we do in this part of the world.
Again, I’m not one of them.
Hell, part of what I liked about DDP Yoga was that it was all the exercise without the mumbo jumbo.
But what if some mumbo jumbo is something we all need to add to our training, particularly our combat training?
Continue reading “What’s Missing From Most Western Training Methods”
The other day, I wrote about Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and how they can be useful for us today.
At the time, I figured the real-world applications for HEMA was limited to shoulder and wrist mobility. After all, we’re talking about sword fighting. Who the hell uses a sword these days?
But, truth be told, I might have been a little hasty.
Years ago, my wife and I associated with a group of people based on a common interest. It doesn’t matter what it was. What matters, though, is that despite sharing this one interest, we also socialized in general.
Well, until one day when my wife and I got an email asking us to meet up with a couple of the crowd at a local park.
I was deemed a threat. They were scared of me. Why? I liked guns and to shoot. I competed in matches. No one ever expressed a desire to do anything dangerous or anything, but the only real explanation was because I was too scary.
This morning, I woke up with a reminder of just why I want to be scary.
At my heart, I’m a gun guy. I’ve been fascinated by the things for decades now. Every since I first pulled the trigger on my dad’s Smith & Wesson .38, I’ve been a gun guy, even if I didn’t actually know anything about them.
However, while studying conflict through the years and trying to figure out the best way for a person to train to stay alive and safe, I came to the conclusion that they’re just not as important in many ways as some of us like to think. Don’t get me wrong, if you need a gun, you need a gun. There’s no real substitute for a gun in many circumstances.
That said, the truth is that shooting is actually way down on the list of priorities. Continue reading “Why Learning To Fight May Matter More Than Learning To Shoot”
The truth is, men fight. Maybe not for fun, but every person I know of that meets the definition of “man” I’ve laid out has been in at least one fight in their lives. When you think about it, it’s inevitable.
However, if you’re someone raised in the “conflict is bad” era, you may not know how to correctly throw punches.
If you’re one of those, no judgment here. You’re at least wanting to learn how to throw down if you ever need to, so here’s a video I came across that might help. Please excuse the hamhanded attempts at advertising, because the information is pretty good.
These are just two punches, and there are plenty of them, but it’s a good start. Learn these two correctly and practice them regularly, and you’ll be well ahead of the curve if you find yourself in a fight. Continue reading “The Basics of Punching”
There’s an idea that has been going around for years. You’ve heard it. People love to say, “Violence never solves anything.” The statement is meant to push people to engage in dialog to avoid violence.
However, let’s be honest for a moment. Violence solves plenty. The Holocaust, for example. More importantly, though, is that violence solves the problem of evil in our world.
For most of us, unless we’re in the military, we’re not likely to be asked to fight for the sake of ending genocide. That doesn’t mean we won’t have to fight.
Years ago, I was being harassed in my sixth-grade class by another student. The teacher was out of the room, so this student decided it was a fine time to up his usual harassment.
Now, I’d been told for ages that violence wouldn’t solve anything, so I tried to stand my ground as nonviolently as possible.
“What are you going to do if I put my finger in your face?” he asked.
I gently pushed it to the side and said, “I’ll move it.” I kept my voice even and non-aggressive.
Again he put the finger in my face and warned, “Don’t touch me again. Now, what are you going to do?”
Obviously, this was a challenge. The other boy clearly wanted to force me to back down to assert his dominance. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t in that kind of mood.
I gently pushed his hand to the side again.
He shoved me out of my desk, and the fight was on.
Who won? Who knows. It was a sprawling mess of barely landed punches, headlocks, and not much else. It was a sixth-grade fight, after all.
Now, let’s contrast this with a moment when I didn’t fight.
I was at the fair with a good friend. We met up at the local fair. We also ran into this freshman (we were juniors if I remember right) that had a major crush on my friend.
While off to the side, the girl ran into a guy she’d supposedly done something to. She was laughing and trying to hide behind my friend, so at first we didn’t register there was a legitimate problem.
However, when this guy started punching the girl in the back of the head, it was clear.
My friend was in no position to see what was happening. He couldn’t do anything about it.
I was.
I’ve rationalized what happened for some time. Yes, I was in shock when it first started happening as I tried to process that this kid was hitting a girl in the back of the head, but that doesn’t last too long.
Through the years, I’ve told myself a lot of things to try and make me feel better:
All kinds of things have gone through my head. The reality? I was scared, so I didn’t fight. In short, I was a coward.
There may be no feeling that unmans you quite like cowardice. The old saw about how a coward dies a thousand deaths but a hero dies but one? It’s true.
Which is why many years later, when I heard a female voice across the street crying for help, I went.
Her boyfriend was beating her right there in the front yard. I was dressed for bed, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. Nor would I let my fear of the unknown nature of the threat stop me either.
Luckily, the guy ran off, but I felt a lot better about the incident at the fair. Not absolved of my sins, but I did feel like I’d chosen better.
More importantly, as the woman and her family thanked me, I felt like a man.
Yes, men fight. Anyone who tries to argue otherwise is either willfully lying or they’ve completely deluded themselves to believe reality doesn’t exist.
Perhaps they fight when pushed like I did in sixth-grade, or perhaps they do when fronted with someone hitting a woman, which I have a mixed track record of in my own history.
Some guys actually like it, so they get involved in martial arts, boxing, MMA, or whatever. Others study those things so if they have to fight, they’ll know what they’re doing. Others join the military because they want to fight for a righteous cause like defending their nation.
Still others simply find themselves thrust into situations from time to time.
Some will look at the question and say, “No. Next question,” but they are simply pointing to themselves as people who need to be ignored. Men fight. That point isn’t some moral proclimation either. It’s simply a statement of fact.
In fact, as someone who spent time feeling unmanned because I didn’t, I feel confident in saying not only do real men fight, but that anyone who refuses to fight under any circumstances isn’t a real man.
