![]() ![]() ![]() You may think you are ready but until you can do the solo exercises with ease and fluency, there will be no point moving on. Work your way slowly through the entire solo practice section before attempting the pair work. You may want to speak the instructions slowly into a tape-recorder, leaving space between each instruction for you to accomplish the set task, and play that as you practice. Always start with the warm-up to make sure you are in reasonably good condition, and to get used to following instructions. Then set aside a time, preferably each day, of at least 30 minutes, but not more than two hours, to go through the basic exercises in order. Though the theory comes first, a full understanding of it is impossible unless you have actually made it work in the exercises likewise, the exercises are unlikely to yield good results if they are not approached with sound theory in mind. To begin your study, read the book through, and decide for yourself whether you want to proceed with the long and laborious (but fun, challenging, rewarding, and ultimately glorious) process of making sense of the exercises and the theory. Ultimately, most people train for the improvement of their physical and mental health (which includes for most people a degree of fantasy enactment), and train because the process itself is rewarding. Just don’t expect the techniques you have seen on the screen to be applicable in reality. It can be helpful at times to get back in touch with why you started training in the first place. Use that fantasy to inspire, but not direct, your training. So if you want to become Sir Lancelot, Aragorn, Luke Skywalker, or Conan the Barbarian, then fine, enjoy. People are motivated to train by a huge variety of stimuli and in my experience, it makes no difference what that initial stimulus was. I have had many excellent instructors in other weapons, and I hope I shall not disgrace them: while I gratefully acknowledge their contribution to my training, they are not responsible for the theory, exercises, and underlying martial philosophy that I teach.īefore you begin, you must establish what your goals are. I must emphasise here that the method contained in these pages is mine, based on my own understanding of swordsmanship, backed up by my research and experience. Instead, it attempts to provide you with the complete grammar, basic vocabulary, and key phrases of the language of longsword fencing. This book is not intended to include every possible longsword technique, and it is not intended to be a recreation of the method of any given historical master. It is assumed that the reader has no training in any martial art, so this book includes everything you need to know about how to train: from a comprehensive warm-up to constructing a training schedule. The history of the weapon, an overview of the historical sources for the method of fencing that I teach, and advice on how to maximise the effectiveness of your practice, are also covered. It is a training manual, containing all the basic theory and technical exercises necessary to get a solid grounding in the use of the longsword. ![]() This book is primarily written for such beginners, to provide them with a solid foundation from which to start making themselves into swordsmen. Discussion threads on various internet fora show that the majority of people interested in this weapon do not have a common language to describe the various actions, nor do they have the kind of basic training that would allow their research into the historical sources to really bear fruit. There are many people beginning the study of Western swordsmanship, particularly with the longsword, who have never been taught the basics of body mechanics, footwork, and fencing principles. ![]() CHAPTER ONE Image Missing Introduction How to use this book ![]()
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