Posts: 870 Location: Paris, France
Sat 26 Dec, 2015 12:56 pm
Hi Roland,
Please be aware that this is an old post you are responding to, and therefore not fully representative of what I think, or know about your methods, right now.
That being said it happens that I have not greatly changed my mind since then, having watched your newer videos of course. Since you are claiming that I am misrepresenting your position, I will take the liberty of lifting a few quotes from your own writings so that other can see how I came to that conclusion - that might be expressed a bit too tersely:
Quote: |
He is explicitely doing it with as little safety equipment as possible, in order to induce fear in the participants. He argues that it gets closer to a real fight this way, |
I don't think you would deny that you are one of the heralds of lightnening up the safety gear, having proclaimed not to wear any protection other than gloves and the occasional mask anymore:
Roland Warzecha wrote: |
My personal observation over past decades with various sword-fighting related activities is that generally, the more protection people are wearing the less refined technique is being used, leave alone subtle skills like ”fühlen”. This is why I quit wearing all this kit. |
It is also apparent in your work with sharps, which often appear in your publications without masks or vest or anything. This is of course not without consequences on safety, as a simple slip of control will lead to much more serious injuries. As the basic paradox of martial training is that of safety vs. realism, as you often mention, you must be giving up that safety for the sake of realism, otherwise it is useless risk. It is a conscious choice; you could go at the same intensity, still forbiding any contact, while wearing for example fencing vests and pants at a minimum, which do not meaningfully restrict motion but would foil most incidental thrusts and cuts to the torso and limbs.
How you think it increases realism is made clearer for example in your post on masks:
Roland Warzecha wrote: |
But the true challenge of the fencing mask is a mental one: Because your subconscious mind knows that you are safe, you are likely to take risks that you would never take without face protection. |
This to me, implies that you are effectively levering the fear of getting hurt to modify the behaviour of the participants - again, supposedly to increase the realism of said behaviour, otherwise what would be the point?
I understand why you do not like my formulation, as it makes it look like you are terrorizing your students! You're not doing that for sure, but by relying entirely on control to achieve safety, you are indeed using fear to set the level of engagement. This is not something I fancy getting experienced with, although I do want to explore the mechanical aspects of sharp swords at some point. That is the real added value, and can be explored in drills with a lot of added safety, without the distortions brought by insisting to spar. Consider this a training choice that I wanted to share with others.
Thanks for sharing your work, it is thought provoking at least even when I disagree.
Regards,