#armored fighting

⚔️ The Armored League’s first Femme Tournament ⚔️

Happy to say that I took second and lost to someone phenomenal ❤️‍🔥 loved performing as Oathbreaker for the first of many times 🙇

“ Where James asks me a lot of questions about Armor, many of which I'm completely unprepared to answer...  We will absolutely discuss armor again soon.

James's Link discussing Medieval Dance Recreation ------ 

A desire line is formed from many people over time choosing not to walk the paved paths, but instead go the way that seems most expedient to them.  they are typically formed when planners don't account for real human behavior. ------

About us!

James is the founder and principal instructor of the Goliath Historical Fencing Academy. He began fencing in 2009, after being inspired by the film Reclaiming The Blade. At Goliath, he instructs several weapons systems including longsword, rapier, dagger, unarmed combat, quarterstaff and halberd. He has taught at private seminars at major fencing events in Europe and Canada as well as across the US.

Jess Finley has had a sword in her hand for the past twenty years. Her initial interest was in stage combat, but not too long after beginning that pursuit began to ask "... but how did they really fight?" From that question, she branched out to German Medieval Martial Arts after being accepted as a student by Christian Tobler, who remains her mentor to this day.   She is the head instructor at Ritterkunst Turnhalle in Lawrence, Kansas. She has taught and competed internationally as well as private intensives at her home.  She also has a background studying Judo under the tutelage of Arden Cowherd of Topeka Judo Club.

She is a published author, having written a book entitled "Medieval Wrestling" on the fifteenth century Master Ott's wrestling treatise of German wrestling techniques..  She also researches medieval clothing construction and fabric armor, and has presented her findings at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo and published an article in Medieval Clothing and Textiles (Boydell and Brewer) on her study of a 15th century quilted armor.

Jess's Patreon is http://www.patreon.com/jessfinley”

And of course some talk of the sources and principles of KDF and fighting in general

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.

Check out their curriculum too.

Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by Kaja Sadowski may be relevant as well.

Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

I’m still kind of in disbelief that I won my fights at this last tournament. It feels like a dream, even though I know it was real, so I guess the only thing left to do is keep training and fight to defend my title.

Honored to keep making a name for myself as Oathbreaker.

You can find the original artwork here from https://www.instagram.com/muzhur/

For folks that are  interested in learning how to fight in armor check out  HEMA Harnischfechten and Knyght Errant(the one where this video is from and has a bunch of other great ones) and the armored section of the wiktenauer website and the  Gladiatoria: Fighting in Armor youtube playlist.  

Good luck everyone.

And stay safe

And if you can consider donating to any of these causes.

Consider getting this rashguard

We need change and justice for all.

This may be a useful link as well.

“The primary reason we chose two armors from 200 years apart is because we both had quality harnesses made specifically for us that happened to be from those times.  The primary intent here is not to compare Japanese to European directly, but to show that both styles of armor are perfectly mobile from the standpoint of a person who needs to fight in them (it should be obvious that they were mobile enough to fight in since...well... lots of people fought in them... but for some reason the lay public is still skeptical that you could move in armor, especially Medieval European armor).  Armor of course needs to fit properly to not artificially limit mobility, so we thought the value of showing two well-fitted armors was greater than trying to match the time periods perfectly while potentially sacrificing good fit.  Otherwise you end up seeing people trying to overcome armor that doesn't fit which could have potentially backfired and perpetuated the myths we're trying to address. The second and less direct reason, which is really more coincidence, is that technologically, although separated in time, these two harnesses are probably more evenly comparable than Japanese and European harness both from ca. 1400.  The shaping of European armor at that time was vastly superior to the equivalent Japanese harness which in my understanding incorporated very little anatomical shaping and primarily hung from the shoulders.  The later Japanese harnesses (like the one in the video) took design elements from European armors to incorporate the load bearing lessons that the Europeans had already figured out.   It is essentially Japanese armor with European influence. “

Do note the beginning is effectively the same in both videos showcasing the armors, but both channels have their own bit with the conclusions of the armor wearer as to the way they felt while wearing their own armor so it’s worth checking both out.

For folks that are  interested in learning how to fight in armor check out  HEMA Harnischfechten and Knyght Errant(the one where the first video is from and has a bunch of other great ones) and the armored section of the wiktenauer website and the  Gladiatoria: Fighting in Armor youtube playlist.  

Koryū Bujutsu 古流武術  For civilized discussion of any and all matters regarding classical Japanese martial arts

Gekiken: Japanese Historical Kendo Fencing For those interested in Japanese historical fencing A few websites useful to those interested in japanese swordsmanship.

And another great martial arts blog on the topic.

For more info on exercising for historical fencing check out this post and the links embedded within it.

And stay safe

And if you can consider donating to any of these causes.

Consider getting this rashguard

We need change and justice for all.

This may be a useful link as well.

For anyone unclear on this Black Lives Matter.

“ How does it feel to wear full knightly harness in the depths of winter? Jason decided to find out... “

Polyarmory.

Originally from here by  Swords by Matthew J Wills which you can also find here on the artists website.

Found here via  The Old Sword Club

Also this comic is obviously about polyamorous love not fighting but if you are interested in learning how to fight in armor check out  HEMA Harnischfechten and Knyght Errant and the armored section of the wiktenauer website and the  Gladiatoria: Fighting in Armor youtube playlist.