WolffyLuna

It’s either one of those tropes that has no real world basis, but looks/sounds cool in storytelling and is useful for moving the plot along (see: torture, knocking someone unconscious, a lot of medieval fantasy government stuff)

-Drills. So many drills. Just doing the same motion, or set of motions, over and over and over until it's muscle memory. And then do it some more. These can be done with another person, so you can get a feel for hitting someone (else's sword), or they might be done to a dummy, or just to the air as part of a series of steps

-there is a surprising amount of reading! A lot of what we do is based on styles that originated in the 11th-15th centuries, and were literally written in manuals for future people to use. Sometimes the explanations and diagrams are very clear. Sometimes they are not.

- There is sparring, with variations on goals. Sometimes the goal is just 'hit each other'. Sometimes you will have specific caveats, like if you both deliver a 'killing blow' at the same time you have to run to opposite ends of the room and back

- Footwork drills

- lots of wrist and arm stretches, both with and without swords

- Moving through different blocks/base positions, and practicing different cuts from each position

- More drills, wearing armor or other appropriate gear

- Weights and cardio training! Both are extremely important for making sure you can 1. Swing your sword and 2. Keep swinging your sword when you're wearing 15 lbs of armor and have been hacking at people for a full 20 minutes

- Learning how to maintain your gear

- Practicing control of the blade- this is usually done by having a dummy target (or sometimes a real person), and swinging with full power but stopping before you actually make contact. Master swordsman can bring their blade within half an inch of their target.

- Even more drills

Footwork drills are really important! Learning how and when to move, and shift your weight on your feet, is crucial

When practicing solo I often do so in front of a full-length mirror so that I can actually see what I'm doing

There is also just a lot of sparring. Unfortunately you can't really get good at sword fighting without getting your butt kicked. A lot.

However! A good teacher will give you tips either during or after the fight, or both! A lot of the time it's things like 'you need to improve your footwork more, here are 10 different drills. Go do them.' However, there is also a fair bit of going back over certain 'plays' in slower motion, where they'll tell you exactly what you did wrong and how to fix it in the context of the fight.

Also, just as a side note, unless your character is the progeny of a wealthy lord, they are probably going to use borrowed equipment. It will not fit right. And it will reek with the stench of 1000 sweaty people. And if you train in it enough, when you do get your own gear that actually fits properly and only smells like your sweat, I swear you get 5x better overnight

At some point, everyone develops their own style. I've fought people who love to just make huge stabby lunges, people who make wild flourishes, big guys who just brute force it, guys who look like they'd blow away in a light breeze but are the fastest people you've ever met. It comes over time, and from learning as many different techniques as you can

Not sure how much they did this in Ye Olden Days but almost everyone I've met in HEMA now fights in at least two different styles (usually longsword and Sabre or rapier). As I said above, the more styles you learn, the better you get at all of them; many techniques that you learn from one style are applicable in some way to the other

Faux Cashmere, Silk, and Pearl fibre (50/25/25), worsted, chain plyed.

It is a lovely fibre combination. It was advertised as not suitable for beginners, and I would agree with that. It's somewhat uneven in the drafting, and the fine fibres would occasionally adhere to the other singles and make plying troublesome.

Tulkas is the Vala of war. He came to Arda because he heard that Melkor was battling the others, and he wished to fight one equal to his strength. He is the god of just war, of glorious battle, of protecting the innocent, of vanquishing the evil. Tulkas rides out to battle with a banner streaming behind him to meet his foe face-to-face in fair combat. His philosophy is simple: Protect the good and destroy the wicked. Glorfindel is named after Tulkas, and he is a good example of a devotee of Tulkas.

Orome is the Vala of hunting. He has been in Arda from the beginning, as soon as there was life. He is the god of wolves in the shadows beyond the firelight, of the hunter who kills the wolf and brings back its pelt, of snares and traps, of patiently waiting for hours for a boar to come in view, of running after a herd of deer and killing the slowest. Orome rides out as well, but he kills fell beasts by leading them into traps as often as by spearing them, and will come up on them unawares whenever he can. His philosophy is simple: The weak must die for the strong, and the herd lives on.

When you’re supposed to be a fearsome pirate captain, but the merman your crew just caught is low-key cute