The Exiles - Company of Medieval Martial Artists
Combat - Hobby, Martial Art or Living History?
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by Rob Lovett |
| Historical re-enactment, especially in
the Dark Age and Medieval Periods, has been and probably always will
be heavily weighted towards re-creating battles, skirmishes and tourneys
of the past. This, after all is what interests, the majority of the
public, as it easily captivates their imagination and they can relate
to it via their own experiences through watching television and films.
This is probably the reason that a lot of the combatants became involved
themselves as a ways and means to live out our Errol Flynn and Mel
Gibson fantasies. All this aside, there should be just as much of a commitment to be able to accurately display medieval combat as there is dedicated to Living History. Already I can here a clamour of dissent and angry voices but hear me out. Many groups base their fighting styles on modern fencing methods, or restrict shots to the head, do not allow thrusting, all blows must be angled, no blows at right angles to the body and the list goes on. This is fine, if what you are aiming to perform is a theatrical performance, after all we do not want our actors to get hurt, but let us not sell it to the public as an historical representation of medieval warfare. The medieval knight and Dark Age warrior was a martial artist in every sense of the word. He would have been an expert in his field just as much as today's black belt karate practitioner 2nd Dan Fong Yang Khong Chang instructor. Yet, in spite of this obvious disparity between our own fighting styles and that of a medieval knight's we continue in maintaining the lie that we are experienced and well practised martial artists that are fighting in a completely authentic manner. What is this sweeping statement based on? I don't know, but I do not think that any warrior of the past would have purposefully omitted certain shots. The most obvious reply to all of this is that we live in the modern day, we cannot be expected to spend as many hours practising, as did the warriors of the past and above all we must ensure that combat is safe. These are all very good arguments and some of them are indeed valid. The main one though that I come up against is safety. Granted, safety is very important to us all, no one wishes some one else injury, but I do not see that omitting shots is the answer. I believe that the answer is in the approach of a martial artist, we should all adopt the same mentality as that of a black belt karate kid or a master of Fong Yang Khong Chang and approach our training in the same manner. What is the purpose of training? We are all creatures of instinct and reflex. If you place your hand in a flame you pull it away without thinking because your body is conditioned into removing itself from a recognised source of pain. But there are those people that can ignore the pain and overcome that reflex and are able to leave their hand in the flame; in other words they have overcome their natural instinct. Training should do exactly the same for a martial artist. For example, if a punch is thrown at some one they will instinctively throw their head backward to try and avoid the blow. A martial artist would not, and would either block the blow or side step it or a hundred and one other options that may present themselves depending on how the blow is delivered. In other words he would have overcome the natural reflex and would have conditioned himself to re-act differently. Instinct is not a cognitive process. It is instinct that is directly affected by your immediate environment and not the cognitive process, and it is only through cognitive reasoning that instinct can be overcome. This is where training comes in, because it is through training that you retrain instinct to react to certain environmental pressures and conditions until eventually they become instinctual. Now, if you omit from your training certain blows, e.g. the head blow, then you will never retrain your instinct to be able to deal with that particular environmental pressure, and unless you are quick thinking, lucky or both then you will end up with a lump of steel embedded in your cranium. Luckily we do wear helmets. Training is also important so that you are able to learn in safety the basic principles that are common to all martial arts as Silver called them the Four True Times, the Four False Times, the Four Grounds and the Four Governors. How is this achieved safely? Basically the way that all martial artist have always done it, by approaching training in a balanced way, by practising techniques/katas, forms, and sparring with both light contact and at full contact. It is through this style of training, and doing it honestly incorporating all attacks and defences with out omitting any then you will be able to go and fight effectively on the field knowing that you are doing it safely. Many of you reading this will assume that I am saying that we must adopt eastern martial arts and train using their styles and techniques. This is not the case at all. We have a wealth of information that is based from within Western Europe that dedicated martial artists are trying to rediscover least we lose these parts of our heritage. Surely, as re-enactors, who profess a love for the periods of history that we try to recreate, we should endeavor also to recreate these arts not based on what we think is safe and fashionable but on factual documented evidence, and follow our calling with as much dedication as those people involved in living history. If we are not prepared to do this then maybe we should question the validity of what we do, and make way for those people that are prepared to travel this road. The information is available to people who are interested quite easily. There are modern researchers and authors like Terry Brown and John Clements that have both produced books about the very subject of Western European Martial Arts suggesting forms and techniques to practice. These two gentlemen also practice and teach what they preach. Alternatively the source material that they have used can be researched, though for the majority this will be difficult without translations, but these are becoming more and more widely available. There are organisations in existence, which try and promote these western martial arts like the HACA, based in America, and the AEMMA, based in Canada, and over here there are two schools that I know of - Company of Maisters, North London, and the Linacre School of Defence, Oxford. These schools are dedicated to recreating the styles that were used in the past by the weapons masters of old not in inventing a new style. If these people can do this, then surely so can combatants from re-enactment, it is just as important as all the rest of the Living History that is displayed and just as educational. If we truly love what we do then surely we can elevate our levels of training and commitment to that of a true martial artist instead of maintaining low levels of apathy hiding behind excuses? If we are not careful, we will find our selves standing still and being classed with those people that roam around the hills and vales through foam weapons around, along with their fireballs. |