#HEMA works too

[justatumblinweed]

Currently thinking about the Sword Girlfriend thing I RBed earlier and now I just reaaaaally wanna take a fencing class.

With what time, money or energy? Not sure but I desperately need to be a musketeer and/or pirate like yesterday.

[elmushterri]

THE REST OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS! (Rough concept)

So everyone here but Jules (until Season 4 ish, that kinda place) would name their friend group Team Queen.

There’s Freddie (Frederick), he’s a rich kid from a wealthy family who also happens to be goth. He’s super kind, very fashion forward. His mortal wounds are on his palms and his weapons are a Broadsword, targe (circular arm shield) and dirk (the dagger he’s holding with his shield hand). A HEMA fencing thing! He died in a fire and his power.. which I’m now deciding to call “Saving Grace”, meaning ‘a power that would’ve saved someone from their death’ is being able to become fire. Not every saving grace is as obvious as his, sometimes they can be abstract. Many people can die in the same way but have completely different saving graces.

Carter is a sort of ‘mean girl’, she doesn’t adopt that title but she’s too insecure and defensive to change her behaviour. She’s fine, mostly, just very blunt. Her mortal wound is on her head, she was crushed between (working idea) two large, heavy objects. Her weapon is a sabre. I contemplate giving her dual sabres.

Captain V’s the captain of the royal guard and the adult of the group. They’re much older than most knights. Died by pushing someone out of the way of a falling diamond chandelier and being pierced in the back. Their weapon is a rapier which doesn’t have space to be drawn on the image 😭.

Yeah eventually Jules joins Team Queen and gets a haircut. Thinking about it, I wanna make it clear that Jules isn’t an Amity Blight type, she was ‘always’ kind and much softer and more naive. She’s the kind of antagonist that’s pretty kind cause she doesn’t think she’s… the antagonist. She’s just ‘aggressive’ to Sidra but in a pitying way because Sidra didn’t choose to be Queen. Captain V really dislikes Jules in the start.

[misslisamiray]

I'm likely not going to be able to make this one myself, but I'm still happy to announce that O.H. has a new event coming up soon!

Operation Hammond will be providing first aid at Long Tail 2024 in Warren, RI on Sunday, October 27th. Hosted by Black Cat Historical Fencing, this is a brand new HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) event. We’re excited to be part of their inaugural year!

For more on Long Tail and Black Cat Historical Fencing, visit www.blackcathistoricalfencing.com

As always, to learn more about our charitable mission and how you can help nerds in need, please visit our website at www.operationhammond.com

[stabbythespaceroomba]

Okay here we go again! If tumblr deletes this I’m gonna scream

Aeron - easy to see what he’s wearing, underclothing can be speculated

Aeron’s layers include breeches, tunic you can barely see under gambeson, gambeson (over something with long sleeves), tabard, gauntlets, gloves and belts, then then cloak

I’d argue you might have another underlayer of an undershirt, but that might just be the tunic you can see. We have nothing canonical for that, but it would make sense!! we can’t see if he’s wearing a quilted gorge or how his gambeson connects around his neck, meaning we can’t see if it’s tied or pulled over his head.

You can see a bit of a dip in the collar though so I would Heavily argue that it is tied down the front

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Davos is now easy to know! Kieran Burton fed us GOOD today! Living for the fact that it’s Not a woollen tunic!

People into Davos-sexy times will be glad to know that the breeches are not just suspended but laced up (@benjicotblckwood thinking abt you lmaooo)(possible on both sides at the front, from the amount of string but I cannot see due to the shadow) . As is his under shirt, it laces at his neck

The next layer peeks out slightly!

It’s quilted and grey and I’d suggest it’s probably a quilted gorge maybe like

Or something more like that ^

Then comes the gambeson

Quilted and tied at the front, she looks lighter and is shorter than Aeron’s. The leather detailing would give extra protection and could easily be swapped with metal.

On top is his beautiful leather braided jerkin, woven leather gauntlets and cloak!

Everything seems to be tied together and nothing looks too heavy. This is a guy who prioritises moving fast

Layer check - breeches and undershirt, mystery quilted layer, gambeson, jerkin, cloak. 5 layers!!

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So much work and thought have been put into these two, rather throw away outfits! They’re beautiful! I love how it shows Aeron in quite traditional knights wear. Aeron looks very proper for his station and yet is still underprepared! He doesn’t even have any mail on, bless him.

Davos on the other hand, his clothes are more of a wildcard and yet he’s clearly coming from money, he’s well protected himself and you can see that he’s well suited to fight with his knife. His clothing looks lighter but is no less unprotective (for border guarding, not necessarily a battle field 😬)

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If anyone has any other idea or thinks I’ve named anything wrongly pls let me know! I’m a HEMA enthusiast and an medieval/early modern church historian not an armour expert!

[bri-the-nautilus]

Come To the Dark Side, We Have Hot Guys: A Star Wars Story

Spoilers below for S1 of Ahsoka and the first six episodes of The Acolyte.

I'm writing this with The Acolyte most of the way through airing its first season, with episode 6 having released earlier today. Say what you will about the show, but it's really brought out a lot of the uglier sides of the Star Wars fandom. Everyone and their mother has seen videos or Reddit threads dunking on the Critical Drinker or SWT and their mouth-breathing misogynist audiences at this point, so I don't feel particularly compelled to retread that ground. Instead, I want to talk about the... other side of the fandom, the hypocrisy therein, and how we're all being played for absolute fools by the creative team at Disney Lucasfilm.

Yes, this post is about Qimir.

Now I want to say that I have no problem with villain simping/shipping. Far from it. Most of my posts on this account are me simping for Shin Hati (we'll talk more about her later) or various Soulsborne bosses. Hell, my mutuals and I have a running joke about me having a weakness for evil blonde women. While I personally am too gay for my own good and couldn't care less about men as a concept, I absolutely see the appeal of characters like Qimir and Kylo Ren. I absolutely get why people thirst over them and love making fandom content for them. I think Qimir/Osha has the potential to be a really fun ship, actually. The point I'm making here is not "simping for these characters is wrong and bad," and I want to make that crystal clear before we continue.

That said, let's talk about Qimir, and how the landscape of the show and its surrounding discourse has changed since his reveal. Again, I'm ignoring the chud sphere here, partly because their little corner of the Internet has remained remarkably stagnant since then. The podcast bros still think it's woke, fucking Shadiversity is still whining about fight choreography (which as someone who actually has done HEMA/stage combat, Shad annoys me to no end, but that's an entirely separate can of worms), and it all seems to be business as usual over there. No, the most marked changes have been on the Acolyte-positive end of the fandom space. Here's what the top posts in "hashtag TheAcolyte" on Twitter look like tonight:

You get the idea.

Again, no hate to any of these people. This is tumblr ffs, we've all engaged in a little simping for a morally dubious hot person. I love seeing fans having fun engaging with something, and again I kinda dig the Osha/Qimir ship.

Anyways, if you were around for the Acolyte-positive discourse before the Qimir reveal, and especially the show's marketing and the reponse to that, you'll have noticed a marked difference.

Fans quickly began to see The Acolyte as " the gayest Star Wars ever." Showrunner Leslye Headland is an out lesbian, and her wife was cast as Master Vernestra Rwoh. Archetypical girlboss Carrie-Anne Moss was cast as Master Indara, immediately drawing comparisons to her role in the Matrix movies. Leads Osha and Mae Aniseya are played by the nonbinary Amandla Stenberg. The lesbian witches of Brendok were talked about in press releases before the show aired. Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon) stated in an interview that she portrayed the short-haired, serious Theelin as having a crush on Osha, something that fans were picking up on in their first interactions in the premiere before Keen even gave that interview. While Headland said in a post-premiere interview that she didn't set out specifically to make "a capital Q Queer show," it's an objective fact that no Star Wars movie/show has had as much potential in that area, and fans (especially the queer community) took notice. (For what it's worth, in the same interview Headland commented that she was proud of creating something that so many queer fans identified with.)

The show came out, and Master Indara was killed off in the first sequence, which I'm honestly fine with. It was a good scene and works on a lot of levels. Headland's aforementioned interview came and went. Episode three aired. The lesbian witches turned out to be even gayer than was previously thought possible, and people ate that shit up while the Critical Drinker's brain suffered a major cascade failure. Jecki became a runaway favorite in the premiere and episode four, as did lovable himbo Yord Fandar and the wise, paternalistic Master Sol. In Acolyte-positive circles, this was basically how it went. People thought Brendok was cool, the Yord Horde became the show's biggest social media sensation, Jecki and Sol cultivated devoted followings alongside Osha and Mae, there were a wealth of different ships involving various combinations of Jecki, Yord, and the twins... you get the idea.

Then episode 5 happened.

The writing was really on the wall when the Brendok coven was abruptly wiped out. Introducting such an interesting (and queer) Force-wielding culture only to exterminate them in the same episode was certainly a choice that somebody made. But episode 5 was a shock to the system for many fans, as the show's resident Sith revealed himself and killed Jecki and Yord in some of the most brutal recent onscreen deaths in Star Wars. To be clear, I think this was a great sequence. Two beloved main characters being suddenly and gruesomely killed off was a masterfully executed shock to the system, especially after viewers were lulled into a false sense of security by all the redshirt deaths in the previous scene.

This, understandably, completely changed the landscape of the Acolyte fandom. Virtually overnight, much of the simping and shipping involving Jecki and Yord dried up, and once the dust had settled as far as the "rip blorbo, gone too soon" posts went, what remained were the usual Sol/twins offerings and a wave of Qimir hype. Which is understandable. He's a badass emo Sith boy with a cool helmet who brutally murdered fan favorite characters in front of us and has palpable tension with the female lead. Who wouldn't love... wait a minute.

This feels familiar somehow.

But if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all?

And just like that, "the gayest Star Wars" is all about the (straight) sexual tension between an edgy, murderous Sith boy and a light-side girl plagued by dark thoughts whose friends said boy just killed. This is all eerily similar to how the Sequel Trilogy focused on Rey and Kylo while abruptly dropping Finn and Poe's character arcs. Even the fandom discourse is the same. I mean Reylo was so ubiquitous back in the day that it became a derogatory catch-all for good girl/evil boy shipping. Multiple authors now have either gotten their initial start/fame writing Reylo fics, or straight up published legally distinct Reylo fiction after the fashion of Netflix's After. You had the occasional person piping up to say "hey they kind of just left Finn and Poe hanging after TFA, it would've been cool if they got together but at the very least don't relegate them to being side characters/comic relief in separate story threads," and that was it. The same thing is going on with The Acolyte now, only the sequel trilogy wasn't marketed on the strength of being a queer story by a queer creative team. The Acolyte is, which makes it all the more baffling that by the midway point of the first season, all the gays have been buried and the show seems to be heading straight for Reylo 2: High Republic Boogaloo. And the fans are eating it up.

As an interesting aside, I think it's an interesting exercise to contrast the Kylo/Qimir pattern with the broader fandom's treatment of Shin Hati (told you we'd circle back to that), and the ship between her and Sabine Wren. On paper, Shin is very similar to Kylo and Qimir. Villain? Check. Edgy-looking armor? Totes. Emotionally damaged/stunted in some way? Sure looks like it. Tension with the heroine? You betcha. If anything, the only major difference is that Shin isn't as evil as the others. Compare her actions in Ahsoka (clearing out part of a light cruiser with Baylan and making repeated attempts on Sabine's life) to Kylo (oversees multiple war crimes, kills his fan-favorite dad) or Qimir (orchestrates the murders of several Jedi before brutally executing two fan-favorite characters). She's definitely bad, but I struggle to see her as on par with Qimir, let alone fucking Kylo, in terms of evilness.

Which makes it all the more interesting to me that the Shin/Sabine ship has received so much more mainstream skepticism/criticism than the Osha/Qimir or Rey/Kylo ships. "They have no chemistry!" "She's an evil murderer!" "She's a blank slate!" "Sabine is taken!" I may be a touch biased, but from where I sit a large part of the fandom, even the ostensibly progressive side, seems to look down upon Shin/Sabine shippers while swooning for heterosexual variants with far more evil villains.

This isn't a monolith, and I can't stress that enough. I'm not trying to start shit here. Villain shipping is awesome. We support women's wrongs in this house. You do see the occasional person decrying Reylo or Osha/Qimir as toxic, which I think is fairly unnecessary. Like yeah, maybe it's a toxic dynamic, but these are fictional characters. For these specific characters, part of the crowd appeal is the toxic badboy side of things. I don't think we should really spend much energy attacking any fictional ship (between adults, mind you) as toxic, which is why it puzzles me that an as-yet-unconfirmed lesbian ship in a niche show receives such a large proportion of this sort of criticism compared to the canon relationship between two main characters of a blockbuster trilogy.

At the end of the day, this whole affair has been rather sobering for me on both Disney Lucasfilm and the Star Wars fandom. For all the support the Shin/Sabine ship has received from Ahsoka cast members Ivanna Sakhno (Shin), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger, the other character people like to ship with Sabine), and Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka), I'm rather sour on the prospects of it becoming canon. The sequel trilogy dropped the ball on what many saw as a promising chance for an MLM romance between Finn and Poe in favor of trotting out the "why do good girls like bad boys" dynamic, and The Acolyte, "the gay show" overseen by a lesbian, has seemingly shifted to center a similar dynamic after killing off most of its prospects for a queer relationship among the main cast. Simply put, I think that Disney as an international company based in the frighteningly divided United States is reluctant to commit to anything beyond lipservice in terms of LGBT representation in their movies/shows, which again doesn't leave me feeling optimistic about WolfWren's canon potential. And the fandom takes the bait. People love the damaged evil badboy/good girl dynamic, and when the queer fandom suggests the possibility of a queer ship taking center stage in a show with no other extant relationships, even the more progressive side of the fandom tends to either ignore it or actively push back on its basis in reality until Disney Lucasfilm inevitably puts the kibosh on it. The amount of times I've heard people dismiss WolfWren for the same reasons they now like Osha/Qimir and liked Reylo (before that ship was fleshed out/canonicalized, anyway) is ridiculous, but at the end of the day you kinda feel stupid for expecting anything else. Again, I think Qimir is a cool character and I'm as much of a sucker for villain romances as the next girlie, but seeing how easily the fandom lets dangling heterosexual carrots lead it away from Disney Lucasfilm's broken promises of queer rep is a sobering ordeal.

[stuffforthestash]

Modern Academic AU I Guess?

Got the idea of professor Raphael stuck in my damned brain all morning, so here's hoping writing thoughts down will banish him back to the hells yeah? Edit: There is now a Part 2 and Part 3 __________________________ Raphael - School of Law, obvs. Teaches courses on contract law and legal ethics. He has a reputation for being the kind of asshole professor that can make or break your academic career, and the fact he's tenured is likely the only reason he hasn't been fired over the countless reports of student blackmail and harassment. Gale - Dep't of Literature. His classes are all niche topics like "Magic, Myth, & The Power Of Metaphor", "From Merlin To Dumbledore: A Historical Look At The Wizard's Role In Storytelling", and "The Ancient Art of Flyting", and they're extremely popular. He loves his job, the students love him, but he's rubbed a lot of his colleagues the wrong way. Astarion - School of Theater & Music. Teaches the 101 level acting course and has a rep for being absolutely brutal, but his methods are undeniably effective. Also teaches stage combat workshops, and is constantly on thin ice with the admin for the way he encourages the gaggle of students that started a fan club for him. Wyll - Health Sciences. He's a practicing physical therapist who was invited to also teach part time, due to having gained a reputation as a leading specialist in working with underserved minorities and victims of trauma. His classes are niche and can be hard to get into due to limited availability. Knows Astarion because they're both in HEMA, and sometimes helps with the combat workshops Karlach - Women's rugby coach and former pro-athlete who had to retire after a chest injury. Is also in HEMA, and was inspired by her buddy Wyll to also pursue Phys. Therapy as a career shift. Shadowheart - Grad student doing her thesis on some obscure theological topic, teaches a generic 101 level religious studies class and is obviously only there because the school requires her to put in the hours. Lae'zel - Also a grad student, transferred from overseas. Studying Sports Management and was assigned as an assistant coach to Karlach, except she's in ASC and is constantly making digs about how their practices are vastly superior to HEMA's foolishness. Halsin - Environmental Science. He's the department chair, and teaches courses on conservationism and land management. All his courses are out in the field though, which means he's never on campus and is nearly impossible to get hold of. He hates being the dep't chair, and he only reason he even accepted the position is because nobody else would. Jaheira - Facilities director, not a teacher. Always somehow knows everything that's happening on campus, has contacts everywhere for anything you could want done, and is the person you least want to piss off. Minsc is her shadow, nobody's even entirely sure if he actually works here but is too afraid of Jaheira to ask. And if you actually made it this far, well.. thanks for reading? I'm so sorry? But also share your thoughts! And lemme know if there's any other characters worth doing a 2nd post for.

[caesarsaladinn]

I stopped going to HEMA partially because it got too didactic. the guys who ran it was always focused on “technique” and “strategy” and “winning.” now, I’m a college student and I spend most of my time getting corrected for doing shit wrong, and I don’t want that in my hobbies too. also I realized that 80% of the fun was in getting whacked really hard with a sword.

so I propose a schismatic HEMA group that’s just a well-padded and heavily armed fight club. no sword? get a 3-foot pipe at Home Depot. I don’t care. let’s just work off some frustration together.

[mactiir]

I just started doing HEMA, is there any workouts I can do so I’m not worn out at the end of a single bout?

You probably won't like this answer but, running.

Understand I'm RELATIVELY new to HEMA (less than 2 years) and also fairly new to being non-sedentary (couldn't run a mile before this year and only started sort of working out ~3 years ago), so I am not an expert. But Sparring WIPED me when I started. I cross trained with climbing for several months, figuring strength and balance were the trick, especially since my arms and back were sore CONSTANTLY at first. And climbing helped like, a tiny bit, but I still had zero capacity for long or multiple bouts. Then I picked up regular running specifically to increase my endurance for steel kit HEMA. In 3 months of regular cardio I went from fencing like, 2 bouts a day max before I was too wiped to continue, to fencing 5-6 high intensity bouts in a day with a energy to spare.

And, honestly, running sucked ass at first. I took 5 months to complete a "9 week" couch-to-5k program. I walked over 90% of my miles for the first month. But holy shit, I feel like a fucking Olympian in the ring. Even when my technique needs work I'm literally running circles around fencers whose only cardio is fencing.

Strength is good too, but I hate weights so I do body weight stuff around climbing. Exercises focused on the upper back and shoulders are useful specifically for longsword. These can be low-weight, since swords aren't honestly that heavy (although strength can be useful in tourney bouts, strength building is a different story from 'doing bouts without feeling like death'). Bicep and tricep curls, chest presses and overhead rows will all make it so your arms/back/shoulders don't get tired. But for me, and for a lot of new fencers, the limiting factor is cardio, cardio, cardio. Do more cardio. Take as much time as you need to build up to regular and comfortable cardio, but. Seriously. Do cardio.

[earlgraytay]

Thank you for your addition to that post about transhumanism, it is making me have Feelings.

Like, my ideal form if I could have it would be a shape-shifting gryphon-y thing that exists outside of time but. That is utterly unattainable. No amount of socialism or hrt or therapy can get me that. In a way it does make it easier to exist with the body I have, and there are some changes I’ve made and could make which have and would make me happy. But something like gender euphoria probably isn’t really attainable for me, and that can make it difficult to envision the person I want to be that *is* doable and work towards that. How does one grasp personal image and identity when all of the feasible options aren’t fully right? I don’t know yet, but I guess I’ll keep working on it.

Anyway sorry for the ramble. Your post just helped me crystallize some more of my thoughts about identity, so thank you for that

Oh, oof, I'm sorry you've got to deal with that. That's really, really rough.

...I think the best way you can work towards finding an Ideal Self you can live with is to find aspects of your Ideal Self that translate to this reality.

I'm never going to be a pretty brooding anime vampire prince; that's just not an option. (For one thing, I'm too bubbly and optimistic; for another, I'm short, fat, and hopelessly poor.) But I can learn HEMA and work on fixing my slouch and get some Cool Boots. Similarly, I'm never going to be an Oxford don circa 1935, but I can research odd bits of folklore in my off time and wear tweed sport coats with elbow patches and pontificate about the kids these days. (...Maybe not that last one.)

So like, what does being a gryphon Mean To You? What are the admirable traits that go with Gryphon-ness or Shapeshifting? How can you cultivate those traits in small, attainable ways? (Or big, semi-attainable ways?)

I can't answer that question for you, because I don't know what being a gryphon means to you. But figuring that out will go a long way towards figuring out your Ideal Self.

[applesjuice]

I had a tought, when Akari come home, would they be interviewed about the pokedex to know if what fact where real or just myth?

Could be funny if people goes "why did you wrote that Spiritomb were composed of spirits? You could have chosen better idea, or even wrote their true nature?"

And she goes "But that's the truth :/????"

Cue Cynthia watching her Spiritomb in diesbelief.

Anyways, love what you're doing ;)

Thank youuu! Guys i promise I'm still working on this behind the scenes, I just really wanted to finish my ogerpon head so I was focusing on that.

As for interviews, I know I said previously that Akari would be uncomfortable with Cynthia upon getting back initially (because Volo) but once everyone is reintroduced and the drama of omg Kieran is alive has passed, Cythia would actually reach out with questions to both Akari and Ingo. I think Akari would go back to Sinnoh for a bit with Carmine (because she is sticking to that kid like glue) as a request from Cynthia to help clear up some misunderstandings on the pokedex and gain clarity on certain misconceptions they had about that time period.

The Spiritomb question would be hilarious because in SV they're just sort of...there lurking in ruins. So hearing " no yeah they're an amalgamation of 100 malevolent human souls" or whatever is insane, on the level of Phantump is the soul of a child who got lost and died in the woods. There has to be some sort of ethics behind how the greater public handles and treats pokemon who were supposedly once human.

Akari calls their Spiritomb Vessa for obvious reasons but like, do all the spirits merge into one being or is it just a mishmash of the souls of the damned screaming in eternal anguish? Spiritomb as a concept is terrifying.

But Akari would definitely be able to answer questions they have about the pokemon of the region and their more natural habitats before numerous settlements displaced them. Like there's some Hisuian pokemon present in the Terrarium in the DLC, so there has to be some sort of preservation or breeding initiative in place for extinct variants. Akari would know exactly where they lived, what they ate etc and have actual notes on it, so the chances of them finding preserved remains of these pokemon have significantly gone up.

Not to mention the variants they'd have brought back, along with Ingo. Alpha pokemon in particular were considered a bit of a myth so having literal alpha pokemon present confirming yes these things used to get this big in the wild would open a whole new area of study because HOW. And then there's the evolution of modern pokemon battling from battling wild pokemon and trying not to die, that's a whole thing to get used to again. Im sure there's regulations for a reason, stay behind the line for the trainer's own safety but in a controlled enviornment like what Ingo fostered with his path of solitude, it would be neat to see a different branch of competative battling being fostered similar to how HEMA differs from modern fencing.

But having access to one of the people who helped make the original pokedex would be such an exciting experience for that corner of academia because seriously, "how was porygon present in Hisui" "oh yea it came in a space time rift and i found these cable things during those too and thats how i could evolve haunter" would be WILD.

[historicalfightingguide]

"In this video we cover the basic techniques of parrying described in Meyer's 1570 Sidesword/Rapier treatise. This is not intended to be a complete disassembly of each technique, rather it is a generalised overview with some consideration of important points in the movement. This is the first of at least 2 videos covering the techniques and principles of parrying in the context of Meyer's system."

You may find the other posts about Daniel Pope's work on this blog useful as well

Also here’s a masterpost of sorts of Meyer content on this blog

You may also enjoy this general one-handed sword according to Meyer video as well

(and keep in mind the dussack is used by Meyer within his 1571 book as a basis for all one-handed weapons).

As well as these videos on how to apply the Meyer square to a dussack, and some other dussack-handling drills.

The provoker-taker-hitter tactical concept and its uses are quite relevant to dussack as a weapon.

Lastly you might find the dussack tag of the blog relevant too.

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

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

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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.

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

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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.

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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).

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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters

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Look at the previous posts in relation to running and cardio to learn how that relates to historical fencing.

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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial

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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.

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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.

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More on tactics in fencing

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Types of fencers

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Open vs closed skills

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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing

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

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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.

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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.

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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.

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The provoker-taker-hitter tactical concept and its uses

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Approaches to goals and methodology in historical fencing

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A short article on why learning about other sports and activities can benefit folks in combat sports

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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.

[mallory-x]

Thank you @bazzybelle for the tag! I love getting tagged in things even if I don’t always remember to reblog them

Were you named after anyone?

I have the same name as my mum’s cousin but she says I’m not named after her. Apparently my mum just picked a name that she liked that she didn’t know anyone else had used for their child, and managed to predict one of the most popular girl’s names that year. By the time I was in upper sixth there were 12 of us in sixth form with the same name.

Do you have kids?

No. I have complicated feelings over it but I’m at a place now where I’m happy with being childfree. I’m in my mid 40s so it’s unlikely to happen even if I wanted it to now.

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Me? Sarcastic? Never!

(I have to warn new people that I’m a sarcastic bitch and to let me know if I go too far and I can tone it down a bit)

What's the first thing you notice about people?

If they need help/support. I used to think it was annoying that people would always approach me to ask directions or something, but now I’ve realised they approach me because I’ve made eye contact first. Now I’m older and more confident I go up to them if they’re looking lost and ask if I can help.

What's your eye colour?

Hazel. Predominantly brown with a dark limbic ring, and green around the iris.

Scary movie or happy ending?

Happy ending. I don’t like horror films (except vampire and werewolf ones, which don’t count). I can cope with a sad ending if it’s the noble, self-sacrificing type of sad ending. (Yes, the irony of this when I’m in the Sandman fandom, I’m well aware!)

Any special talents?

Appearing confident and organised when I’m really just anxiety, ADHD and autism in a trenchcoat.

What are your hobbies?

What I say my hobbies are: knitting, crochet, embroidery, reading, steampunk

What I spend my time doing: scrolling discord, Instagram, and tumblr, and reading smut on AO3, all while procrastinating any of about 16 craft and writing projects

Have any pets?

I have three cats - Giles, Willow, and Cordy (Cordelia). We did have five cats earlier this year, but we lost Charlie to heart failure in April and Spike to a car accident about six weeks ago.

What sport do you play/have you played?

I recently started learning Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) - specifically 15th century German longsword. Hob Gadling would be proud!

How tall are you?

I tell people I’m 5’9” (1.75m) but I’m probably closer to 5’8” these days

Favourite subject at school?

Maths. Pure maths in particular is so elegant, it’s like poetry.

Dream job?

What I’m working towards: nurse practitioner in the emergency department

What I daydream about: running a little secondhand bookshop/cafe with lots of little nooks with sofas and armchairs to curl up in, regular groups coming in for crafting sessions or board gaming or toddler groups, hanging coffees for homeless people - a place that people feel welcome and want to come and hang out in.

Tagging @janimoon, @acanthoscurria, @shadowpuppet-storyteller, @zigzag-wanderer, @temve, @starlightervarda, @tryan-a-bex, @ginjones, @gabessquishytum, @paprotkarotka. No pressure of course

[msfbgraves]

The drowning imagery in Lucy's condition is so prominent that it did remind me of Dutch fears (though it seems it's from Stoker's fear of drowning after he dove to drag out of the Thames a drowning man) and her recurring nightmares of struggling to reach the surface

I think that the fear of literal drowning may have been more the author's imagination than a Dutch cultural thing. Beautifully put into the book, wow! I don't know many people in my country walking around with a literal fear of getting engulfed - it's more the idea of water being a potentialy very dangerous element that has to be actively monitored every day. Not much time spent worrying about the supernatural if the natural is right there and ready to kill you at a moment's notice when you don't actively keep it in place. It's always in front of you, the weather is always changeable, it's beautiful and we love spending time near and on it but never mind ghosts who is minding the dykes?! How much rain? What is the wind doing? The tides? Even with droughts suddenly the ground may not be getting enough moisture to keep the water defences working.

Disease is very similar, we're historically very aware of its destructive power. If we want to curse someone, we tell them that he can go get cholera (or typhus, or lung disease). Those are also very immediate environmental threats. In fact, when we want to say: and then the shit hit the fan, we say: "then we had a pleurisy outbreak, alright!" (Toen brak de pleuris uit!) Aka things got as chaotic as during an outbreak of lung disease! We really have enough to be going on with without believing in vampires. What I also love is that in modern Dutch urban fantasy, we would be very dispassionate and utterly practical about prevention: "Alright, kids! Camp supplies - everyone pack their swimsuits, toothbrush, plasters, clean underwear, travel bottles of holy water, half price at HEMA this week, tell your parents, anti zombie salt, pocket crucifix, no Jochem the one in a Swiss army knife is too small, I keep telling you, knives are dangerous. Sunscreen! Bring sunscreen! Pocket money. Miss Visser will be collecting the silver bullets and operating the gun, no small handguns allowed on pain of expulsion. Guns are dangerous. No crossbows or stakes we leave the staking to the professionals! Keep your eye out for bats but know they are a protected species! Any neck wounds are to be reported to the nurse immediately! Also ticks. When in doubt, you call emergency services and press #5, yes, #5 Sanne, share your live location and check for the nearest church for protection at all times! No attacking any vampires or werevolves by yourselves, aight? You can carry a handgun with holy water but that's it, and if someone takes anyone's eye out with it we will be very cross. Musquito nets against pests and vampire dust will be provided. Yes, Esther, Murat, Pranita, the carrying of crucifixes is allowed as a matter of public safety and is in accordance with Hindu, Jewish and Muslim custom, we've checked with the authorities. As is sheltering in churches. Do bring your own prayer mat, and inform us about any dietary requirements. OK? OK! Let's go have fun!!!"

So the imagery Lucy's death may not be a Dutch thing, but Van Helsing makes perfect sense.

[runscold-runsdeep]

Just A Check-up

Hema (OC)

Warnings/disclaimers: EKGs, OC and an unnamed character, implied anxiety and stress, chest pains and palpitations

Word count: 600+

Hema finds himself getting anxious about chest pains and a rapid, pounding heart, so he decides to get it checked out. He's okay, don't worry.

//Author's note

Just something I wanted to write down about my blorbo. My silly guy. I need to start making more content for him, since he's the perfect candidate for these kinds of writings

🫀⸸⛧⸸🫀

Hema shuddered, the cold air of the infirmary chilling his bare torso as he laid back on a rather stiff stretcher, shifting a bit to get comfortable on it after having his heart listened to by the sister of sin who worked the nurse duties in the infirmary. A familiar face in an all too familiar place.

He was far more than just familiar with the Ministry's infirmary, his given vessel being weak upon his summoning resulting in the plague ghoul making frequent, almost daily, visits for tests and diagnosis for whatever disease or abnormality decided to show itself that day. This test was no different.

He twitched slightly, the sticky gel for electrodes against his skin chilling him further. "Ain't there no way you could warm these up before stickin' 'em on me?" Hema complained with his noticeable Southern drawl.

"Are you going to whine the whole time, or do you want to find out why you're experiencing these chest pains and palpitations?" The sister of sin raised her brow at the ghoul, glaring playfully at him while feigning annoyance.

"Well, I just figured that since I'm a regular visitor I should have some kinda special treatment here." He folded his arms behind his head, which earned him a couple of light jabs to the ribs, making the ghoul jolt and swiftly clamp his elbows to his sides.

"And with how frequent you visit, I'm surprised you haven't learned to keep your arms down at your sides for these types of tests." She scolded.

"Right, right. Sorry." Hema chuckled bashfully.

The nun began gathering the electrodes, which were tangled like webs, sorting them out and placing them where they should go on Hema's body. Soon, the machine did its magic, showing all the peaks and valleys of the demon's heartbeat and printing it all out. They seemed normal. A steady rhythm with no skips or stumbles. There was one issue, however. It was just a little fast for a ghoul of his size. The nun hummed thoughtfully at the paper.

"What? What's it showin'?" Hema leaned up a bit to face her.

She said nothing, setting the paper aside to remove the electrodes from Hema's body, the ghoul wincing whenever the gel tugged at his body hair. "Am I okay?"

"Well," the dark nun began, "It appears normal for the most part, but it's not your usual rhythm." She explained, "Your heart sounded perfectly clear when I listened to it, which leads me to believe there's really nothing wrong with your heart at all. Have you had any caffeine?"

"No, ma'am. It makes me too jittery." He replied truthfully.

"Have you been nervous about anything or stressed out?"

Hema thought hard, his brows furrowing as he looked to the side. "I dunno what I would be stressed about. I mean, this tour is over now, so I shouldn't be stressin' out or nervous 'bought anything."

"Stressors tend to linger, even if you don't think it's there." She turned to a desk, writing something down on a sticky note and handing it to him. "Give this to Papa so he'll know to leave you be for a while. Rest up, drink some chamomile or lavender, chill out for a bit."

Hema glanced over the note before looking to the sister of sin, nodding at her and giving her a soft smile, "Appreciate it." He stood up from the stretcher, stretching, "Hopefully I won't need to bother you again today."

"Hey, you're not a bother." She patted his arm, "I'm here to help you when you need it."

Hema smiled a little wider, "Thanks."

After sending the note off to Papa Emeritus, he did as instructed. He decided to make himself a calming tea and curl up in his den, watching TV and sipping the warm drink. He already felt a little better.

[drukhari]

I'm curious about HEMA but come from a stage combat background and they say nothing is planned/choreographed?? How do y'all stay safe?

Nope when we fight it is all live in the moment - though with the casual sparring that my club does you can say to someone "hey I wanna spar you but im trying to work on XYZ attack/defense/guard so can we start from this position and go from there?" Or "hey I forgot my shin guards so can we say no leg hits this round?" And everyone is always cool with stuff like that.

There is a full armor kit that we spar and compete in, and the swords aren't sharp so we can't actually cut each other...that said even with the helmets, padding and hard shell components of the armor and gloves it's very much so a contact sport where you are getting a steel sword swung at you at speed with the intent to land a hit, so bruising is fairly common

And in some instances people can get injured beyond that if someone is going too hard, if a sword breaks mid-fight, etc. The above pic was from a cut that a friend landed during one of our bouts last weekend (the pic is a few days old at this point but it's still there, just a little bit less angry looking now).

My fiancée landed this one somehow (we don't honestly remember how, I could have swore it was a cut, she remembers a thrust, but the result is about the same lol) and another one of her hits connected with the underside of my thumb where the gloves did not have any hard paneling and left a solid bruise there too.

Most of the time mid-fight the hits that bruise up like this don't hurt anywhere near enough to be an issue in the moment, because we're all friends in the club I spar in so we aren't ever fighting at full force. They just always look worse after the fact 🤷

[foreststarflaime]

Greetings I am Star o/ (or Forest, or Foreststar) I am just here to have fun and scream into the ether about the stuff I like. Sometimes I may go a bit without posting anything tho bc words do not always work for me

Also I like dragons, swords, stars, pretty much anything fantasy and nature, etc. I adore stories of any kind! I’m studying classics and linguistics so I talk a lot about that, and my favorite hobby is swinging swords at my friends (HEMA—historical european martial arts, I mainly do longsword)

Tags for my stuff for organization:

Star’s Dragon Sanctuary now open! Feel free to ask us about any of your dragon-related needs or curiosities! (The link refuses to work but that’s the name of the tag)

Star rambles — my stuff, me yapping

Star essays — the long essay analysis posts I sometimes do — star gushes for the more poetic ones — star scenarios for au/shitpost type stuff

My writing — stuff I write, mostly fanfics but there’s some original stuff in there too — Ao3

My ocs — I don’t post about em much here but I have many! Feel free to ask about them. In particular there is Foreststar

I also have a ff7 dragons au now!

Ask game prompts — love doing these, as well as any other tag game stuff! Ask game for responses and asks for general asks in case I accidentally buried yours in reblogs

Other tag stuff under the cut

Middle earth — tolkien stuff, my first and eternal hyperfixation

Loki — any version of him really. But my fav is the Agent of Asgard version from marvel comics. I will never shut up about Loki I love him whenever he appears in anything

Ff7 — final fantasy 7

Armory — hehehe pictures of various weapons but mainly swords :) used to be just under swords so you can also look there

Dragons — I am and always have been obsessed

Stars — this and the two above it are my 3 favorite things ever

Classics — greek and roman stuff

Linguistics — cool language stuff

Random stuff — stuff I couldn’t otherwise categorize

Nature — cool pictures

Castles — I use this tag very loosely, should probably change it to architecture but eh

Dw — doctor who

Mi — mission impossible

Technoblade, philza minecraft

Pokemon

Gf — gravity falls

Stray gods

Hades — the game

Flight rising — dragons :) my favorite

Nimona — this movie healed my soul

Epic — the musical

Hlvrai — half life vr but the ai is self aware, by wayneradiotv

Bg3 — Baldur’s Gate 3

Genloss — generation loss (same stuff, changed the tag)

Tiny glade — my stuff under #my glades

Merlin — the bbc show

Fma — fullmetal alchemist (brotherhood ofc)

Pb — the princess bride

Rdr — red dead redemption

Uu — unstable universe/unstable smp

Lifesteal — lifesteal smp

Totg — twilight of the gods

Es — elder scrolls, mainly skyrim

Wtnv — welcome to night vale

Mp100 — mob psycho 100

Tdp — the dragon prince

Temeraire

Frozen, Tangled (esp the series), Mulan, etc

Pnf — phineas and ferb

Sky cotl — children of the light, gorgeous mobile game

Wtnv — welcome to night vale

Poto — phantom of the opera

Parkour civ (formerly tagged as Parkour civilization) — what the hell why am I here why is this stupid series so good wtf

Pvp civ — pvp civilization

Aaa — agatha all along

gomens — good omens (NOT neil gaiman)

Sanders sides

Gw — the gilded wolves (currently reading)

Mtp — moriarty the patriot (currently watching)

Genloss — Generation Loss

Jrwi — mainly riptide

Wicked

Gladiator

Trsmp — the realm smp

Kww — ken wato wifies collab and related stuff

I probably did not catch all of these. More will come as I think of them unless I get lazy