#boffer

[lightspeedboffers]

Very very proud of this one. Commissioner wanted a scarab beetle-themed shield, and asked if I could figure out a way to get that cool shiny colour you see on scarabs. Said I'd give it a shot, and discovered the beauty that is Hula Hoop Tape. It's pricey, particularly for this much surface area, but the commissioner has deep pockets and didn't care. That lovely green-gold sheen is hula hoop tape over black duct tape, to get that super unique shine.

He also wanted a cross-body strap, adjustable arm strap with quick release, and a hand-grip with a piece of grip-taped pipe to hold. Built into the back of the shield is a pocket for spell packets, with a fabric flap with a magnet in it. Corresponding magnets are in the pocket and the back of the shield behind it, to hold the pocket open or closed with ease.

(Shield constructed of 2" expanded polystytrene insulation foam, duct tape, hula hoop tape, webbing straps and buckles, 2mm eva foam sheets, neodynium magnets, 1/2" PVC pipe, friction tape on the pipe for grip, and a guitar strap.)

[babayaganoush]

I keep trying to flex on kobold Twitter becuase in real ways I personally helped laid the groundwork fir kobold popularity as a concept by establishing unique lore foe kobolds in belegarth. I know it's not healthy to want recognition like that but the heart wants what the heart wants.

[loveshutterfilmphotography]

2/26/2023 BlackFire Pass Part 4

[parisinflames]

Actual photo of me on the field at a boffer larp

[archerinventive]

A huge thank you to all who came out to the Revenge of the Dragon event this past weekend.

The crew and I at the Kingdom of Loreamour, AKA Sword camp, had such an amazing time.

It's events like this that make all the hard work worth it and remind us how important community can be for the soul.

Thank you to everyone involved, and for all the new memories that we'll cherish for a lifetime.

Here's to next year's festivities and to even more swords!

[queerkhazad]

Listening to the Hades OST while swordfighting is certainly a choice. I would like to apologize for the person that I become when Rage of the Myrmidons comes on

[historicalfightingguide]

Having a variety of tools for a variety of approaches to training can be very beneficial for training historical fencing.

But also having enough money to start up training with full sparring gear and metal swords can be prohibitevely expensive for many people.

In such cases getting some foam swords and minimal protection (mask, gorget, cup, lighter gloves) can go a long way to help folks start out their fencing journey.

And if you're trying to start a club it's potentially a difference between 'tough but doable' and 'straight up impossible unless a big life change happens'.

Today there are many options for foam swords you can order online, but it can be great to be able to DIY some of it.

The above link is a finnish guide on how to do it that many high level hemaists there have used, and similar to how many larpers and sca etc. folks have made their own weapons for years back, but a bit optimized for hema purposes.

Google translate is imperfect but you should be able to understand all the general concepts and get better with follow up attempts.

Also keep in mind the first attempt once you have all the relevant materials(that are fairly cheap pretty much everywhere) it'll likely take you anywhere between 30min and 3h to finish a single foam sword.

But after a few tries you may need no more than 20min per foam sword.

These types of training tools are also great for any day where you don't want to put full regular gear on but still want to fence a bit in minimal gear. They're also great for instilling confidence in beginners to move freely, even if in full gear.

They're also more forgiving and safer if you know there's folks who struggle with control, at least a stepping stone before they're ready to fence freely with steel.

They're also slightly lighter than the steel versions so also more appropriate for beginners if you want more class time to be devoted to training skill, whether through drills, games etc. than to building physical capacity.

However even an experienced student may find them a great tool for improving timing and distance management.

Good luck and hope you all find this useful.

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.

[dizzy-izzy-in-a-tizzy]

not ofmd related, but I skateboarded a tiny bit yesterday for the first time since my accident (successfully at least)!

I'm not good at it by any stretch of the imagination, and wasn't before the accident, but it's been one and a half years and I was finally able to do a tiny lil ollie mostly without pain!

I have to ease into it and see what I can do without hurting myself, but I'm so excited 😁

My fighting still isn't the same since before the accident, but I'm honestly still growing into how I move, now. I'll get there. The greatest fighter I know had his foot reconstructed before he got truly good; I can work through this, too.

[lightspeedboffers]

Created for a pro-wrestling themed tournement in January at Waerloga, the Snowflake Smackdown! Weapons were all stuff you'd find in a hardcore wrestling match, so I made a folding (does not actually fold, I had a short deadline lol) chair and a garbage can.

(Constructed fom 3/8" EVA foam floor mats, spray paint, and some carefully hidden fiberglas spar on the chair to give it structure.)

[dragonofeternal]

So I went to a bdsm club tonight with a friend and somehow managed to end up info dumping at someone about Persona 2, and I think that tells you everything you need to know about me as a person.

[kraniumet]

lamp complete 👍

[kidsomeday]

On Saturday my spouse was in a bad mood so I convinced my Small Fry to come out and wack on each other with fake swords, which I knew was an irresistible lure to my spouse. We all chased each other around for about 15 minutes in the sunshine and I feigned my epic death at least three times. We were all in much better moods afterwards. Go aside and be silly. It helps.

I think adults need to go outside and play more.

[loveshutterfilmphotography]

2/26/2023 BlackFire Pass Part 3

[themeadowlarksings]

guys i went larping over the weekend and now im really sad bc WHY AM I NOT THERE

it was everything i hoped it’d be and everyone was so welcoming and kind and

one night i was getting ready for bed and - since it was like 1am and im a minor - one of the veteran players asked me if i wanted to be walked to my tent and it was so sweet. she was like yeah if you ever need anything at all, come to me and ill take care of it and aaaa everyone was so nice

[prokopetz]

I think the reason folks get confused about whether tabletop RPGs like Dread (i.e., the survival-horror RPG where you determine whether your character dies by making pulls from a Jenga tower) should be considered "diceless" or not is because they're thinking of conflict resolution in RPGs as a binary between "rolling dice (or performing other random-outcome-outputting procedures)" and "non-randomised resource management", when tying conflict resolution to the player's ability to successfully execute a particular skill is actually a third thing. Functionally, games like Dread belongs to the same category of RPGs as boffer LARPs; trying to classify an RPG where conflicts are resolved by having the players get up and hit each other with sticks as diceless or diceful is committing a category error.