Several weeks ago I posted a video by Ramsey Dewey on our Facebook page. Like the video says from the very beginning, he is trying to answer that age-old question new martial arts practitioners will ask, "how do I get better?" And, as you can see in the video, he gives a clear answer: train diligently for years and years. This fact of martial arts life most of us already know.
But he then goes on and gives a more detailed answer by providing a list of eleven specific things a martial artist, new or seasoned, can do to get better. Ramsey, as a non-HEMA martial artists, is rather obviously giving these suggestions from a general martial arts perspective, or perhaps even from a very specifically MMA or BJJ perspective, given his own personal training paradigm. Like I so often do on this blog, I thought it might be interesting and useful to take his non-HEMA viewpoint and narrow it a bit so these suggestions -- all of which are quite sage and helpful -- can be more easily applied to our HEMA work.
Though this may seem rather obvious, Ramsey is still apparently asked by new students how often they should attend class. "As often as you can," he answers in the video. "The more time you spend doing something the better you'll get at it."
As important as this is for any martial art -- indeed, anything you're trying to learn, for that matter -- I would venture to say it is even more important within the HEMA context. Our HEMA clubs or schools are little enclaves of historic martial arts surrounded by a world that couldn't care less.
Not that other martial arts are particularly mainstream, but the point here is the matter of interpretation and perspective. When we go to class we're not just learning, say, how to do Zwerch, but how our school is interpreting the various moving parts that go into throwing a proper Zwerch. It is these small nuanced differences in learning technique that makes going to your HEMA training so vitally important.
To paraphrase what Ramsey says, actually putting in effective training time compared to just milling about talking about how good you are is what makes you a better fighter. Obviously, if a person wants to get good at martial arts they need to actually train in martial arts rather than talk about it.
In the video, Ramsey implies there are an awful lot of folks in MMA or BJJ clubs that are more interested in earning belts and impressive titles rather than in actually learning how to fight. Although this, in my experience, isn't so much the case in HEMA clubs, there can certainly be the tendency to veer away from training and make things more about social time. It's not a bad thing that the people in a club grow close and enjoy each other's company, but that's not really what training time is for.
But one thing every HEMA club must be acutely aware of is that training time must be structured in an intelligent and deliberate way. I've written before about deliberately planning one's training time in a way that there is time for warm-ups, drills, working a specific skill, and either some sparring or sparring games. If not, we tend to go off the rails pretty quickly and our training time can easily become junk training.
"Tapping out in the gym is the sound of learning, not losing." This is a tip Ramsey makes in the video that is clearly intended for his MMA/BJJ students. However, it has a complete application from the HEMA perspective as well.
For anyone who studies Ringen, you know that awkward feeling of knowing you're likely about to go down, but still feeling like you could fight the inertia if you wanted to. However, unless you actually have a reasonable counter you can immediately perform that will change things, it might be better just to take the fall and move on. Fighting a throw when you are almost assuredly off balance and twisted is a good way to turn your knee or wrench your back, things none of us want to deal with.
"Tapping out" in this context can also mean you know you're injured and, rather than training the way you want, you wisely choose to limit what you're doing. Maybe you hurt your shoulder some weeks earlier and are still recovering, though the desire to swing that sword is strong. But despite that desire you "tap out" of training, and keep tapping out for a few more weeks, before picking up that sword again.
Better to know our healthy limits rather than pushing something just for the sake of feeling compelled to participate.
This is a tip that sounds somewhat odd at first, yet upon further explanation, it makes sense, especially from our HEMA perspective.
What he's talking about here is the frustration we feel when we're the new person, or just taking up a new weapon, going against people who have been training for years. Sparring is important, but constantly going against people who easily ring our bell is no fun and can be a difficult hurdle to overcome if we want to keep coming to training. Perhaps even worse than that is going against someone vastly better than we are knowing they're holding back simply to be nice.
So the point here is, as a newbie, to find other newbies against whom you can spar to have an honest assessment of how you're doing and to enjoy a little honest success against an equal. If you're going against someone who is equally as untrained as you and you get a really good shot in on them, not only will you have the flush of success but it will encourage you to keep coming back.
This next tip is for the person who has been training for a while, who knows what to do, how to do it, and why they're doing it, and to test their skill against someone equally well trained. While being paired with someone as the same level of inexperience, as in tip four, is designed to give you an early sense of accomplishment and joy, this tip is for the practitioner who knows their stuff and wants to be challenged. Going against someone who is your equal helps you hone your skills and your strategy in real time and is an excellent way to develop further skills and better strategy.
No one likes to get crushed, especially when they are legitimately good. However, no matter how good you are there is always someone a little bit better than you -- perhaps a whole lot better than you. This tip requires the swallowing of a whole lot of pride, because you, as a well-trained and practiced fighter, know full well you're most likely going to lose.
That's why the various regional sparring days that are such common events are so many clubs now are great things in which to participate. You can go there most likely never having fought any of the people in attendance, and it won't take long before you can find the folks who are clearly really, really good. That's a great time to cross swords with these fighters and to learn a few new things in the process.
We're all good at something. Likewise, we're all not good at other things. Unfortunately, human nature tends to make us want to achieve the things we're not so good at rather than what we already have talent in.
We all have different body types, abilities, talents, etc. Perhaps you're just not very good at Longsword for whatever reason. However, perhaps you seem naturally gifted at Messer. If you feel compelled to train and compete at Longsword because it's what everyone else is doing, then, unfortunately, you're setting yourself up for failure. But if you recognize your gifts and, even if you do some Longsword because it's fun, train exhaustively at Messer you will find and be utilizing your niche.
In the video, Ramsey points out that martial arts is the only sport he knows of in which participants disregard the idea that physical fitness, strength, flexibility, etc., are important parts of training. Well, Ramsey, I can do you one better: HEMA is the only martial arts I know of in which a person can start one month, invest in a full competition-appropriate kit the next month, and sign up for a tournament the following month.
It usually doesn't work that way. It normally takes years of dedicated training before a person starts seriously competing in a sport. And, during those years of training, the athlete is working on developing their bodies to their peak performance ability.
Now, here is a unique aspect of HEMA: we're all amateurs, to one degree or another. We're not college students who are on campus primarily to train and compete in a sport, nor are we Olympians with sponsors who can make physical training our main pursuit, nor are we professionals who get paid to become perfect physical specimens. No, we're just normal folks with day jobs who have a really unique and cool passion.
Yet despite that, if you truly want to get good at this you will also train your body independent of your weapon studies, to the best of whatever your physical condition is. Not only is it good for your body as a whole, but it will also be excellent for your HEMA work.
This is the work you do on technique outside of regular training. Are you practicing footwork, swinging your sword, running the Meyer's square, doing outside of training? You certainly should be.
In my opinion, this is particularly important in HEMA-specific terms. While practicing your martial arts when not at training is important in any system, in HEMA this can also mean being in the treatises to learn from the Masters themselves, it can mean reading various interpretations of the same technique or watching different videos to get several points of view. It means always remaining open to looking at the same old things in very different ways because, ultimately, it means accepting that we are all always students, and so as such, we should all always be learning.
OK, to be honest, it is this tip that got me to thinking about doing this as a blog post because I feel like it's just that important.
I can imagine that in the non-HEMA martial arts, word of mouth is extremely important, getting your friends excited about it is vital, and the utility actually bringing someone to training is beyond description. I can also imagine that should you offer to bring a friend to your TKD, or MMA, or BJJ training you might get a response like, "I'm not in good enough shape," or "I don't know if I have that in me," or "I just don't think I have the time."
Talking up our HEMA skills is just as important, as is bringing a friend, but it's even more important (and challenging) because in addition to the above responses we might get "So you do role-playing?" or "You play with swords," or "I'm not into fantasy things."
There is a built-in hurdle to getting people involved in HEMA because it isn't mainstream and people, by our nature, don't like to do new things. Telling everyone you know about what you do and bringing a friend to training is incredibly important for the growth of your own club as well as the growth of HEMA in general.
This is an across the board tip that should seem obvious but like Ramsey says in the video it often is not. People feel self-conscious about asking the same thing over and over, which they really shouldn't; instructors are there, after all, to instruct. But I also really like how he points out that people won't ask what's happening when they keep losing because they simply assume they're doing something wrong. Don't assume that. It could just as easily be because your opponent is doing something right, and it'd help you a lot to know that.
So, ask all the questions you have!
OK, folks, I hope you like these tips, and like my HEMA interpretations of them. Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
But he then goes on and gives a more detailed answer by providing a list of eleven specific things a martial artist, new or seasoned, can do to get better. Ramsey, as a non-HEMA martial artists, is rather obviously giving these suggestions from a general martial arts perspective, or perhaps even from a very specifically MMA or BJJ perspective, given his own personal training paradigm. Like I so often do on this blog, I thought it might be interesting and useful to take his non-HEMA viewpoint and narrow it a bit so these suggestions -- all of which are quite sage and helpful -- can be more easily applied to our HEMA work.
1. Go To Class
Though this may seem rather obvious, Ramsey is still apparently asked by new students how often they should attend class. "As often as you can," he answers in the video. "The more time you spend doing something the better you'll get at it."
As important as this is for any martial art -- indeed, anything you're trying to learn, for that matter -- I would venture to say it is even more important within the HEMA context. Our HEMA clubs or schools are little enclaves of historic martial arts surrounded by a world that couldn't care less.
Not that other martial arts are particularly mainstream, but the point here is the matter of interpretation and perspective. When we go to class we're not just learning, say, how to do Zwerch, but how our school is interpreting the various moving parts that go into throwing a proper Zwerch. It is these small nuanced differences in learning technique that makes going to your HEMA training so vitally important.
2. No Junk Training
To paraphrase what Ramsey says, actually putting in effective training time compared to just milling about talking about how good you are is what makes you a better fighter. Obviously, if a person wants to get good at martial arts they need to actually train in martial arts rather than talk about it.
In the video, Ramsey implies there are an awful lot of folks in MMA or BJJ clubs that are more interested in earning belts and impressive titles rather than in actually learning how to fight. Although this, in my experience, isn't so much the case in HEMA clubs, there can certainly be the tendency to veer away from training and make things more about social time. It's not a bad thing that the people in a club grow close and enjoy each other's company, but that's not really what training time is for.
But one thing every HEMA club must be acutely aware of is that training time must be structured in an intelligent and deliberate way. I've written before about deliberately planning one's training time in a way that there is time for warm-ups, drills, working a specific skill, and either some sparring or sparring games. If not, we tend to go off the rails pretty quickly and our training time can easily become junk training.
3. Tap Early
"Tapping out in the gym is the sound of learning, not losing." This is a tip Ramsey makes in the video that is clearly intended for his MMA/BJJ students. However, it has a complete application from the HEMA perspective as well.
For anyone who studies Ringen, you know that awkward feeling of knowing you're likely about to go down, but still feeling like you could fight the inertia if you wanted to. However, unless you actually have a reasonable counter you can immediately perform that will change things, it might be better just to take the fall and move on. Fighting a throw when you are almost assuredly off balance and twisted is a good way to turn your knee or wrench your back, things none of us want to deal with.
"Tapping out" in this context can also mean you know you're injured and, rather than training the way you want, you wisely choose to limit what you're doing. Maybe you hurt your shoulder some weeks earlier and are still recovering, though the desire to swing that sword is strong. But despite that desire you "tap out" of training, and keep tapping out for a few more weeks, before picking up that sword again.
Better to know our healthy limits rather than pushing something just for the sake of feeling compelled to participate.
4. Find Training Partners You Can Crush
This is a tip that sounds somewhat odd at first, yet upon further explanation, it makes sense, especially from our HEMA perspective.
What he's talking about here is the frustration we feel when we're the new person, or just taking up a new weapon, going against people who have been training for years. Sparring is important, but constantly going against people who easily ring our bell is no fun and can be a difficult hurdle to overcome if we want to keep coming to training. Perhaps even worse than that is going against someone vastly better than we are knowing they're holding back simply to be nice.
So the point here is, as a newbie, to find other newbies against whom you can spar to have an honest assessment of how you're doing and to enjoy a little honest success against an equal. If you're going against someone who is equally as untrained as you and you get a really good shot in on them, not only will you have the flush of success but it will encourage you to keep coming back.
5. Find Training Partners Who Are Your Equal
This next tip is for the person who has been training for a while, who knows what to do, how to do it, and why they're doing it, and to test their skill against someone equally well trained. While being paired with someone as the same level of inexperience, as in tip four, is designed to give you an early sense of accomplishment and joy, this tip is for the practitioner who knows their stuff and wants to be challenged. Going against someone who is your equal helps you hone your skills and your strategy in real time and is an excellent way to develop further skills and better strategy.
6. Find Training Partners Who Can Crush You
No one likes to get crushed, especially when they are legitimately good. However, no matter how good you are there is always someone a little bit better than you -- perhaps a whole lot better than you. This tip requires the swallowing of a whole lot of pride, because you, as a well-trained and practiced fighter, know full well you're most likely going to lose.
That's why the various regional sparring days that are such common events are so many clubs now are great things in which to participate. You can go there most likely never having fought any of the people in attendance, and it won't take long before you can find the folks who are clearly really, really good. That's a great time to cross swords with these fighters and to learn a few new things in the process.
7. Find Your Niche
We're all good at something. Likewise, we're all not good at other things. Unfortunately, human nature tends to make us want to achieve the things we're not so good at rather than what we already have talent in.
We all have different body types, abilities, talents, etc. Perhaps you're just not very good at Longsword for whatever reason. However, perhaps you seem naturally gifted at Messer. If you feel compelled to train and compete at Longsword because it's what everyone else is doing, then, unfortunately, you're setting yourself up for failure. But if you recognize your gifts and, even if you do some Longsword because it's fun, train exhaustively at Messer you will find and be utilizing your niche.
8. Become An Athlete
In the video, Ramsey points out that martial arts is the only sport he knows of in which participants disregard the idea that physical fitness, strength, flexibility, etc., are important parts of training. Well, Ramsey, I can do you one better: HEMA is the only martial arts I know of in which a person can start one month, invest in a full competition-appropriate kit the next month, and sign up for a tournament the following month.
It usually doesn't work that way. It normally takes years of dedicated training before a person starts seriously competing in a sport. And, during those years of training, the athlete is working on developing their bodies to their peak performance ability.
Now, here is a unique aspect of HEMA: we're all amateurs, to one degree or another. We're not college students who are on campus primarily to train and compete in a sport, nor are we Olympians with sponsors who can make physical training our main pursuit, nor are we professionals who get paid to become perfect physical specimens. No, we're just normal folks with day jobs who have a really unique and cool passion.
Yet despite that, if you truly want to get good at this you will also train your body independent of your weapon studies, to the best of whatever your physical condition is. Not only is it good for your body as a whole, but it will also be excellent for your HEMA work.
9. Do Your Homework
This is the work you do on technique outside of regular training. Are you practicing footwork, swinging your sword, running the Meyer's square, doing outside of training? You certainly should be.
In my opinion, this is particularly important in HEMA-specific terms. While practicing your martial arts when not at training is important in any system, in HEMA this can also mean being in the treatises to learn from the Masters themselves, it can mean reading various interpretations of the same technique or watching different videos to get several points of view. It means always remaining open to looking at the same old things in very different ways because, ultimately, it means accepting that we are all always students, and so as such, we should all always be learning.
10. Tell Everyone About What You Do (And Bring Your Friends)
OK, to be honest, it is this tip that got me to thinking about doing this as a blog post because I feel like it's just that important.
I can imagine that in the non-HEMA martial arts, word of mouth is extremely important, getting your friends excited about it is vital, and the utility actually bringing someone to training is beyond description. I can also imagine that should you offer to bring a friend to your TKD, or MMA, or BJJ training you might get a response like, "I'm not in good enough shape," or "I don't know if I have that in me," or "I just don't think I have the time."
Talking up our HEMA skills is just as important, as is bringing a friend, but it's even more important (and challenging) because in addition to the above responses we might get "So you do role-playing?" or "You play with swords," or "I'm not into fantasy things."
There is a built-in hurdle to getting people involved in HEMA because it isn't mainstream and people, by our nature, don't like to do new things. Telling everyone you know about what you do and bringing a friend to training is incredibly important for the growth of your own club as well as the growth of HEMA in general.
11. Ask Questions
This is an across the board tip that should seem obvious but like Ramsey says in the video it often is not. People feel self-conscious about asking the same thing over and over, which they really shouldn't; instructors are there, after all, to instruct. But I also really like how he points out that people won't ask what's happening when they keep losing because they simply assume they're doing something wrong. Don't assume that. It could just as easily be because your opponent is doing something right, and it'd help you a lot to know that.
So, ask all the questions you have!
⚔
OK, folks, I hope you like these tips, and like my HEMA interpretations of them. Stay loose and train hard!
-- Scott
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