Food for Thought

[Jake Norwood]

Yes it is.

[Jake Norwood]

I personally have tried to burn these 21 Regel into my fragile psyche. And constantly try to refer to them before making assinined posts which are nothing more than a stream of consciousness i choose to puke out. lol FAIL
keVin Maurer
MfFg

Hahahahahahahahaa...you and me both, brother!

[Lee S]

I read through this thread...

Mike, Kevin...

Perhaps you should show up to a major tournament and show all of us exactly how its done. If either one of you can do it better, I challenge you come to an event, issue a martial challenge and show us.

It is pretty easy to talk on a forum, and say what you like, dont like and what is good and what is not.

It's much harder to show up, fight a very wide variety of opponents, all of which who are unwilling to be hit. Furthermore fight publically, judged, in front of your peers... and come out the victor.

In the original fechtschule, in the day of Meyer, the object was to hit the other person in the head to the highest bleeding head wound. I think we can safely say that they were doing what ever they could to avoid being hit.

I doubt that it having your scalp split by a stylized club was a very pleasant experience.

The great question then is what would Meyer do?

Would he talk about what is good or bad on a forum, would he sit outside the fechtschule or at the pub griping about various fighters and who is a buffalo, without fighting himself.

Or would he pick up his weapons and show us?

Personally, I think he would go with the latter option.

I think its pretty safe to say that in his day, Meyer was a pretty serious bad ass, inside and outside of the Fechtschule.

And he, along with his students, could back up talk with some pretty serious action.

So, any of us who do not show up to events and fight practitioners from other groups and schools, yet are quick to criticize, are not really training in the spirit of his writings...

Again, to anyone who believes they could do better.

Please, show up, and prove it.

Sincerely.

[Jeffrey Hull]

Yes - I second that Matt Galas should publish his stuff. I appreciate that he shares lots freely. But for his own sake, and for big-picture contextual presentation, a guy like him should put out something cool in future since, well basically, he is about the only one who is and can bring it all together properly. I know for a fact that genre-publishers for our field would put out his stuff if only he proposed something. (Of course, he may have secret plans for publishing, which are his right to keep secret.) MG - we are pleading with you to publish!

[Mike Cartier]

Would he talk about what is good or bad on a forum, would he sit outside the fechtschule or at the pub griping about various fighters and who is a buffalo, without fighting himself.

Well Lee i can see you have not read my posts carefully enough or you would not be getting all testy like this.
Firstly I do fight ,well actually its freeplay, not in the tournaments but that hardly means I cannot comment on the general trend to be seen in them.
Judging by your response here I would say you are illustrating part of the problem, ego ,the tournaments are not fighting they are another form of freeplay.

It is pretty easy to talk on a forum, and say what you like, dont like and what is good and what is not.

yes it is, much as you are doing now

It's much harder to show up, fight a very wide variety of opponents, all of which who are unwilling to be hit. Furthermore fight publically, judged, in front of your peers... and come out the victor.

Well see there is your problem, acting as if the tournament is the final test of the art, something i am precisly pointing out in my posts if you care to read them. A tournament is but one test of many, thats kind of my point. Competition is great but if the competition starts to influence the art form then you have a problem. Pretty much the first step on that bad influence is treating tournaments like some special end all be all of the art. i simply do not agree, the art is a bit more and our tournaments are not quite as vigorous as what they did so its not quite the ultimate test they got to do. i think that means we need to carefully adjust as we go.

And he, along with his students, could back up talk with some pretty serious action.

i guess again we are claiming i have not fought in any tournaments and am therefore full of shit, a fair comment I guess but hardly addressing the points i have outlined as my concerns which you ironically seem to have nothing to add to in any way. I conduct freeplay rather frequently so i think i am at least allowed an opinion to say the least.


See I think what your not understanding is I am not looking to tournaments as some form of proof of legitimacy nor am i saying they are bad, in fact they are great. i am merely pointing out some trends I do see and preparing to fix them in our tournament. See my feelings is , i would rather try to apply the art as I see it and lose than simply do whatever works for me to win, I happen to beleive in the art and therefore my personal ego is not really tangled up in my actually winning but is more tangled up in performing the art as I think it should be and getting that to work even if it means i start with a big disadvantage and lose. Its great to test your art and i am all for it, but it requires some thinking to keep it in line with the art s we see it.

BTW my freeplay is out there for anyone to see, we have as much to learn of the art as anyone else and we accept criticism from anyone so my right to discuss and analyse this stuff is upheld by that I think. If you still feel upset about this discussion then i will be happy to freeplay you anytime you like and I do plan on doing some tournaments some day just haven't gotten the chance to yet.

I still stand by what I said, i want to see more of the art in peoples freeplay and in the tournaments, please do feel free to explain why we do not see it as much as we would like

[A Froster]

Lee,

I am not sure that you read the thread as thoroughly as I thought I did or possibly intrepeted what was said differently from what I got. What I heard Mike and Kevin express were some very legitimate concerns with regard to the dangers of putting tournaments on such a high pedistal in the overall scheme of things. I read what ended up being a very constructive and informative thread with Kevin being his usual snarky but "to the point" self. Since the most recent videos for FA are just now starting to come out on the net and not seemingly fully available yet, one would have to assume that people not attending FA would be making observations based on what is availlable on the internet. Judging by the older videos that are previlent on the net one can understand where both Kevin and Mike might getting their perceptions.

As to Kevin and Mike coming to a major tournament and "showing their stuff" I can assure you that they are both willing and more than capable of holding their own or excelling against any and all comers without reservation. The fact that you haven't happened upon them over the last sixteen months at a major tournament has been all circumstantial and/or financial which is understandable for most people during these economic times. We at the MFFG admire your dussack performances over the last 12 months and would relish the opportunity to learn from you. Therefore, I encourage you to reread the thread in the spirit that I have described and know that we are all after the same thing which is bringing back the Art of Fighting as our forefathers knew it.

[Jake Norwood]

Damn straight I'm mean. I'm gonna tourney-rock your world at DK! BAM!!

[A Froster]

Keeping an open, free and constructive forum is a little like....controlled fusion, but you've got to love it.

[Mike Cartier]

Damn straight I'm mean. I'm gonna tourney-rock your world at DK! BAM!!

Looking forward to it mightily

[Jayson May]

Damn straight I'm mean. I'm gonna tourney-rock your world at DK! BAM!!

Looking forward to it mightily

Now I HAVE to go to Dixie Krieg this year. Just to see that.