Greetings,
In my last post I mentioned something of a fencing school that I was creating. This has been a long process and one that I have talked and talked about rather than actually doing anything about. Well, the doing is now happening in a big way. I figured I should give a little more detail.
First of all, keeping with the FM focus of the blog, the idea of the school was to create myself a job which was suited to my condition. The advantage of this is that the only boss I have to worry about is myself, and my wife if things go really silly. Fencing in various forms has kept me moving for many years and now forms a major part of my motivation. This project allows me to do something which I love, something which is good for me, and just maybe turn it into something I *might* make some money off (I am starting this off as a non-profit organisation so money is a future thing). I figure that the best thing for a person to do is to find something that they love and see if they can make something of that.
The School of Historical Defence
Arts (SHDA) is a martial arts school focusing on the application of Historical
European Martial Arts (HEMA) for the purposes of practical application in the
gaining of efficiency in combat. This is not merely following the instructions
found in the manuals as the plays depict but applying this to more practical
situations against some sort of antagonist.
The school, as part of the
process of learning and understanding the manuals, undertakes in-depth
investigations of period manuals taking into account not only their martial
applications but also those aspects of courtesy which are appropriate to the
period and situation. This investigation focused on the practical application
of the information found in the manuals to combative situations, but taking
into account those other aspects significant to the study and also to the
martial art. While the manuals will primarily be the focus of the teachers,
students will be encouraged to have some interest in the manuals and involve
themselves in similar study.
Well, that was a cheat. The above two paragraphs are taken straight from our information sheet. However it does describe pretty well the intention of the school and what I want to do with it. You will notice that this is focused at historical fencing rather than sport fencing. Big difference here I am telling you. The biggest difference being that one is sport and the other is martial art. The Facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/SchoolofHistoricalDefenseArts. The school is based in Brisbane, Australia, however I am fully willing to feed any interest in it. I can be contacted by e-mail about the school at shdacontact@gmail.com.
Cheers,
Henry.
Showing posts with label western martial arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label western martial arts. Show all posts
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Some Dreams Do Come True, But...
Greetings,
There are things that we all want out of life. There are things that we dream about and wish that we could have. There are some things which we cannot have and there are some which we can have. The question with regard to all of them is what are you willing to pay to get there? This entry describes something which has happened recently, which I will get to, and I will tell how I got there. However, it also will be used to see what you can do with some effort.
For many years, ever since I managed to get some experience and some students of my own, I have dreamed about running my own fencing school. This is a dream which I knew was one which was always on the outer limits of what would be possible due to many different factors. But it is one which I have thought about and talked about much. Indeed my immediate family has heard me talk about this dream a lot, and so have some of my students. I knew that this was on the outer limits due to many different factors and this is one of the reasons why it took me so long to do anything real about it.
Sure I had plans for schools many years ago, much of the documentation has been rolled into other endeavours of a similar nature, but much less long-lasting. The reason for this is because these smaller endeavours were easy and never really required much more of me than what I was doing already. So within the SCA, I have had some schools which have grown and developed. Some of these collapsed because they were too big to survive as they were, but achieved their goals. Some collapsed due to internal frictions and misunderstandings of what was required. However, as I have said these were small projects in essence. They did, however lay the foundations for what would happen later on.
If you have a dream that you want to come true, regardless of what it is, you need to put some effort into it in one way or another. Even the dream of winning millions the lotto requires you to buy at least one ticket to be in the draw. You have to be in it to win it, as has been said many times. Of course it also means that there is the chance that it will not work out, so there is the chance of failure. It is this which keeps many away, and I think what prevented me from going outside and doing what the school needed to be "real". Treat your failures as learning experiences and you will find that you can continue. This is what the failure of previous schools has taught me, and it is information that I will use.
Effort on its own will get you places, but it may not be where you want to go. You need a goal, a direction, and a plan. The goal is the end-point, the direction gives focus to your effort, and your plan guides this direction, each one is important. For some, they need to put these down on paper, for others they only need them in their heads. What I can tell you is that while the essential goal will remain the same plans will change. Plans usually change on the information given by failures or intelligences to lead you away from failures.
In my case the goal was the school, which I had for ages. The direction, well I had some to choose from, and the plan, well that was rather flexible due to the options available. In my case, what I needed was a couple of like-minded friends to really get the ball rolling and push me along a bit. They both know who they are, and they have my greatest thanks.
The school was designed to explore elements of western martial arts which were not available to practice under the current regime of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Now, some explanation. I will remain a member of the SCA as I have friends in that organisation and I still have things to give the organisation, however this school allows me to practice other things and investigate more. Also there are some out there who like the idea of some of the practices within the SCA, specifically the Guild of Defence, who are not interested in adopting personas or putting on period attire. Thus this is for them also as some of the structure and many of the teaching practices are the same as the Guild. This is the goal, in essence.
The direction was chosen much for me due to very external factors, primarily finances. The school will at least start as a non-profit organisation due to the current financial climate and available financial resources, however should the situation present itself, the school can and will move to a business platform, but this is for the future. So direction in this part was chosen, it was for similar reasons that the plan was modified.
The result, well let me just say that I have the final planning elements and collection of students and moneys to be made, but my dream has come true. Due to the approval given for insurance through the Australasian Living History Federation, I will be running my own school for western martial arts. So I can honestly say, that dreams do come true. Where I go from here, well it is one of those things that only the future can tell.
Cheers,
Henry.
There are things that we all want out of life. There are things that we dream about and wish that we could have. There are some things which we cannot have and there are some which we can have. The question with regard to all of them is what are you willing to pay to get there? This entry describes something which has happened recently, which I will get to, and I will tell how I got there. However, it also will be used to see what you can do with some effort.
For many years, ever since I managed to get some experience and some students of my own, I have dreamed about running my own fencing school. This is a dream which I knew was one which was always on the outer limits of what would be possible due to many different factors. But it is one which I have thought about and talked about much. Indeed my immediate family has heard me talk about this dream a lot, and so have some of my students. I knew that this was on the outer limits due to many different factors and this is one of the reasons why it took me so long to do anything real about it.
Sure I had plans for schools many years ago, much of the documentation has been rolled into other endeavours of a similar nature, but much less long-lasting. The reason for this is because these smaller endeavours were easy and never really required much more of me than what I was doing already. So within the SCA, I have had some schools which have grown and developed. Some of these collapsed because they were too big to survive as they were, but achieved their goals. Some collapsed due to internal frictions and misunderstandings of what was required. However, as I have said these were small projects in essence. They did, however lay the foundations for what would happen later on.
If you have a dream that you want to come true, regardless of what it is, you need to put some effort into it in one way or another. Even the dream of winning millions the lotto requires you to buy at least one ticket to be in the draw. You have to be in it to win it, as has been said many times. Of course it also means that there is the chance that it will not work out, so there is the chance of failure. It is this which keeps many away, and I think what prevented me from going outside and doing what the school needed to be "real". Treat your failures as learning experiences and you will find that you can continue. This is what the failure of previous schools has taught me, and it is information that I will use.
Effort on its own will get you places, but it may not be where you want to go. You need a goal, a direction, and a plan. The goal is the end-point, the direction gives focus to your effort, and your plan guides this direction, each one is important. For some, they need to put these down on paper, for others they only need them in their heads. What I can tell you is that while the essential goal will remain the same plans will change. Plans usually change on the information given by failures or intelligences to lead you away from failures.
In my case the goal was the school, which I had for ages. The direction, well I had some to choose from, and the plan, well that was rather flexible due to the options available. In my case, what I needed was a couple of like-minded friends to really get the ball rolling and push me along a bit. They both know who they are, and they have my greatest thanks.
The school was designed to explore elements of western martial arts which were not available to practice under the current regime of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Now, some explanation. I will remain a member of the SCA as I have friends in that organisation and I still have things to give the organisation, however this school allows me to practice other things and investigate more. Also there are some out there who like the idea of some of the practices within the SCA, specifically the Guild of Defence, who are not interested in adopting personas or putting on period attire. Thus this is for them also as some of the structure and many of the teaching practices are the same as the Guild. This is the goal, in essence.
The direction was chosen much for me due to very external factors, primarily finances. The school will at least start as a non-profit organisation due to the current financial climate and available financial resources, however should the situation present itself, the school can and will move to a business platform, but this is for the future. So direction in this part was chosen, it was for similar reasons that the plan was modified.
The result, well let me just say that I have the final planning elements and collection of students and moneys to be made, but my dream has come true. Due to the approval given for insurance through the Australasian Living History Federation, I will be running my own school for western martial arts. So I can honestly say, that dreams do come true. Where I go from here, well it is one of those things that only the future can tell.
Cheers,
Henry.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Doing Nothing
Greetings,
Why is it that as soon as you tell people you are on a Disability Pension, they assume that you sit around doing nothing for the day? Or they start asking questions why and start judging you? In response the first for my particular case, I will present the following post. For the second, I will simply state that several medical professionals and government officials agreed that it would be pointless for me to find work and that it was appropriate that I be placed on the pension. Unless you know my medical history and also have the requisite training of both sets of professionals, you can keep your opinions to yourself (apologies for the small rant). Now on to the important stuff.
Assumptions
In my particular case I do not sit in front of the television or computer playing games or watching videos all day. I feel I have more important things to do with my life. Sure there are days when I do these activities but there is a reason for this and it is the reason that I am on a Disability Pension. However, aside from the things that we all have to do each day, I do keep myself rather occupied. How?Blogs
Including this one I have two other blogs which I work on in order to facilitate the spread of information on various subjects. Aside from this one which is my more personal one and has a general focus on fibromyalgia and what I do to deal with this particular condition, there are two others.One is focused on the exploration of the English language, or to be more precise Elizabethan English it can be found here: http://oldewordes.blogspot.com.au/ This is not required research nor was it required in any other way I decided that it was a subject that I was interested in, so I started to research it. I started this particular investigation in to the language so that at some point in time I would be able to better understand it and even possibly, produce it. How did I become interested in it? Well, that leads on to my third and most popular blog.
The other blog, and my most popular one having: 19,000+ hits, 78 posts and 22 followers who have registered, is about fencing. It is also the blog which I have been writing the longest. It is about fencing, as in swordplay, not methods of keeping properties marked. For the most part I focus on general topics and issues with regard to the subject, but it does tend to reveal my greatest joy which is the research and participation in Western Martial Arts. This reveals something else that I do in order to improve myself, and maintain fitness.
Fencing
So, hopefully I will not have to explain what sort of fencing that I am talking about here as I already have above. If not, go back and read it as I am not explaining it again. Anyway, fencing was something I got into before I was diagnosed and before I started having all of my medical issues which have led me to be on the the Disability Support Pension. I started with foil during my first sojourn to university life and decided that I liked it... a lot.When I found out that the medieval and recreation group, the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) did a form of fencing which was historically based, well I was set. I got to combine a physical activity which I was doing in with research into the history of it. Fencing nut plus history nut, throw that in and I did not look back. For the most part at the beginning I was doing it all for myself, this was to change.
Best way to find people to play with is to train them yourself, so I started training people. I was learning new techniques from manuals and all sorts of sources along the way as well. What can I say, but about 15 years later I suspect that I have had in excess of 30, possibly even more, students. There are still more. In fact much of my time is actually spent researching things to teach them so that they improve. Thus along with the blogs, you throw in two or three nights a week of training, and my "wasteful time" gets smaller and smaller I can tell you.
Research
Research is something I do, and I do to keep my wits about me and so I can keep learning things. Best way to stop a brain from stagnating is to research, and this is something that I do. Sure I have mentioned my blogs and the research which is involved with them, and sure, they do take up the highest percentage of what I research, but there are always other subjects which will catch my eye.Occasionally I will get interested due to a film, documentary or something I have read. Crazily enough, one of my lots of research was actually a result of watching my wife play a game, which was historically based. Some of the subjects are not "academically sound" for sure, but research is research. You find something you are interested in and you find more and more stuff about it. Sometimes there is no "final end result", but when you are doing it for yourself there is no problem here at all.
Conclusion
To say that I spend most of my time doing nothing is, quite frankly, insulting. Sure I do not have a regular job like most people do, but it sure as hell does not mean that I am sitting at home doing nothing. I can tell you that is the complete opposite of what I am doing most of the time. I have blogs, I have fencing and I have research to keep me occupied. Sure I do spend some time in front of the television playing games or watching movies, but I ask this "Who doesn't?" No one works all of the time.Sure what I do is not paid and does not fill the usual work hours, but I think that what I do fills a function. I can tell you that there would be a lot of people who would notice its absence. In fact there are. I have been told so. Indeed if I decided that I should start being completely ruthless with my time and how much it is worth I would have a lot less students than I do now, and a lot less friends too.
Before you make an assumption about what a person does or does not do and about how they do or do not spend their time, think. Decide whether you would like the same assumption made about you. If not, don't do it. Find out what they really do, you never know you might find something and someone interesting and worthwhile.
Cheers,
Henry.
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