ARMA: Association for Renaissance Martial Arts
About the ARMA
Real World Skills From Real History
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmoSedeqrHo[/YOUTUBE]
ARMA - the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts, is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to the study and practice of historical fencing and the exploration and promotion of our Western martial heritage.
The ARMA focuses on the interpretation and legitimate reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance combat systems as a modern discipline. The ARMA endeavors to approximate historical fighting skills through a curriculum of reconstructed techniques, principles, and methods for using a variety of swords, spears, shields, staff weapons, daggers, and unarmed grappling and wrestling skills as taught in period books and manuscripts.
The ARMA’s efforts are directed toward resurrecting and recreating a legitimate craft of European fighting skills in a manner that is historically valid and martially sound. We rely for our source material upon the dozens of rare surviving manuals of Medieval and Renaissance Masters of Defence.
The ARMA was established to promote the study of European fighting arts and arms & armor of the 15th – 17th centuries. We are first and foremost a martial arts association.
The earnest approach we advocate differs substantially from much of the fluff and fantasy-oriented escapism that in the past has occupied this subject. The ARMA does not conduct costumed role-playing nor hold tournaments and sporting competitions. We also do not perform choreographed fighting stunts. Accurate investigation and interpretation of historical European fighting skills is our primary objective. Our emphasis is also on Spathology –the study of swords.
The ARMA is a leading voice in the resurrection and revival of lost European fighting arts. Founded in 1992, and online since 1996, (originally under the name “HACA”) we have been at the forefront of the Medieval and Renaissance fencing studies revival. The ARMA website is the leading online resource for the subject. The ARMA’s influence and popularity has been an inspiration to many. In a sea of misinformation, misconception, and sheer fiction, ours is one of few islands of reliable experience and information. We continually revise and amend our training aids and study materials.
Our Purpose:
* Study European arms and armor from the point of view of their historical function and use.
* Study historical source literature as instructional fighting guides.
* Examine historical European martial culture within a broader historiographic context.
* Study, Interpret, Practice, Promote, and Teach the martial arts of Renaissance Europe.
Our Objectives:
* The ARMA offers classes, workshops, and seminars through our continually revised system of established drills and exercises (Armatura). Our curriculum also includes a Certification & Ranking structure for students and instructors.
* The ARMA provides a Training Program allowing students to learn and practice within a common structure that is historically valid and martially sound.
* The ARMA seeks to advance the quality of skills demonstrated with Medieval and Renaissance weaponry.
* The ARMA offers Associate Members a variety of benefits, advantages, and opportunities in pursuit of their studies.
* The ARMA attempts to improve the relationship between practitioners and academics in order to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and encourage understanding of historical European combat skills.
* The ARMA makes it a primary aim to raise the level of scholarship within the historical fencing community with its emerging interest in source texts.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtNZQBc4RpE[/YOUTUBE]
Our efforts to combine academic and athletic rigor in this subject is a conscious following of the idea of the Renaissance man with his combining of liberal and martial arts.
A large part of the ARMA’s energy is directed at interpretation and integration of translated source material into practical hands-on curriculum. Interpretation and reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts are still only in their infancy. Bringing to public study the numerous manuals of the Masters of Defence is an important part of our efforts. The ARMA encourages and supports efforts at translating these invaluable texts.
The wealth of fighting manuals currently being studied by many in the historical fencing community is only the tip of a very large iceberg. We have only just begun to scratch the surface in examining the profusion of material now coming to light. Avoiding misinterpretation and error in our study is a continual challenge. While the Internet is frequently awash with inaccurate information on our subject, the growing community of serious enthusiasts and amateur researchers of Medieval and Renaissance fighting arts has long been in need of reputable sources of guidance.
In the effort to bring a higher degree of integrity, dignity, and authority to these efforts, the ARMA has gathered a list of knowledgeable specialists in several major fields on which we can call on as reference sources. As ARMA Expert Consultants we have historians, anthropologists, linguists, forensic pathologists, curators, armorers, swordsmiths, metallurgists, researchers, scholars, fencers, martial artists, and reenactors. Our panel includes such noted individuals as Dr. Sydney Anglo, David Edge of the Wallace Collection, John Waller of the Royal Armories, and a variety of historians, professors, scientists, bladesmiths, and craftsmen.
We are passionate about our subject and it is our sincere wish to see historical European martial arts acquire the respect and attention they deserve. Our intent is directed toward raising the credibility, legitimacy, and standards of practice within this field while redeveloping genuine martial skills and teaching ability. To this end, we have established a long-term research effort as well as a proven Training Program.
We do NOT study historical fencing so that it will be incomprehensible to all but a narrow group of specialists, merely fuel escapist role-playing, or be devoid of any practical application. Rather, we explore it because we love history and enjoy the improvement it provides our understanding and practice of the craft as its own end. Inherent in this is the idea within Renaissance culture of the pursuit of excellence—the joy of individual distinction and accomplishment—as exemplified in chivalric romance and articulated by Humanists scholars and pursued by courtier gentlemen.
In the ARMA we are not content to merely speculate upon the manner in which a technique or action might theoretically be done at speed. We are not satisfied until we confidently understand their performance in a martial and repeatable manner.
For more information, go to http://www.thearma.org
