Medieval Concepts

Medieval Concepts If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to read ancient and medieval manuscripts you will understand why we have taken the time to analyse and understand the teachings of these ancient masters. Through studying we understand our own techniques and concepts, and are often reassured to find that our ancestors practised these same moves and ideas. If something works it works regardless of time and therefore proven combat methods of our past show themselves in today's martial art systems. Occasionally we learn new techniques that relate to a particular weapon, such as a double-handed sword, but this involves expertise, expense and can be time consuming to study. Therefore, what can students learn as beginners through this exploration of historical martial arts? One of the lessons is 'attitude'. Ancient masters understood why they were learning fighting skills, as many of them had fought in tournaments, duels or battles. This meant that they trained with a determination that could one-day prepare them for life-threatening actual combat. Thus they trained with attitude. In today's so-called civilised world students train in the martial arts for many reasons, fitness and health, sport, confidence, self-esteem and socialising, to name just a few. Not everybody wants to learn how to train himself or herself to do harm to others. Many students learn and understand the art of fighting and are aware of the many different ways to hurt, maim or kill a person who threatens them. They prefer not to think about these techniques as they hope they will never have to face a situation that might involve the use of such deadly force. This means the fighting attitude may be lost in their training. They think being attacked is what happens to 'other people' and not to them. And they do not visit places where they would meet such people who would attack them. These students may now have trained themselves to become a potential victim. As they may not have developed the attitude to deal with a violent assault. Most ancient masters taught students attitude by giving attitude in their lessons, they taught confidently and to the point. They gave their students pressure, to see how they would re-act when their opponent or training partner had intention, i.e. what happens when you hit hard and fast to a target, or change tactics in mid-attack and catch an opponent off guard with a delicate and soft attack? What happens when you meet an opponent who does not fight to your rules? Our masters and instructors understand the importance of attitude and use many teaching methods to ensure their students learn these skills under pressure. They also use a variety of ancient weapons and modern high-tech weaponry to teach their martial art skills with the same enthusiasm as the ancient masters. However, you may ask yourselves, who walks in today's modern cities with weapons? Why would weapon skills help my martial art education? To answer the first question: everyday someone is attacked with a weapon, be it a knife, glass, stick or a chair, etc. You can be attacked walking down a street or in a nightclub or even in your own home. You can be attacked by an individual or by a group, day or night. This is the harsh reality of human nature. Throughout time, there has always been and always will be bullies who attack people with weapons, and by understanding how weapons are used could help protect us from such threats. I will let Master Fiore Friulano dei Liberi answer the second question: how can weapons help today's martial art practitioners? This drawing taken from the manuscript written by Master Fiore (1409) declares in a direct and confident manner that no matter what weapon he uses, or whether he is unarmed, he is ready and willing to fight any opponent with any weapon. This statement clearly defines his attitude, confidence and courage (note that if you remove his weapon he would be in a typical unarmed fighting stance). Master Fiore understood that by using different weapons you learn to understand how they work and can use this knowledge to defend yourself against being attacked. To ignore such lessons from our ancestors would be a loss for any martial artist and their chosen system. I wish to thank John Waller of the Royal Armouries (Leeds, UK), and his son Johnathan who provided the drawing and text from Fiore (1409).