What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
What is a hobby you enjoy, but seems too quirky or obscure to bring up in most conversations?
Mine would be creating pen and paper ciphers for my made up secret communication needs.
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I train in swordfighting. It's good exercise and trains hand eye coordination as well as good balance.
The funniest part is it's actually helped me a lot in my day to day because I know how to move my body
You mean the weird deviation of a swordfight called fencing, or real, actual swordfighting?
Because the latter is really, really cool and I would talk to you about that over a beer any time.
Actual swordfighting lol I train specifically in German longsword techniques and I agree that fencing is nowhere near actual swordsmanship
Do you also do historical reenactment or just sword fighting? I never personally got into the fighting side of things but the former has been one of my favourite hobbies for decades.
Unfortunately no reenactments though I'd love to. So far it's mainly just been solo practice on foot work and technique with minimal sparring as finding someone to spar with is difficult.
At least in Europe, a lot of people find sparring partners through historical reenactment groups. I encourage you to join reenactments for other reasons too.
If you're in a country that has it, you might check out the Society for Creative Anachronism. SCA events are like taking a camping trip at a ren faire. While the combat is strictly foam-padded stuff, a lot of the people who do it also work with real weapons so it shouldn't be hard to find sparring partners. Lots of non-martial things to do as well so it's easy for couples and families to participate.
I used to do that years ago.
Back then the sport was in its infancy really: we co-opted sports gear from other sports for our own uses and used ‘primitive’ weapons. For example: we used kendo swords with added crossguard for sparring, wooden wasters for sword drills and lacrosse gloves for protection.
Nowadays there all sorts of specialized gear for training and sparring and it’s really cool.
I don’t train anymore but I still follow it ‘from the sidelines’ (ie through social media) and it’s really gone places in terms of professionalism.
As a swordsman, how do you feel about fighting someone wielding a ~2m long spear and no shield?
Can't wait for the apocalypse when all these idiots make swords to fight with and I'm going to have a long ass spear.
I feel completely fucked lmao. I practice longsword not because I think it's best, it's obvious that the spear reigns supreme. I just like the longsword more.
You fight like a dairy Farmer!
My wife did George Silver when she was younger. She still has her mortuary blade. I plan to use it to convince my nephews I used to be a pirate.