User:TMcCain01

I have been interested in swordsmanship from an early age - I blame Zorro, Errol Flynn, and Basil Rathbone. Waving plastic toy "swords" as a child doesn't really count though, does it? From plastic, my brother and I graduated to homemade wooden wasters, developing a keen ability to protect our knuckles from wild strikes.

In my late high school years, I started digging into actual historical swordsmanship, focusing on Fiore. Training was highly informal, given my isolation from, and ignorance of, the HEMA community. However, my brother and our friends from down the road trained as we could. I specialized in fighting groups. It was nice to be a big fish in the tiniest of ponds.

In college, I learned to fence in the Olympic style. I became the captain of the saber squad, taking us to placing 4th in a regional tournament (SWIFA). I became the president of the college league, continuing my training in the art of saber.

At the same time, I found an informal group in a local park, calling themselves Sleeping Samurai. I applied what I learned with my brother and in college to the highly varied collection of styles and abilities present in that group. I became aware of the limitations of sport fencing, but also of longsword as received from Fiore and Talhoffer. I hybridized the longsword styles of many German masters, based on my understanding of Fiore, to great effect. Most effective, however, was augmenting sport saber with historical saber and broadsword techniques.

I continue to practice historical broadsword and backsword. I have transitioned more to a scholastic interest in the sword, and am writing a book on the history of swordsmanship, focusing on how technique and technology evolve from each other.