Platinum Grit is a webcomic drawn by a talented Australian Illustrator called Trudy Cooper. I would post a direct link but the site seems to be down today. Trudy also writes and draws the NSFW but very funny Oglaf (also down today!)
The following panel is just pure comedy gold. Kate notices the door of the house is open, so arms herself with the steering lock and….
Some people are truly inspiring! They are not people who
get paid millions to play a game they loved anyway. They are not people who won
a gold medal pursing their hobby at the taxpayer’s expense.
There is a lady here who works as a cleaner. I don’t know
the story of how she came all the way from Colombia to clean toilets every day
in London. I just marvel at the fact thatshe always appears cheerful and has a warm smile and friendly word for
anyone she knows at any time.
Today is an exercise day. This means that when I managed
to drag myself out of bed I waved the Indian clubs around for thirty reps. I
then performed thirty wall push-ups in a row. Then it was thirty dumbbell flies
while lying on the floor, thirty dumbbell presses and then thirty curls.
Depending on how the day goes, I may perform this routine again when I get home
this evening.
It occurred to me that there was an interesting analogy
here. I don’t work out because I enjoy it. I don’t work out because I want to
get particularly good at curling weights. There will be no convention where an
adoring crowd surrounds me and cries “Wow, look at him curl!”
I exercise because I want to be stronger. Better muscle
tone seems to eliminate some of the random aches and pains I used to get. I
look better if I work out, I walk straighter with better muscle tone and
project more confidence. Working out helps bring down the beer gut. I am still
carrying a little layer of subcutaneous adipose –I will never had a six pack!- but
beneath that thin layer of fat is now a very firm wall of abdominal muscle. My
stunningly beautiful girlfriend loves the leaner meaner look and she is not the
only member of the opposite sex to approve.
Thinking about this reminded me of one of my favourite
quotes from Bruce Lee:- “A boat is just to take you across a river. Once you
are across you leave the boat and proceed on your journey. You do not stay and
worship the boat.”
What Lee meant was that martial art styles as you first
encounter them are just a means to an end. They are paths to a destination.
These paths all go to the same destination if you follow them to the end. To
claim that one path is “right” and all others are “wrong” is foolish and
immature. Katas, Forms, Stances, Postures and other exercises are just that,
exercises to teach you skills or ideas you will need at that time or will need
to move on and advance.
I use the weights because they will produce a certain result.
Whether you like working out or not is not the issue, it is whether you want
the reward. Martial arts are not self-defence, they are one of the tools you
can use to get to a state where you can more effectively protect yourself.
Watching this video of medieval fighting techniques and something interesting struck me.
In the polearm combats, notice how often the butt end of the weapon is advanced towards the enemy. Recently I was rereading one of the Black Medicine books and in that text the author recommends if defending yourself with an object such as a broom or long handled shovel to keep the head to the rear. I looked at some contemporary illustrations of combats with pole arms and there were numerous incidences of fighters having the butt towards the enemy. Many of these seemed to occur during what might be interpreted as defensive actions. If you consider a rifle when it is used for close combat, with or without the bayonet the butt is to the rear. However, the rifle butt is the primary striking element of the weapon so functionally the rifle butt serves the same role as a poleaxe head.
If we think about this, defending with the butt end of a pole arm makes quite a bit of sense. The butt end is lighter and therefore more mobile, quicker and more responsive. The heads of polearms sometimes bind together (as can be seen in the video clip), which may not be desirable. Deflecting the head with the butt reduces this. For example one could parry with the butt, riposte with a strike from the butt end and then follow-up with a strike from the head of your weapon.
Following this line of thought, I recalled something I had briefly scanned through recently. In a print out of a Di Grassi manual that used to be on line was the following passage:-
“But because these weapons for the most part are exercised and used to enter through diverse Pikes and other weapons, and to break and disorder the battle array, to which end, and purpose, if it be used, then that manner of managing and handling is very convenient which is much practiced now a days, and thus it is. The Partisan, Halberd, and Bill (but not the Javelin, being in this case nothing effectual because it has small force in the edge) must beborn in the middle of the staff, with the heel thereof before, and very low, and the point near a man’s head. And with the said heel, or half staff underneath, from the hand downwards, he must ward and beat off the points and thrusts of the Pikes and other weapons, and having made way, must enter with the increase of a pace of the hindfoot,and in the same instant, let fall his weapon as forcibly as he may, and strike with the edge athwart the Pikes. This kind of blow is so strong (being delivered as it ought, considering it comes from above downwards, and the weapon of itself is very heavy) that it will cut asunder not only Pikes, but alsoany other forcible impediment.”
In other words hold your polearm near the middle, with the head back and defend with the lower part of the shaft until it is time to use the head. This position combines elements of both the high guard and the hanging guard. The rifle postion with the butt back and the muzzle raised combines the middle guard and the tail guard. Middle guard and Hanging guard are good defensive guards, while High and Tail guard cock the weapon ready for a wide range of counterstrikes.
This blog post confirms the practice and suggests that on the shorter models of pole arm the fighter gripped closer to the head to preserve enough shaft to defend with.
This explains why many pole arms have always appeared too long or too heavy to me. In the movies halberds etc are always shown advancing point first, like overweight bayonets. Their heads looked too heavy to provide a quick defenceand they had little room to generate power for chopping. In fact they were supposed to the held in the middle, head back.
