Doyle lockdown

last night on the FB RBUB group Glen Doyle let fly and expressed that he would not travel to train people or grade instructors any more, anyone wanting to train with him must now travel to Milton Canada.
He was clearly PO'd and is jack of those that take a bit of his knowledge and distort it for their own means. I don't know what has happened, but it is a big dissapointment that it has come to this. Not that i expected him to come to Australia for me, my dissapointment is also that he has got to a point where he feels this is what he must do. It must be a burden being the only person to carry on such a legacy.

maybe in a few years when my boys are old enough to train hard with him we could make our way over together and all learn directly from him..what an honour that would be! But until then, Canada is a long way, and a lot of dollars away!

haven't resumed broadsword yet, just so many things on and am training at TKD 7+ hours a week. i hope i don't get dropped from the list!

Wexford bata

just found a Melbourne Sword Guild that train every Thursday- the other side of town, but interesting never the less. The appear to be French, English and German focussed, so nothing Gaelic/Highland to draw me in, but i'll keep tracks on them.

I see that the Wexford Faction (ISF) have developed their site and are emphatic that they have no lineage but are just trying to revive bataireacht. fair enough. of course it is mainly just interpretation, without solid proof of lineage pretty much everything is the same at some point; furthermore, most martial arts have a degree of interpretation injected into them at some point- sure it may be by people that are in direct lineage from the originators, but so many split, diverge, tweak and change the original thing they were taught.

adding the site to the links

will start up again on the Broadsword this week as my back is much improved

What am i doing here?

Things i want to study and achieve: some understanding and practice of: Irish collar and elbow wrestling, Scottish backhold wrestling. Maybe mix this up with a bit of Catch wrestling and Gouren. I have done so little grappling, maybe i need to train a few times at BJJ to get a better feel of the mats and floor. Become a Cateran with: The Regimental Style, The Old Style, Sword and Targe, Cudgeling, quickdraw, The Dirk Exercise, and Cleasa. There are 2 electives extra, but i want the quickdraw to compliment the broadsword, the cudgel as an everyday walking stick- (although i'd prefer the Doyle style with its proven history), and dirk as i think it important to have a form of knife, and couldn't decide between the 3 as they both offer something of value to the martial artist i want to become. The most complete study of bata i can get. It starts with the cudgel from Cateran, but ideally i want to get an instructors certification in Doyle Irish stick. This is challenging as Glen only instructs in Canada and the States at the moment and while he has told me of plans to have an online school, i don't know when and he appears very concerned about his family tradition being corrupted. i appreciate this, but as someone with a genuine interest the distance is limiting my capacity to learn so i just have to carry on learning snippets from his fb group videos. Also, there is another bata "school" but with questionable and dubious authenticity; they do a distance learning via dvd. While it is acknowledged that they contain some historical stick techniques, it mainly appears to be a construct. I want to work these ancient and noble arts into a modern form,  ensuring they have a modern and practical application- i wouldn't change anything if given transmition to teach (most particularly RBUB, but gain the skill for personal use. I know one can not walk around broadsword in hand, but the unarmed stuff and the stick things fit neatly into a homogenised "modern" world. The Fianna intrigue me. Their tests were feats of agility and combat readiness, how does their training stack up in the modern world? Can they legitimately be studied to advance current combat methods and practices?

caught wrong footed!

have been laid up a bit with my back this last week no TKD and no broadsword. I did do some bokken at TKD which has the same cuts just in a different order. had my guards video assessed and was disappointed to be told and see that i was wrong footed! It felt weird while i was going through the exercises but for some reason i didn't notice. Did a little bit of Irish stick on Monday with my boys with the padded sticks i've made.

First Broadsword academy videos

did my first proper post in the Broadsword academy- proper meaning videos to be critiqued. Favourable responce regarding my stance and angle of cuts, but i need to work on the delivery of the cuts. fairly happy with that, and i have been training well given my back is still fairly bad. have done a bit of looking into practice/sparring swords and became a member of an fb group for catch wrestling. i really don't know much about wrestling but see it as part of the big picture when it comes to Gaelic combat arts.

Analysis of Sword and Targe Bout

10 Lessons for Cudgeling.wmv