Art of the Sword

I'm curious about how long it takes to achieve any accomplishment in weapons mastery when the motivation is purely to have competency as quickly and efficiently as possible. At the moment the club I'm involved with is revising and putting together an updated training regime with the idea to bring a more organised program of development for the members, rather than the ad hoc instruction that had been the norm for some years. One of the many interesting parts of this discussion is hearing the many views around how long a course of basic instruction should take to bring someone up to competence. Based on my experience I've been putting forward the view that we should be looking to produce a good level swordsman after a year's training. Out of curiosity I also did a little research about training in the military and interestingly there seems to be a fairly consistent time periods for "basic" training from the Roman army to the modern military: 2-3 months fo...

"Fechterspiel translates to "assault of arms"—an apt name for this western martial arts training weapon. Combining quality and historical accuracy, this sword is an excellent piece for the longsword practitioner looking for a period style and handling."  The fechterspel sword from Arms and Armour. I originally bought this sword on sale from "The Grange"  back in 2009 but they have since stopped selling HEMA goods. It has remained in my arsenal through many sword culls and reorganizations. At the time I bought this sword there were two feders on the market, this and the Hanwei . Pros Of all the blunt steel or  nylon sword  trainers I've used this feels closest in weight and handling to a sharp sword, which is cool.  It "swishes" through the air far more like a sharp than the thick edge of a more substantial steel sword or even thicker nylon sword. It's great to keep a perspective in training with what a "live" sword is l...