Do you HEMA? Is longsword fencing fun?

You're asking the wrong board. Most of Veeky Forums probably doesn't know the difference between Musō Jikiden Eishin-ryū and Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū lol.

To answer you though, if you're going to try and use japanese martial arts as a base you might as well just go for Kendo. It's better supported worldwide and isn't based on 300 year old picture books that people may or may not be interpreting properly.

but the interpreting is the fun part.

youtube.com/watch?v=6C_s3SHAZfI

double ye. it's actually helped my ability to fight in more serious combat systems, and in less serious i can narrate combat way better.
it's a good way for an autist to keep in shape.

i question the validity of martial arts helping your hema.

i did a fair bit of martial arts before i got into HEMA for real, and to be completely honest it did not do me many favors. i kept reverting to the wrong footwork which always put me off balance at inferior binds, or even worse in superior binds i could not keep the strong/before, kept getting knocked about really easily.

what it did help with though is coordination. there's a lot of mechanics going on in sword swings, and having a good sense for where your limbs are at all times is definitely going to help you execute stuff smoother, get it right in fewer attempts, and most importantly, you'll do it much more decisively.

if you plan on doing ringen on a competive level you'll probably have even more inflated coordination advantages, but again, you might find yourself reverting to the wrong footwork, or straight up accidentally going judo on someone and getting disqualified. it sounds ridiculous, but your mind always defaults to what you know best, you really don't have time to consider what to do after your first parry, you better have a good plan or good intuition after that.

Fucking larpers.

But I'm a westaboo not a weeaboo, I just want to not have shit coordination before I start swinging a big sword

atm I'm fit but really clumsy

if your sole purpose for starting another martial art is to get better at HEMA, you're probably better off doing just HEMA. i've found it doesn't matter how clumsy you are when you start out, everyone's equally clumsy, uncoordinated and terrible when they start out. swords are equalizers in more than one way. longsword, saber and rapier are all also the result of several hundreds of years of development, it's more complex of a task to swing a sword and not die than one thinks.

first month of me doing HEMA i kept walking into the opponent's point when crossing off the line, i kept adjusting myself into such a measure where the opponent wouldn't have to step, but i would have due to my low guards, dropped the sword several times when strong binds came up, could never step properly and all kinds of shit.

now i'm an instructor :^)

>I just want to not have shit coordination before I start swinging a big sword
That's like saying you want to learn how to punch before you take up boxing.

Just start doing it. Everyone's clumsy when starting out in anything.

>That's like saying you want to learn how to punch before you take up boxing.
Was about to post this exact thing as I read through the thread.

>to learn how to fall

While some groups do include a bit of wrestling in their longsword, and competitions regularly allow such, you need mats if you're going to throw people around, and if you have access to that you may find that they're a bit soft to be all that nice to train the sword swinging part on. Menaing that you probably won't be tossed aorund all that much.

And in a club where you are, they should teach you the falling bit themselves before they start using you as a lawn dart.

“But if you become frightened easily you should not learn fighting arts, because a weak and frightened heart—it does not help you—it defeats all of your skills.”

Sauce on that gif?