Reclaiming Western Martial Arts

Recently I have seen inquiries on several yahoo groups seeking information on the "Western Martial Arts." Originally I steered toward a meaning of WMA as to our fairly new country when in reality it involves those WMA's that originate in Europe.

A blog site I frequent mentioned a movie documentary titled, "Reclaiming the Blade," which turns out to be one of the Western Martial Arts. I found the movie a bit long, long winded, but the first hour, for me, had the true meat of the theme I found interesting and informative.

Anyone seeking, at least academically speaking, knowledge of Martial Arts would benefit greatly from viewing this documentary and then seeking out more.

I could not help but equate some aspects of the historical books they displayed in the same light as that of the Bubishi. It too had many still drawings of how a technique is performed along with other similar aspects found also in the Bubishi. Today's practitioners of the WMA are doing what many traditionalists of the Asian MA are doing, attempting to extrapolate from such tomes of knowledge the original meaning or bunkai of the art form with an emphasis on swords in this particular doc-movie.

You will find it an interesting viewing and it can be checked out from Netflix.

WMA Illustrated
http://www.wmaillustrated.com/

Historical European Martial Arts - wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_European_martial_arts

Introduction to European Martial Arts
http://www.thearma.org/HEMA.htm