I found out that one of the best facilities in the state for fencing is right down the street from my new appartment. I figured what the hell, I'll give it a try. Now I don't claim to be an expert on TMA as I only breifly studied Ba Gua (I don't count my 2 years in a Kenpo mcDojo as a kid as training), and I am more rooted in the combat arts of BJJ, Boxing, and Judo. That aside the few times I've been fencing I feel I understand the TMA much better.

With a sword in your hand you move much slower. The blade may travel quickly due to wrist motion, but your arm moves pretty slow if you are used to watching boxing-esque punches coming towards your face. I could definately see slipping to the outside and trying some "chin na" move or combination lock and sweep. I laugh at the prospect of any such move being any better than low percentage against a boxer's punch, but it could definately work against a sword weilding and I'd imagine a spear weilding foe.

The stances like mountain climber/bow&arrow or that one legged one seem more condusive to sword fighting and can be seen in the lunge or parry. Much of the flashy and unrealistic stuff I've seen in TMA classes and posted on the web would seem to be more condusive to a sword fight than a regular fight due to availability/speed of opponent's limbs and commitment of attack with a sword.

It's made me wonder that if some of these style were truly made for the battlefield, then obviously bare-handed fighting would be neglected to fighting with weapons. Maybe some of the old masters tried to use movements and attacks that were familiar to them because of their armed fighting in their empty hand training because they were inexperienced when it came to that. I'd think that it's even more likely that when the arts went away from the battlefield, some masters that had a more romantic notion of fighting took the armed maneuvers and applied them to unarmed combat because they were more aesthetically pleasing. I dunno. I'm just bored and thought I'd share.