Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh dear., 20 Nov 2002
I admire Mr. Clements' sincere attempts to further the cause of Western Martial Arts. Unfortunately, enthusiasm is no substitute for knowledge and skill. This book clearly demonstrates a lack of academic research, theoretical knowledge, and correct fencing technique. It perpetuates myths that really should be laid to rest, and is bound to send many aspiring fencers down the wrong track altogether.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The JOY of Rennaisance Swordplay, 16 Jul 1998
By A Customer
John Clements has done exactly what he appears to have set out to do, create a book that dispels the goony Hollywood sword swinging method while attacking his peers for not being quite the purist that he is. Though Mr. Clements may be an outstanding talent in the arts of defence he lacks the writing skills to hold the readers attention and provide detailed instruction. I will say that, while leaning on the numerous handsome illustrations for support, Clements does provide an outstanding overview of the art of Rennaisance Swordsmanship. The book, measuring in at a mere 3/8" thick with a 8 1/2" x 11" profile, is one whose subject matter could easily justify twice the heft, I felt a bit disappointed in it's instructional value. Clements begins by saying that this book "...is intended primarily to dispel the many myths and misconceptions permeating the field of European swordsmanship and propagated by the media and entertainment." I wish it wou! ! ld have stated that information in Amazon's summary. My feeling about the work overall can be summed up by this exerpt from the book itself, "Of course modern people doing reenactment can only hope to approach, not surpass, those warriors in history who trained practically everyday to fight and kill with real weapons Such men were warriors who passed on their experiences learned in life-threatening war over hundreds and hundreds of years. How can modern practitioners training intermittently or playing on weekends even imagine that they could duplicate this fighting skill? Who would presume to even dare innovate their own fighting techniques?". Though these statements have a believable point one could argue this stuff from so many angles it's practically useless to bring up. There are many such discouraging statements in Renaissance Swordsmanship. Clements lords his knowledge over the reader with the heavy hand of dogma. Guess what? Those unthinkable miscreants who s! ! houldn't even dare to conceive that they might possibly hav! e a notion to pick up a sword and endeavor some form of art and excellence or dare I say...fun, are the people who are buying this book with the hopes that it may be another step on their long road to enjoyable, safe and yes, fun swordplay. Fortunately for the modern seeker of sword knowledge the days of haughty, abrasive teaching masters are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, John Clements is living in that past.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Totally misleading and a bad place to start..., 15 Oct 2007
Due to the relatively sparce though ever growing number of western martial arts groups around the world, many budding practitioners are simply too far away from a school to be able to recieve training, many of those therefore will turn to supposedly accredited authors and known manuals such as this, which is a good thing, I encourage everyone to read and study these arts.
Then we come to this book, my initial thought was great, it may be a little short, a bit fuzzy on details etc etc, BUT, its a start, somewhere for people to begin without having to read half a library and draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, as I read into this more, I realised how damaging it could be to anyone starting off. It was a while ago that I bought this book and it has since been relegated to a corner somewhere along with the medieval swordsmanship book in this series, which means I cannot reference it right now, but for a better insight, I suggest you search for and read Ramón Martínez's review on his website, as he explains in a whole essay that which I cannot fit onto this review. Lastly I will add, how the hell can you honestly fit the whole category renaissance swords into one book, the rapier warrants a manual atleast this size alone.
In conclusion, admirable in terms of work put in, but so fataly floored from the beginning, I wouldn't buy this for any reason.
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