08-17-2017, 08:50 AM
How many sources are there describing Roman army training equipment? You see, I was imagining a Roman army sword training area, with wooden dummy posts. I always see, in movies and games, these plain wooden dummies, standing in non-combat posture, all dummies the same height.
But realistically, the Romans had glorious sculptors, so the art must have been well-known and widespread to at least the largest cities. Wood was probably practiced on?
And when practicing strikes in martial arts, a partner in combat posture is more realistic than some relaxed posture.
Also the techniques you emphasize are different when fighting someone taller than you, or shorter than you.
So put these 3 facts together, and we get wooden dummies of different heights, sculpted to combat postures with the right foot first, or the left foot first. In contemporary martial arts, the heights could be 160cm, 170cm, 180cm, 190cm, 200cm, all heights having their orthodox and southpaw stance, to get some 10 different dummies to practice against.
Now the training area looks different, more professional. On a 2 sq km training field (eg Campus Martius) with 1000s of soldiers training for war, I'd say it seems more realistic?
Someone should draw a picture of stereotypical vs sophisticated training areas to illustrate... too bad I'm such a novice.
Whaddaya think? Is there any non-circumstantial evidence about how the dummy posts looked?
But realistically, the Romans had glorious sculptors, so the art must have been well-known and widespread to at least the largest cities. Wood was probably practiced on?
And when practicing strikes in martial arts, a partner in combat posture is more realistic than some relaxed posture.
Also the techniques you emphasize are different when fighting someone taller than you, or shorter than you.
So put these 3 facts together, and we get wooden dummies of different heights, sculpted to combat postures with the right foot first, or the left foot first. In contemporary martial arts, the heights could be 160cm, 170cm, 180cm, 190cm, 200cm, all heights having their orthodox and southpaw stance, to get some 10 different dummies to practice against.
Now the training area looks different, more professional. On a 2 sq km training field (eg Campus Martius) with 1000s of soldiers training for war, I'd say it seems more realistic?
Someone should draw a picture of stereotypical vs sophisticated training areas to illustrate... too bad I'm such a novice.
Whaddaya think? Is there any non-circumstantial evidence about how the dummy posts looked?
