IMAF Recognition

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Today we received recogition from the Independent Martial Arts Federation (IMaF).

Since the Schola has pursued a martial arts rather than a fencing school model for our organization, it has seemed appropriate to let other martial arts organizations know what we're about. The IMaF is one of these groups, as the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame is another. There will be more in the future as we go forward. 

For those who seek outside validation for what we do, Robert Shook, director of the IMaF,

"We received your packet today, and quite impressive it is!"

In short order they completed their recognition and issued us with a nice certificate. Of course the certificate itself is unimportant; what is important is that our structure is recognizeable to other practitioners of the martial arts. What these organizations, and those working professionally in the Asian arts I spoke with at the 2009 International Scientific Congress of Martial Arts in Portugal seem to appreciate, was our thorough, systematic distillation of principles married to ongoing research and progression designed to instill our student base with the tools they need to do their own interpretations. This is key to me, and it is one of the reasons that I have personally spent little time on the "political" aspects of the Western martial arts; to me, we are about immersing ourselves in the Arte d'Armizare (and later, perhaps the Kunst des Fechten, as well) in order both to understand it in its historical context, but also, to use it in order to exercise ourselves in arms, the better to prepare ourselves for conducting good works in our community and in the world.

I like the attitude and approach I found on the IMaF's website. Like us, they are uninterested in politics and believe that the community of martial artists has room for many different interpretations. Contrast this with the hoard of "one true way" adherents, and you have a very polar world. This is the second of many such acknowledgements we will probably receive in the next several years as we continue to introduce the Arte d'Armizare to the wider community of martial artists.

The Schola is about experimentation and exploration, as well as drilling core principles in order to create better combatants. The only "heresy" is to claim the "one true way," but recent experience within the Schola has supported our exploratory approach and I think we will only grow stronger for it as the years pass.

It is an honor to share company with so many like-minded seekers who employ their martial arts as character improvement through the vehicle of martial strength. As a chivalric art, we seek to develop and exercise not only prowess (which is still very, very important), but the whole spectrum of the virtues that characterize Western individualism.





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