You can believe what you wish. I do it, and have done it for several years. There’s nothing like catching and binding a full-intent zornhau with the flat of the strong to get your blood pumping. :-)
Without intent, though, the whole combat turns into stage-acting sort of play. Sure, you can’t go full throttle right away, but sooner or later you have to test yourself against as real an opponent as can be done in a “practice” environment. Real practice is all about control.
I’m not even all that good. I’ve still got lots to learn. I tend to get my butt handed to me when I go up against our more experienced members. Oh well... I can settle on beating up on the newbs. :-)
I would tack on here what might be a timely distiction... that there’s a reason that ARMA hasn’t ever and won’t ever call anybody in the organization a “master” swordsman. Even the most experienced and most accomplished of the leadership. Back in the renaissance and before, there were “masters” of the art. Leichtenauer, George Silver or Fiore dei Liberi for example. But those masters actually used their craft in real life— and they proved their mettle by actually fighting with swords in life-and-death situations.
Today, there’s just no practical chance that anybody will ever have to actually fight to the death with a sword, against a similarly trained and capable opponent. Without that serious real-world proof it is simply presumptuous and arrogant to call oneself a “master” when there won’t be any sort of test of the same order. Training and practice is good, and it’s useful. It does prepare a student for that real-world combat, but without a true final exam there can be no degree. :-)
Today, there’s just no practical chance that anybody will ever have to actually fight to the death with a sword, against a similarly trained and capable opponent. Without that serious real-world proof it is simply presumptuous and arrogant to call oneself a “master” when there won’t be any sort of test of the same order. Training and practice is good, and it’s useful. It does prepare a student for that real-world combat, but without a true final exam there can be no degree. :-)”
Right, a good instructor would tell you your trophy is you get to live. No way to claim a master in this. Good sword ping!