Not your typical martial arts

Fries leaves historical martial arts legacy

Ashley Coats

mast sports co-editor

He does not have Jackie Chan’s kung-fu moves and his build is not bulging like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s, but it would still be dangerous for anyone to pick a fight with PLU senior Joseph Fries.

Fries doesn’t look like the average PLU student with his trench coat, chocolate brown hair tied in a ponytail and long facial hair. But it is his studies and practice of historical European martial arts, with an emphasis in German longsword fighting that adds to his drama.

“I’ve pretty much always been a medievalist and interested in Asian martial arts,” Fries said. “When I found there were medieval martial arts, it was perfect.”

Fries said he did not always have a passion for historical martial arts, but instead he had a passion for Errol Flynn. Flynn was a movie star in the 1930s, who played the role of a swashbuckler. Flynn was known for his sword fighting scenes.

“I always wanted to fence, but modern fencing has no relation to actual sword fighting. It is very artificial and ‘sportified,’” Fries said.

Since fencing was not enough like real sword fighting for Fries, he looked on the Internet and found out about historical European martial arts.

“[Historical martial arts] really are arts. They aren’t a system of dirty tricks,” Fries said. “The fighting is full of science and art.”

Fries specializes in the German longsword fighting, but he has used many other forms of historical European martial arts. A longsword is a double-edged blade that can be three feet in length.

“I’ve done longsword, dagger, a little bit of pole-axe, a little bit of spear, sword and buckler, and of course, the wrestling that’s a part of the tradition,” Fries said.

Fries has been practicing martial arts with other students on the PLU campus for almost three years, and he recently petitioned for official recognition as a PLU club. As an official club, Fries’s group would be able to introduce other students to non-mainstream forms of martial arts.

“People seem to express a lot of interest because it’s something very different,” Fries said.
Fries said he wanted to create “The PLU Society for Historical Martial Arts Study and Reconstruction” before he graduates this spring because he said he feels it encourages a “different experience and resource for the PLU community.”

Fries recently turned in the paperwork to petition for MARS to become an official club at PLU.

He is still waiting for a response.

MARS is named after the Roman god of war, who in legend gave his name to martial arts.

“The idea of [European] martial arts was very common and now very few people know about them,” Fries said. “Academically, they can be an interesting and an underused approach to the study of the times and people.”

Fries works with a consistent core-group of three students every week, but he offers his assistance to anyone else who is interested.

“I’ve made myself available for other people’s schedules, because it’s difficult to get everyone together without a specific space that’s not affected by the weather,” Fries said.

During their meetings, Fries and other participants use reproductions of the original period weapons, called wasters. Wasters are made usually of wood because they are safer for practice. There are replicas of the longsword, the sword and the pole-axe among other weapons. They also make their own practice dummies using foam, pipe and tape.

“The wasters are relatively cheap for a relatively high standard of accuracy to the original weapon,” Fries said.

Fries usually meets individually with other fighters for the physical practice, but Fries emphasizes the individual study of the manuscripts that the martial arts are based on.

“[Martial arts masters of the past] left behind a lot of books and manuscripts,” Fries said. “We take these manuscripts and try and reconstruct the martial arts.”

Fries finds many of the manuscripts that he studies online.

“I was just messing around online and found a number of Web sites about historical European martial arts,” Fries said.

Fries said he hopes that by starting MARS more students will become informed about the common misconceptions surrounding historical European martial arts.

“There are a lot of stereotypes about the middle ages and crude fighting styles that aren’t true,” Fries said. “The historical European martial arts are just as complex and systematized and even spiritualized as the Asian martial arts and people don’t really realize that.”

Anyone who is interested in practicing, learning or just having a conversation about historical martial arts can reach Fries at friesjj@plu.edu or (253) 535-7821.

Photo by Chris Hunt

Junior Jason Unger and senior Joseph Fries demonstrate practicing European martial art with “wasters.” Wasters are wooden weapon replicas, safer than actual weapons, that are used to practice swordfighting with and have the same feel as the real weapon they replicate.