The Blog of a Big Bag Larper – Using unusual tools for training

Hi, I’m Sarah. I’m 51 years old, an ambulant wheelchair user, and for over 30 years I’ve been a Larper.

Live Action Role Play or LARP/Larping, is a hobby for enthusiasts of books, PC games, or TV shows who want to have their own adventures in the worlds they’ve grown to love. You get to participate by playing your character physically within a fictional setting and interacting with other people who are portraying their character. Hence, we call ourselves Larpers.

Whilst I’ve played many characters over the years including an elf, a faery owl, an orc, and a travelling sword for hire, I presently role play in a system based around the TV show Firefly, and it’s movie sequel Serenity. For those who don’t know it, it’s like a western in space which means I get to play a space cowboy!

My character has the in-game skills to use handguns and rifles, but because of the physical limits I have due to a car accident many years ago, I used plastic toy guns to represent them as they were light enough for me to hold. Not very realistic and it really didn’t help me get into the spirit of the game. I always looked on in envy at the folk who had replica weapons but being that these weighed almost the same as their real counterparts, were difficult for me to grip or hold up especially with my left arm and hand, which I never regained the full use of.

I had the use of a replica Colt revolver that a friend lent me for a recurring story line which I could draw and aim for a short while with my good hand. In the end I treated myself to getting the same model and practised drawing until I felt confident handling it. I also bought a rifle which one of the players was selling off, but alas, it proved too heavy for me to use regularly, so stayed on my wheelchair mostly as a prop or for others to borrow. Photo below of me playing a Bounty Hunter using the borrowed Colt and my stronger right arm.

Replica 1860 Brass and Black Colt Revolver – right hand, weight 1.16kg

I started doing online sessions with Becca at Big Bag Training in the autumn of 2021. She helped me to improve the strength in my arms and shoulders, and soon I was lifting weights I could only have dreamed of a couple of years ago. Becca helped me address the imbalance I had between my weaker left side, and my right side which I always defaulted to, as I’m right handed and it was the side I could better count on. By working to the limits of my left side, I was able to start regaining strength and movement, and along side using a static hand-cycle, got back more use of my left arm in 18 months, than I had in the previous 23 years since the accident.

With this positive experience I treated myself to the other replicas I’d been eyeing up, and asked Becca about the possibility of training using the guns, as they require a very specific grip to hold them, and range in weight from 0.5 kg to 3.15 kg. Turns out she’s a fan of Firefly too, so not only was she supportive of my unusual choice of weights, we had a good chat about our love of the show.

Replica 1866 Winchester Yellow Boy Brass and Black Lever-action Rifle – usually used two handed but practised single handed use both left and right hand, weight 3.15kg

By using the guns during the drills, it helped strengthen my grip, my wrists, my neck, and my forearms. We went for slow controlled movements concentrating on working the muscles specific to the shape of what I was holding and how I gripping it.

Being asymmetric and with a long barrel adding to the off centre of gravity, this also meant the weights were more unstable and so the micro movements helped me build stability and strength specifically where it was needed. Where one handgun was heavier, we made sure to alternate to ensure both sides put in the same effort.

I attended my most recent Larp event a couple of weeks ago and was able to use all of my replica arsenal and really get into the fun of the character. Not only did the training with Becca improve my enjoyment of a hobby I love, it also reduced my pain levels because I now had the muscle strength to play without overdoing it, or setting off my underlying conditions.

So, if you’ve got a hobby that training could support, if you’ve got something a bit out of the ordinary to use as weights but you’re not sure if you should, I say have a chat with Becca and go for it. Training is about helping you be the best you, and it should be able to reflect other aspects of your life if you want it to.

As they say in Firefly, Stay Shiny!

Sarah Waters

Take The Big Bag Community Member