Beleg Cúthalion on 21/12/2013 at 08:19

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In pre-modern Europe (and I guess also elsewhere) people dealt with martial arts and "sports" in the broadest sense as much as we e.g. deal with ball sports today. It probably wasn't the idea of countering the physical drawbacks of a modern industrial life that we have today (although there is an example of a better-off Augsburgian man complaining that he got fat at some point of his life while he was slim when fencing in earlier years). Accounts of what people (probably mostly nobles) did on training fields are existent, they include running, throwing stones and javelins, wrestling (something which even peasants did) and of course different sorts of fencing and horse riding. An often-depicted image from an Italian manuscript ("De Sphaera", these are the Children of the Sun) gives a nice impression: (http://www.hroarr.com/wp-content/oqey_gallery/galleries/christian-symbolism-in-hema-planetenkinder-astrology-alchemy/galimg/de-sphaera-italian-manuscript-15th-century-deta.jpg)

Personally I find it impressive that still in the 18th century, fencing events took place like this in Germany, where still long swords are used: (http://fechtschule.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/image_2.jpg)

If we use this as an analogy, Garrett would probably be part of a prominent martial culture, where how to move your body and how to handle violence was more widespread and deep-rooted than today. He would probably have seen a lot of training (since you need a lot to be at least an average martial artist) and would need to do something regularly, maybe at such training fields, albeit probably not in broad daylight. But again, he is a figure of modern pop culture, so there's no wonder he doesn't make a lot of sense as a full-time criminal all by himself, just like Disney's pirates.