From the HEMA Blogosphere

Last weekend I was able to fence a lot with Enrico Tomasi, Friulian fencer from the Sala d’arme Achille Marozzo – Udine. I am pleasantly satisfied with the experience and I decided to upload on YouTube these videos shot with … Continue reading → ...

Approximately every 365 days there falls a date celebrated for many things, but in my household principally as the anniversary of my birth. Yes, you have anticipated me: it was my birthday. As is delightfully customary, I was showered with gifts, chief among them a tome that has, quite ...

Thibault described his body proportions in great detail. What do modern measuring techniques have to say about that? ...

I like to post about tournament stats, but we all need to keep in mind the inherent limitations of what the numbers can and can’t tell us. ...

In one of the plates of the Morgan Bible (MS M.638 (fol. 27v)) is a cart attendant wearing a cap that is speculated to be made of leather. The seams on the cap in the illustration are in contrast to the construction of the other metal helmets in the ...

If you use Amazon (and most people do), then you may have noticed that they have changed the “Also Boughts” section on the product pages. It used to be a pretty reliable way of seeing what other people, who like the same things you do, have found interesting enough to ...

Volume 2 of the new Rapier Workbook series is back from layout, and looking pretty spiffy. It will be going to the printers next week. Huzzah! Volume 2 won’t be so useful if you don’t already have volume 1. You can get beautifully printed copies from the distributor here, ...

Notorious Russian Champion, Elena Muzurina, never disappoints in a tournament. Most recently Elena won the gold medal in the women’s longsword division at Swordfish 2018. She’s an absolute powerhouse despite her size, and has left the collective jaw of the HEMA community on the floor recently. People have speculated about ...

Good writing advice often includes ‘get rid of all unnecessary words’. The awesome Zinsser says as much in his must-read On Writing Well, and he’s right. But one can go too far. Why is it that editors these days, especially the ones that live in your own head, want to ...

Steel is a good choice for swords. But what is it in the first place? ...

In this second video of the Incrosare series I show which parts of the blade should be used in the three actions that I’ve shown in the first video. If you have not seen the first episode, just check in … Continue reading → ...

I’m a footwork and body mechanics obssessive. Relaxed, graceful, movement is what it’s all about. What am I up to here?My body is 50x heavier than my sword. The sword is only a tiny proportion of the sword/swordsperson combination. It’s the tip of the spear. So it makes sense to ...

What makes steel a good material for swords? There isn’t just one reason, steel just happens to be right in the middle of a bunch of desirable properties. ...

This is a summary and commentary on “Armour Purchases and Lists from the Howard Household Books” by Robert W. Reed Jr., an article which appeared in the first volume of the The Journal of The Mail Research Society in 2003. (link) John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk.The article examines the purchases ...

My friends at Valkyrie Martial Arts recently ran an event called Big Gay Sword Day. The point of it was to make it super-explicitly minority-friendly, though not in the least exclusive. And yet they’ve come under fire from people who feel that this is unfairly excluding straight white men ...

Greetings,For the most part when many people think of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms) they think of "those people who dress up in funny clothes and do medieval stuff" rather than looking at it from any sort of idea of a martial arts tradition. For the most part SCA ...

I am face-down in the first draft of the third instalment of my new Rapier Workbook series. Part Two, Completing the Basics is back from the proof reader and I sent it off to layout this morning. Huzzah! Part Three, Developing Your Skills is proving to be a bit of a ...

I’ve decided to shoot a number of videos about the incrosare, this topic will be quite complex and to develop it and explain it in a proper way i’ve decided to do a number of videos, some of them will … Continue reading → ...

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – Swordfish is one of HEMA’s largest and longest running tournaments. It’s like an unofficial world championship in the sense that it draws a variety of competitors unlike any other tournament. Swordfish 2018 wrapped up last weekend over November 1st to 4th.The women’s longsword division has grown ...

Talhoffer MS 78.A.15Generally, there aren’t many details about the specific form of mail defenses in fechtbuch sources. One example we do have is from Talhoffer MS 78.A.15, and is very explicit. There, tucked in the middle of the dagger section, is a page showing the kit of someone who will ...

In a rural corner of County Clare there is a tiny little village (only three pubs that I could see) called Feakle, which is perhaps the last place one would expect to find a historical swordsmanship event. And yet, I have just returned from the Tempest event held there last ...

Some people have taken issue with the matches on the Swordfish finals due to a perceived high number of double hits. Let’s crunch some numbers and see if this is actually true. ...

I just added a new article on my Patreon Page. In this I describe a new method for organizing the crossing situations, be these beating actions, binding actions or parries. Patrons that donate 5$ or more per month can read … Continue reading → ...

I’m back from an excellent trip to the USA, to speak at the Hero Round Table conference in Michigan. I’ll write up that event properly when they have uploaded my talk to Youtube; the whole thing was live-streamed, so you may have seen it already. I don’t dare watch it. ...

Many people perceive that pool fighting is uglier and leads to more double hits than elimination bracket fights. But is this really the case? ...

Healing broken bones is fairly routine in modern medical practice, but a brain injury is a completely different story. The physics behind what causes concussions, and why they are fundamentally different from injuries as we are used to thinking about them. ...

Rodney Bennett, our fervent video archivist from Victorian and Edwardian Martial Arts found an interesting video of a certain Dr. Condon principal of New York Public School 12  (quite the inspiring name!) in the Bronx teaching some “stick fencing” to a group of young students. The video passed under the ...

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Magdeburg, Germany—Construction workers discovered the rusty ruin of a saber while excavating a broken water main. The newspaper Volksstimme speculates that the artifact could be “400 years old” — a relic of the Thirty Years Warm when “Imperial troops under Pappendem stormed the Protestant city”. We hate to burst that ...

Right-handed layout. The QR code works, btw.I received the print proof of the new rapier workbook, and it looks great. The paper quality is much better than at Lulu (the other printing option), and the printing itself is excellent. I have put in the order for a limited print run, ...

Stiffness of a training simulator is something that is often thrown around to help determine its safety. But what makes something that way? ...

I’m currently in Helsinki sitting at the dining table in my friend Tina’s apartment, and it’s a very good day, on several counts: I spent the weekend at my salle teaching my students. We covered breathing exercises on Friday evening, spent all day Saturday torturing ourselves with rapier footwork, and ...

junck-ritter: There are two principal aspects to assessing a fencing action - the quantitative (was a hit made) and the qualitative (was the hit good?). It is a matter of ongoing grief for many fencers when their hits are not recognised on the opponent. Many believe more “objective” measures, such ...

APPLETON, WI – The Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association hosted its fourth annual ‘Krump Pow’ last weekend from October 5th – 7th. Krump Pow featured multiple tournaments, an array of classes, and the infamous balloon battle. This year’s tournaments included open longsword, singlestick, mixed synthetic and mixed steel longsword, smallsword, rapier, ...

Greetings,So for the following post, as indicated the discussion will be about shields. This is a subject which is often pushed aside or ignored as it is often assumed that shields are pretty simple in their construction and development. It is actually far from the case. There is also often ...

What does it matter how a tatami falls down? When the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal. ...

Among the many things an instructor should know (‘have a plan’, ‘admit doubt’, ‘don’t wear a cup during stretches’ – seriously, don’t), one of the most important is that you can’t teach everyone. Let me qualify that: you can’t teach all students to the same level. Not everyone will share ...

Among the many things an instructor should know (‘have a plan’, ‘admit doubt’, ‘don’t wear a cup during stretches’ – seriously, don’t), one of the most important is that you cant teach everyone. Let me qualify that: you cant teach all students to the same level. Not everyone will share ...

Talking about the future of my channel, about new contents, fencing, archery etc. Advertisements ...

The brand-new Rapier Beginners’ workbook is now available for pre-order from my distribution partner Fallen Rook Press. The books are in layout now, and should be shipping within a few weeks. Leaving extra time for hitches, you should get the book by the end of November, but probably earlier. ...

A small collection of things too small to deserve their own article. ...

Patriotism may be the last refuge of scoundrels. But it’s also  one of the great sources of historical irony. The War of 1812 created one such irony, as far as the classical canon of fencing literature is concerned. This one is quite complex, as indeed anything should be that ...

Hey guys, here is my new Axel Pettersson Jacket. I decided to make a little review because i’ve seen this product improved compared to older versions. Here it is. Advertisements ...

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to teach swordsmanship through books and videos. It’s not a simple problem, not least because every student is different, and has different needs and preferences. How the material should be ordered and presented, what photos may be needed, how much ...

You don’t have to understand crazy math with imaginary numbers to appreciate the principles of control theory. They can be applied to sword fighting, and might give you a different perspective on your training or interpretations. ...

Yesterday i’ve uploaded a new video for my Patrons, in this video I take in consideration all the changes i’ve made to my training method during the past year. I specifically take it consideration the three most important changes and I … Continue reading → ...

A while back I helped coach at Fighty McFightFace, a rookie tournament for fencers who had never made it to the eliminations of a tournament. I had three fencers to coach, and very little time to prepare. In some sense, the short timespan was both a blessing and a curse. ...

Master Lorenz Römer was already an old man, when he came to settle down. He was a Freyfechter and entitled to hold Fechtschule – the fencing school and tournament. Next to his duty as a fencing master he was catching birds and selling them. He was remembered in a poem written ...

The bedroom door slams open. A man, trying to kill me. Machete. I grab my katana and parry the first blow with the sword still in its scabbard. I feint a cut to his head, simultaneously flicking the sword out of its scabbard, then bring the sword down, cutting off ...

You can’t learn martial arts from reading a book… or can you? I’ve always thought so; in fact, I make my living by teaching martial arts I’ve learned from books. Very old books. But *reading* a book doesn’t help on its own; you have to put the work in ...

ordinaryvisionary: Above: with my hard earned Dutch shiny!Yes, I’m so behind with updates! Mea culpa mea culpa, I’ll do better… ;)Moving on, the curse on my latest HEMA trips continues, this time with a mysteriously missed Flixbus connection in Frankfurt with the consequence of my trip being prolonged by many ...

New YouTube video with me and Keith Farrell. This time we talk about the crossing and the possible options from the situations of weaknes and strenght presented in both the Fiore manuscript and in the Liechtenauer (Ringeck mainly) tradition. Advertisements ...

(Scroll down for the English translation) Negli anni ho avuto modo di praticare svariate arti marziali e di approcciarmi alla scherma in vari modi. Una caratteristica comune che ho visto caratterizzare alcune arti (spesso tradizionali) e alcune branche delle HEMA … Continue reading → ...

The discussion about the meaning of the sporting competition for fame with medals and titles in martial arts is neither new nor completely dissolvable. We want to treat ourselves to the fun of reading the historical state of discussion from the 14th century on the basis of the song poem ...

Not long ago I braved the North Passage and flew to Seattle via Iceland. This was about my twentieth trip to Seattle, but my first to SwordSquatch. The event is run by a group of Lonin students who got together a few years ago to create the event that they ...

I have an incurable disease. It’s not going to kill me, but it’s already made my life miserable and promises to complicate my life going forward. This is going to be a bit of a rambling post as I work through everything, so I apologise in advance. The diagnosis is ...

When cutting, the sword exerts force on the target, and the target exerts force right back on the sword. This force is what causes cuts to be less effective, and possibly fail. And where does it come from? ...

Photo courtesy of Kristin Reimer PhotoMusePITTSBURGH, PA – Jamie Kikilidis is perhaps one of the American East Coast’s best kept secrets! She’s a powerhouse fighter with a superb technical toolbelt, and is always seen smiling throughout all of her matches. Fighting out of Broken Plow Western Martial Arts in Pennsylvania, Jamie ...

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