Some thoughts on playing the victim
A problem that we commonly encounter in the training and teaching of martial arts in general, is the issue of how the "loser" of the training…
On Individual Lessons in HEMA
Ours are fighting systems that are under (re)construction. Those of us who consider themselves researchers ponder their brains out in order to…
Brief notes on fencing, from the military treatise of Giovanni Alberto Cassani (1603)
Giovanni Alberto Cassani published a military treatise in Naples in 1603.1 In this work he indicates that he was born in the town of Frassinello…
Johann Georg Paschen’s Rapier Lessons: Developing a curriculum for teaching rapier fencing
This article will present an analysis of Johann Georg Paschen’s (1628-1678) Kurtze iedoch Deutliche Beschreibung handlend von Fechten auff den…
How to read minds and the value of tournaments
Some month ago a nearby group decided to run a small longsword tournament as part of some local festivities, that also included a separate beginners…
Awards for Technical Excellence in HEMA Tournaments
Over the past five years, an increasing number of HEMA tournaments have added a new kind of award, aimed at rewarding fighters who display…
Fighting as a communicative skill
Since the elements described and explained up to now are properly just a beginning and primer from which all combat devices with the sword can…
The Recital of the Chivalric Art of Fencing of the Grand Master Johannes Liechtenauer
It's been a long road, but the 2015 Wiktenauer Fundraiser is finally, finally winding to a close. All perks are delivered apart from the scan…
The point of sparring
While sounding like a simple thing to define, sparring can have quite a few and very different goals and purposes that are sometimes hard to keep in…
“Take great pains in your knightly practices” – A brief review of Medieval and Renaissance training methodologies
Few men are born brave; many become so through care and force of discipline. - Flavius Vegetius Renatus Many pages have been written on the subject…
Troublesome Student -The Winner, the Solver, the Heretic
As a teacher, you prepare to show a student a technique from the treatise of your choice. You have art, text, and experience, you're qualified, you…
All is Not Lost; Or HEMA on the Cheap
My first contact with what I know now as HEMA took place in the spring of 2009. I was attending a military re-enactment event at Jamestown Settlement…
When to hit hard in HEMA
Sparring and free play are important tools on our way to becoming more competent fencers, while at the same time the approaches and views on how to…
How computer based systems can help improve our fencing skills.
Prolog: Epic Meaning The goal of every HEMA-fighter is to “survive” a duel - fought with protective equipment and as little rules as possible -…
From WHAT to teach to HOW to teach: A coaching contribution for the HEMA of the XXI century
Tactical intelligence tends to be made out to be more complex than it actually is, by being seen as weapon specific. Furthermore, it also tends…
Use of opposite hand and muscle imbalance
A fellow HEMAist shared some thoughts the other day on an important topic; muscle imbalance. But, what is muscle imbalance? The Medical dictionary…
Bored Students
The most knowledgeable of instructors can also be some of the least effective teachers. There are many reasons for this, but today's article will…
Making a wooden dummy for swordsmanship practice
The wooden dummies we use for sword practice are to us what the boxing bag is for a boxer. They are a great tool for practising basic techniques such…
HEMA Pedagogics Part 3: How to create a good learning environment
This is the third part of my brief article series on HEMA and pedagogics. Starting with the first HEMA Pedagogics article where we…
HEMA Pedagogics Part 2: The implications
Continuing from what we examined in the first HEMA Pedagogics article where we looked at the gymnastics and pedagogics pioneers that laid the…
HEMA Pedagogics Part 1: The Pedagogics Pioneers & The Role of a HEMA teacher
This three-piece article, while aimed more at teachers of HEMA is also relevant to students of HEMA, since we are all students and the…
Concerning the Rules of Tournaments
This article is to some extent a reply to Γιώργος Ζαχαρόπουλος’s article in which he points out the conflicting requirements…
Meyer quarterstaff workshop in Florence, Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Envup5Ah8 Here's the workshop on Joachim Meyer's quarterstaff held by me and my fellow GHFS member Mattias Moberg…
Free Fencing exercises
In our Meyer staff class we have been forced to develop methods that meet the simple fact that in staff fencing you are actually training with the…
Teaching progressions in Meyer’s longsword 1: the attacking skill tree
Over the last five years, I’ve given several workshops in both South Africa and Europe focused on sequencing the teaching of techniques from…
The Art of Control – Fechtschule Manifesto 2
Fencing with the Sword is nothing other than a discipline, wherein your force strives together with your sword in placement so that one with the…
Art of Control (Fechtschule Manifesto) Part 1
"Fencing with the Sword is nothing other than a discipline, wherein your force strives together with your sword in placement so that one with the…
From Treatise to Exercise- a model for turning text into action
An often overlooked aspect of historical fencing is how to go about turning all the information contained in a fencing text into a structured means…
Exercises for the Cloak and Rapier
The following are partnered drills for the cloak and rapier. It is vital that the attacker providing the techniques you are working against…
Physical conditioning, health & sport readiness
Humans attempt to make sense of their environment results, quite often, in the systematization of knowledge into boxes commonly (and quite wrongly)…
Simple Staff Method and Drills
I first learned staff in the late eighties, and although I was not that interested in the provenance, as I recall my master learned it in Scouts as a…
A mentality of fear – and its importance to fighting
"If you want to learn how to fight properly and effectively with the long sword, so that you may, without gloves and without all armour, guard your…
Meyer freeflow exercises
To begin with, just for clarification, this is not a typical article per se, but rather a text sorted under the Meyer Research Project, thus a more…
A theory-based approach to teaching HEMA
HEMA, it can be said, is only in its second generation by now, though some claim to be in the fourth already. This makes us a very young Art, and…
Skill training vs. strength training
This is a debate that has been heard by all of us one time or another, I believe: Should strength training be incorporated into HEMA, and how much of…
Russian test cutting practices
One of the great things about online HEMA research is that you often end up finding interesting material that you weren't really looking for. I was…
Rope drill for HEMA.
<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;"…
The OODA Loop & HEMA
"Knowledge is not power. Power alone is power. What knowledge does is provide the means to determine where to focus that power, for maximum…
Learning may be tough, extremely tough… Time to wise up!!!
Throughout my years involved with martial arts I have seen, time and time again, instructors in the most varied arts who spar effectively but do not…
Teaching martial arts
Quite recently, while exchanging all sorts of points of view with everyone’s good friend Roger Norling of GHFS, and upon stating that Jogo do…
Meyer quarterstaff – A lesson plan
I thought it might interest some to see how a typical lesson plan for our Meÿer staff class in GHFS looks like. This is of course too…
