Historical Fencing & Martial Arts Academy
SIGI Forge is a relative newcomer to the HEMA scene but with the backing of high profile fencers like Martin Fabian I was predictably quite excited when mine arrived several weeks ago. After thoroughly putting the sword through its paces, let’s find out how the SIGI Feder stacks up. At a Glance The continuing popularityRead more about Review: SIGI Forge Feder[…]
When it comes to Historical Fencing, few things draw more intense community discussion than that of rules and scoring at HEMA events. This should come as no surprise – everyone’s motives and goals for taking part in Historical Martial Arts are different, and so everyone is looking for the ideal ruleset which captures what it isRead more about Refereeing in Historical Fencing: Consistency & Communication[…]
The video below shows an adaptation of the Zornhut play described below. “If you stand in the right Wrath stance and your opponent strikes from his right to your left, then with a step of your right foot drive with displacement under his blade and over your head, and catch his strike on your flatRead more about Adapting a Zornhut Play[…]
“Even though this art must be learned chiefly through the practice of the body, yet it is certain and true that as with others, students can conceive it in their memory much better when it is assembled, written out, and placed before their eyes in a proper pedagogical order, and afterwards it can also beRead more about A Taxonomy of Technique: Meyer’s 5 Things[…]
An observation often made of late period German fencing (such as that described in the work of Mair or Meyer) it that it uses a surprisingly large number of guard positions. In fact some criticism can be made that there are in fact too many postures, depending on the fencing background of the reader. Read more about Guards! Guards! Notes on the Many Postures of Meyer[…]
The following is a repost of a friend’s (/u/hussard) comments on reddit under /r/wma, it uses the metaphor of siegecraft for how we might approach fencing. I’m reposting it here because it’s so damned good. Before you attack, you must do the preparation necessary in order to execute your actions. Against an undefended target, youRead more about Siege Mentality in Fencing[…]
Now that we have established the basics of body movement with the sword we can begin to add a number of the basic guard positions and cuts which help to teach proper motion of the sword through simple cutting actions along the various axes. The learning objectives for this post are: Holding the sword correctlyRead more about Back to Basics 2: Some Guards and Cuts[…]
Our first look at the basics will concentrate on a few of the fundamentals of the Meyer system, particularly with an eye to contrasting them with earlier traditions and establishing a firm foundation upon which we will build our art. The learning objectives for this post are to gain an understanding of: Meyers divisions ofRead more about Back to Basics 1 – Fundamentals and Footwork in Meyer[…]
I wrote this response at an ungodly hour of the morning after coming across the this blog post at the Fight With All Your Strength website, a blog which describes itself as “Physical Training and Biomechanics for Swordplay and other Combat Sports and Martial Arts.” On this occasion I find that I have toRead more about If you can’t do it slow then you can’t do it fast… properly[…]