HEMA Alliance

New! Absolute Force HEMA Gear

john.harmston — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:53:57 +0000

Absolute Force, a division of AF International Sporting, the company that also makes Absolute Fencing Gear, has released a full line of purpose-built HEMA gear. This gear has been developed with significant input from HEMA-ists in and out of the HEMA Alliance. Most recently these products were put through their paces at Fechtschule America.

To learn more about these products, click here.

The Point of Honor in Sixteenth-Century Italy

john.harmston — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:44:55 +0000

In the course of his research, Lenny Zimmermann of SDA NOLA (Systeme d’Armes New Orleans, LA) stumbled upon a book published in 1935 by Frederick R. Bryson entitled “The Point of Honor in Sixteenth-Century Italy: An Aspect of the Life of the Gentleman”. It is a well researched treatise on how honor, and in part the duel, was viewed in late 15th and 16th century Italy, including snippets of text from several Italian fencing Masters.

Lenny states, “This book explores the sociological norms surrounding the Italian concepts of honor and the duel, and provides a context for many of the manuscripts we study. I think these concepts are central to helping understand some of the unwritten assumptions we find in those manuals and I hope you might find this as interesting as I do.”

Click here to view the transcription.

Fechtschule America mentioned in Houston Chronicle

john.harmston — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:36:40 +0000

Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle

Learning European traditions

Noah Gilliam, left, practices with Allen Foster in a cane-fighting class Sunday held during Fechtschule America at the Lutheran High North Community Center, 1130 W. 34th St., in Houston. The event — now in its third year — stages tournaments and brings in local and visiting instructors to teach students European martial arts. “They come here to learn martial arts that are not practiced today,” said instructor Maxime Chouinard. “They learn how to fence, fight with a walk- ing stick, a dagger and even wrestle.” Practicing in the background with Gilliam and Foster are Jonathan Mayshar, left, and Bennett Chabot.

Wiktenauer Update – Hans Talhoffer

john.harmston — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:56:46 +0000

The Talhoffer section of the Wiktenauer has been recently updated and expanded. Among the additions are four smaller composites of each of the four distinct treatises written by Talhoffer, compiled by Michael Chidester.

Click here to learn more.

Coming Soon – MS I:33 Reprints

john.harmston — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:53:59 +0000

The Royal Armouries have teamed up with specialist publishers of military manuscripts Extraordinary Editions to produce a full-size facsimile of the manuscript in a limited edition. Each copy of the manuscript will come complete with a companion volume containing a full transcription and translation of every page and a new introduction by Dr Jeffrey L. Forgeng.

Dr Forgeng is the Paul S. Morgan Curator at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worchester, Massachusetts. He rediscovered the manuscript lying almost unknown in the Royal Armouries’ library at the Tower of London and set about translating it. He became the world’s foremost authority on the manuscript and his original work published in 2003 sold out quickly and has been sought after ever since. He now adds nearly a decade of research to that original text.

Click here to learn more.

Audacity – Work Out In Your Gear

William Cain — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:51:40 +0000

Three posts in a week’s time! I’m spoiling you, children.

Today we’re going to discuss a practical element of working out. Conditioning is an important element of the martial arts – if you don’t have the physical conditioning, you aren’t going to be able to perform. I don’t care how good your technique is, you aren’t going to learn as much if you’re sitting out every third match because you’re winded (I speak from experience).

So here’s a short post with a practical tip – learn to work out in your gear. If you have a gambeson, great. Do your drills each day wearing it. You’ll get used to the way it restricts your motions, be comfortable with the heat buildup that comes from wearing it, and get more used to performing under pressure in equipment.

If you don’t HAVE a gambeson, cheat. Buy a cheap denim jacket (you can get them for under 50 bucks just about anywhere, go do it), and pack the pockets. Fill them with sand or rocks or ice packs or something weighted, and do your workout drills in your new demi-gambeson. Conditioning yourself in this way will give you a definite edge in competition and in practices, and allow you to learn more for longer periods.

If you have access to a fencing mask, practice while wearing that. It will help you get used to judging distances through a mask (trickier than it sounds) and used to the weight of it on your head. Practice with your gloves or gauntlets as well, for the same reason.

Most of us do not feel we are modern day knights, I for one do not. However, we can draw inspiration from them – they trained in their gear so that when the time came for war, they were as used to fighting in it as we are used to breathing. Make your gear a part of yourself, and your sparring and conditioning will improve conmeasurately.

As always, practice proper hydration so you don’t end up explaining to the ER how you got a heat stroke while playing with swords. If this happens to you, I will disavow any knowledge and this post will have mysteriously vanished from the internet.

Yours fraternally

William Cain

Kron Martial Arts

Audacity – Practical Meditations on Ringeck

William Cain — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:25:01 +0000

In keeping with my role as an aid to beginners, I wish to provide a series of practical meditations on the portions of the Art that I study. Thus, this series of posts will focus on excerpts from various manuals we have access to, with my thoughts about the elements contained with in and what they have to say to the beginner.

This time, let’s take a look at Sigmund Ringeck, a 15th century fencing master who provided one of the best manuals we currently have access to.

Young knight, learn
to always honour women, and love God,
so increase your honour.
Practice chivalry and learn
arts which improve you
and in the battle bring honour.
Wrestle well, understand the lance,
spear and sword and use the knife
like a man.

Well, this all sounds a bit excessive! I’m an atheist, don’t believe in god, don’t practice chivalry, and I’m not concerned with garnering honour for myself. What’s someone to do?

Well, let’s take a step back and consider these words in a more broad context. Knowledge and interpretations evolve and grow as people relate them to the context they live in. We don’t live in an age where knights are particularly relevant to the modern discourse, but we do live in an age when ethical behavior, codes of conduct, and good intentions are as vital as ever.

I admonish you, fellow beginner, enter the Art with a clear idea of your ethical guidelines. Mine are founded on a deep respect for the rights and dignity of others. I want people to think well of me, and know that I am a man who will respect everyone who I study with as fellow seekers of the art. I wish to do no harm to anyone, so I practice the Art with self-control, and am willing to lose a fight rather than score a point by striking with extreme ferocity and risking injury to my opponent. Women who practice the art face an unusual set of circumstances, entering a field largely dominated by males. I treat female students in my club no differently than anyone else- with respect, courtesy, friendship.

Think about your moral underpinnings, and about how you will use them to conduct yourself in pursuit of a good reputation, in the effort to protect and help your fellow students learn, and in becoming a worthy practitioner of these arts. This is our chivalry for this age – the conduct that lets others know we are worth studying and fighting with.
Cut fiercely!
Storm forwards: Hit or miss;
The well-experienced hate that
which seeks to cut them.
This you shall understand:
all arts have length and measure.

Have courage! I am by nature a very timid man in the martial arts. I don’t like getting hurt, I don’t like feeling pain or risking getting my fingers broken by an unlucky strike from a sword. I’m a writer by profession! A broken knuckle will seriously hinder my ability to make some money for myself.

But if I embrace THAT mindset, I’m never going to practice well. I’ll always be flinching, I will never get the strikes I want to land, because I will forever be pulling them and trying to retreat. Instead, embrace the idea of the versetzen – the attack that deflects a strike while delivering a blow of your own. Strike aside his zornhau with a zwerchau, fetching him a hit on the head as you do. Learn to attack, and to deal with pain as an inconvenience, not something to fear but to understand and control. Participate in drills that require you to take a stout hit as part of the execution, so you can learn to work through bruises and pain. Learn to face and deal with pain, and you won’t fear it as you enter into your first tournament fights or the prize plays for rank that so many clubs are embracing.

As ever, commentary and responses are invited. Fence well!

Yours fraternally,

William Cain

Kron Martial Arts

Audacity – Superstition is Awesome

William Cain — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:00:09 +0000

Sports in general are an interesting place to look at the science of superstition. We’ve all heard of it, athletes who wear the same set of garments without washing them, demand certain seats on planes every time they travel, or have a modest little activity or lucky charm they embrace each time they get ready for a game. We laugh a bit, and dismiss it as silliness, but there’s actually some science behind the mentality that these things create.

In some cases, it seems that these rituals become a form of psychological warmup routine. Engaging in these comforting behaviors puts the athletes into a proper mindset for the upcoming game. They’re not necessarily consciously doing so, and they don’t necessarily believe that their lucky charms DO help them win games – but psychologically these behaviors help reduce the heart rate and get the performer more comfortable so that they can perform consistently and safely. Whether this is something that should be encouraged or discouraged I leave to sociologists, psychologists, and various sports teams. What this all has to do with HEMA on the other hand is something that I believe is worth looking at.

Consider a tradition that exists in Kron, and many other HEMA groups – the salute. In Kron, before every fight, we salute one another with our swords, then touch blades before taking up our positions. The reasoning for this is simple – routine allows people to become comfortable, so we always do things the same way. Further, it is a public signal of respect for the other fencer, a way of saying “I acknowledge you as my opponent and fellow student, and salute your participation in this fight.”

But when you really get down to it, isn’t it a superstition? My respect for my fellow fencers is an internal thing. If I don’t salute them, will it really mean the fight is less respectful? On one level no, but on another level it very well may be. If I don’t follow the rules we’ve all agreed to, my opponent could well get stressed out. What does he think of me now that I haven’t saluted him? Is he more nervous about other rules I may not observe?

It’s an interesting question. We all have our rituals that do not necessarily directly impact the way our techniques would play out, but do them anyway because of various psychological reasons.

War cries come into this as well. Consider the Haka, a war dance performed by the All Blacks football team. It stems from a native ritual in which tribes would perform these war dances leading up to a fight, to psych themselves up and intimidate the opponent. There’s really no actual reason for it in modern football, but the All Blacks do it all the same because they want to channel the idea of the warrior ethos, and psych out their opponents, and maybe just have the fans get excited and have a good time. I have no idea how much it works for their success rate in various games they play, but I know they perform it faithfully and truly.

So what rituals do your fencing groups observe that might be considered superstitious? I’m talking of any behavior or activity that doesn’t directly impact the situation at hand, but is considered important for reasons of tradition and ‘because it’s what we do.’

My personal opinion is that these kinds of things are awesome, and I’m very much a skeptic. I do not believe in anything paranormal whatsoever – we have the real world, and real world things are what we should focus on. But before every single fencing fight I go into, I recite my personal motto to myself, put my equipment on in a very specific way, and make sure to properly observe the salute protocols. Why? Because these rituals comfort me and get me into the mindset of the fight, even if they genuinely will have no measurable effect on the result of the fight. I could well lose if I perform a perfect warm up ritual or salute, and I might win every time I disregard them all. That isn’t the point – the point is connecting myself to the HEMA ethos, and making myself feel very much more a part of things.

Feel free to share, and again I apologize for the dearth of postings lately.

Yours fraternally,

William Cain

Kron Martial Arts

Wiktenauer Update – Giacomo di Grassi

john.harmston — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:06:49 +0000

Giacomo di Grassi was a 16th century Italian fencing master. Little is known about the life of this master, but he seems to have been born in Modena, Italy and acquired some fame as a fencing master in his youth. He operated a fencing school in Trevino and apparently traveled around Italy observing the teachings of other schools and masters. Ultimately di Grassi seems to have developed his own method, which he laid out in great detail in his 1570 work Ragione di adoprar sicuramente l’Arme (“Explanation of Striving Safely with Arms”).

Toward the end of his life, di Grassi seems to have transplanted to England, where he opened a new school in London and spent the remainder of his days. In 1594, a new edition of his book was printed in London under the title His True Arte of Defence, translated by an admirer named Thomas Churchyard. While di Grassi’s teachings were arguably designed for the side sword, the English translation substitutes “rapier” for every mention of the sword.

Click here to learn more.

Talhoffer and Articles at the HEMA Alliance

Ben Floyd — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:34:26 +0000

Jeffery Hull’s transcription and translation of Hans Talhoffer’s Fechtbuch (Thott 290 2º) is now available on the HEMA Alliance!

Fight Earnestly

While you’re at it check out these other articles and texts:

Articles at the HEMA Alliance