How to Start a HEMA Club
By Sigmund Werndorf
So you want to start a HEMA club. Great! You’re in the right place.
This article will walk you through the various topics you should consider when starting a HEMA club. Most of these topics are large enough that they also have their own articles. Consider this an overview that puts them all into context with each other.
Why Start a HEMA Club?
The club is the atomic unit of HEMA where much of the actual nitty gritty of HEMA happens. It’s where people train, grow, and bond. It’s no small venture but the rewards of a good club go beyond your HEMA practice, they can affect your whole life. Many people find friends, communities, and families in their clubs.
Do You Need to Start Your Own HEMA Club?
There can be a lot to manage when you start a HEMA club, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You may find yourself reading this and thinking, I just wanted to play with swords! Do I have to start a club?
The good news is: no, you don’t need to start a club to participate in HEMA. The heart of HEMA are the historical sources, a sword (or dagger, or polearm, or even just a patch of soft ground, if you’re a wrestler), and you. It’s possible to simply go to the park with a friend, a book, two swordlike objects, and start doing HEMA without starting a HEMA club.
Eventually though, you may find that you and a friend in a park turns into you and a bunch of friends in the park. You may find that you want to do more, share this hobby, and build something with it. That’s when it’s time to ask yourself, am I ready to start a HEMA club? And that’s when it’s time to read this article.
What to Know Before You Start
This article and most of the ones that follow will be most beneficial to people who already have some basic familiarity with HEMA and its practice. It does not focus on what HEMA is, how to train it, or what it means to do HEMA. If you’re looking to answer those questions we recommend you reach out to your closest existing club, attend an event in your region, or speak with people already in the community.
3 Steps to Starting a HEMA Club
1. Think About Why You Want to Start Your Club
Your HEMA club can be many different things. It can be a collaboration between scholars, a community space for martial artists, a school that teaches and fosters its students, or a training team who work together to prepare for competition or just improve their art. It can also be a combination of these things, and more! The first important step is to figure out what you want. This will help guide you when it comes time to make more concrete decisions later on in the process.
Some Common Reasons to Start a HEMA Club
Every HEMA club is different, and everyone has a different reason for starting one. To get your brainstorming started, here are some of the many reasons people have started their clubs:
To find training partners
To focus on a specific weapon or treatise that other clubs aren’t interested in.
To study the historical context of HEMA
To train for competitions
To become a better sword fighter
To faithfully recreate and interpret historical sources
You’ll notice that someone who’s curious about studying the historical context of HEMA but hasn’t had much experience with swords yet is going to create a very different club from someone who’s very enthusiastic about competition and wants to put together a training team. That’s why it’s so important to be clear about what kind of club you want.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Begin by asking yourself these questions about your new HEMA club. If you’re starting this as a group, take the time to think about these questions as individuals then talk about them together. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, and it’s ok if you don’t all have the same answers. Simply discussing them will help you find the middle ground that best suits you all (and avoid bigger conflicts down the line).
Questions you should ask yourself:
Why do I want to start a club?
What parts of HEMA interest me most?
What resources (time, money, knowledge, enthusiasm) do I have to contribute to this?
Who can I call on to help me?
What kind of commitments can I make right now?
What kind of timeline do I envision this happening in?
Understanding yourself and your motivation is the first step in figuring out what type of club you are going to create.
2. Decide What Kind of Club You Want
Once you have a clearer idea of what you want out of your HEMA club (or at least a better idea of the open questions that you’re trying to answer), you can begin to tackle more concrete decisions. The first decision is what kind of club you want.
As discussed above, there are many different kinds! There is no one true or right HEMA club. Each club should be made to suit the people involved and what those people want or need can (and often does) vary significantly between places, communities, and demographics. For more help on this, check out What Kind of HEMA Club Do You Want?
Keep in mind that it’s ok not to be sure what you want yet. If you find yourself in that place where you aren’t sure what you want, then you should start with a club structure that is open ended and allows for experimentation, exploration, and evolution.
3. Organize Your Club Logistics
The next decisions are about how you want to organize your club. This is when the other people you’re working with and resources you all bring to the table come into play.
The key things you’ll need to think about are:
Club leadership and structure.
Financial choices such as fee structures, club gear, and acquiring a venue.
Insurance.
Additional things to think about early on are:
Establishing a club culture
Cultivating a safe environment
A Word to the Wise: Take Your Time
So, you’re still here and eager to start a HEMA club. There is a common impulse to try and set it all up in one fell swoop. Some of you will have already pulled up the articles of incorporation and are filling out the paperwork for a tax ID number. We certainly won’t stop you! However, it’s also ok to figure some of these things out as you go along, or remain agnostic until the shape of your club starts to come into focus.
Some things don’t need to be decided right away, or only become applicable once the club hits a certain size or level of commitment. Establishing a club constitution and formal leadership roles may not be immediately necessary if it’s just you and a close friend starting out. If you’re meeting in the park and there are no fees being charged, many of the financial factors like taxes or account ownership may not be relevant yet.
While establishing these formalities and structures early can help organize and smooth the growth to come, it’s also possible to commit yourself to things which end up not serving the people and needs of the club, such as establishing a fee structure too low to support its growth into new venues or insurance that the club needs. You may invest money in club gear that people don’t end up using, or establishing a leadership structure that relies on a level of participation from the membership body that people can’t commit to and which doesn’t end up manifesting in the people who make up your club.
So, part of considering these decisions is also asking yourself whether your club is ready to make the decision in the first place. Ask yourself whether it’s good enough to have the topic in mind and hold off until you have more members, or if you can make a lighter commitment that will allow for a pivot in a different direction that makes sense down the road.
A Word to the Wise: Don’t Get Overwhelmed
Maybe, after reading all this, you’re starting to think that the two hour drive to the nearest club isn’t so bad afterall.
Deciding that you aren’t ready to start a club, that you don’t have the time, money, or freedom to do so, or that you just don’t want to do all this work is perfectly legitimate. While starting a club is more doable than some people think, it can still be a lot of labor and can require a big personal or collective investment and that shouldn't be taken on by people who aren’t ready, both for that person’s sake and the for the sake of others who will come to be a part of whatever gets made.
So, if you decide you don’t want to do all this, that’s ok! Go back to the practice of HEMA itself, and come back when you’re ready.
The Next Step
Just by reading this article, you’ve taken the first step toward starting your HEMA club!
There are lots more things to consider that we haven’t yet covered, but we have resources to guide you every step of the way.
To get started, we recommend reading What Kind of HEMA Club Do You Want? next.
As your club grows, you may also like to think about: