HEMA is an acronym that stands for ‘Historical European Martial Arts’. HEMA is generally regarded as martial arts that are based on surviving dedicated technical treatises and martial arts manuals dated to the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and the early modern period. It can also be based on documentation of the fighting methods of classical antiquity (such as Greek wrestling, gladiatorial combat or Roman infantry tactics).

The majority of HEMA practitioners study manuscripts and instructional booklets written many hundreds of years ago, which is referred to as ‘source based’ study. You can start your journey into this world by clicking the following link to our ‘Learn HEMA‘ page.

If you’d still like more detailed information on what HEMA is, please check our longer article on the subject by clicking here.

Many people are attracted to the idea of studying historical swordsmanship due to depictions in popular media such as fantasy novels, comics, television, movies and video games. Some people also have an interest in military history that leads them to desire to study the usage of antiquated military weapons such as swords to better their understanding of how warfare was conducted during these time periods.

Mostly people study Historical European martial arts (HEMA) because sword fighting is a fun hobby that provides excellent physical exercise. While it is doubtful that swords will ever have supremacy in the battlefield again, this weapon’s place in martial disciplines are solidified. Swords hold an important place in the human psyche and training a person to use one can both improve self-esteem and health.

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This can be confusing for some people, but thinking that someone studying HEMA is a historical reenactor would be like considering someone studying Kendo to be a samurai roleplayer.

HEMA is based on historical practices and while it utilizes period weapons and sometimes protective equipment, generally speaking clubs engaging in HEMA practices are not engaging in historical re-enactment or LARPing, and most of the protective equipment used by HEMA practitioners are modern designs to improve safety.

The origins of the modern HEMA movement are founded in scholarly research and experimental archaeology. It is now emerging into a sport but the hobby is still centered around recreating the fighting styles of historical European peoples based on surviving source material such as medieval manuscripts and booklets. You can learn more about the development of HEMA as a modern sport by reading our Timeline of the HEMA Movement article.

That said, many people who practice HEMA may also engage in historical re-enactment, LARPing and other kinds of roleplaying activities and bring their knowledge of historical martial art techniques when participating in those other kinds of events. There are also some HEMAist who may put on specialty events which are reenactment in nature as part of their studies.

Olympic, or rather modern fencing, is a style of sport fencing that grew from smallsword and military sabre traditions practiced in the 19th century. It transformed throughout the 20th century through rules that heavily gamified it until it now bears very little resemblance to the original traditions it descends from.

In HEMA there are people who study the original smallsword and military sabre traditions which modern sport fencing descends from. HEMA athletes also study older weapon systems such as the long sword, rapier, dussack, polearms, zweihander, bucklers and so on.

Additionally modern sport fencing no longer includes disarms and grappling in its repertoire, whereas HEMA does. There are even those who study how to fight on horseback using sword, sabre and lance.

While modern sport fencing is an excellent sport and many people involved in HEMA have a background in it, the biggest difference is that HEMA utilizes the actual techniques used by swordsman from centuries ago to fight real life-or-death battles. Modern sport fencing does not. Some of the fundamentals that modern sport fencing teaches are very applicable to HEMA though, so sport fencers often find an easy transition into HEMA. We discuss this topic further in our article, ‘Olympic Fencing Vs. HEMA‘.

Stage fencing is a style of fencing that was developed for use in theatre plays, and later movies and television series.

While stage fencing has its roots in the theatre companies of 16th century England, the kind of stage fencing common today is influenced from the efforts of Alfred Hutton, a famous 19th century fencer who can be considered to have started the first revival of Historical European martial arts by researching and publishing material on the usage of weapons such as the long sword and rapier. Hutton earned a living as an instructor and trained many popular actors and actresses in his day, and adapted older techniques into a style of fencing made specifically to entertain people through rehearsed and coordinated fighting plays.

HEMA has very little to do with stage fencing, as we instead use the source material for older weapons in the way they were originally intended to be used. This is sometimes not as flashy or visually impressive as stage fencing looks. That said some important contributors to the modern HEMA movement had a background in stage fencing and utilized their knowledge to help recreate the arts.