In this article we will discuss what is currently known about the origins of the Liechtenauer tradition of historical German sword fencing which is heavily studied by many HEMA schools. It is a very popular…
Historical European martial arts originate from ancient combat techniques. Every reconstructed style entails the codified system and traditions of combat that were practiced for reasons such as self-defense, competition, entertainment, military and law enforcement applications,…
The bulk of Historical European martial artists focus on martial art practices of the Late Middle Ages and younger as these are well sourced, with older practices that are less well documented rarely discussed. So…
If you ask the average Historical European martial artist what weapon they study they will tell you they study the ‘long sword’ and then which source they base their interpretation on. Fechtbücher, or fighting manuals,…
It can surprise people to discover there are martial artists today who study the usage of historical swordsmanship weapons when fencing instead of the epee and foil. There are people who practice everything from how…
Without books no one can be a good teacher nor even a good student of this art. ― Fiore Dei Liberi Fiore dei Liberi was a 14th century Imperial Free Knight of the Holy Roman Empire…
There are many people searching online for information that compares Western martial arts to Eastern martial arts. This article has been written to help answer many common questions with a comprehensive and holistic approach. What…
We’ve noticed that there is a lot of interest in comparing Japanese Kendo to HEMA swordsmanship on the internet, with many discussions taking place about this topic. There are several reasons for this; Kendo is…
There are people who believe that modern Olympic fencing teaches techniques that are applicable to historical fencing, and that belief is not entirely incorrect. Many of the fundamentals from Olympic fencing port over nicely to…
The rapier as a word is probably one of the most widely used in the English language when talking about types of swords and swordsmanship. It is a staple of film and TV movies, appearing…
