What do plastic straws, fad diets, and training HEMA all have in common? Quite simply, regardless of what we might be discussing, there is always the temptation to go after the low hanging fruit or to jump on the bandwagon of whatever is currently …
The importance of observing details
Observing details is a valuable skill in everyday life. You can notice things like opening hours for shops, street signs to help find your way, people offering free food, people preparing to ambush you, that oncoming bus… But how important is it to …
What HEMA would I praise?
In Liechtenauer’s Zedel and some of the gloss explaining the verses, we find the statement about certain techniques and behaviours “that I will praise”. It might just be poetry or an attempt to rhyme, or it might be a genuine attempt to draw …
The power of a good soundbite
One of the most powerful things in the world today is a strong, enduring soundbite. A “soundbite” is a short phrase that can be repeated again and again, that can be used to summarise a position or campaign or belief, and can even to some extent be a …
Historical clothing in HEMA
One of the enduring questions in the HEMA community is why do so few people wear historical clothing during their HEMA practice? Surely it makes sense to train historical martial arts in the historical clothing from that period in time? Maybe the …
The importance of supporting your small local business (and your club)
Any small and local business can thrive when given the appropriate support and custom from the local community. The principal competition of local businesses is not other small, local businesses, but it is large companies that can afford to undercut …
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Put the pointy end in the other guy
A statement that appears again and again in discussions about swords is that you should put the pointy end in the other guy, or variations on that effect. It is often intended to be humorous rather than to add anything useful to the discussion, but …
What makes a good HEMA club?
What makes a good HEMA club? As a potential student, what should you be looking for when you visit for the first time? And as a club leader, what might you be able to do to make your club better? If you are looking to join a club, it can be useful …
Swords as consumable items
This is a guest article by Angus Trim, who has been making swords for decades. He recently re-posted to Facebook something he had written back in 2016 about treating swords as consumable items. I felt that the message of the article was important - …
An observation about the value of information
It may sound like I am stating the obvious when I say that the value of information is different to different people, and for different purposes. However, far from being a damning verdict upon society, I see this as a mark of just how special and …
Is this (item) tournament legal?
A question that appears regularly in Facebook discussions is exactly this: is this piece of equipment tournament legal? Before we can answer, we have to parse the question. Is it a genuine question about whether or not a given piece of equipment …
How to parse, understand, and interpret a difficult sequence in a HEMA treatise
One of the common questions that people ask me is how to understand and interpret a difficult sequence from our source material. I receive the question at events (often in the pub!), through my website, and on Facebook, mostly from people who have …
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Who wrote the HEMA book called “The Art of Combat”?
Who wrote The Art of Combat and The Art of Sword Combat? Were these books written by Joachim Meyer? Or were they written by someone else? I feel compelled to pose this question and provide an answer, because it is a mistake that I read and hear …
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Film Review: I Can, I Will, I Did
I was flying to teach at Longpoint recently, and while on the plane, I watched a film called I Can, I Will, I Did. It spoke to me on a rather deep level, sufficiently for me to want to write a quick review of it, to bring it to the attention of my …
Thinking of body structure like a plumbing system
I like to think of and visualise body structure like the plumbing system in my house. This is quite an easy image to have, which makes it easier to understand the necessity of developing good body structure for fencing activities, both for …
Turning hobbies into paid work
I recently read quite an interesting article about the trap of turning hobbies into hustles. As someone who has turned several hobbies into businesses over the years, I can identify with quite a lot of the sentiment in the article. However, I do …
What is a healthy definition of control for HEMA?
People often talk about control in the practice of martial arts, in the sense of “controlling your blows” or “controlling your power”. HEMA is no exception, and there are certainly many advocates for the use of control while fencing. One thing that …
Hit and miss: historical weapon systems, experimental archaeology, and synthesis
A guest article on the subject of experimental archaeology for HEMA, kindly contributed by Ross Bailey. It’s not often that I get asked to put together something that covers my actual profession (archaeology) and my main activity outside my …
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Updating my reviews
This weekend, I went through all the reviews I have written on this website, and updated them. This took quite a lot of time, but I thought it was important for me to do so. …
Some thoughts about the position of left Vom Tag
Left Vom Tag: does it exist? How do we do it? Is it a position worth training? This is a discussion that comes up every so often, with fairly predictable responses to say both yes and no.[1][2][3] It usually devolves into arguments that these …