Hi! So, I've been wanting to get in shape, and was looking for a type of exercise that didn't bore me out of my mind. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon HEMA!

But I wanted to ask- is this a good exercise for strength training and getting in proper shape? or is it a fool's errand

Beginner here, learning longsword, saber and small sword, standing by to take notes, thank you all in advance! 🙏

I hope this is allowed. I, like many of us, am ASD and ADHD, and my special interest has become HEMA. To the point where many of my dreams are about sparring or learning. Well, last night i dreamt that scholars had discovered, translated, and published a letter Meyer had written just before his death outlining some of what would be in his next manual. The following are chapter headers i remember from my dream.

Dual-wielding longsword

Reverse grip longsword

Onehanded and twohanded usage of a shovel

How to use a pen in combat

There were others, but i dont remember them. I can only imagine how the HEMA world would react lol

Hello everyone.

An hypothetical scenario.
Two schools. One that train Kenjutsu and another one that trains Hema (Long Sword)
Yes, I know these are very broad terms.

Both schools train with very similar methods. Same type and amount of drills, sparring, intensity, etc...
How different would their fighting style be?
What would be the main differences?

Thanks!

Rather than giving distances in feet, Muller offers them in "shoes". Which I think it great because that's usually what I want to convey when talking about stances.

Saying, "Advance the right fit two shoes" is easier than "Advance the right foot two feet by which I mean your foot's length, not literally 12 inches".

I am searching for a pair of gloves that would be sturdy enough for longsword sparring which doesn't have a leather inner glove. I haven't been able to find any that I can be certain of. Anyone that have any recommendations?

Is there anyone that lives east of Edmonton Alberta that also has a hard time going into the city to join a club? Looking for possible training partners for semi regular meetups. Say pick a halfway point and practice at a park when schedules permit. Let me know

I'm curious on people's opinions on this.

The four hengen (hangings) are, as I understand it, the four corner guards of ox and plough on both sides. However, the term hengen suggests to me these are constrainments, similar to stringeren in rapier and schutzen in i.33. Or counter guard positions if you will.

Hengen in old English (which itself is closely related to old German) could mean to hang, but could also mean to imprison. Another usage I've seen is to 'cling to someone'. This seems apt for a counter guard which, in itself, is designed to 'cling to' and block the opponents most viable strike from whatever guard they are in.

Are the four hangings really the canonical ox and plough we all know, or do these just refer to the high and low positions. In the RDL glosses, ox and plough are also used to denote the high and low openings. If someone is in a low guard then a plough guard isn't great at defending against low strikes if you have the point online, but if offline, or with the point low, then it is much better. Are the hangings therefore mostly about getting your strong in the right corner and making a decent cover with your blade?

Lastly, are the hangings held close to the body, like an ox and plough guard, or are they held more at extension, like longpoint, as if you'd just cut into an ox or plough? Or is it variable?

Thanks

Hey, all. I did a small amount of English Sabre years ago, the source of which I forgot, and I really enjoyed it so I’m looking to get back into HEMA again after training in FMA (particularly Ilustrisimo) for a while. Does anyone know of any sources I can begin to study that would sort of compliment a style characterized particularly by heavy usage of feints and baiting, maximizing fluidity and attacking efficiency between various guards/stances, as well as maybe a little upper body grappling and disarms?

Evening all!

I'll first present my utter lack of bona fides. I'm not a practitioner but I am a fan! I've practiced various grappling martial arts (BJJ, Catch, Greco) for over a decade and while I appreciate and enjoy watching HEMA, the barrier to entry is a touch high, not to mention a touch pricey for me. I just thought this might be an interesting space to pose my question as, from what I can tell, you're a pretty well humoured bunch.

The question is.

Why are there no *great* longsword duels in live action cinema? (for the purposes of debate and being proved wrong, I'm happy to include TV here).

Off hand I can list a dozen excellent smallsword, rapier, sabre, cutlass etc duels, lord knows there's no shortage of amazing swordplay showdowns in japanese cinema. So why doesn't the longsword get the love it deserves? It (or to be more specific a probably Bastard or Arming sword) is after all, probably what most people probably think of when they think of the word sword.

Game of Throne's had a go, but I always got the sense that because the actors weren't good enough swordsmen themselves (or, more realistically because show wasn't ever too fussed about the quality of the fights), the duels never had space to breathe, Jaime vs Brienne is a completely different beast in the books and while ser Baristan gets his send off, you don't get enough time with him in the scene for him to seem like the swordsman the books (and other characters in the show) portray him as.

To be clear (and this might get me in a spot of trouble here), I don't mean historically accurate. Ultimately I think we all can accept that while historically accurate longsword fencing is cool, it's rarely cinematic. I'm referring to the kind of scene which makes you go "phwooooar that was a great 'swordfight'", I think we all know what I'm referring to there? For me it's Elwes and Patinkin, Flynn and Rathbone (tbh anything with Rathbone), anything from the 70's Musketeers movies, even Bloom and Depp! The kind of scene which makes the sword look not just cool aesthetically but cool in action. We've had lord knows how many King Arthur movies, lord knows how many Robin Hood's, lord knows how many crusader movies, but to my mind there's never been a truly *great* swordfight in a movie or on TV using a longsword (or equivalent).

I'd love to be proved wrong here, if you know of a scene which'll knock my socks off I'd love to see it. More importantly, if you agree with me that there are no great longsword fights in movies, I'd love to know why you think that is!

(I do have one rule. No Lightsabers! 1. They're not swords and 2. We all know Vader vs Luke, Duel of the Fates and Battle of Heroes are excellent, but I'd argue they're more based on Japanese fencing rather than western, given that Star Wars is, at it's core a Kurisawa clone.)

Heyy It looks like i need to give up hema for years I have a young feder. What do I do with it? Is it better if I sell it, and buy a new one when I'm back, or will it be perfectly fine after years of laying in the corner (or mounted on a wall) and sandpapering off the rust occasionally?

I’ve fenced foil epé and saber for a decade and am curious about HEMA but I’ve had some very serious brain damage in the past and do not want to become concussed. How realistic is me to try long sword?

In addition let me just say that none of my students, including those mentioned above, have ever owned a book about the art of combat, except for Galeazzo da Mantova. And he put it well when he said that without books you cannot be either a good teacher or a good student of this art. And I can confirm it to be true, that this art is so vast that there is no one in the world with a memory large enough to be able to retain even a quarter of it. And it should also be pointed out that a man who knows no more than a quarter of the art has no right to call himself a Master.

Did I see this in a weird fever dream, and I going to explain what think I am looking for poorly, sure am!

It looks like a black hard plastic overlay for light gloves, it had am hourglass cuff, a plastic "hook that went into the palm of your hand and a hard plastic part that covered the back of your hands.

I can't remember where I had found these, I know what the picture looks like but I'm unable to find anything online about them.

I was wondering if anyone has an idea for what I'm looking for or is this a strictly in my mind kind of thing.

Edit: found them! They are the thornewood demi gauntlet! Thank you to everyone who replied! You got me on the right tracks.

Has anyone had any experience with them? My goal was to combine them with lighter saber gloves on the right hand while also protected by a basket style hilt.

I want a rapier for practicing how to attack, thrust, grip rather than sparring. Unfortunately no one sells them in my country so I have to make do. I wonder if you guys have any input or experience in making a homemade trainer. I’ll be using this tutorial from ARMA (https://www.thearma.org/Practice/fiberglass-rapier-simulator.html). Is the weight distribution valid on this? If you guys have any advice on this, it’ll be greatly appreciated!

Anyone know where I can buy gear online for HEMA?

I am looking to get my own rapier gloves (I use club gloves for now) I like the look of the red dragon rapier gloves but the sizing is wrong for my hands so I was hoping someone knows where to get custom sized gloves or similar gloves for people with long thin hands.

So I'm looking for advice and recommendations on good but affordable armour for sparring it's not feasible for me to join a club right now so it's just me and my brother with homemade wooden swords

I was looking at red dragon armoury but I'm not sure what's good or not so I figured this would be the place to ask

Also we have some experience and knowledge enough at least to not injure ourselves or each other so don't worry!