Always looking to improve 😎

Been awhile, I am really glad that you guys liked the last post. This time we got capes!!!! I enjoy it so much, even though most time off camera I was just getting stab for being reckless. Also, can’t shake off the feeling of unlocking a new DLC item🤣 oh lord… I AM IN LOVEEEEEEE.

I've got the SPES AP NG 800n, but find it incredibly difficult to move in. Tried breaking it in but no noticable change in 4 months of semi regular use.

Guards like Ox, fenestra, coda longa etc. Feel basically impossible due to restricted movement.

I want to attend tournaments next year, but feel like the lack of mobility is really holding me back. Some folk in my club use the SPES officer, but often complain about its lack of padding for longsword.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! UK based, if that makes a difference.

Hi.

I think Kvetun just reopened up to sell their protective gear. I'm thinking of getting their arms over jacket and leg protection. Any thoughts/reviews on that? Also how did they tailor the gear to your dimensions?

Arms over jacket: https://kvetun-armoury.com/protectors-for-hema/arms-over-jacket.html
Leg protection: https://kvetun-armoury.com/protectors-for-hema/leg-protection.html

Thanks in advance!

Was wondering if you fine folks can help me with a project of mine. I'm trying to make a fighting spear, and I was wondering what a good diameter for the wood shaft should be? I'll be fashioning the shaft from a piece of pine or spruce lumber, and it'll be around 6-7 feet long.

I've seen various study guides or modern books on a few of Meyer's weapons that attempt to better organize or give a lesson plan for teaching/ practicing them. I'm hoping someone has something like this for Meyer's staff. Ideally all of the staff weapons, but particularly the short staff.

Do you wear undergloves under your clamshells ? Ive seen people use different kinds, what types of undergloves do you weqr, if any ?

I'm looking for an off-hand dagger for use in just clothing (very casual and unorganized sparring with a friend; we avoid the face and groin), and I wanted to get suggestions. The Coldheart Parrying Dagger Trainer caught my eye, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'm looking for notable quillons, though they don't have to be as massive as the Coldheart ones. From my search it seems most other trainer daggers don't have big enough quillons. Should I just go for sais instead? Did I miss a place to purchase the Coldheart one? Is the Coldheart one inferior to other options? I'm located in the U.S..Thank you in advance!

I got a budget and while I’d like to save money I also want a sword that’ll be nice to me. The price at HF is appealing but the reviews at SIGI are very appealing.

Then there’s the idea that I could do the HF Feder plus another, higher quality single hand. Idk, I’m at a loss here.

Any advice?

I was told to repost in this subreddit.

I am a metal fabricator with a background in blacksmithing and I'm toying with the idea of buying sword blanks and making all the furniture.

I'm curious what companies I should buy my blanks from so that they are approved for combat sport. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who helped me decide on the gloves for my new saber. Looks like I'll go for the Thokk gauntlets. Only thing that I'm still not sure about is if ML size of Thokks fits inside of the cup-hilt of the Sigi pro. Is there anyone using the ML size? Once again, thanks for the help! 😊

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a good set of gloves for the SIGI Sabre Pro. What are your recommendations? Current candidate are the Thokk gloves in M/L size which is supposed to fit. Are those protective enough? Any alternatives? Thank you for the help!

In a match between a cup hilt and a swept hilt, if the cup hilt fencer was able to stab through the swept hilt, would that score be disregarded because it would be impossible for the defender to do the exact same attack against a cup hilt?

I've had my eyes on the Wusuki Sallet, and not that it's actually available I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about it. Mainly wondering if it's okay to spar with while the visor is flipped up, because I love the design of the mask but I'm really not super willing to try to fence through mesh AND an eye slit.

Hey everyone. Does anyone know of any brick-and-mortar HEMA shops in Rome?

I plan to order this one: https://woo.zwaardenvolk.nl/en/webshop/hema-training-en-default-category-en-default-category-en/protection-en/torso-en/ap-hema-jacket-ng-800n/

Now the problem is that I am unusually tall (197 cm) putting me into XXL category.
However, my hips are 111cm (M - L), chest 105cm (M) and waist 105 (XL)

So there's at least four different size categories there for me.

Should I aim for it to fit regarding my height or should I accept the fact that I need to buy custom?

Curious if there are any clubs or individuals who practice HEMA in surprise az or nearby cities as im looking to getting into the sport

I've been getting more and more into sparring with basket-hilted broadsword (specifically steel), so I'd like to get my own pair of gloves to use instead of the old, beat-up ones owned by the club I belong to. I normally buy gear from Purpleheart Armory, but they seem to be perpetually out of stock for most broadsword-related things. I've heard lacrosse gloves are a good alternative, but there's such a wide variety of gloves (both lacrosse and HEMA) out there that it's hard to narrow it down to an obvious choice. What opinions do you all have on good gloves to get for steel basket-hilted broadsword fencing?

I'm honestly completely unaware to how frequently it's even studied. How could I not though? Look at that thing, I have to swing it.

Hi all, I’m working on creating a training plan for my HEMA club to get it more streamlined as we seem to be doing a lot of random stuff and we’ve reached a ceiling with what this allows for in terms of growth. I’m mainly talking about the warmups and the workouts here, the contents of the classes themselves are rather on par.

Some context: We generally have 2hs of class twice a week. 30min is spent on warmup and workout, 1h on teaching and 30min on sparring. I want to especially streamline the first 30 mins by dividing it in three blocks: a general warmup, a workout with focus on prevention of injuries and overall increase of technical support, and then a drill.

As we have had a lot of feedback on that the workouts are either too heavy for some or too easy for others, we want to provide exercises that can be scaled as you do with CrossFit for example, and you pick the option which works for you and after a while you try to more advanced option. Focus will be on strengthening the leg muscles, knees and ankles for increased mobility and injury prevention, this following some exercises by our local kine. Arm work will be limited as we consider this covered under the drill part (see next). We will also include explosive movements with scaled options.

The idea with the drills is to work in two quarters/trimesters which are repeated twice during the year giving new members the possibility to step in more easily. Q1 will start of easy with solo drills, the second building on the first and so on, increasing in the number of movements one does. The idea is to build up towards a higher number of movements and increased difficulty to build a basis for Q2. Q2 will then be the Stück/plays as provided by Meyer, which are generally more difficult as the solo drills in Q1 and will be performed with a partner. We generally use those plays as teaching materials as well, but we don’t do a lot of drilling thus leading to members having the feeling that they don’t get enough practice with the sword in.

Question: Overal, from your experience what do you think of this idea? The goal with the Q1 and Q2 is to go back to more drilling in the workout part and give people the possibility to learn drills and plays that they can practice at home.

Then, what body weight exercises do you believe are most beneficial for HEMA?

Thanks!

thank you