At the end of the month I’ll be taking part in some workshops and competitions as part of the Dimicatores Austry Partes V. I’m a little nervous as I’m very aware of how good the competition is in Rosa e Spada. Anyone who has read any of my blogs will know full well how much I admire the students and …
Can you learn how to fight from a book? No. Join me next month for my next ground breaking post… Okay, seriously. Trying to learn to fight from a book cannot be done. So, what’s the point in studying them? This was the subject of a conversation I had online with Mike Edelson, author of Cutting with a Medieval Sword: …
Recently, I was sparring against someone I had never fought before. At first, the fight went fairly well. I was landing a good number of hits both at good measure and, when things got heated and it came down to Zogho/Giocco Stretto, I was able to make some clean pommel strikes. My opponent was an interesting guy. He laughed like …
Firstly, what is “true time”? As I understand it, the first person to talk about “True Time” was George Silver in his 1599 work The Paradoxes of Defence. He divides timing into the following categories described as “true” or “correct” timings: The time of the hand.The time of the hand and body.The time of the hand body and foot.The time …
This is something I initially put together for a friend of mine in the Company of the Rose and the Sword, but I thought I’d share it here. The following are a list of training exercises and games you can play as a unit to strengthen cohesion and tactical thinking. Circle of Honour/Dishonour There are two variations on this. Circle …
My brother, Ollie, recently sent me an article regarding HEMA and full contact. The article was really well researched and written by a HEMA instructor who was trying to define full contact sports and explore whether or not HEMA fell into this category. He makes a couple of interesting points which make a lot of sense when you first read …
I’ve been a training officer in the Vikings re-enactment society for about eight years now and I’ve trained with a lot of different groups. Some are new and just finding their feet others have been around since before I was born and have fought in events all over Europe. It’s interesting to see the differences in attitude toward one-on-one fighting …
When two new members engage each other, you’re bound to get one of two things happen: either they’ll strike at each other, eager to employ what they’ve learned…while completely out of measure or they’ll attack each other’s weapons ignoring openings. The former is great fun to watch. A desperate battle ensues while they swing wildly at each other from other …
I came across their Facebook page entirely by chance. After years of living in rural Italy and after having resigned myself to the fact that all of the HEMA groups in the area were either not all that great or trained at times that were just impractical, and that Melissa (the wife) and I would be training alone. Now don’t …
Being a bit of a free spirit and a nomad, I move around a lot. This can be a bit of a nuisance when you want to carry a bunch of swords through an airport. If you’re anything like me, you’re loath to let your training slip even a little. That’s where practice swords come in handy for solo cutting …