Anyone else actually practice Historical European Martial Arts?

So John Clements has sort of invented a new style? One that preserves the edge of the blade? It shall be interesting to see if it is as effective as the more accurate interpretations of the historical sword fighting. Perhaps John Clements can say that because his sword is so very sharp he can cut more easily, so that would be an advantage, but he would have to avoid doing things that would blunten his blade, so that would be a disadvantage.

Youā€™re right !
Even if in a high level with experience, the rugby side is going down for more technics

Any HEMA group that is attempting to make the Art into a Sport is doing it wrong. Most of us try our best to keep the art just that. Of course there are just things we cannot do, like playing to the first blood highest on the head. But we can still actively spar and fight, even if we do have to wear a mask and protective gauntlets. There is nothing wrong with tournaments, when done right. And a lot of them, like Swordfish, Longpoint and a few others try very hard to do just that. Perfect? nope never will be, our lives are not controlled by the edge of a sword in this day in age. But this seems to be one of the typical responses I hear from ARMA folks. All I can say, is come try it. Its fun and you learn a LOT very quickly.

I donā€™t know of ANY HEMA instructors that claim or have ever claimed to be masters. Nor do I see many of them bad mouthing other instructors. Me? Iā€™ll bad mouth Clements because I have had his personal people attack me directly because they claim because Iā€™ve only been practicing HEMA for 5 years, I have no right to be teaching the art. And mind you Iā€™m one of the few that teaches Harnischfechten and pollaxe as part of my standard curriculum in addition to the hauptstĆ¼cke.

My comments on the red-shirt wearing worshipers and cult members was not directed to you in any way. It was directed to those ARMA folks who attacked me and my fellow HEMA practitioners for no other reason than not being in ARMA.

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History shows the edge of the blade WAS used to block. History shows that swords got dull, chipped and broken a lot.

There is VERY little historical evidence of using the flat to block.

Images in fightbooks used as evidence of blocking with the flat can be erroneous as images in the fightbooks are ā€œsnap shotā€ images of people in motion.

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Did hema for a few years, when I was living in Sweden. Back to doing oriental martial arts again. Still miss it though. Most fun would be re-enactment also did that in the past. Ok the fencing is not the highest quality but larger battles with 20-30 people per side was great fun.

Its called Milanese al tedesca (tedesca = german)

im doing sword and spear fighting for 13 years now, and im using the italian ā€œflos duellatorumā€ from around 1400.
I was in battles with about 600 people, did tournaments in fighting etcā€¦

Holy hell this thread turned into a hissy fit quick. It this pettyness over what exact style is better or more correct that peeves me right off and I have only just begun to learn the basics. I am struggling to find an insentive to go beyond that if/when the time comes if this is the mind set of the people who participate in the sport.

No one is talking about any styles being better than any other.

I am however talking about one person who is claiming to be an expert but is far from it and wonā€™t listen to anyone except for himselfā€¦ And goes out of his way to bad mouth people who leave his organization to the point of harassment.

Yes I am aware of what it means. Its actually Milanese alla Tedesca. My armour is Milanese in the German Style based off of a harness from 1470 SchwƤbisch GmĆ¼nd and Germany,Museum in Prediger, from church in Heiligenkreuz.

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I practice HEMA for 3,5 years now. Mostly Longsword, some dagger fighting and gross messer. Greetings from Slovakia.

Yeah, and I think recognize your picture from Facebook (Bill? My moniker here is a pun on my last name). I like 15th century stuff the best; the langes messer is my personal favorite.

Yep! Thatā€™s me!

Normalā€¦ thatā€™s funny.

I dabble a bit with long sword, and rapier. I do some reenacting with pike as well. If you are at all curious about western martial arts I would say go for it.

From what I ahve read and seen of Clements, I think he is basically saying
"I know the truth"
Most HEMA people I know are saying "this is our interpretation and we know it is only an interpretation "

But maybe we should try to keep the ARMA vs HEMA debate out of this forum?

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Well taht is a fair enough point, but I can only view things as tehy come across to me persoanly and as I said teh thread did seem to be heading towards and bit of ellitism in my eyes, hence why I said something

Heh ā€¦ Iā€™m not in any team or club, but I do practice with my longsword or sword/spear and shield every so often, mostly with friends. Turns out Iā€™m actually more inclined towards medieval music, though.
Still, itā€™s good fun, even though Iā€™m far from being competitive.

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Hell no, but I subsccibe to Skallagrimā€™s YouTube channel, so I consider myself an expert anyhows! Hah!

Ughā€¦ he has much to learn about the actual sword arts.

If I can ever afford one I wish to learn to play the Lyer/Hurdy Gurdy.