The thing about martial arts is that they work: if you do them properly, you're going to kill someone (or be killed). Every group that does stuff with swords, therefore, has to sacrifice something to ensure that everyone can have fun again next week.
In HEMA, it's the aesthetic that's sacrificed: we (I'm one of them) wear gear that makes us look like modern riot police, but the weapons are (at the very least) historically weighted, and the techniques are from historical fencing manuals. There's a lot of arguing over the interpretation of medieval manuscripts in the community.
Re-enactment groups wear historical clothing, so they have to reduce the scope of their combat: they typically disallow strikes to the head, for example.
The Society for Creative Anachronism dispense with everything but the aesthetic of history, and consequently have the most fun.
"One of Farley Chevrier’s go-to books is a 1736 treatise by Pierre Jacques François Girard, a former French navy officer, which includes twelve essential tips on how to save one’s life. The book is part of seventy documents that were digitized and shared online by the French HEMA federation".
Link to a directory listing the various texts digitized by the French HEMA federation: https://www.ffamhe.fr/collection_palas/ (clicking on any of the links will take you to a page with more detail. To download the document click on the link beside the text that says "Pour télécharger la numérisation, cliquez sur ce lien").
If you want to try sword fighting there are a bunch of ways to do it.
HEMA people are generally very welcoming and probably slightly mad. quite expensive to get into, but great fun.
Fencing is more common, but start out with epee, foil is a big weird as you have right of way, its a training system and it shows, its harder to learn and not as fun. Sabre is for people who like shouting lots, more one hit wonder.
For the eastern styles:
A good Aikido class should start out with weapons, you wont be going full speed as even with wooden sticks, stuff gets dangerous pretty quick.
Korean sword work is going through somewhat of a renaissance, I don't know that much about it though.
If you're doing eastern style sword work, don't be tempted to get a metal sword, you'll never be able to train with it, and they are almost always poor quality. (unless you know what you're doing)
A guy called Steve Paul coached me for a few years, the connection is that he was Peirce Brosnans double in Die another Day. He got motor neuron disease just before covid and the poor old sod fell down some stairs when he was on holiday and died.
Irony can sometimes be a bit harsh.
Fencing was such a big part of my life for so long, but when I got to my late 30's the power went out of my body. It was shocking, but just true, I couldn't do what I used to be able to do when I was young and I had to come to terms with it. A lot of people go into coaching, or make their peace and fence as a veteran, but I couldn't do that. It took me a long time to grasp why because I used to coach when I was competitive, so why could I not abide it when I knew I could not compete.
The answer was not attractive. I envy the young. I cannot stand to watch them and know I am not one of them.
If you are young then take up swords, or racquets, or gloves and revel in your sinuous power. Soon it will be gone, and all you will have is memory, until something comes sliding and slipping and takes even that, and you find yourself tumbling into the night.
It's a shame that the west lost much of it's martial heritage, and is now having to reconstruct it from old manuals. Whereas some Asian arts have been handed down from generation to generation, in an unbroken tradition, for hundreds of years (e.g. Japanese Jui-Jitsu).
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 25.8 ms ] threadIn HEMA, it's the aesthetic that's sacrificed: we (I'm one of them) wear gear that makes us look like modern riot police, but the weapons are (at the very least) historically weighted, and the techniques are from historical fencing manuals. There's a lot of arguing over the interpretation of medieval manuscripts in the community.
Re-enactment groups wear historical clothing, so they have to reduce the scope of their combat: they typically disallow strikes to the head, for example.
The Society for Creative Anachronism dispense with everything but the aesthetic of history, and consequently have the most fun.
Link to a scan of 1736 treatise: https://www.ffamhe.fr/collectionpalas/nouveau-traite-girard.... (even if you don't read French, the text includes numerous diagrams)
Link to a directory listing the various texts digitized by the French HEMA federation: https://www.ffamhe.fr/collection_palas/ (clicking on any of the links will take you to a page with more detail. To download the document click on the link beside the text that says "Pour télécharger la numérisation, cliquez sur ce lien").
HEMA people are generally very welcoming and probably slightly mad. quite expensive to get into, but great fun.
Fencing is more common, but start out with epee, foil is a big weird as you have right of way, its a training system and it shows, its harder to learn and not as fun. Sabre is for people who like shouting lots, more one hit wonder.
For the eastern styles:
A good Aikido class should start out with weapons, you wont be going full speed as even with wooden sticks, stuff gets dangerous pretty quick.
Korean sword work is going through somewhat of a renaissance, I don't know that much about it though.
If you're doing eastern style sword work, don't be tempted to get a metal sword, you'll never be able to train with it, and they are almost always poor quality. (unless you know what you're doing)
Irony can sometimes be a bit harsh.
Fencing was such a big part of my life for so long, but when I got to my late 30's the power went out of my body. It was shocking, but just true, I couldn't do what I used to be able to do when I was young and I had to come to terms with it. A lot of people go into coaching, or make their peace and fence as a veteran, but I couldn't do that. It took me a long time to grasp why because I used to coach when I was competitive, so why could I not abide it when I knew I could not compete.
The answer was not attractive. I envy the young. I cannot stand to watch them and know I am not one of them.
If you are young then take up swords, or racquets, or gloves and revel in your sinuous power. Soon it will be gone, and all you will have is memory, until something comes sliding and slipping and takes even that, and you find yourself tumbling into the night.
Which is all too clear, if you watch the pitiful and embarrassing spectacle that is an Olympic Taekwondo match.