Formerly Broadsword Academy Manitoba, this is a channel for Historical Fencing. Our club is a member of Storica Defensa, a coaching program and tournament league for Historical Fencing.
Thank you, I really appreciate this workout video. I'm part of a small club in Whakatane NZ trying to find our way through the HEMA world without a local instructor so this is gold for me.
Awesome video. More like this please :) Also, any chance you'd make the Sinclair videos available again, or reshoot them if your interpretation has changed? Those were very helpful to me.
I’ve been loving your content lately. I’ve been an advocate for stage gladiator broadsword since 2021 when I first started interpreting Page due to my unhappiness with the Cateran Society’s interpretation. Seeing you guys up in Canada embrace stage gladiator broadsword as something related to but distinct from military saber has been incredibly heartening to see.
I'll order them shortly! I didn't realise it would be a good seller so I just did a limited quantity to try it out. I've gotten a lot of requests for ladies cut jackets so I'll get some in!
Thanks for the video! Nice to see how effective different levels of cut 1 can be. Would be great to see other cuts, too! I suspect that someone who knows how to use their fingers properly could cut their opponent's leg clean off with a proper cut 3, but I'd love to see it against one of those trees lol.
How did you come to have such a relaxed off hand way out to the side or just dangling down by your hip? Most sources I've seen say to keep it up behind your head or up beside your face or with your hand on your hip behind you, or even across your stomach in the older broadsword manuals. But I've seen you have your hand positioned like this in other videos with broadsword as well. I understand the usual advices are to protect the hand and also to either be able to throw it back on a lunge or in the case of having it by your face, to be able to parry with it. I like your method here, just wondering how you came by it.
So I vary it a lot. It is taught relaxed and low in modern fencing. It's taught relaxed and low in Thomas Page for broadsword, as well as others for various guards (James Miller on a hanging guard and st George for instance). It is taught in smallsword and rapier for Destreza. I do different hand positions and no longer care or think about it much. If I need it high I will use it high. If I'm going to hand parry I'll put it up. If I want to focus on blade work I relax it. It generally extends behind me. While period sources show it up a lot for classical form. Those same classical fencers have it low in epee duels as often as not. Or up and relaxed like I do. It is also low when holding a scabbard as seen in Angelo plates. The main point is to stay balanced and use the body naturally. The arm can be a counter balance when you need it to. Or not. Anything goes.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HFzAB4mwB5k.htmlsi=oqArfPnEuAhKvgKV Take a look here. Classical form. In earnest bouts it's all over the place, up down, low, extended. Relaxed.
Interesting video... would you say that the density of the sapling is similar to that of bone too? I know you said it was tougher than tatami, which is often used as a substitute for flesh
Agree with the edge alignment. With a spin like that I would have batted that thing into the neighbour’s yard. But if you do that in class we’re so going to heckle you.
This is super informative. The concept of the way in which you use distance is hitting on an intuitive level. Nice work on the explainer (commentary + example/visual) I'm a beginner (from Ottawa). Callum referred me to your channel 🗡️🔥
That is something I have always noticed about HEMA. The 'practice claidheamh mòr have the weight of a short rapier and NOT a broadsword. Those lightening fast head strikes after a parry (which have to be very strong to block a heavy blade) are impossible unless one is superman.
You're wrong. These are based directly off the specs of antiques. The ones intended for use on foot are very light and nimble, the points getting thin like machetes. Weight as light as 800 grams. Most of the heavy examples are for cavalry use.
In any case the sword on the right (mine) is around 1200g and moves like a heavier example. They are fast because the baskethilt counter balances them.
I missed probably 3/4 of the touches. It's probably not worth the editing effort (you have a life), but I could use a little commentary/slomo to explain what happened.
Now I see how you're supposed do that Bolognese 101 "press him in porta di ferro until he attacks you and then false-edge parry whatever it is" thing without just getting too close to parry in time. In all the videos I'd seen people demonstrated it with a continuous advance or standing firm on the parry and I was never quite clear how you were supposed to be close enough and open enough to provoke even a cautious opponent to make a direct attack, but then still reliably be able to parry that attack.
Watch modern Olympic foil. It's one of thr main tactics in modern Italian Foil especially. Marching forward attacks to close range with the attack held back till the last second and can turn into a parry riposte. The stringere is very much the same tactic.
Nah it would have been really difficult to recover in time. It was an error in distance. I pressed a little too close intentionally and you can see my rear foot widening the distance to a good range as he attacks. It's still to close for him to properly recover before the riposte comes.
Jay, I agree that HEMA needs to have more public exposure and having competitions is one way to do that. However, focussing exclusively on elite athletics will put HEMA into the same category as sport fencing. It will become the territory of high level athletes and be seen as a an activity for the physical elite alone. Any person with a vertical jump of less than 28” need not apply. My question is: Do you want to HEMA be exclusive or inclusive? Winning to the exclusion of all else or continuing to include the History and the Art? I look forward to your reply.
Interesting points. Maybe there is also something to say about the very limited number of competitors in a lot of countries. Doesn't it also create a situation making it very hard for beginners to compete? Because they will face fencers with 50 times more experience, even some of the best in the world sometimes. Maybe the top level is not that high compared to other sports, but i think the low level also got problems limiting the ability of beginners to enter the sport
Relative to other sports not at all. Relative to HEMA in the past 100% agree. The local scenes are growing and even local tourneys in more populous areas have stiff competition. That said as someone who has some medals, it’s not nearly as competitive as other sports. I still struggle with even recreational level sport fencers (even if I’m in a halfway decent region), I’m also lazy and nowhere near the same shape as I was to compete at a regional and national level for taekwondo too. Looking competitive at HEMA is like a 10 hour a week commitment for me. Other sports I was playing easily 20. I also don’t have nearly the same off season conditioning like I used to either (having a job and such means I don’t have nearly the same free time).
People are very hung up on getting HEMA on tv or having more professional competitive movements. I totally agree that people are missing what works so well about it as a casual sport.
Sword drills are better like wylde and Bolognese school people make too much out of cutting as it's not very realistic ,no clothes to cut through first people wear alot of clothes in a cold place remember alot of that time period the world was in the little ice age
@@Wolvesdenhistoricalfencing yes this is why the small sword and lite backsword was quickly dropped when fighting in the field . gladiators didn't fight to the death only giving light cuts and fighting on , bloody sport not combat
I feel we are approaching the point were we need to split the (tournament focused) sword fencing from HEMA. It saddens me the focus on tournaments and rankings, to the detriment on the historical martial arts aspect. The scholarship side of things is getting pushed aside for a 'what works in tournaments' focus in many newer schools.
As a fencing parent, I have been playing up the safety of the sport. Soccer? Torn ACL is common and serious. Tommy John surgery exists for baseball. Forget football. Even tennis has a lot of injuries. But I think more street legal weapons need to be introduced in a kinda casual not serious fashion. Kinda like they did bartitsu with the umbrella and cane, or the Irish shillelagh, or the Asian whip stick/walking stick. I think it would be cool if people came together and made a skateboard form. I think rolled up magazine would be another good one. I think belt is another one. I think tactical bright strobing flashlight is another thing. Maybe pool cue, bicycle chain? Not to encourage violence, but to show that these guys that understand distance and force can apply this to real situations. That was the real thing that drew people into BJJ - the idea that it was very applicable to real life. Learning a short weapon, or a short cane technique is silly until you realize that finding a stick that is about that size is a reasonable endeavor, and while you aren't likely to need the skills, a bike pump might be all you have to defend yourself on a trail against a mountain lion. I also think more cross weapon cross culture battles would be awesome, but also things put into context. A rapier is better than a katana until you have to draw the rapier in a pinch. Separating military weapons and civilian weapons would be big too. It is so cool to learn about the historical context of everything too. Anyway, good stuff. Good luck
Can we do both? I teach Spanish military saber to kids using foam weapons that I make and we really only have sport fencing as a way to test ourselves against other clubs so I teach that too but our system is based off of Jaime Merelo. On the other hand, what can HEMA offer to a teenager whose friends do mma, boxing etc. and know that if they get good enough at those games they can make it big, i.e. go pro. Sport fencing has the Olympics and in some places like the US, collegiate scholarships but what is the big goal for HEMA? We should do everything you are talking about and embrace it but I feel we shouldn't so easily let go of the idea of a sort of MMA for HEMA practitioners where the most skilled can get paid a lot of money facing severe bodily harm or even death. People would pay to see this and I myself would participate.
MMA can barely make money and pay its athletes. Other combat sports like BJJ and Muay Thai functionally don’t make money outside of running schools in the US. I think people can have a hobby they take seriously and do so at a competitive level without it being focused on making a living out of competition. Beyond that sport fencing has managed to effectively make itself a minimal presence recreationally by not supporting options to participate outside of the Olympics and college scholarship circuits.
