However, some HEMA people like to experiment and try to figure out even things that don’t initially work – this is also part of the process. Shad also argues that fencers should experiment and use what works for them – which is absolutely true and any HEMA instructor will tell you the same when it comes to sparring. Sometimes a slight angle change might make a technique look “different” to an amateur, but it is just a variation of an already existing technique. Sometimes a technique is shown just from one side, but it works just as well from the other side. Everything that works in HEMA sparring shows up in one variant or another in historical fencing books. Mostly because the chances of a technique to work consistently and not be in a source is minuscule. In club sparring no instructor will ever tell you – this is not in the treatise, don’t use it – if it works consistently. A handful of limited rulesets (some of which are based specifically on historical ones) include some specific limitations. In general, everything in HEMA tournaments that is safe to perform (unlike, say, a mordschlag) is allowed. There are different degrees of what is considered strictly representative of a specific source, style or tradition, but no one has such a fixed concept of HEMA practice and interpretation.Īnother argument he makes is that utilizing any technique, whether it’s from a treatise or not, is viable and should be accepted if it’s effective – implying someone in HEMA claims otherwise. It is important to note that such an idea is practically unheard of in HEMA nowadays. Shad’s “HEMA Philosophy”Īnd we come to the first video that sparked controversy – 40 minutes of footage in which he presents his understanding of HEMA with a couple of friends and a couple of LARP rubber longswords.Īccording to him, to many HEMAists the treatises are like a gospel – all you need is in them, everything that isn’t in them is wrong and ahistorical. This is just the start of his long list of true claims, which pretty much every experienced HEMAist knows and understands. Shad also claims the sources can be wrong (which is true), that they don’t really give a fair representation of the fighting of the past (which is definitely true for earlier periods). It also doesn’t matter if you ever use historically accurate weapons, even modern LARP foam swords, which resemble historical weapons only if you squint hard enough from far enough, are good enough. It doesn’t matter if you follow a historical source and try to recreate a historical system, or you just watch some videos of people online and look at any illustrations that show weapon use from history, you are doing some sort of HEMA. Shad’s definition of HEMAĪccording to him, HEMA is everything you do that is connected to weapons and history. Shadiversity, though, has another definition. The HEMA community is extremely varied and covers martial arts with and without various weapons from the 1300s to the early 20th C, but the vast majority of practitioners are focused mostly on medieval and Rennaissance systems dealing with swords.
#Foam medieval sword for free
It is primarily focused on using historical treatises on fighting – a variety of documents, hundreds of which are available nowadays, many of them for free online, which were some variation of instructional books from the past. HEMA – Historical European martial arts – is generally accepted to be a movement aimed at reconstructing historical fighting systems that come from or are connected to the European continent. To contrast these two examples, Matt Easton, who has also been involved in this mess, is a well-known HEMA instructor and pioneer, a weapon collector, an antique arms dealer, and an independent military history researcher. But like Shad, Skal is also not famous for HEMA specifically. A prime example of that is Shadiversity, an Australian dude with a medieval/fantasy slant of his content.Ī well-known borderline example of a YouTuber HEMAist is Skallagrim, a Canadian who began his channel as one focused on weapon reviews but eventually started practising HEMA. However, there are also some people who sometimes cover topics close to HEMA, without being HEMAists themselves. The HEMA community nowadays has a handful of well-known YouTubers – people like Matt Easton, Federico Malagutti, Martin Fabian, and a ton of good to awesome school or club channels. This will be an attempt to point out the important bits if you don’t want to bother with researching the main players and events in this HEMA drama.
You might be lucky enough to not have heard of Shadiversity till now, or you might know him second-hand.
#Foam medieval sword series
In the last few days, the HEMA community has been collectively groaning in wonder at the series of videos of YouTuber Shadiversity that claim to talk about historical European martial arts, but consistently miss the mark both in regards to the community and its practice.
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