The day has come – the first HEMA video digest of the past week is here.

Every week, on Saturday, you will get a selection of the most thoughtful, interesting, educational or simply fun videos in the HEMAsphere from the past week. With some commentary, of course, to give you a little context.

And we start with…

Sidesword and dagger sparring in the UK

The British Academy of Historical Fencing posts yet another sparring video, this time with a rarer combo – sidesword paired with a dagger. It is weird how popular rapier and dagger is, while sidesword and dagger at the same time is relatively rare. While more lateral movement is always good, Jordan and Nick have a wonderful bout clashing a Malleus vs a Regenyei sidesword.

Martin Fabian beats everyone again in Pardubice

Jokes aside, the videos of known Slovak fencer and instructor Martin Fabian are a joy and can be a good educational quickie for any HEMA practitioner. His idea of posting all of the fights he does in all his tournaments is great. Here we see him fighting in longsword in the Pardubice Sword 2018 tournament in the town of the same name in the Czech Republic. I wish more HEMA fighters would do that, even those that are not in top 10 of everything.

B&I testing out the Kvetun feder

The Canadians from Blood and Iron almost always make fun and enjoyable videos. This one showcases the amount of stress they put on the equipment they test. In this case the new Kvetun feders: the incredibly cheap, but seemingly very good and durable training swords from the new Russian company everyone has been happy to order from this year.

Dave Rawlings verbally slaps Lindybeige in a short and direct way

There are some YouTubers out there who appear to be HEMA people, but are actually amalgamic vlogger personalities for whom HEMA is just one opportunity to pull views. Lindybeige is one of them, who in his most recent video ranted on how crappy for dexterity common HEMA gloves are. His compatriot, British instructor David Rawlings, known for his mustache and his cat, demonstrates simply why you shouldn’t listen to random guys on YouTube.