When I started with HEMA, I was eager to find out everything about everything. The Spanish La Verdadera Destreza was one of the few things that remained a hidden mystery – behind a wall of Spanish, never translated, with only … Continue reading Aleix Basullas Vendrell: A talk about Destreza
Another week, another Video Digest. When I scout the net for HEMA videos, I try to find weird and unusual stuff that is still useful and interesting. That is to balance a bit the more popular sources that most of … Continue reading Video Digest #8 – Cutting, spadroons, kendo and FMA
Another week, another Video Digest. This week we don’t have that much, but I have squeezed the Internet hard to bring you interesting and useful videos. You’ll notice some channels show up quite often. That is only because they make … Continue reading Video Digest #6 – Sword & dagger, control and destruction
For years, Italian rapier has ruled HEMA for a very simple reason – Spanish rapier, the other big school from the 1600s, was not accessible to most people. Thus the great Verdadera Destreza remained ignored, aside from the few HEMAists … Continue reading More Destreza is coming in English
One of the fundamental building blocks of the Spanish La Verdadera Destreza is how much better it is than other systems. The stance is better, the actions are simpler, easier, more direct, safer, more scientific…. at least that is what … Continue reading “The New Science of The Sick Burn” from 1674 – a partial translation of Pacheco
In the last few years, producers of HEMA equipment have been popping up left and right. Our hobby is growing, and more and more people are investing the time and effort to make equipment specifically for it. This year I … Continue reading Pike Armory Rapier Review – much more of a “sword”
Any tournament organizer will tell you that a ruleset needs to be tested. It may look great on paper, but before real fencers run through it, you cannot really know its flaws. Most tourneys in HEMA today are tested internally, … Continue reading The Minsk tournament – tested in Italy
I wanted to make this perfect. It will never happen, of course, but I wanted the first one to set a standard, at the least. A standard for what you should come to expect. 10 days after Swordplay 2018, I … Continue reading Swordplay 2018 – the full report
The year is coming to its end, and as much as I hope to see new HEMA books before the end of the month, I prefer to make a list of the publications that came out during 2018 early. That … Continue reading 2018 – The Fiore Year in Books? Almost.
