What is hema
What does HEMA stand for?
HEMA stands for ‘Historical European Martial Arts’. This term was coined to distinguish HEMA from other martial arts that were popular at the time, such as judo, karate, and kung fu, and from other sword fighting activities. Due to difficulties both historical and modern in defining what is included in ‘European’, many prefer to describe the activity simply as ‘historical fencing’ or ‘historical martial arts’, or to refer to specific areas and times where our sources are from eg. ‘Italian renaissance fencing’ ‘Elizabethan martial arts’. But HEMA remains the most widely recognised umbrella term.
What was HEMA historically?
There are texts from at least as far back as 1295, up through to the 20th century, that describe the use of various weapons, as well as unarmed combat systems such as wrestling and striking. These skills were used in contexts including warfare, sport, civilian self defence, and judicial duels. As with all history, the information that was written down is just a small snapshot of a much wider body of skill and practice. Some of these practices also survive in highly modified forms in modern sports such as boxing and Olympic fencing.
What does the modern practice of HEMA involve?
HEMA draws on historical sources, bringing the skills documented in them to life as both historical enquiry and as a modern sport. This involves research, practice, experimentation, and cross referencing with other martial arts, or related traditions that survive in modern sports. Some people love the intellectual side of reading and interpreting original sources, whereas some people enjoy the more purely physical aspects of movement, and others thrive on the pressures of high-level competition. As experimentation is part of the evolution of HEMA, we tend to take a non-dogmatic view of martial arts and encourage different styles and approaches.
What sources/styles do you currently teach?
The club initially focused on studying the sword in two hands (longsword) of Fiore dei Liberi. We have also studied George Silver's Paradoxes of Defence for single sword and sword and buckler, and have explored the fundamentals of rapier through various Italian sources.
Wiktenauer is a free library of HEMA sources where you can find more information on the sources and their authors.