#HEMA fencer

[elmushterri]

Having trouble trying to find the proper aesthetic for this story so here’s a couple random sketches of high fantasy TKH!

[ourladyofeightswords]

New Longsword Drill Alert!!!!

Are you a short fencer? Do you resign yourself to hand snipes and then deal with tall fencers calling hand snipes “historically inaccurate and bad fencing”? (First of all, cope <3 why are your hands out in hitting distance? Apparently Queen’s gambit is doing height classes because the tall fencers were upset against short people clowning their hands)

Anyways-

I was sparring under Meyer rules where only headshots are scoring actions. I found that I had to remember to retreat and that sometimes taller fencers also forget to protect their heads.

I had the most success with hanging guards >:)

[bethrnoora]

what if i was an olympic sport fencer and you were a HEMA longsword fencer...and you kept menacing me with your over-6-foot frame and enormous steel weapon...and we were both boys

[wellmetmat]

That's definitely a winner for sheer flair.

I'm not sure what a SUPER BOOP is but I was so happy to receive one. Thank you! (I'm imagining it as booping with both front appendages at once, although 'extra forcefully' is a reasonable option if we all have strong noses in cyberspace.)

Those are both good suggestions! I feel like a SUPER boop could be manifested physically in any number of equally valid forms, as long as you're putting a little extra boop into it you're doing it right.

I like to imagine charging up like a Dragon Ball Z character for a few seconds, like with some really intense growling and the light show and everything, followed by doing a completely normal dainty little boop.

[knightwithakay]

swordfighting observations

when I had only been doing HEMA for a little while, I turned to a friend and said: "this is going to ruin fictional swordfighting for me, isn't it?" and he said, immediately: "yep."

THAT SAID, a lot of live fencing still happens too quickly for me to really track and process what is and isn't happening. so the one fictional swordfighting thing I've always wondered about is the only one I'll speak to here, and that is

TWO SWORDS CLASH IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE, BLADE TO BLADE. A WITTY QUIP IS EXCHANGED. ONE FIGHTER LEANS IN, TRYING TO EXERT POWER; THE OTHER DOES THE SAME; ONE BEGINS TO GAIN GROUND, FORCING THE OTHER BACKWARDS FROM SHEER FORCE ALONE

hey guys, I'm always thinking at this point. hot stuff, but couldn't you just like...move the sword as soon as it's clear brute force ain't gonna do it?

So I will be talking about the longsword concepts of binding and winding and also some anecdotal observation of my year and change learning both longsword and greatsword.

Obligatory caveat that I'm specifically speaking to concepts as I've learned em as German KDF longsword fencing, or as montante fencing, and I don't do shit with one-handed weapons.

First up: Binding. In longsword, your priorities are as follows: 1) keep the other person from hitting you 2) hit the other person, in that order. In the course of 1, it is pretty frequent that your swords will hit each other and hold. This is called the bind. I'm told that with sharp swords the bind is actually fairly literal; when two sharpened edges, potentially with burs and other rough spots, come into contact, they do lock into place rather than sliding around.

You can have a strong bind, when the lowest and more powerful part of your blade is in contact with the upper portion of your enemy's; a weak bind, when your upper sword is trying to exert pressure on their lower sword; or a neutral bind, where you both meet in the middle, as our lovebirds are doing.

Keeping the bind is actually pretty desirable sometimes, for a very straightforward reason: you know immediately where your enemy's sword is if you're in contact with it, and you have some leverage over it. Being in physical contact with the sword as it moves is much more immediate feedback that trying to visually track and defend against it. So the idea of these two homoerotic duelers maintaining contact long enough to quip is not actually that crazy.

Just sticking there and leaning at each other, however, is. Enter winding! In a nutshell, winding is the act of keeping your sword in the bind but positioning it such that you have an advantage. This can look like moving from a neutral bind to a strong bind, moving the tip of their sword from a threatening position to one where they can't reach you, or getting into a place where you can stab them in the face from the bind or even hit them with the pommel (classic). Physically, you're shifting the placement and direction of the sword, moving from guard to guard (from low on your hip to above your head, or switching side of the body) to try and find the advantage while maintaining pressure on their sword.

With two people who know what they're doing, winding can be very fluid and almost dance-like, as both fencers react to the other person, maintain contact, and fight for control through a series of different positions.

So! In summary, I want to see fewer fictional duelists wrenching their arms and shoulders by struggling to physically shove someone via sword, and more elaborate and flashy maneuvers as they negotiate via swordplay who's on top.

MONTANTE ANECDOTE TIME:

Because the weapon I prefer and click with more is a giant fuckin sword, I am not very good with binding. This was actually the first instance I noted of my greatsword stuff influencing my longsword stuff; when meeting another sword, I have a tendency to try and swing straight through it instead of arresting momentum to meet in the bind. With a montante, this is very easily done, because of the greater weight and momentum, and in fact a big component of the style; you're meant to be constantly in motion to maintain momentum, and you knock weapons away and then swing back around for the second hit. Trying to suddenly stop a montante is how you hurt yourself.

With a longsword, this has mixed results. Benefits: most longsword fencers aren't expecting me to do that, because it's the type of shit a beefy fella very confident in his strength would do, and I am only slightly more intimidating than a pasta noodle. So it sometimes tricks them into trying to react to a bind that doesn't come, and sometimes places my sword out of reach before they know what's happening, and if I am correctly maintaining my own momentum and being smart I can get the hit. Cons: it moves my sword out of position, and when I'm not presenting a threat I get hit. Additionally, if I meet one of those aforementioned beefy fellas and try this I may just get stopped cold, and then I have to wind. Figuring out how to implement this more purposefully than instinctively is on my to-do list as soon as it's cool enough to put on all of my padded sparring gear again.

[gayszlen]

For the yet-to-be-informed, let me preach to you the gospel of Das gayszlen

What is Das Gayszlen?

Das gayszlen, generally translated as the "whip" is a technique in historical longsword fighting from 15th century German tradition. The basic mechanics of the gayszlen are as such: a single handed strike with the nondominant or lower hand, where the sword is released from a traditional grip to allow the blade to sweep towards the leg of your opponent. Some also define other one handed strikes, slices, or thrusts as a gayszlen, but (in my experience) the more common interpretation is the narrower definition I provided. There is some difficulty however in knowing definitively how it was used historically, beyond the general difficulty in knowing anything for certain in HEMA that comes with the territory of reviving a dead art. Much proverbial ink has been spilled online about how, when, and if it is appropriate to use, and many consider it to be a cheap trick, not to be used in serious competition or incorporated into a revival of historical fencing systems. I have Thoughts™ about it and my new URL change inspired me to detail those thoughts, continued below.

Where does it come from?

Ok. so. maybe "15th century german tradition" is a bit generous. There is a grand total of ONE source for the gayszlen, which is in a fechtbuch (fencing book) by fencing master and author Hans Talhoffer, one of the most influential and prolific of his time. His numerous manuals cover a wide range of weapons and techniques including grappling, dagger, polearms, mounted and armoured combat, as well as some more silly things like duelling/long shields and "man vs woman" duels (last two pictured below).

Despite all that and multiple depictions of many of the techniques for these silly "niche" styles of combat (at least in the context of modern HEMA practice, they likely were somewhat prevalent at the time and used to resolve legal disputes) there is only one illustration of the gayszlen, in one of Talhoffer's books. It depicts an exchange between a fencer in a "free point" (afaik the only time that term is used as well, though it is a position that is quite common in german longsword fencing, being a sort of hanging guard or the midpoint of a strike like a zwerchhau) and another performing the gayszlen against the aforementioned fencer, shown below (figure on the right is performing the gayszlen).

You may notice the text on the image, next to each figure! These say Ain fryes ortt and Das gayszlen, again translated as "a free point" and "the gayszlen". You may ask "but what does the actual caption or description say about it?!" I'm so sorry to disappoint you, and I share in your misery: this is all there is. Truly sad, I know. This lack of source material is (in my opinion) why there is so much difficulty defining it and so much debate over its historical usage and value in modern use.

So how do people interpret it?

As stated earlier, the (general) consensus is that it is a one handed strike (a hit, hew, or cut, as opposed to a thrust or draw/push slice) made with the offhand to the lower half of the opponent's body. One of the main disagreements on how to interpret this is whether the sword is "whipping" or cutting to the left from the right, or from the right to the left. Based on the foot position, it might look like the fencer performing the gayszlen (hereafter referred to as G) is bringing the sword from their left side to swing into the opponent's (hereafter referred to as F) left calf. However, this hand position and movement of the sword leaves G entirely open to attack anywhere on their torso or the right side of their body generally. An example of me (right) executing this interpretation is below: you can see that I do actually get the hit, but my opponent nearly hits me with the first strike to the right side of my head, where I am most vulnerable, and follows it up with another strike to my head. If this scenario played out with sharp swords and no protective gear I would lose this fight.

Another interpretation of the gayszlen is this: G holds the sword in any guard on the right side of their body (higher guards may be better for generating more force or deciding to do literally anything other than the gayszlen) and releases the sword from their right hand, holding the pommel in the left and sweeping the sword towards F's right calf. in the picture we have, it may be that the "free point" is meant to be a response to the gayszlen, and therefore F is retracting their foot to avoid the gayszlen, while striking G to their unprotected body. An example of me (left) attempting to execute this interpretation is below: even though my opponent fails to parry or suppress my attack, it wasn't necessary. I didn't have the reach to hit her leg, though her dodge may have saved her even if I had been a bit closer to begin or had extended farther.

Something that I believe supports this second interpretation is the general attitude of historical German longsword manuals to favor attacks and guards from above, to high openings, or generally closer to the upper half of the body than lower attacks and guards. A reason for this is detailed in many European sword systems, namely the destreza rapier tradition, thibault by extension, and meyer.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tPHbG28niyc

The above image and video are pretty simple explanations, the core idea being that a sword and arm extended at the height of the shoulder (or nearer the shoulder) will have more forward reach than a sword and arm extended higher or lower than the shoulder. Because of this, F theoretically has somewhat of a reach advantage over G, as their sword and arm are closer to their shoulder. though the utility (as I'll talk about more later) of the gayszlen is that it is done in a grip that extends G's reach beyond a normal grip like F has.

There are also interpretations that point to it being a thrust (like I attempt below) which is supported by similar techniques showing up in other European sword systems, which I could spend a whole equally long post talking about, but this is plenty long as is, maybe a topic for another time. The two lame reasons I have for not liking this interpretation is that a thrust doesn't seem very "whiplike", and also a thrust to the legs with one hand is harder to pull off than a cut to the legs or a one handed thrust to the torso.

How can I incorporate the gayszlen into my modern HEMA practice?

To preface this, throughout all of this I'm mixing terms and concepts from Fiore and Liectenauer and Talhoffer and Meyer and probably some other stuff. I primarily study and practice Liechtenauer blossfechten via Ringeck, Danzig, and Lew, as well as most of Fiore's system. This is just my opinion on what purpose the gayszlen can serve in the frog DNA filled world of HEMA longsword, this is not pure to any martial art system, just an application for the sport.

That being said: I believe the gayszlen's place in modern longsword fencing is similar to that of guards like the boar's tooth, long tail, or the key, all of which can use distance deceptively. they place the sword further back than it would be in an iron gate or a plow (guards which are somewhat close to those I mentioned) and allow the fencer using them to seem less threatening than they would with more aggressive guards. Likewise, I often find myself throwing gayszlens from positions where I'm somewhat retracted or seemingly out of distance, or preparing for an attack to another opening. This can often allow an attack at an unexpected timing or from an unexpected angle. I find it works well when your opponent is static in a guard and you to a distance juuust outside of where you could hit them with a normal grip, and the switch to a one handed pommel grip gives you the couple inches you need to get the hit, and hopefully enough speed to avoid getting beaten away by their sword. One of the big dangers with the gayszlen is the opportunity it presents for getting hit. When you employ this technique, you give up basically all protection your sword has to offer, you can't block any incoming attacks, and you don't have a good enough grip to bat your opponent's sword out of the way. This means that if you don't plan well, you leave yourself totally open to a double or a hit to you if they avoid your gayszlen. See below! The fencer attempting the gayszlen (right) goes in with his head down and totally unprotected, allowing the opposing fencer to get a really beautiful hit to his head as she dodges his gayszlen. This is what you should do if you encounter someone who is eager to use the gayszlen and you wish to discourage them.

A safer position (both to avoid getting hit and to avoid injury, as I'll mention in the next section) is a more upright stance and a deep lunge, though keeping your shoulder up, as I mentioned earlier, reduces your range to that lower point.

Why don't some people allow it in tournaments?

Many tournaments, in my area and others, don't allow gayszlens. some ways this manifests are bans on all one-handed cuts, all one handed strikes altogether, including thrusts, hits to the leg below the knee, etc. Some people just don't like the gayszlen, think it's too hard to judge, think it doesn't have enough historical basis, or think it is dangerous to the person doing it or the person having it done to them. A lot of those reasons are laid out in this article, which, while I disagree with most of the points, makes those points pretty well. It's also the first result when you search on google for gayszlen, which makes me sad :( Another argument regarding the safety that isn't mentioned in that article is that to get additional reach and evade strikes from above, some people get really low when executing a gayszlen, even exposing the back of their head or body, which can lead to some really nasty hits to the back of your head or your spine, which are vulnerable areas even when wearing gear, are are often the parts of the body that have the least protective gear. In my opinion, any ruling that is intended to ban gayszlens that we've seen is too broad. banning one-handed cuts (or strikes altogether) means that whole sections of manuscripts or traditions (such as fiore's uno mano plays) can't be performed, banning cuts to the legs or parts of the legs can give an advantage to taller fencers, discarding them automatically because they're too difficult to judge the quality of can punish those who have worked to perfect them safely, etc. At the end of the day it doesn't really make a huge difference one way or the other, and every tournament organizer is biased in the way they make their ruleset one way or the other, but I think the gayszlen is unfairly maligned. In my opinion, with proper attention to levels of force, protective equipment, and judging, the gayszlen deserves a place in modern HEMA tournaments.

ALSO IT HAS GAY IN IT TEEEHEE!!

some people pronounce it "guy-slen" and I usually say "gay-slen" and I don't speak modern or medieval german so idk how it should be pronounced but I like saying gay :) because homosexuality get it???? I

I've made the gayszlen a bit of a meme in my local scene by shouting "GAYSZLEN" whenever I do it, like an anime character. This is typically regarded with friendly annoyance, and it makes hitting this silly ass technique SO much more satisfying and makes whiffing it a lot less embarrassing :)

anyways thanks for reading my long ass post ily <3 if anyone has additional thoughts, please leave them in the comments! I'd rather not debate anything, but I'd be happy to discuss intricacies of the gayszlen's use and interpretation if you're nice about it!

[fixaidea]

Every now and then the Discourse flares up around certain characters: they are a fighter, they cannot look Like That! They are too strong, they must be This One body type and saying otherwise makes you stupid!!!

Guys.

I did HEMA fencing for six years. And let me tell you - our top fighters? Both men and women? They came in all shapes and sizes.

Some were absolute shit brickwalls. Some were made of bones, scrawny muscle and not much else. Of course they all favoured different techniques (strength and stamina vs speed and agility) but they were all fencers and all phenomenal at it.

Your fighter character can be shaped like a barrell or a stick, it doesn't matter, there's most likely a real life martial artist out there who looks like that.

[mactiir]

sword misconceptions part 2: shortsword

Post series: longsword | rapier | buckler | dagger | spear

so as I'm getting back into fantasy lit as a historical fencer, there are a lot of things I am noticing cropping up in swordfights that are inaccurate or flat out wrong. So i wanted to write a post for my fellow writers putting down a few things I've learned in 2.5 years of swinging the actual weapons around!

Disclaimer: i REALLY wanna emphasize this because in my last post someone decided to get cute (and wrong) about this. Historical terms for weapons were NOT STANDARDIZED. There as no "one" longsword/rapier/shortsword etc when we're talking about a weapon that existed for hundreds of years across an entire continent. And "shortsword" especially is not a specific term. As how you use weapons are governed more by their properties than their names, you can generalize many things that may not have historically been called "shortswords" under this term. There are like five or six different weapons which have distinct traditions in HEMA which match the fantasy game description of "shortsword". So I'm talking here about any one-handed, straight-bladed, double-edged sword with a (mostly) simple hilt/crossguard and a blade length typically between 2 and 3 feet. As "shortsword" is a generic and not a specific weapon descriptor, this covers what we in HEMA call arming swords, gladiuses, some messers, and probably a bunch of other types of swords I can't think of right now (the "simple hilt" rule is because I'm putting italian side swords and scotch broadswords in a different category. They feel really really different to wield than an arming sword/messer, and classing them as shortswords feels wrong).

Misconception 1: dual wielding shortswords is safe and effective.

When you dual wield, you really REALLY want different length weapons in each hand -- like a dagger in the offhand. Otherwise they cross over each other, get in each other's way, and generally slow you down and mess you up. We'll dual wield matching weapons for fun sometimes, but it strangely feels very unsafe and most of the time you have to resort to windmilling (getting stabbed in the chest as a result). Is this a skill issue? Maybe partially, but there's another reason to have a shorter weapon in your weaker hand, and it's physics. Maintaining parry structure and speed in a full size blade is really hard to do in your weaker, non dominant hand, so if you're going to hold an offhand weapon, you want it to be something that can't be easily wrenched or beaten aside, and instead something that has more leverage (like a short lil dagger!) so that you can turn aside incoming hits without the sword getting blasted aside. If you have a character that's really, truly ambidextrous they might be able to legitimately dual wield full length weapons, but most of the time this one just looks silly.

Misconception 2: since it's a one handed weapon, you shouldn't use your nondominant hand at all.

One of my favorite things about slashy one handed weapons like messer and arming sword is that your offhand still gets a job, but it has to diversify its job prospects! Most "shortsword" traditions aren't like modern fencing the way saber or rapier are, where you only use your sword arm. In messer, which is a very grappling-focused system, your offhand's job is to grab your opponent's arm, put them in joint locks, seize the opponent's blade after you've locked it in a bind, and otherwise be a nuisance. In arming sword and buckler, the offhand holds a lil shield, whose job then becomes to suppress the opponent's sword by shoving the buckler into a bind, protect your sword hand, parry afterblows, or deny entire target areas to your opponent. Most shortswords are NOT weapons designed to be used without backup from your other hand in some way. Don't just have your character hacking an arming sword around. Have them close distance, grapple hard, yank, push, armlock, trip. Shortswords don't grant the luxury of distance longswords can. You have to be up close and very personal.

Misconception 3: shortswords are faster than bigger weapons.

And in close quarters, they sure as hell ARE faster, because that's where longswordsget jammed up by proximity. But "close quarters", in this case, is "less than five feet apart". I'm talking CLOSE. Correct to: measured by speed of the hand, you can swing a shortsword more times per minute than a longer weapon. But a few things equalize that: their length, so you have to step in to score a hit, making them slower; and their relative lack of mass. This seems counterintuitive, but think of it this way: cutting a longsword around often just involves redirecting its velocity, which is already trying to continue forward due to its mass, in a different direction. Cutting a shorty around often involves restarting the whole cut: it's probably stopped against your opponent's weapon or bounced off, so you have to re-engage your swinging muscles to get it moving again. This is why when you watch sword and buckler or messer fighting, fencers will often avoid binding their blades at all costs and instead repeatedly disengage under or around each other's blades instead -- because in this situation, with good footwork, the sword actually FEELS its proper speed. A two-handed sword is going to be faster and more nimble than a one-handed sword in almost all cases UNTIL you get close enough that the longsword wielder can no longer move their sword properly -- which is well within the longsword's cutting range.

Misconception 4: shortswords are for weaker characters than longswords.

My beef with d&d 5e is that every sword SHOULD be a finesse weapon with a strength prereq to wield. Yes, shortswords ARE lighter than longswords, but only by about a pound. Add that to the fact that you can only use one hand to hold it and the fact that you're probably trying to swing it faster due to being practically in the other guy's teeth, I find short swords actually more physically taxing to wield than longswords. They burn out your dominant shoulder BAD and there's no way to relieve the weight on your arm without dropping your sword and probably taking a point to the chest. Yes, they are easier to pick up. They are harder to fence/fight with for extended lengths than longswords, at least to me.

That's all I can think for now! Hmu with any questions or confusions.

[talbaquix]

A layman's guide to olympic fencing—

for writers, artists, olympic fans, or the otherwise curious.

disclaimer: i say layman for a reason! i'm not at all a professional, or even good, but i have been fencing (very) recreationally at an amateur level for ~7 years. also, my exposure to sabre is extremely limited, and i am speaking from an american POV, so please feel free to correct me on any points you see necessary. :)

long post incoming...

So, what is "Olympic fencing?"

First and foremost, it is a sport. Not a fight, not a duel—a sport. One of five that have been permanent fixtures since the very first modern Olympic games, actually—hence the name! While other similar sword-wielding activities (such as historical European martial arts (HEMA), kendo, or wushu for example) may occasionally be referred to as "fencing," most people (me included) define fencing as this specific sport, and use other classifiers to categorize the rest.

Originally, fencing began as a form of military training in Germany and Italy, before spreading recreationally across more areas in Europe. Currently, the fencing scene is almost uncontestedly dominated by Italy, France, and Hungary, though both China/HK and the US have had some pretty stellar wins more recently.

In addition, French has a pretty large influence on fencing terminology and language, at least in the West. Be prepared!

The Basics

Three Weapons

Fencing is divided into three disciplines, each with their own equipment, strategies, and ruleset. They are as follows:

Épée: The classic. The heaviest and most defensive of the three blades, épée's simple ruleset allows for more elaborate strategy and really lives up to fencing's moniker of "physical chess." In épée, the entirety of your opponents body (including face, toes, etc!) counts as valid target area and all hits must be scored with the tip of the blade. In case of a double-touch (relatively simultaneous hits from both opponents), both opponents score points.

Because there's no need for specific target areas, épéeists enjoy minimal equipment, forgoing lamés (electric jackets, pronounced luh-may) and mask cords in exchange for a larger bell guard to protect the hand (that big bit of metal at the end of the blade). Épéeists can use pistol grips for more point control (molded to fit a hand), or a french grip to get a little bit of extra distance (red stick grip).

Épée bouts are stereotypically known for being slow and boring, since the absence of right-of-way (explained later) allows more freedom in trying to sus out opponent reactions and strategize, and the whole-body target + double-touch system means there's more benefit to fencing slowly in comparison to sabre or foil. It's not uncommon for épée bouts to begin with both fencers being carded for passivity! There's a lot of bouncing back and forth in the middle.

Saber (Sabre): Fast, slashing, and aggressive. The fencing you see in movies? Sabre. It's the only cutting weapon, where the entire length of the blade is able to register contact with the opponent. In sabre, the target area is the upper half of the body (including the face, but excluding the hand) and their lamés reflect that. Sabre also employs what is known as right-of-way/priority/advantage (from here on abbreviated as RoW) which, in the case of a double-touch, essentially gives RoW—and therefore the point—to the "aggressing" fencer at the referee's discretion. RoW is pretty complicated, but is very influential in how both sabre and foil play out.

In their ready (en garde) position, sabreists also hold their blade vertically to protect the face (as opposed to foil and épée, where the blade is held horizontally to keep the point towards the opponent). Sabreists also need special masks to register hits, as well as a mask cord to connect it to the rest of the electric circuit. Sabre bell guards are kinda swoopy and extend downward (think pirates) and are always "french grips" (aka just a stick).

Sabreists are generally known for being (respectfully) batshit insane and dramatic as hell. Bouts are extremely fast (rarely more than a few seconds) and look simple, and rely much more on pure athleticism and fast reaction times than épée. Most bouts consist of the two fencers running towards each other, maybe a parry or two, then both fencers scoring hits with a fair bit of screaming and angrily pointing at the ref. Oh wait, did I say running? Sorry, I meant advancing, since sabre is also the only discipline where crossing-over with your legs got banned because people just started sprinting towards the middle instead of actually fencing. Love them for that.

Foil (Fleuret, rarely): Oh, foil. The artistic middleman. Originating as a practice weapon, foil tends to sit in the middle of épée's careful point-control and elaborate strategy and sabre's split-second reactions and fuck-it-we-ball energy. Yet somehow, it ends up being more nit-picky and complicated than both. It has the smallest target area of the three, only covering the torso, as well as the lightest blade. Touches are only registered from the tip.

RoW's influence is noticeably large, since, compared to sabre, the longer bout times actually allow for opportunity for RoW to be traded between you and your opponent. Foil can almost be thought of as turn-based combat. Fencer A initiates the attack first, now has RoW, lunges and misses, which gives RoW to Fencer B. Fencer B attacks, gets parried (back to Fencer A), A extends, B counterattacks, A gets the point.

Foil stereotypes aren't as strong as épée or sabre stereotypes, but foilists are generally known for either being super pedantic and arguing w/ the ref about RoW or whipping their blade around constantly & being flowery (hence, "fleuret"). Because of how bendy the foil is, foilists can also do cool stuff like flicks (snapping your wrist so that the blade bends around, oftentimes to hit your opponents back) and can also get into pretty funny in-fighting situations a bit more often than sabre/épée (since corps-a-corps contact isn't allowed in fencing, and stepping back means you lose RoW, there's a lot of awkward up-close poking).

Some Positions

En garde: the basic fencing position. In essence, a squat, with one foot facing forward and the other turned out, roughly one and a half foot-lengths apart. This is the basis from which all other movements—the lunge, the advance, the retreat—should be executed, and the position fencers return to once an action is completed.

Lunge: the quintessential fencing attack. From en garde, extend your dominant arm, kick out your front foot, land forward, and extend your back arm for balance. To recover, bend your back leg and return to en garde.

Parry: the most basic piece of defensive bladework that every fencer learns, with the "beat" serving as its offensive counterpart. Consists of hitting your opponents blade to prevent a touch. There are nine different parries in classical fencing, but the most common (in foil/épée) are the four and six, which defend the inside and outside lines respectively.

Ettiquette & Other Fun Facts

All fencers must salute their opponent, referee, and audience (if there is one) before and after the bout. Usually just consists of "nodding" at the salutee with your blade before the mask is donned. At the end of bouts, a handshake with your opponent using your non-dominant hand is also expected. Many people substitute/add on to the handshake by tapping blades instead.

Unlike in tennis, seeing a fencer hold up a one on their hand after a touch is an acknowledgement of the opponent's point, whereas a closed fist is a claim of theirs.

When fencing without a ref, many people will slap their thigh to indicate the start of a bout.

Fencers may not speak while the mask is on.

Fencing clubs are also sometimes called salles.

While electrical equipment can vary between disciplines, all fencers are required to wear knickers, a plastron (under-arm protector), a body cord, a jacket, a glove, and a mask. For women, a plastic chest protector is also required. In sabre and foil, fencers also wear a mask cord and lamé.

The first safety rule most fencers learn is to never raise your blade towards someone without a mask on, and it's taken pretty seriously. Because the back of a mask is exposed, its also a big big no-no to turn your back to your opponent during a bout or otherwise lower your head.

Common Terminology

En garde, prez, allez! - On guard, ready, fence! Used to signal the start of a bout.

Halt! - Said by referees to. halt the bout.

Strip/piste - The surface on which fencers fence. Usually around 2m wide and 14m long, the lines on the piste also dictate where fencers must move to to begin bouts, and where they're considered out-of-bounds. Sometimes, they're on raised platforms. Yes, people have fallen off, yes, it's extremely funny.

Feint - Probably what you think it is.

Disengage - Moving your blade in a little circle to avoid contact with what is usually an incoming parry/beat. On a very basic level, straight attacks beat disengages, disengages beat parries, and parries beat straight attacks.

Fleche - An explosive running attack. Due to not being able to cross-over, sabreists use "flunges" instead, a mix between a fleche and a lunge that essentially entails flinging yourself at your opponent in a flying lunge.

Balestra - hop :)

Riposte - An immediate attack done after a defender's parry. Usually heard as "parry-riposte."

Tempo - A kind of nebulous concept, but very similar to the musical definition of the word. The pace of a bout, sorta. Often used when someone is advised to break tempo or if one fencer is controlling the tempo of a bout.

FAQ

Why are the blades bendy? To keep us from dying, mainly. What, you want the metal pole people can throw at each other at the same speed as a bullet (literally) to be solid? Also, blades break a lot already, especially in the hands of the inexperienced—they'd snap a hell of a lot more if they weren't flexible. Ouch.

Does it hurt? About as much as getting poked really hard with a steel stick would. Leaves bruises often, but cuts very rarely. You get used to it. The real kicker is staying in en garde for that long. Trust me, your quads will be screaming.

Is it- No, it's not dangerous. If you follow the rules, fencing is actually extremely safe, especially compared to contact sports.

Does a red light mean no touch? No. One fencer is assigned a red light that lights up whenever a touch is made, and the other is given green. In sabre and foil, yellow (sometimes white) means whatever the fencer hit was off-target, and should not be counted as a point. Épée doesn't have an off-target light, since épéeists don't wear lamés.

How do the masks know when a point is scored? Often asked upon seeing the little lights on the side of masks light up upon touches. Unless you're "dry fencing" (no electricity), you're typically hooked up to a circuit. If you fence épée or foil, there's a little button on the end of your blade that registers when pressure is added onto it. When a hit is scored, the signal goes through the wire in your blade, up your body cord, and eventually to "the box" (and your mask if you're fancy), and the corresponding light is flashed.

Why hold your hand behind your back? Most people don't! Some beginners do it to prevent themselves from reflexively moving their non-gloved hand in front of them when being attacked (which is against the rules), but most fencers either keep their hand relaxed at their side, raised in a t-rex pose, or occasionally above the head.

Helmet? Mask.

Sword? If you want.

Touché? Often "touche," actually. No accent.

Paralympics? On (stationary) wheelchairs. Extremely cool, actually, and very hard. Check it out!

Expensive? To get all your own stuff? Yes. But most clubs will rent you equipment, or sometimes lend it for free! But yes, more expensive than, like, soccer. :(.

Is it fun? Absolutely. To quote some random internet user, "it's like chess, at 90 miles an hour, oh and there's swords!" I would 100% recommend it to everyone, especially if you're on the older side (fencing isn't super age-restricted at all—seeing a 12 y/o and a 70 y/o facing off on a club piste isn't uncommon!) It is exhausting, exhilarating, and super, super fun. Give it a shot!

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Please feel free to send any and all questions, corrections, or musings my way. Thanks for reading—I hope this was interesting and/or useful!

[polaraaace]

Gideon is a saber fencer to me. I know based on her weapons she’d be a HEMA girlie or perhaps a reluctant epeeist and I might be biased but personality wise she’s a sabrist through and through

[elmushterri]

How did you get into fencing? It seems so cool

Awesome question! I was at the Welcome Lecture for my university and a girl was there who I began speaking to, and she was like “Hey, at the other university I used to go to of this city there’s an introductory fencing session today at 6PM”. I was very hesitant cause I am not a sporty person, but I went and the people there and their vibes more than convinced me to join. They’re some of my closest friends now, and HEMA fencing is the most fun sport for me. Now, I can’t watch a movie or see sword drawings without seeing what’s wrong with it! 🤣

My favourite weapons are Longsword (what I’m holding, but these should be held with two hands during a fight) Dussack and Sabre. (I also like messers but they’re just sword-sized knives, technically!) I don’t like thrusting weapons like Sidesword and Rapier (these look like twins).

So if anyone ever has any more HEMA questions.. well, I’ve only been doing it for a year but I’m happy to answer!

[historicalfightingguide]

For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:

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Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts

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Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.Check out their curriculum too.

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Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by   Kajetan Sadowski   may be relevant as well.

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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”  by Rob Gray  as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.

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Another useful book to check out is  The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).

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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters

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Look at the previous posts in relation to running and cardio to learn how that relates to historical fencing.

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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial

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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.

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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.

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More on tactics in fencing

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Types of fencers

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Open vs closed skills

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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing

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Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.

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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.

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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.

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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.

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The provoker-taker-hitter tactical concept and its uses

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Approaches to goals and methodology in historical fencing

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A short article on why learning about other sports and activities can benefit folks in combat sports

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Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.

[medieval-margins]

New HEMA themed designs out now!

Some lovely Lecküchner designs for our Messer Fencers, and of course Hans Talhoffer can't lack from our catalogue!

Medieval Margins is a Norway based design project by medieval-excited HEMAists, combining art from real medieval manuscripts with hand-drawn calligraphy

[inevitableisopod]

Longswords and you, pt2

Right, so in my previous post in this series i covered what exactly we interpret the longsword to be, and now we get examine why it existed, and why that matters!

So the commonly accepted reason why longswords first emerged is the presence of more, and better quality armour on the battlefield; in the beginning this might just have been maille (chain mail for the uninitiated, though maille literally means chain so same differance) and perhaps a banded plate helmet, like a Norman nagel helm, allowing a user to use a weapons of greater size and leverage with truly shocking speed. the second reason is potentially better quality steel and metal working techniques, allowing these blades to reach considerably more impressive sizes. as an aside the fact it forms a cross in silhouette is both to do with Christianity and also that it was just the most efficient shape for its intended purpose, described below.

Something i failed to mention in my last post is that longsword blades are almost always cut and thrust, usually leaning more towards one extreme than the other, but most often capable of doing both quite well. this helps tell us exactly how they were used, for instance the early longswords (usually called great swords of war) usually had slightly more rounded tips and wider, thinner blades, telling us they were more optimised for cutting than piercing.

at this point some of you might be surprised at the mention of cutting, after all surely these things were more like clubs???

very much to the contrary dear reader! the swords pictured above are likely to only weigh approximately 1.3-1.6 kilograms, with most of the mass in or near the handle, so they feel very light and nimble, at least in comparison to what you expect, but it's still a long steel lever so it hits reasonably hard as well!

later on these swords became more pointed like you might have seen in my previous post and became more thrust oriented in order to exploit the gaps in plater armour.

In brief there are 2 main schools of thought on usage, the Italian tradition, and German tradition! the Italian traditions operate on the principal of countering an attack then striking your opponent, and the German traditions mostly focus around killing or maiming the little bastard you're fighting in one decisive blow, that may or may not come after a series of strikes and counters, that usually takes the form of 5 key techniques called the master stokes that function as a bit of a multitool in a fencers toolkit. i may go into more detail onto specific techniques later depending on if anyone cares!

As a final note these traditions were just as complex and vibrant as many eastern martial arts, but the difference is we have no living teachers who were taught by someone who was taught by someone who after many repetitions studied under these original masters (meaning teachers), as many eastern martial systems do, so much of what we modern day swordspeople do is reading the manuscripts they wrote and attempting to decode exactly what they meant by sparring, trial and interpretation, which we call HEMA, or historical European martial arts.

apologies for the long rather humourless post, we'll be moving onto more amusing and exciting things in part 3!

May your edges stay sharp and your points true!

[oneknightstand-if]

I just wanted to pass on the cursed knowledge: with all those teasers of fencing club route I can't help but remember this gif

An accurate representation of the Fencer MC who keeps crying about how they'd rather be practicing HEMA instead (if only there was a place nearby that taught it).

[burningknucklecraftworks]

I discovered a wonderful Etsy shop called ChadMakes, where Chad Healey sells Healey's Hidden Hangers and EZ Sheaths - a series of 3D printed magnetic products designed for sword enthusiasts and HEMA practitioners. His EZ Sheaths are awesome but he sells them with nylon straps. Perfect for HEMA, not as good for SCA people who are really into the look of leather. I asked him if he'd sell me four without straps for my shire fencers and he readily agreed!

I was expecting to just keep ahold of these for three months or so but I needed a little, simple leatherworking project for mental health reasons, so I did a test build with one using some chrome tanned utility hide, copper rivets, and a couple of iron rings from Menards. So far so good!

The only sword it doesn't work with is my personal rapier because the balance is totally wack, but I have an idea to fix that with a simple hook hanging from a third belt loop for catching the pappenheimer holes. But every other sword holds really nicely.

I'm definitely gonna have to do some sparring practice with this to make sure that having a bigass magnet on my hip won't affect how shots land. I can already imagine the comedy of someone trying to hit my leg and just magneting the tip of their sword to me instead.

Go give the maker of the EZ Sheath some love if you like this little project. I'm really impressed with both his designs and his customer service. I also tried one of his Hidden Hanger wall mounts and it is super nice. Makes for an insanely clean sword mount. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1267690423/ez-sheath-deluxe-sword-suspension-system