I have been concealed carrying firearms for 30 years. Until I moved away from a city large enough to have a HEMA club I was instructed and practiced about 8 hours a week. It is the one thing about living near a city that I miss. Where I live in rural WY you can carry a sword or spear if you want and large knives are carried everyday by many. So it isn't mostly abstract for everyone. Also swords give me a warm fuzzy feeling that firearms just do not.
@@Sr_ECO I often wear a 15" Cervenka quillon dagger with my own homemade mammoth ivory grip. It is sharp but I consider it mostly decorative and hopefully deceitful. I rather hope that when a potential attacker sees it they may assume that is my primary weapon, thus maybe giving me a better chance of drawing one of my concealed handguns.
Except for cutting ahead in a queue. Trust me, no matter how much you may enjoy the act of doing it at first, it is not worth the cost of trying this in Britain. People will get medieval on you very fast.
it's because Martial Arts got mythologized by Asian movies. it's essentially training you get for combat in the military. if anything you can argue a lot of old school martial arts are no longer that anymore because no military actively teaches them.
@@TGPDrunknHick i think the problem is one of language. Martial art etymologically means "an art for war" in the most literal sense possible, but people do not know that and believe it means "a pretty fistifighty" due to... well, essencially hollywood. I don't think that is a mythologization but a misdirection/obfuscation, since anyone with half a neuron understands that you don't go barefisted to war. I'm not a linguistic presciptivist but I think it's necesary to not have people be able to change the meaning of words willy-nilly because otherwise you can declare "tabletop roleplayer" means satanist and "USA" means the whole continent belongs to the US and whatever bs convenes you
As a citizen of a country where you can wear any sword, I would argue HEMA is a martial art that gives you the biggest advantage ;) Greetings from Poland!
Crap.. guess I have to learn polish and move now 😂 Kidding aside that seems awesome, blade laws are often pretty vague and weird here in Canada. Would love to carry a sword from time to time though
Also also, most HEMA weapons are essentially specialised sticks. And a stick can be super handy in any self-defence situation, even if it's not sharpened.
This is what people most often miss. Just because you're not carrying around the "Actual" weapon doesn't mean an analog of that same weapon isn't common. For example a broken mop handle isn't a longsword but you can still use it like one. No you won't cut anyone but a few smacks to the side of the head and a hard poke in the throat is still going to be effective. Plus you can parry with it and keep someone with a common knife at distance where they're not as much of a problem. Honestly the knife work is totally legit and probably the most practical martial arts training applicable to the modern day. Machetes, screw drivers, hammers, kitchen knives, 2 X 4's, hatchets etc all have historical equivalents of some kind. Maybe someone should start a MHEMA school. :)
Realistically, the most available melee weapons in an unplanned scenario will fit the rough description of either a club, dagger, staff or spear. Whatever the system may be, training with and against those weapons seems to be playing the odds.
Right. I practice regularly with swords. Have yet to be in a real swordfight. But... in the off chance that during Armageddon, I run up against someone with a sword, I will certainly feel comforted by every ounce of energy I put into training.
I definitely feel like HEMA undervalues the non-sword related aspects of the martial art, which is a shame because they have really useful stuff. I train armizare, and one of the things that is evident in the Flower of Battle is that Fiore expects you to be proficient in grappling and dagger work before training in swords. He begins the book with abrezare, and the guards, remedy master and scholars that demonstrate provide a foundation for all of the subsequent armed actions. I personally think that time be taken in every class to train some grappling. Not fast or hard every time, but practicing the motions on a live opponent at the very least. Then you could easily transition into a relevant play from one of the later sections
Alot of the kdf/german hema schools do actually teach/train/spar with grappling incorporated. Alot of the german treatises cover grappling quite a bit, and the club I'm involved with trains grappling as well.
The funny thing is that you hear the people like the ones Matt is talking about who think HEMA is impractical because it only covers swords, but you also see MMA bros who say that there is no point in studying Abrezare or pugilism since "modern martial arts are so much more sophisticated now;" because, you know, Royce Gracie strangled some people back in the 80's and since then we have reached a pinnacle of fighting efficiency that our crude ancestors could have never conceived of. Ancestors who were professional warriors. Who passed the time by trying to kill each other as efficiently as possible. With anything they could get their hands on. In duels. And in the streets. And on the battlefield. For several thousand years.
A few years back myself and my son were experimenting with some Fiore's dagger plays and throws. He performed a throw on me that caused me to strike the back of my head on the mats, which dazed me for a few moments. I realized later that the medieval throws were often intended to injure the enemy, being that many were not considered safe as a competive sport form. Context for training really makes a huge difference.
Abrezare is... Funky. He's got a bunch of conventional, highly effective moves, and some questionable ones. The first play, for example, is incredibly difficult to do. Plus the upper and lower key... I've wrestled, and grappled, and done hema, but I've never done or seen any of these standing arm locks. Maybe you could catch some of them out of the bind, but in unarmed fighting, I see almost no chance.
I've done fencing, practical shooting, a bit of HEMA, and jujitsu. My main thing is (traditional) karate... but the reality is that the most effective martial art is the one you enjoy, train regularly in (at least a couple of times a week), and can find a good club with good instructors. The thing you do with a good instructor in a good club several times a week is going to be the thing that works for you. Especially if you're competing and training with other instructors, and you stick at it... and remember that your martial art is much more likely to save your life through improving your mental and physical health than it is by helping you win a fight against 5 screaming ninjas.
I walk every day in a large city in the US. I am retired and 62 years old. I carry a three and a half foot long hickory walking stick, no one looks at me twice. I have studied Meyer for six years I find that the long sword devices directly apply to the use of that stick as a self defense tool HEMA is a great cultural treasure for many reasons and I find it to be immensely practical. You are right on the money Matt 😀
I'm from Oregon, and literally just yesterday I saw a guy walking down the street with a machete hanging off his belt. Guns are everywhere, yes, but so are blades. Hema is NOT useless
I've long felt all the Zombie Apocalypses stories miss a dedicated group of re-enactors/enthusiasts with proper armour and useable swords and polearms just going off and rolling over the Zoms!
@@AnotherDuck wear a military grade gas mask to protect your eyes and face if the blood is infectious. It always seems silly to me in zombie films how the survivors without any face protection get drenched in zombie blood yet don't turn. I mean the virus has to be flowing through blood right ?
@@baldrickthedungspreader3107 Not necessarily, but blood is usually something that can easily infect you. But it also depends on the nature of the zombies. Side note, but I remember an old "would you survive" quiz for a zombie apocalypse, where I always preferred to kill zombies at range over melee and generally avoid engaging, and the result was that I would probably die because I'm bad at melee fighting. Not exactly what the questions were about, and depending on the zombie type, you can be dead the moment you enter a melee anyway.
I have just recently gotten into some weapon fighting styles and have enjoyed experimenting with various techniques from European Longsword, Chinese Longsword, quarterstaff, spear, bayonet.... One of the things I noticed is that the cross-training and experimenting in all of these weapons teaches you distance management and timing regardless of the weapons or lack thereof. This is a great supplement to modern self-defense training. If someone attacks you with a baseball bat, knife, beer bottle, their fist (which can be considered a weapon with its own effective distances and speed), or etc... practicing with a variety of weapons will give you an idea of how to handle the situation. Hema will also help you if you are forced to use a random object for self defense. For example, if you are attacked and the nearest thing at hand is a baseball bat, how would you use it? Learning Hema teaches that a baseball bat is a clumsy weapon (though fairly lethal). It requires 2 hands for effective use, limiting your ability to grapple and cutting down on your reach. It is also heavy with a high level of inertia making it easy to overswing and hard to change direction. If your enemy closes quickly, you may find your blow ineffective as you strike them to close to the handle. After considering these issues, I decided that the best way to use a baseball bat would be similar to a bayonet. Stand out of distance of whatever weapon your opponent is carrying and close quickly with a thrust to the face or gut. Finish off with quarterstaff techniques or grappling. Taking some time to learn basic Hema game me, in my opinion, a better understanding of how this object could be used as a weapon. Great video!
I cross-train in modern combatives, judo, and Japanese swordsmanship in addition to HEMA. Even though a lot of my training is self-defence oriented, I do it for the enjoyment of learning. The chances of ever needing to use one’s training in a “real life” situation is incredibly slim for most of us here in Canada. What I have used many times “in da street” from my unarmed training is breakfalls. Literally in the street: in icy crosswalks during Canadian winters. Works like a charm. That’s far more likely to be useful than fisticuffs. That being said, HEMA can dovetail beautifully with self-defence.
Breakfalls are one of the most beneficial things to learn from martial arts. Had my instructor share a story where his 90 yr old grandfather take a fall and use a breakfall to prevent damage and another former classmate use a forward breakfall to prevent a faceplant while tripping over on the street while wearing a backpack.
@@commandopengi Yes, my students often come to class beaming with their latest breakfall stories: icy streets, mountain biking, hiking, and just plain falling down like a klutz! :D
Craig Douglas, a leading authority on concealed carry/close quarters gunfighting, reinvented the Remedy Master position from Fiore's grappling (which integrates seamlessly with the dagger) from just putting in work with simunitions and combatives helmets. The high and low 2on1 grips (4th and 9th Masters, respectively) and the 5th Master collar grab are common positions in working against knives (or in that close range gun work). HEMA is super relevant, so long as the interpretation doesn't suck, is congruent with current pressure-tested methods, and focuses in the dagger and wrestling.
@@shinobi-no-bueno Also that, haha. He stated that the curriculum development came from almost dying in those contexts, realizing the training he'd gotten was insufficient, and then fight clubbing with other UCs to develop something better.
I study Fiore's abrazare (wrestling). And our instructor who is a local downtown Chicago native has seen a lot from the last 20 years. His teachings correlate with the vital tips that he learned on how to properly defend ourselves against anyone armed with a knife, willing to attack you.
We need more unarmed HEMA components in tournaments. At least point fighting for Pugilism. And of course more Grappling. Thankfully, they're gaining popularity :) "BJJ bro!" "Catch Wrestling, bro!"
Yeah in our club we train ringen every HEMA class. The trouble is that grappling is incredibly dangerous, even for skilled practitioners. More than one person has left my judo club in an ambulance, and that’s normal everywhere. I have three screws and a plate in my ankle from Judo. It requires a devotion to safety that needs to be really promulgated in HEMA.
I had been studying sword and buckler with an emphasis on Lignitzer for about six months We used Filipino Arnis/Kali footwork. "Blade goes this way, you step that way," etc. Walking to work over a bridge here in Portland, Oregon, in broad daylight, in public, with traffic and road workers watching, I suddenly encountered an individual wielding a large tactical knife who immediately and with real force ran at me swinging and jabbing with said knife. If I did not run and evade the knife as I had similarly done so many times before in practice, I might not be here to tell the tale. Yay HEMA!
I myself have had people try & kill me b4. Yes they did manage to stab me twice before I took them down but im proud to say it was my HEMA training that saved my life. W/o it those wounds may have been in my vitals rather than in the non lethal areas they ended up being in.
I had a guy try to drown me in a flooded cell. Fortunately he was not armed ( I had found plenty of shanks there during shakedowns), and I had to really injure him to get him to stop. In those environments, being violent is a form of currency.
People sure as hell still fight with sticks and machetes. Of course HEMA still has a place aside from the historical importance, you learn fight sense, hand-eye coordination, and fitness. Naysayers should just go after Tai Chi or something.
Heck, despite practicing Arnis/Kali I still look at the historical sources because the art itself has influence from HEMA. Spanish fencing specifically.
@@kalivr1908 I've been involved in FMA, especially Latosa Escrima, since the early 80s and I found very close similarities between what we do and European maritime hangar/cutlass techniques as practiced throughout the colonial era (16th-19th C). I have no doubt that Filipino sailors learned a lot of their basic stick and sword technique from serving on Spanish ships. Today a lot of FMA gets caught up in Filipino nationalism and doesn't want to acknowledge the heavy Spanish/European influence ...but IMO FMA is really a World Martial art combining diverse Asian and European approaches!
@@VTSifuSteve It's easy to romanticize the ancient indigenous martial art that has been inherited from master to master, pure and unchanged. But that martial art doesn't exist. People who fought for real learned from their allies and enemies. Masters moved around. The times changed, and with them the purpose and focus of the training. I think HEMA manages to acknowledge this to a great degree, with its study of how the weapons and techniques changed over time and propagated over Europe, as well as how it was influenced by cultures outside Europe.
@@jonasbarka I fully agree with this. It's for this reason I find it really ridiculous that Kung fu "masters" don't incorporate boxing training because they want to remain "pure" yet the actual styles originated as styles meant for weapons and they evolved to bareknuckle when the later dynasties (I forgot which one) started to ban weapons from civilians and eventually started having Bareknuckle fights competitions (Lei tai) like how English Bareknuckle and French Savare borrow from fencing for their competitions. Also what I like about Arnis isn't more so on effectiveness but that I could train for every weapon all at once. Just training in double sticks already prepares me for sword/spear and shield, spear, dual wield, one handed, two handed or even fists but still I have to pressure test what I learn and study both Historical Arnis and HEMA sources to see how things came to be as you mentioned. That said, I wish FMA has the same amount of acknowledgement on it's history and evolution as HEMA.
You make an excellent point! In the military we called that style of fighting "combatives." It's one of the reasons I got into HEMA. Another reason is I have always been in love with swords and weapons of all kinds. To be a Warrior is to constantly be seeking to make oneself a master with every art and artifice of War.
Sword & machete attacks do happen more often than most people think in the 21st century, though of course they're still relatively rare. I've seen folks walk around the city I live in with swords, big knives, machetes, & even a three-section staff. Training to defend against such weapons isn't *completely* useless today. It could come up.
I have watched a video by Hard To Hurt (self-defence expert) where he ranked different weapons for "usual" self defense situations. The best and most versatile of the bunch turned out to be the buckler! Well, which martial art will teach you how to use a buckler? That's right, only in HEMA! :) plus, you can legally carry a buckler mostly anywhere in the world! ;)
@@leofedorov1030 no, but bucklers are super easy to carry, you can put them in a bag, hang from your belt, etc. And if someone comes at you with a knife, it's probably the best thing to avoid being cut.
@@balazskertesz5010 the reason the buckler's popularity declined in the first place is that carrying one signals to everyone that you are prepared to fight, and makes you look like a weirdo..
While this test is flawed, it does add something to the basic premise: running away can be hard, when even an option. Edit: whoops, missed the link. th-cam.com/video/LK8YGiy1sIE/w-d-xo.html
I have often had the question "why study a sword based martial art when you can't carry a sword around?" As Matt says, that's wrong thinking. I carry a sword in my mind. Classes involve fast-paced, one-on-one combat skills, and we always explore how to use the techniques and movements with and without our swords. It is a combat art first and foremost. And we encourage 'pressure testing' of what we do. If you treat HEMA as a real combat art you will get real combat benefits. I have proven this in several self defence situations. Any decent martial art is a lot more about what is going on in your head than what is in your hand.
You should do more stuff with knives. I think it's one thing that HEMA really offers that you don't anything reliable in other martial arts. Worldwide knives are probably the most common weapons. I love swords but my interest in edges weapons has lead me to knives since they are the things we use an carry on a daily basis. I don't know if there is a legal issue for you to do more of that on your channel but I think a lot of people would be really interested in it. You may pick up a new viewers who are more into martial arts and self defense as well.
Hey Matt - point taken. Two thoughts, As a kenpo karate stylist I got into HEMA to round out my weapons training. That lessened my anxiety when practicing sword, spear, knife, ax... defenses as I now feel competent fighting with these weapons. Secondly I have found some in HEMA that don't like hand to hand fighting but seem to love HEMA weapons. I think one should learn to swim before going out into a boat or learn to fight unarmed before using weapons. You make a great point that most in HEMA have cross trained. One time I was sparring with sidesword and buckler and found myself inside - I did a left hook to the body with the dome of the buckler (being nice) and was admonished that it was not part of the Italian source so I could not do it. I looked it up and found Marozzo seemed to use every part of his body if he had an opening.
My club teaches a lot of unarmed stuff, both HEMA and Modern Combatives. We're pretty proud that our folks can not only use swords, but box, wrestle, and know self-defence as well. One of my students pulled off a ringen technique in his Muay Thai class and was pretty stoked about it. :)
HEMA has helped me with situational awareness to avoid a fight. If I have to fight it has helped with my balance, stance, range and timing. I can honestly say that I could now survive an encounter that before would have been deadly for me. It is a very practical toolkit for the modern world. I also am very good with a light saber now thanks to long sword drills.
I'm an iaido-ka and a hema practitioner. if i had a nickle for every time i heard this tired argument..... Distance, timing, fitness, body mechanics, threat distance, and situational awareness are the hallmarks of martial arts. Its what the military teaches soldiers to this day. Despite berating my martial arts for their uselessness, the guys that spout this type of nonsense typically think all combat takes place in a polygonal structure on a perfectly level vinyl floor with a paramedic 2 steps away or is entirely comprised of gun combat. The "you'll never have a sword in the real world" argument typically replied by "you'll never hear 'ding-ding' either". thats usually enough to get them mad enough to test your situational awareness, and threat distance to boot. ;)
Maybe you won't find swords just lying about the modern world, but with a tiny bit of imagination there's an awful lot of options for improvised staff or spear.
@Turaglas I find it hard to believe that the current military spends a lot of time teaching CRT and gender studies. They just want to include people who aren't male or straight, because the army is stronger when everyone who wants to can participate. You don't have to be afraid of people just because they're not straight, or they're a different colour than you. It used to be easy to blackmail American troops, when being gay was illegal. And white supremacists are a scourge on the earth, responsible for a disturbing amount of violence and murders. Why would you want to have massive security holes just because a large minority of people still want to force everyone to follow ancient religious laws that their own holy book says they're not allowed to force on people, and a lot of deranged people think they can judge what's in a person's heart by the colour of their skin? This is the type of military strategy that would make Sun Tzu cry.
@@szepi79 oh no worries: The "ding" is referring to a bell. In many cases a bell is rung to indicate the beginning and the end of a match. This is most common in boxing or other sportified martial arts. Does that help?
HEMA/re-enactment is also great for range and distances of engagement, situational awareness (i.e. massed combat) and reflexes. Also, when you think about it, a sword is just a sharp metal stick. Mace, axe, warhammer etc are all variations of this. So there are definitely fencing and sword/axe/spear/etc-fighting elements that would easily translate in a life-or-death situation.
The only critique about HEMA is not that is not a good martial art; it is that is not usually trained with the intensity required of a Martial Art practiced for self defense. Developing as much cardio and strength as possible, drills and sparring against resisting opponents.
Obviously Hema isn’t useless in a modern self-defense setting. I think you went over several good reasons why. That said, I think you’re overselling it. Can you really tell me that a person purely interested in modern self-defense, with and without weapons, would be better off with Hema than, say, one of the less sport-oriented styles of Arnis? Swords and axes and shields and armor may not be all there is to Hema, but you can’t really deny they’re sort of the reason most people start practicing it. Again, not to bash Hema. It encompasses a huge range of styles and nearly all of them were used for actual combat rather than just sport. But that range can be a drawback for someone purely seeking self-defense, since the bulk of them require weapons you won’t have with you, and the rest are competing with other martial arts dedicated to that mode of fighting.
Sword translates to stick and axe translates to most common workshop hand tools and various unwieldy objects. The reality is that for pure self defense the best skills are conflict avoidance, threat awareness, conflict de-escalation and good cardio. Actual fighting is bottom of the list as being in an incident that requires it means having failed at avoiding an immediate threat of violence. I have lived all my life in ghettos and have the skill to kill someone with my walking stick but I have been able to avoid actual violence for decades with better strategy. If you want real self defense training, do security and body guard courses.
Absolutely they would be better off than one of the sport oriented martial arts because the sport martial arts involve sparring against an opponent who is actively trying to stop and/or hurt you back. Live training is FAR better than practicing a move over and over with a more-or-less compliant partner. HEMA, Jiu Jitsu, etc are great.
It does not have to be mutually exclusive. I've done kenpo karate and HEMA - that complement each other nicely. Karate training did not have the breath of weapons training as HEMA and HEMA does not seem to have the modern hand to hand training as modern boxing or karate (you will find older boxing and martial arts traditions. My understanding of HEMA is you have to have a historical manuscript to document the style to be more valid. I tend to believe modern hand to hand fighting methods have improved a lot whereas Asian and European sword styles died off in modern times due to the new weapons of war. So an argument can be made that 21st century saber is not any better than 19th century saber. Just my opinion. Good luck Mke L!
Yeah but if you train with lots of weapons, and you do get a chance to pick up a stick or something, you’ll be a lot more confident using it for those experiences
If the Arnis folks *aren't* pressure testing as much, then yeah-- I think the HEMA training is better. Really, if they can spar and cross train a little, they can adjust the school/gym/whatever's approach based on what each other learn from the experience
Moreover, if you are concerned about self-defence, stuff like canes or sturdy umbrellas are perfectly legal, and even if you don't specifically train with walking stick fighting, a lot of techniques carry over. Plus with such a thing you will have a ridiculous reach advantage.
Check your local weapons laws and seek legal advice kids, the wrong kind of cane could potentially be a weapons charge if used as one, dependent on your jurisdiction.
there is at least a few 18th to early 20th century manuals that go over fighting with canes/umbrellas and other objects including walking sticks(typically canes in that era).
Fun fact on the knife defence one. I practiced Karate when I was younger, and once a month my class would have a week named "real life self defence". They never taught us to *use* a knife, because the idea is they wanted to teach us to get out safely, but they did spend a lot of the time that week teaching us how to defend ourselves if we were threatened with one. Not quite the same level of stuff I feel you're talking about, but this is just to say that there are martial arts schools out there that mix in modern day defence with the more traditional techniques.
During our last training outdoors, a guy walked up to us and asked whether he would be allowed to take pictures. He was more interested in the exotic motif in front of his camera, and no at all in the training. When I explained a bit what we were doing, he asked whether there is any self-defense component involved in our kind of martial art. I guess he has a slight idea about eastern martial arts (of which many emphasize self-defence) and no idea about HEMA. That was a very interesting encounter, because usually people, who watch us and then come closer to talk to us, are fascinated or interested in what we are doing.
I have been exploring various martial arts since I was a teenager, but it was when I worked in corrections environments where I witnessed and was on the receiving end of an attempted murder, that I really got down to the brass tacks as to what I should focus on. Being that I routinely found shanks during shakedowns, I focused heavily on various rondell dagger techniques. They seemed to be the most direct, pragmatic, and efficient methods.
The two martial arts I train in are HEMA and practical shooting (IDPA, IPSC, and 2 gun) They all have their “gamer” aspects, but I’ve found these to be the most practical for use in my everyday life. The weapon I’ve come up against most in the real world has been a knife (thank God it was only once) and the weapons I carry most often are a handgun and a pocketknife (thank God I live in America) Thanks for recognizing shooting as a martial art. Keep up the good work, Matt!
Who the hell would say that? HEMA is the only martial art that I take seriously. If I ever want to learn to defend myself, I refuse to learn what's basically a modern sport: I will go study a set of techniques developed over centuries by people who had the capricious need of not being killed. BTW, my choice would be Ringen since I already study German sources.
Even the sword techniques can be useful in real self-defense. If you have an umbrella or cane, you can probably use rapier fencing techniques with it. If there are any vaguely-sword-sized sticks around, pick one up and you can strike with it in similar ways to how you would with a sword. I routinely go out with lightsabers for dancing, and they're close enough to swords in a lot of ways. How I move when dancing is notably different from how I fight, and simply shifting to an appropriate combat stance with a larger (but less sharp) weapon has been enough to discourage someone from threatening me with a knife in the past.
The crazy thing is that it's perfectly legal to carry a sword, where I live, and people will often attack one another with bats, crowbars, axes, machetes, and knives, if they're not using guns. Shit, you can use a pipe, or a wrench, even. The only weapon against which HEMA wouldn't provide one very much experience with defending against, really, is guns, since you're not going to go deflecting bullets like a Jedi (as awesome as that would be). Knowing people that have been battered with melee weapons in this area, I'd rather carry a sword or knife than no weapon, at all. Another plus, if you carry a sword, most people (including criminals) will assume that you're fucking crazy, and subsequently interact with, or maybe mug, someone else, instead. I may or may not have tested this by walking around with a sword.
Im not a HEMA practitioner (due to time constraints and a knackered wrist), i am a self protection practitioner & instructor of 35+ years who has worked in frontline security for 25+ years (bouncing,CP etc). Alongside HEMA teaching quality unarmed techniques one particularly things i love about George Silvers teaching is part of its ranking system (or so im lead to believe) is that you must stand against opponents who are emotionally fuelled towards violence, a completely different animal than a calm (albeit animated) training partner. In my opinion this is something that is of utmost importance to simulate for self protection training as emotions/adrenaline are often the real enemy. Im guessing this is in other HEMA systems also?
I did Ju-jitsu and Kung-fu where actual sparring was optional and my first thought was that the pressure testing you'd get from sparring alone should already be a great benefit. I never did the sparring (have stupid excuses) and although I learned a lot of techniques, I don't know if I could calm enough during a fight to use any of them. Also a video on the unarmed side of Hema would be interesting.
Based on riots worldwide, HEMA is more relevant now than it has been in a long time. Especially if you live in a nation where you cant just walk around armed (like you can in Wyoming)
Never quite seen you so passionate and emotive on a video before friend. Little buzzed maybe? That always brings out the passion in an academic. All good points btw. And also there is no substitute for sparring, and HEMA prioritizes sparring. I’ll take fencing/hema sparring over punching a bag for cardio any day. 👍
To be honest, I could say the same for any unarmed martial art in America where I can own and carry guns. lol In fact, part of why I like HEMA is its emphasis on weapons, as weapons are always going to be more effective than your bare fists. So I prefer pistol shooting as my main martial art, and then fighting with a knife if I can’t use my gun for whatever reason.
In a lot of self-defense situations, a person will have trouble drawing a firearm without some luck or at least basic grappling & hand-to-hand fighting skills.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 True, though that's where drawing and shooting from retention often comes into play. Less accurate, but at point blank range where you're grappling, it's plenty.
Machine guns have been around 140 years yet hand weapons were still very prevalent through half of that thats kind of a mute point about guns being magical death sticks
@@chroma6947 Oh, of course, but at the same time, arms are better than no arms. So HEMA still emphasizing sword, dagger and knife fighting is still more relevant.
I learn military saber mostly and any time I see stick laying around I know I can reliably beat the shit out of most people with it when exploring abandoned buildings or just hiking I have weapon now everywhere I can effectively use cause saber skills I have translates very well (we did stick fighting and I basically treated it like a saber and it went very well), and I'm a small person (weak, 63kg) but Im somewhat confident I can defend myself with a stick now against most people, maybe not some super brute tho but hey still better than nothing, and I have lots of fun learning saber so actually all this stick usage is just a nice bonus lol
I always stress that even if you are using a sword in HEMA and don't have a sword for self defence, these skills are often transferable, like the more you know about fighting with weapons your ability to predict moves, form tactics in the heat of the moment, utilize improvised weapons against armed attackers, etc will all improve passively. Then you can combo these skills into said improvised weapon, i can now use a baseball bat like a hand and a half sword just by knowing how hold the pommel for leverage and tighter strikes compared to a traditional baseball swing , or i can use a walking stick as a hand and a half sword then combo into quarterstaff skills, maintain a defensive distance using the stick like a headless spear, etc and thats just striking, work in footwork, spatial awareness, grappling and armed submission holds and you're laughing instead of bleeding.
When you think about it, all martial arts are historical. Even if a guy invents a new martial art today it would likely be a collection of moves from other historical martial arts.
Matt have you seen sensei seths video on hema, he is famous martial arts youtuber and he did a first trying hema. Decent video, and yes hema is indeed a good martial art for modern days, i can tell you all the sword and other weapons transfer incredibly in form of a stick or a hammer or whatever you could use as an improvised weapon... plus the greatest plus of hema is sparring....we hit eachother in earnest, and yeah i did train kickboxing quiet competitvly aswell.
From what I've seen, I believe all martial arts are good in certain contexts. BJJ is the best 1v1 on the floor (where it equalizes), greco-roman wrestling is best in 1v1 wrestling, Muay thai in striking range, dagger in close range, spear at medium range and whatever gun you prefer at long range. I like HEMA because it has solutions for every context - albiet minus the floor considering from the treatises I've heard from it just says "and wrestle" assuming you know how to already. Ringen for wrestling, Bartitsu for striking, Fiore's dagger for close range, longsword for medium range and archery for long range. These have all been taught at my HEMA club
I did kickboxing for 10 years in the past and it was so depressing to see how many people struggle to understand that it's a sport, not something you do primarily to pick up fights. Now I do HEMA and it's the same thing all over again.
Hi Roberto, Understand Boxing, MMA, kick boxing are sports that can be used for self-defense. HEMA can be that too although if one used a stick as an improvised weapon or karate or dirty boxing for self defense that would be useful in a defense situation. In Kenpo my guys and I have played with weapons vs unarmed, or different weapons against each other to hone our skills. That was outside of a traditional karate or HEMA class. We had all of the safety gear. I guess it is in how you train. Good luck Sir!
I think you misunderstand, while it is a sport now days, kickboxing is a way for people to kill each other and win battles. It also grinds my gears when people call it "self defense". No. It was designed to hurt people in the most efficient way possible and win wars.
@@Immopimmo HEMA should be seen as a sport today. Having people thinking they can get into a knife fight because they do HEMA can put themselves and others at risk. Could it be useful if you find yourself in need? Possibly, but from experience, what you do in a fight is more instinct than manual techniques.
I knew i guy that had a cheap dull " wall hunger" sword just for the looks of it One day someone tried to break in to his back yard, he grabbed the sword to use it like a batton or something but the guy trying to get in upon seeing the sword immediately changed his mind 😄😄😄
Reminds me of the use of bayonets in the modern world, not used so much to kill, as much as they are to frighten people into retreating. The best weapon to have is the one you don't have to use, after all!
Judo is the modern art encapsulating the most effective techniques of grappling against armored opponents (and unarmored as well, though that is the sporting side of it) that’s literally what it was developed against.
Had a fascinating series of bouts against a friend of mine who was an experienced competitive karate practitioner using a dagger against him and he didn't stand a chance despite me being very mediocre and him being very experienced.
My walking stick just happens to be the same length as my practice long sword (which happens to be "short" for me). Yes, it is a bit heavier but balanced the same... Remember the plethora of Asian martial arts are fractured bits of a former unified martial art like HEMA is.
Great video. A lot of people don't understand that historical martial arts includes not only a broad range of weapons in armed combat but also many different forms of unarmed combat. For example, one of the most important form of historical Chinese martial art was actually archery, with more military texts and manuals dedicated to archery than with any other weapon. So people might not know that archery is a common Chinese martial art just like how people might not know that HEMA also includes unarmed hand to hand combat.
A story from the 90s-00s about 'who walks around with swords". Poland, Warsaw, evening. A guy looking like a slanky, Neo (Matrix) wannabe (or a potential school shooter...) walks awkwardly holding his leather trench coat. Some muggers take notice and decide to say "hi". Imagine their surprise when this "weirdo" throws his trench coat to the sides and takes a stance with a longsword in his hands. They run away as the dude continues going home after sword fencing training.
I'd really like to see you do a video just about fighting with tomahawks. I know you've mentioned tomahawk in videos ,I'd just like you to go into more detail. Also mixing a tomahawk in the left with a short-story in the right which I find most comfortable AL long as you dond mangle the off hand( tomahawk hand)
I did Taekwondo for 2 years. It was great for my balance, flexibility and core muscles. Much of what I learned wasn't very good in a real fight though. I might not have a sword, but a good stick is easy to come by.
One thing that people tend to overlook about martial arts in general is that they teach you how to remain calm in a dangerous situation. I believe that the worst thing you can do in a dangerous situation is panic, you revert back to your automatic reactions and often you loose in that situation when you panic. If you train with and against weapons then when someone pulls out a weapon you try to figure out what to do about it rather than panicking. It goes without saying that this won't guarantee you get out of the situation alive and unharmed, but it greatly increases your chances of surviving.
I'm going to comment this before I even finish watching the whole video :) - Fencing is, as Matt said, not just swordfighting, but using any type of bladed weapons for combat; knife fighting is a form fencing (just to give you an example). - It is from fencing that many forms of stickfighting come from, and I think you can definitely find a stick anywhere and I don't think using one as a self-defense tool is a bad choice. - Fencing has principles that you could arguably extrapolate to other forms of fighting; measure (mensura), the understanding of distances between you and your opponent's mean of inflicting damage -it could even be the fists and not a weapon at all- gives you a level of consciousness of when are you at a dangerous distance and helps you be aware of the space between you and a possible aggressor; the tempo, which is the reckoning of the times during a bout, are going to help you have the upper hand in case of an aggressive encounter; footwork, something oftenly way too overlook even among us HEMAists, will aid us putting our bodies in better positions to defend ourselves and counter effectively and with as little effort as possible.
For a martial art to be practical it should lay the groundwork in stopping the threat as simply as possible. Defence is like electricity; it will take the path of least resistance and the less complex steps the better. The art should also easily transfer techniques of unarmed combat to armed combat. Sword and buckler to me have more in common with my boxing stance than any other hema swordsmanship. Archery breath techniques have won me many military-based marksmanship competitions. Really we just have to be severely honest with ourselves and ask if I go out how I normally dress will my training be applicable? DO NOT LIE to yourself.
I’m in Viking hema and it is fun, we talk about history, it teaches you all aspects of historical fighting! If your a good fighter, your a good fighter!
I love and hate that you have to explain this to people 😄 I think people've fallen into the same problem with HEMA that they have with MMA and Wushu, they've decided that they're their own specific style instead of an entire arsenal of different ones. My background's in Japanese Jujutsu and I've trained with a variety of knives, staves, swords and bows including a few european ones, just like you Matt I think swords are beautiful I love my longsword, still haven't got around to legally getting a katana I'm using a bokken. You couldn't say that I only train in the one style, it's rare to find someone that does train in only one and honestly I learnt to fight like this from a young age because I'm from a broken home, not a good reason to learn but now I'm not afraid to defend myself and everyone around me and sadly being from London I've had to a few times. Don't judge a technique you've only read about, it's entirely down to the technique and its instruction, there're good and bad instructors you can't say any technique is bad because you've seen someone with a poor instructor do it there're plenty of examples
I practice HEMA because it's fun. (Also, you can walk around with swords here, so that's a null point) But I carry a pistol for fighting, because I'm small, very injured, and have neurological problems, I'm not interested in getting into a fist fight, and if it happens, I'm not interested in making it "fair" for the other guy. That sounds like a stupid plan.
Random question. Been watching for a while and you often mention different sources but i dont recall you ever dedicating a video specifically to comparison of treatises or rather traditions. Was wondering if there are any major themes that change when learning from longsword treatises from italy or germany, or even if mostly same equipment is taught differently by different treatises due to time period e.g. 13th vs 14th century arming sword techniques being different even if the treatise isnt knowingly taking armour differences into account.
And let's also not forget: HEMA (unlike most other martial arts) includes the use of shields, capes and any other item, that can be used to block attacks. Not just the body or the weapon. Someone, who is trained in HEMA is far more likely to know, how to utilize, what is available, to protect himself from getting hit by what he's attacked with.
Even the sword stuff is relevant. There are a variety of stick and staff-like objects in everyday life. You can also carry a telescopic baton, which is an excellent everyday carry and allows you to be non-lethal, which is hugely important. Leaving a body after a self-defense situation is so much paperwork.
Agree with everything you're saying! Though with Japanese Koryu arts Kenjutsu for example the style is in that classificaion because swordsmanship is what's strongest in that Ryu usually there's all sort of other matial weapons/aspects to the styles they're just named after what they sepicialise more on. The majority of kenjutsu styles will have something else incorperated into the syllabus the same is true for Naginatajutsu, Jojutsu ect. ect. so there's focus on other weapons just to a lesser degree.
Thanks for another great video that takes on the principles behind things, in concert with your excellent work on the things themselves. (I know "things" is terribly vague, but your videos cover so many topics I was stuck). I've always felt a little odd when people have approached me/our group with the "but could you use this stuff in a real fight" question. The practicality should be assumed by its lineage; if this is a system that was passed down for some time, it had to be practical application in its time and somewhat universal in its application. This question tempts us to take it as a serious challenge to separate what we do to "faux jitsu" or "bull-shido", but this is a trap in most cases. The people who ask things like this are often in poor physical and mental health, wanting to either pump up their self-estimation by feeding into domination through violence or feeding into paranoia about just how dangerous our neighborhoods are...in short, the people most likely to ask this, are also the least likely to benefit from a response. What we do looks hard, requires a discipline of mind and body; and both are outside of their motives. They just want to scoff at something real so they can go home and read a pdf on the secrets of the ninja or pretend they can kick ass because they're good at Dark Souls. This has just been my observation through experience.
I would love to see a video from you, Matt, on how adept an average medieval knight would be at unarmed combat. And also how adept he was expected to be, in that I imagine armed combat might be a bit more valued. Or was it?
I cant fight, I'm weak and getting frail. Im going to start Hema at this stage of life. Because I realise that the best way too defend myself is by having a mechanical advantage of having a weapon. (frying pan, broom stick , kitchen knife, baseball bat ect...) and if someone wanted too cause harm to me they most likely would too have a weapon too.
i was learnig a tournament way of longsword fencing , (to clarify i also at school was in self defence class and before that i trained judo once a week for a year) and turns out there's a lot of grappling in longsword fenscing, i even managed to outgrappe and win against my teacher, and lots of stuff i learned form it can be practical in real unarmed fihts, liek look at enemy's heart to get better view of their stikes so you can read them faster and react, the whole philosophy behind blocking ,or stances liek the classic boxer stance start being a lot more clear
I knew you could answer that one! I have also studied multiple Chinese, multiple Filipino, Multuple Japanese, multiple Forms of Jujitsu… and so on. All it took to convince me was to see for the first time you to test feel the handling of one weapon. When people make those statements they have, at best, neither begun to learn the ways of motion nor the ways of touch! And it looked like your passion started to come up, he wrote with a grin.
After many years in the police I wish I’d have had the opportunity to do hema. Fighting in body armour is exhausting and if you have other armour or a helmet it really changes thing things. Make a head butt easier too. Determination to win and overcome is really important and incidentally that is the bit that never looks good on camera. Violence or rather unscripted violence never looks pretty.
It is an umbrella topic. All other umbrella topic and systems also have lots of things under them. Only the richest, most long living, and determined guys can get hold of a gigantic syllabus. Others only talk about some of the aspects.
Any martial art or even sport experience in which somebody is trying to hit you with something is extremely useful in a fight. I fenced for a few years way back when and it teaches you about a) distance b) footwork and c) paying attention to what you really need to pay attention to and d) and to do all of the above at speed. I suppose that HEMA and lots of other arts / sports do the same. So if somebody were to pull out a knife and rush me I believe I would be better composed than most, and hopefully that gives me that extra fraction of a second to take action (ie., dodge / block and run like hell). This is even MORE important in the context of firearm. Remaining composed when somebody comes at you with a knife, stick or whatever increases you ability to bring the gun to bear quickly. That said, HEMA could be a huge determent if it gives you false confidence to fight when your really ought to flee.
I don't usually see you this emotionally-invested in a topic! But for a video that is partly a defense of your profession and livelihood, that makes sense. I have a question about HEMA as a martial art. A lot of people are involved (or get their kids involved) in Asian martial arts because of the emphasis on self-discipline (physical, mental, and emotional) and respect (for yourself and others). Does HEMA in general have a emphasis on these values and/or others?
In my experience it certainly isnt as rigid. There's much less emphasis on hierarchy and authority structures. More mutual respect, comradery and scholarly pursuit. Generally in the groups i've been part of the general idea is that if you want to accomplish anything you have to put in the effort to study and practice on your own. The only real discipline i've seen enforced is safety and being considerate of your opponent and any spectators at all times. Here there's a strong anti competitive mindset. A lot of the instructors left sports fencing because of internal politics and toxic, overly competitive mindsets. So i can understand the more friendly group approach compared to what they were used to.
@@NevisYsbryd are you giving that answer based off your own personal experience, or are you just guessing?? I'd argue that most hema clubs/schools do indeed teach discipline and control. Most schools won't even let you spar if you haven't learned some level of discipline and control first. At least every club/school that I've ever heard of, or visited.
@@gwynbleidd1917 Both, although my firsthand experience is very limited. HEMA did not develop under comparable levels of centralization, hierarchical structure, or authority as a lot of popular Asian martial arts did by virtue of 1) arising in the decentralized, more peer-based internet-era culture, 2) being a revival rather than a maintained lineage with a tradition. Discipline in not hurting causing undue injury in the activity is not, I think, what the poster was asking about. A considerable portion of Asian martial arts come with personal/ethical/philosophical development as part of the package and (at least hypothetically) extend that discipline beyond the school, much like a meditative practice. I have not seen much parallel among HEMA, where the two are often kept relatively separate.
Yes!!! My group embraces the wrestle, and I have found I can hold my own against other martial artists. Don't get me wrong, I still get my ass kicked on a regular basis, but HEMA, has given me the skills to not fully embarrass myself given any situation.
I have a question maybe you can give me an unbiased honest answer on. How much does Boxing both European classically and both modern European and American boxing have in common with both Classical fencing and modern Olympic style fencing? I was trained in Olympic style foil fencing first by an American and then by French and also come from a background of martial arts such as TKD, Hapkido, Judo and Northern Long fist Kung Fu and have taken an interest in both modern boxing and more classic arts like Bartitsu though options here in either of those is scarce. I noticed a lot of similarities in teaching structure, analysis and tactics are very similar to what I was taught by my French fencing coaches. Some of the things I learned from the French masters was the structure and format of French style is very different to what I got from the American(who was a former Olympian himself so definitely accomplished in his own right) and when I asked about other styles like the Italian(I loved watching the Italian foilists as they just moved and fought totally different from the French, less structured and rigid and more fluid, dynamic and intuitive rather than the more methodical and formulaic French style). They told me the Italians are a lot more freeform and they tend to keep their secrets to themselves which is why the Italian style always stood out here in the US were we have all sorts of styles ranging from German to Russian to Japanese(modified French with emphasis put more on footwork to compensate for stature) but Italian was rare and always stood out. We also had the famous Ed Korfanty(not from my club but from our region) as our saber teams coach who was Polish and his saberists were famously on another level. Its hard to find European martial arts beyond weapons combat, you can of course find the books on Defendu/Fairbairn gutter fighting but no one here actually teaches it. Theres also the Bartitsu lab here on TH-cam as well as stuff about arts like Glima though again that is not available here and just like with Defendu if you call it by its name people think you are making it up. Ive been looking for European knife and hand to hand arts that are purely european as Ive been seen plenty of asian and east asian arts such as Panantukan, Kali, Dumog, Silat, Muay Thai, and more and wanted to find more about exclusively European arts but most are either remnants pieced together like Pankration or a hybrid like Bartitsu and Savate. is there any purely European traditional martial arts with no influence from asia or India? Not a race thing, Ive just always wondered what did Europe have all those ages ago and what could I learn and even where could I learn it? I love the asian arts but outside of modern fencing its all Ive ever known.
I have been concealed carrying firearms for 30 years. Until I moved away from a city large enough to have a HEMA club I was instructed and practiced about 8 hours a week. It is the one thing about living near a city that I miss. Where I live in rural WY you can carry a sword or spear if you want and large knives are carried everyday by many. So it isn't mostly abstract for everyone. Also swords give me a warm fuzzy feeling that firearms just do not.
You could carry both
@@Sr_ECO Ah, the Ciaphas Cain methodology. I like it.
@@Sr_ECO I often wear a 15" Cervenka quillon dagger with my own homemade mammoth ivory grip. It is sharp but I consider it mostly decorative and hopefully deceitful. I rather hope that when a potential attacker sees it they may assume that is my primary weapon, thus maybe giving me a better chance of drawing one of my concealed handguns.
@@Sr_ECO saber and revolver
Well said sir
"Anything that gives you enjoyment and happiness is worth doing."
I wish more people understood this.
There are a few exceptions when taken to the extreme. (Murder for example.) But I wholeheartedly agree.
Except for cutting ahead in a queue. Trust me, no matter how much you may enjoy the act of doing it at first, it is not worth the cost of trying this in Britain. People will get medieval on you very fast.
@@scottmcmaster4927 Don't try it at Disneyland either.
@ Mcmaster. Thank God. That is what separates the English speaking world from the lesser…
Even if you do say que instead of line.
MMA, HEMA, firearms trainng.
Holy trinity, you become an one man army after that. :P
It's always been weird to me that people don't generally seem to understand that (practical/"tactical") shooting is very much a martial art.
it's because Martial Arts got mythologized by Asian movies. it's essentially training you get for combat in the military. if anything you can argue a lot of old school martial arts are no longer that anymore because no military actively teaches them.
At least we have movies like John Wick to promote guns.
That's because "martial" means having to do with war and who uses guns in war? ....oh, wait...
@@hanakoakamoto8919 Equilibrium had the gun kata.
@@TGPDrunknHick i think the problem is one of language. Martial art etymologically means "an art for war" in the most literal sense possible, but people do not know that and believe it means "a pretty fistifighty" due to... well, essencially hollywood. I don't think that is a mythologization but a misdirection/obfuscation, since anyone with half a neuron understands that you don't go barefisted to war.
I'm not a linguistic presciptivist but I think it's necesary to not have people be able to change the meaning of words willy-nilly because otherwise you can declare "tabletop roleplayer" means satanist and "USA" means the whole continent belongs to the US and whatever bs convenes you
As a citizen of a country where you can wear any sword, I would argue HEMA is a martial art that gives you the biggest advantage ;)
Greetings from Poland!
Crap.. guess I have to learn polish and move now 😂
Kidding aside that seems awesome, blade laws are often pretty vague and weird here in Canada. Would love to carry a sword from time to time though
Poland is amazing, wish I didn't suck so much at learning languages besides French and English
Also also, most HEMA weapons are essentially specialised sticks. And a stick can be super handy in any self-defence situation, even if it's not sharpened.
This is what people most often miss. Just because you're not carrying around the "Actual" weapon doesn't mean an analog of that same weapon isn't common. For example a broken mop handle isn't a longsword but you can still use it like one. No you won't cut anyone but a few smacks to the side of the head and a hard poke in the throat is still going to be effective. Plus you can parry with it and keep someone with a common knife at distance where they're not as much of a problem. Honestly the knife work is totally legit and probably the most practical martial arts training applicable to the modern day. Machetes, screw drivers, hammers, kitchen knives, 2 X 4's, hatchets etc all have historical equivalents of some kind. Maybe someone should start a MHEMA school. :)
you man staff, some european countries have that as martial art , somehow they are kinda forgotten as swords are cooler
Are we still talking about THE stick?
Same thing in okinawa - Bojutsu is all about using a stick of whatever length happens to be to hand.
"When in doubt, take the stick out" - Tak
Funnily enough, Tak means branch or stick in Dutch.
It all moves in cycles.
Realistically, the most available melee weapons in an unplanned scenario will fit the rough description of either a club, dagger, staff or spear. Whatever the system may be, training with and against those weapons seems to be playing the odds.
Right.
I practice regularly with swords. Have yet to be in a real swordfight. But... in the off chance that during Armageddon, I run up against someone with a sword, I will certainly feel comforted by every ounce of energy I put into training.
I definitely feel like HEMA undervalues the non-sword related aspects of the martial art, which is a shame because they have really useful stuff. I train armizare, and one of the things that is evident in the Flower of Battle is that Fiore expects you to be proficient in grappling and dagger work before training in swords. He begins the book with abrezare, and the guards, remedy master and scholars that demonstrate provide a foundation for all of the subsequent armed actions. I personally think that time be taken in every class to train some grappling. Not fast or hard every time, but practicing the motions on a live opponent at the very least. Then you could easily transition into a relevant play from one of the later sections
Alot of the kdf/german hema schools do actually teach/train/spar with grappling incorporated. Alot of the german treatises cover grappling quite a bit, and the club I'm involved with trains grappling as well.
Kampfringen!
The funny thing is that you hear the people like the ones Matt is talking about who think HEMA is impractical because it only covers swords, but you also see MMA bros who say that there is no point in studying Abrezare or pugilism since "modern martial arts are so much more sophisticated now;" because, you know, Royce Gracie strangled some people back in the 80's and since then we have reached a pinnacle of fighting efficiency that our crude ancestors could have never conceived of. Ancestors who were professional warriors. Who passed the time by trying to kill each other as efficiently as possible. With anything they could get their hands on. In duels. And in the streets. And on the battlefield. For several thousand years.
A few years back myself and my son were experimenting with some Fiore's dagger plays and throws. He performed a throw on me that caused me to strike the back of my head on the mats, which dazed me for a few moments. I realized later that the medieval throws were often intended to injure the enemy, being that many were not considered safe as a competive sport form. Context for training really makes a huge difference.
Abrezare is... Funky.
He's got a bunch of conventional, highly effective moves, and some questionable ones.
The first play, for example, is incredibly difficult to do. Plus the upper and lower key... I've wrestled, and grappled, and done hema, but I've never done or seen any of these standing arm locks.
Maybe you could catch some of them out of the bind, but in unarmed fighting, I see almost no chance.
I've done fencing, practical shooting, a bit of HEMA, and jujitsu. My main thing is (traditional) karate... but the reality is that the most effective martial art is the one you enjoy, train regularly in (at least a couple of times a week), and can find a good club with good instructors. The thing you do with a good instructor in a good club several times a week is going to be the thing that works for you. Especially if you're competing and training with other instructors, and you stick at it... and remember that your martial art is much more likely to save your life through improving your mental and physical health than it is by helping you win a fight against 5 screaming ninjas.
I walk every day in a large city in the US. I am retired and 62 years old. I carry a three and a half foot long hickory walking stick, no one looks at me twice. I have studied Meyer for six years I find that the long sword devices directly apply to the use of that stick as a self defense tool HEMA is a great cultural treasure for many reasons and I find it to be immensely practical. You are right on the money Matt 😀
Hickory stick can easily have hidden blade inside it Ziggy and I doubt you would need to use it but just in case you should get one of these .Cheers
@@redrix1 Brother from another mother! 👍
I'm from Oregon, and literally just yesterday I saw a guy walking down the street with a machete hanging off his belt. Guns are everywhere, yes, but so are blades. Hema is NOT useless
I've long felt all the Zombie Apocalypses stories miss a dedicated group of re-enactors/enthusiasts with proper armour and useable swords and polearms just going off and rolling over the Zoms!
Good luck biting or scratching through my plate, maille, and gambeson zombie... I also won't run out of ammo.
@@WillyShakes Get those Great Swords going and cut through any Whisperer horde!
@@WillyShakes What I'd worry about is blood splatter.
@@AnotherDuck wear a military grade gas mask to protect your eyes and face if the blood is infectious. It always seems silly to me in zombie films how the survivors without any face protection get drenched in zombie blood yet don't turn. I mean the virus has to be flowing through blood right ?
@@baldrickthedungspreader3107 Not necessarily, but blood is usually something that can easily infect you. But it also depends on the nature of the zombies.
Side note, but I remember an old "would you survive" quiz for a zombie apocalypse, where I always preferred to kill zombies at range over melee and generally avoid engaging, and the result was that I would probably die because I'm bad at melee fighting. Not exactly what the questions were about, and depending on the zombie type, you can be dead the moment you enter a melee anyway.
I have just recently gotten into some weapon fighting styles and have enjoyed experimenting with various techniques from European Longsword, Chinese Longsword, quarterstaff, spear, bayonet....
One of the things I noticed is that the cross-training and experimenting in all of these weapons teaches you distance management and timing regardless of the weapons or lack thereof. This is a great supplement to modern self-defense training. If someone attacks you with a baseball bat, knife, beer bottle, their fist (which can be considered a weapon with its own effective distances and speed), or etc... practicing with a variety of weapons will give you an idea of how to handle the situation.
Hema will also help you if you are forced to use a random object for self defense. For example, if you are attacked and the nearest thing at hand is a baseball bat, how would you use it? Learning Hema teaches that a baseball bat is a clumsy weapon (though fairly lethal). It requires 2 hands for effective use, limiting your ability to grapple and cutting down on your reach. It is also heavy with a high level of inertia making it easy to overswing and hard to change direction. If your enemy closes quickly, you may find your blow ineffective as you strike them to close to the handle.
After considering these issues, I decided that the best way to use a baseball bat would be similar to a bayonet. Stand out of distance of whatever weapon your opponent is carrying and close quickly with a thrust to the face or gut. Finish off with quarterstaff techniques or grappling. Taking some time to learn basic Hema game me, in my opinion, a better understanding of how this object could be used as a weapon.
Great video!
I cross-train in modern combatives, judo, and Japanese swordsmanship in addition to HEMA. Even though a lot of my training is self-defence oriented, I do it for the enjoyment of learning. The chances of ever needing to use one’s training in a “real life” situation is incredibly slim for most of us here in Canada. What I have used many times “in da street” from my unarmed training is breakfalls. Literally in the street: in icy crosswalks during Canadian winters. Works like a charm. That’s far more likely to be useful than fisticuffs. That being said, HEMA can dovetail beautifully with self-defence.
Breakfalls are one of the most beneficial things to learn from martial arts. Had my instructor share a story where his 90 yr old grandfather take a fall and use a breakfall to prevent damage and another former classmate use a forward breakfall to prevent a faceplant while tripping over on the street while wearing a backpack.
@@commandopengi Yes, my students often come to class beaming with their latest breakfall stories: icy streets, mountain biking, hiking, and just plain falling down like a klutz! :D
Craig Douglas, a leading authority on concealed carry/close quarters gunfighting, reinvented the Remedy Master position from Fiore's grappling (which integrates seamlessly with the dagger) from just putting in work with simunitions and combatives helmets. The high and low 2on1 grips (4th and 9th Masters, respectively) and the 5th Master collar grab are common positions in working against knives (or in that close range gun work). HEMA is super relevant, so long as the interpretation doesn't suck, is congruent with current pressure-tested methods, and focuses in the dagger and wrestling.
@@shinobi-no-bueno Also that, haha. He stated that the curriculum development came from almost dying in those contexts, realizing the training he'd gotten was insufficient, and then fight clubbing with other UCs to develop something better.
Came here to shill shivworks but I see I was too late lol
This the OP, Craig rocks!
I study Fiore's abrazare (wrestling).
And our instructor who is a local downtown Chicago native has seen a lot from the last 20 years.
His teachings correlate with the vital tips that he learned on how to properly defend ourselves against anyone armed with a knife, willing to attack you.
We need more unarmed HEMA components in tournaments. At least point fighting for Pugilism. And of course more Grappling. Thankfully, they're gaining popularity :)
"BJJ bro!"
"Catch Wrestling, bro!"
For some interesting Western empty-handed fighting techniques, check out Mark Hatmaker's Rough & Tumble videos.
Point fighting changes striking completely and is not historically accurate, I do agree however that we need more of unarmed stuff in our community :)
Yeah in our club we train ringen every HEMA class. The trouble is that grappling is incredibly dangerous, even for skilled practitioners. More than one person has left my judo club in an ambulance, and that’s normal everywhere. I have three screws and a plate in my ankle from Judo. It requires a devotion to safety that needs to be really promulgated in HEMA.
@@Kunstdesfechtens no it's not normal you are just unlucky
Why would you need unarmed HEMA when modern combat sports literally do the the same thing?
I had been studying sword and buckler with an emphasis on Lignitzer for about six months We used Filipino Arnis/Kali footwork. "Blade goes this way, you step that way," etc. Walking to work over a bridge here in Portland, Oregon, in broad daylight, in public, with traffic and road workers watching, I suddenly encountered an individual wielding a large tactical knife who immediately and with real force ran at me swinging and jabbing with said knife. If I did not run and evade the knife as I had similarly done so many times before in practice, I might not be here to tell the tale. Yay HEMA!
Now I need to know more!
I myself have had people try & kill me b4. Yes they did manage to stab me twice before I took them down but im proud to say it was my HEMA training that saved my life. W/o it those wounds may have been in my vitals rather than in the non lethal areas they ended up being in.
It's a good job you had your poleaxe with you too!
Holy crap! Now i need to know more! WHAT'S YOUR STORY?!?!?! (if you're willing to share)
Are you law enforcement or something?
I had a guy try to drown me in a flooded cell. Fortunately he was not armed ( I had found plenty of shanks there during shakedowns), and I had to really injure him to get him to stop. In those environments, being violent is a form of currency.
Just a normal day in London
People sure as hell still fight with sticks and machetes. Of course HEMA still has a place aside from the historical importance, you learn fight sense, hand-eye coordination, and fitness. Naysayers should just go after Tai Chi or something.
Heck, despite practicing Arnis/Kali I still look at the historical sources because the art itself has influence from HEMA. Spanish fencing specifically.
@@kalivr1908 I've been involved in FMA, especially Latosa Escrima, since the early 80s and I found very close similarities between what we do and European maritime hangar/cutlass techniques as practiced throughout the colonial era (16th-19th C). I have no doubt that Filipino sailors learned a lot of their basic stick and sword technique from serving on Spanish ships. Today a lot of FMA gets caught up in Filipino nationalism and doesn't want to acknowledge the heavy Spanish/European influence ...but IMO FMA is really a World Martial art combining diverse Asian and European approaches!
@@VTSifuSteve It's easy to romanticize the ancient indigenous martial art that has been inherited from master to master, pure and unchanged. But that martial art doesn't exist. People who fought for real learned from their allies and enemies. Masters moved around. The times changed, and with them the purpose and focus of the training.
I think HEMA manages to acknowledge this to a great degree, with its study of how the weapons and techniques changed over time and propagated over Europe, as well as how it was influenced by cultures outside Europe.
What have we Tai Chi types done to you?
@@jonasbarka I fully agree with this. It's for this reason I find it really ridiculous that Kung fu "masters" don't incorporate boxing training because they want to remain "pure" yet the actual styles originated as styles meant for weapons and they evolved to bareknuckle when the later dynasties (I forgot which one) started to ban weapons from civilians and eventually started having Bareknuckle fights competitions (Lei tai) like how English Bareknuckle and French Savare borrow from fencing for their competitions.
Also what I like about Arnis isn't more so on effectiveness but that I could train for every weapon all at once. Just training in double sticks already prepares me for sword/spear and shield, spear, dual wield, one handed, two handed or even fists but still I have to pressure test what I learn and study both Historical Arnis and HEMA sources to see how things came to be as you mentioned. That said, I wish FMA has the same amount of acknowledgement on it's history and evolution as HEMA.
You make an excellent point! In the military we called that style of fighting "combatives." It's one of the reasons I got into HEMA. Another reason is I have always been in love with swords and weapons of all kinds. To be a Warrior is to constantly be seeking to make oneself a master with every art and artifice of War.
In lots of parts of the US you CAN in fact walk around carrying a sword 😀
Also all of Canada. We don't, but can.
@@MikkellTheImmortal double headed axes?
Arizona salutes you with a machete
and if u cant just buy a parasol sword lol. its the most socially acceptable item i can think of.
Sword & machete attacks do happen more often than most people think in the 21st century, though of course they're still relatively rare. I've seen folks walk around the city I live in with swords, big knives, machetes, & even a three-section staff. Training to defend against such weapons isn't *completely* useless today. It could come up.
I have watched a video by Hard To Hurt (self-defence expert) where he ranked different weapons for "usual" self defense situations. The best and most versatile of the bunch turned out to be the buckler! Well, which martial art will teach you how to use a buckler? That's right, only in HEMA! :) plus, you can legally carry a buckler mostly anywhere in the world! ;)
One of H2H's best videos.
Icy Mike fans - assemble!
Oh, you mean a gentleman's attaché case!
@@leofedorov1030 no, but bucklers are super easy to carry, you can put them in a bag, hang from your belt, etc. And if someone comes at you with a knife, it's probably the best thing to avoid being cut.
@@balazskertesz5010 the reason the buckler's popularity declined in the first place is that carrying one signals to everyone that you are prepared to fight, and makes you look like a weirdo..
HEMA skills are useless against my "run away as fast as I can" plan for dealing with a guy wielding a sword.
Careful, he might throw it!
That doesn't save you from the pommel being tossed.
While this test is flawed, it does add something to the basic premise: running away can be hard, when even an option.
Edit: whoops, missed the link. th-cam.com/video/LK8YGiy1sIE/w-d-xo.html
What if they're faster than you though?
If self-defense skills cause a would-be attacker to run away, they've succeeded.
I have often had the question "why study a sword based martial art when you can't carry a sword around?" As Matt says, that's wrong thinking. I carry a sword in my mind. Classes involve fast-paced, one-on-one combat skills, and we always explore how to use the techniques and movements with and without our swords. It is a combat art first and foremost. And we encourage 'pressure testing' of what we do. If you treat HEMA as a real combat art you will get real combat benefits. I have proven this in several self defence situations. Any decent martial art is a lot more about what is going on in your head than what is in your hand.
Please read my comment
You should do more stuff with knives. I think it's one thing that HEMA really offers that you don't anything reliable in other martial arts. Worldwide knives are probably the most common weapons. I love swords but my interest in edges weapons has lead me to knives since they are the things we use an carry on a daily basis. I don't know if there is a legal issue for you to do more of that on your channel but I think a lot of people would be really interested in it. You may pick up a new viewers who are more into martial arts and self defense as well.
Bad guy: give me your money (pulls out knive)
Hema practitioner: that's not a knife (pulls out longsword)
Hey Matt - point taken. Two thoughts, As a kenpo karate stylist I got into HEMA to round out my weapons training. That lessened my anxiety when practicing sword, spear, knife, ax... defenses as I now feel competent fighting with these weapons. Secondly I have found some in HEMA that don't like hand to hand fighting but seem to love HEMA weapons. I think one should learn to swim before going out into a boat or learn to fight unarmed before using weapons. You make a great point that most in HEMA have cross trained. One time I was sparring with sidesword and buckler and found myself inside - I did a left hook to the body with the dome of the buckler (being nice) and was admonished that it was not part of the Italian source so I could not do it. I looked it up and found Marozzo seemed to use every part of his body if he had an opening.
My club teaches a lot of unarmed stuff, both HEMA and Modern Combatives. We're pretty proud that our folks can not only use swords, but box, wrestle, and know self-defence as well. One of my students pulled off a ringen technique in his Muay Thai class and was pretty stoked about it. :)
HEMA has helped me with situational awareness to avoid a fight. If I have to fight it has helped with my balance, stance, range and timing. I can honestly say that I could now survive an encounter that before would have been deadly for me. It is a very practical toolkit for the modern world. I also am very good with a light saber now thanks to long sword drills.
I'm an iaido-ka and a hema practitioner. if i had a nickle for every time i heard this tired argument.....
Distance, timing, fitness, body mechanics, threat distance, and situational awareness are the hallmarks of martial arts.
Its what the military teaches soldiers to this day.
Despite berating my martial arts for their uselessness, the guys that spout this type of nonsense typically think all combat takes place in a polygonal structure on a perfectly level vinyl floor with a paramedic 2 steps away or is entirely comprised of gun combat.
The "you'll never have a sword in the real world" argument typically replied by "you'll never hear 'ding-ding' either".
thats usually enough to get them mad enough to test your situational awareness, and threat distance to boot. ;)
Maybe you won't find swords just lying about the modern world, but with a tiny bit of imagination there's an awful lot of options for improvised staff or spear.
@Turaglas I find it hard to believe that the current military spends a lot of time teaching CRT and gender studies. They just want to include people who aren't male or straight, because the army is stronger when everyone who wants to can participate. You don't have to be afraid of people just because they're not straight, or they're a different colour than you. It used to be easy to blackmail American troops, when being gay was illegal. And white supremacists are a scourge on the earth, responsible for a disturbing amount of violence and murders. Why would you want to have massive security holes just because a large minority of people still want to force everyone to follow ancient religious laws that their own holy book says they're not allowed to force on people, and a lot of deranged people think they can judge what's in a person's heart by the colour of their skin? This is the type of military strategy that would make Sun Tzu cry.
"you'll never hear 'ding-ding' either"
sorry mate, English is not my first language, could you explain this point? what is the 'ding ding'?
@@szepi79 oh no worries:
The "ding" is referring to a bell.
In many cases a bell is rung to indicate the beginning and the end of a match. This is most common in boxing or other sportified martial arts.
Does that help?
@@Iamvalcristvalentine ah, ok, I should have guessed that. thanks for the clarification :)
HEMA/re-enactment is also great for range and distances of engagement, situational awareness (i.e. massed combat) and reflexes. Also, when you think about it, a sword is just a sharp metal stick. Mace, axe, warhammer etc are all variations of this. So there are definitely fencing and sword/axe/spear/etc-fighting elements that would easily translate in a life-or-death situation.
The only critique about HEMA is not that is not a good martial art; it is that is not usually trained with the intensity required of a Martial Art practiced for self defense.
Developing as much cardio and strength as possible, drills and sparring against resisting opponents.
And to be blunt, a lot of the practicioners I've seen don't exactly look very athletic which probably reflects on the art itself.
@@twosheds7105 I once commented this, what you wrote, in a channel and they felt offended.
@@algomez8563 It's mostly a casual martial arts as you can't make money out of it, so you can't really compare with martial arts with actual pros.
I’m a purple belt in bjj. I’ve borrowed from HEMA quite a bit. Won a tournament match with an arm bar from an old fight book.
Obviously Hema isn’t useless in a modern self-defense setting. I think you went over several good reasons why. That said, I think you’re overselling it.
Can you really tell me that a person purely interested in modern self-defense, with and without weapons, would be better off with Hema than, say, one of the less sport-oriented styles of Arnis? Swords and axes and shields and armor may not be all there is to Hema, but you can’t really deny they’re sort of the reason most people start practicing it.
Again, not to bash Hema. It encompasses a huge range of styles and nearly all of them were used for actual combat rather than just sport. But that range can be a drawback for someone purely seeking self-defense, since the bulk of them require weapons you won’t have with you, and the rest are competing with other martial arts dedicated to that mode of fighting.
Sword translates to stick and axe translates to most common workshop hand tools and various unwieldy objects. The reality is that for pure self defense the best skills are conflict avoidance, threat awareness, conflict de-escalation and good cardio. Actual fighting is bottom of the list as being in an incident that requires it means having failed at avoiding an immediate threat of violence.
I have lived all my life in ghettos and have the skill to kill someone with my walking stick but I have been able to avoid actual violence for decades with better strategy. If you want real self defense training, do security and body guard courses.
Absolutely they would be better off than one of the sport oriented martial arts because the sport martial arts involve sparring against an opponent who is actively trying to stop and/or hurt you back. Live training is FAR better than practicing a move over and over with a more-or-less compliant partner. HEMA, Jiu Jitsu, etc are great.
It does not have to be mutually exclusive. I've done kenpo karate and HEMA - that complement each other nicely. Karate training did not have the breath of weapons training as HEMA and HEMA does not seem to have the modern hand to hand training as modern boxing or karate (you will find older boxing and martial arts traditions. My understanding of HEMA is you have to have a historical manuscript to document the style to be more valid. I tend to believe modern hand to hand fighting methods have improved a lot whereas Asian and European sword styles died off in modern times due to the new weapons of war. So an argument can be made that 21st century saber is not any better than 19th century saber. Just my opinion. Good luck Mke L!
Yeah but if you train with lots of weapons, and you do get a chance to pick up a stick or something, you’ll be a lot more confident using it for those experiences
If the Arnis folks *aren't* pressure testing as much, then yeah-- I think the HEMA training is better.
Really, if they can spar and cross train a little, they can adjust the school/gym/whatever's approach based on what each other learn from the experience
*Matt stares you dead in the eyes* "You're wrong."
Chills.
Moreover, if you are concerned about self-defence, stuff like canes or sturdy umbrellas are perfectly legal, and even if you don't specifically train with walking stick fighting, a lot of techniques carry over. Plus with such a thing you will have a ridiculous reach advantage.
"martial" it derives from the Latin Mārtiālis, referring to Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology ( not civilan )
Check your local weapons laws and seek legal advice kids, the wrong kind of cane could potentially be a weapons charge if used as one, dependent on your jurisdiction.
@@swissarmyknight4306 very true. I use the sturdy umbrella part of the the advice, and even then had the paperwork proving that it's not a weapon.
there is at least a few 18th to early 20th century manuals that go over fighting with canes/umbrellas and other objects including walking sticks(typically canes in that era).
@@woltews thanks for the the info, but... Why is it relevant? I don't think anyone in this comment dialogue used the word "martial".
Fun fact on the knife defence one. I practiced Karate when I was younger, and once a month my class would have a week named "real life self defence". They never taught us to *use* a knife, because the idea is they wanted to teach us to get out safely, but they did spend a lot of the time that week teaching us how to defend ourselves if we were threatened with one.
Not quite the same level of stuff I feel you're talking about, but this is just to say that there are martial arts schools out there that mix in modern day defence with the more traditional techniques.
During our last training outdoors, a guy walked up to us and asked whether he would be allowed to take pictures. He was more interested in the exotic motif in front of his camera, and no at all in the training. When I explained a bit what we were doing, he asked whether there is any self-defense component involved in our kind of martial art. I guess he has a slight idea about eastern martial arts (of which many emphasize self-defence) and no idea about HEMA. That was a very interesting encounter, because usually people, who watch us and then come closer to talk to us, are fascinated or interested in what we are doing.
I have been exploring various martial arts since I was a teenager, but it was when I worked in corrections environments where I witnessed and was on the receiving end of an attempted murder, that I really got down to the brass tacks as to what I should focus on. Being that I routinely found shanks during shakedowns, I focused heavily on various rondell dagger techniques. They seemed to be the most direct, pragmatic, and efficient methods.
The two martial arts I train in are HEMA and practical shooting (IDPA, IPSC, and 2 gun) They all have their “gamer” aspects, but I’ve found these to be the most practical for use in my everyday life. The weapon I’ve come up against most in the real world has been a knife (thank God it was only once) and the weapons I carry most often are a handgun and a pocketknife (thank God I live in America) Thanks for recognizing shooting as a martial art. Keep up the good work, Matt!
Finally putting facts out there for those who misinterpreted what hema has to offer
“You can’t legally just walk around with a sword or a spear!“
**Chuckles in Texan**
Who the hell would say that? HEMA is the only martial art that I take seriously. If I ever want to learn to defend myself, I refuse to learn what's basically a modern sport: I will go study a set of techniques developed over centuries by people who had the capricious need of not being killed. BTW, my choice would be Ringen since I already study German sources.
It's kind of clickbait that appeals to regular viewers of the channel.
My background is mostly modern boxing, and I adore your videos. Don't usually comment unless my boxing background lends some insight.
And weapons add a whole additional dynamic, and this is when I shut the f* up.
Even the sword techniques can be useful in real self-defense. If you have an umbrella or cane, you can probably use rapier fencing techniques with it. If there are any vaguely-sword-sized sticks around, pick one up and you can strike with it in similar ways to how you would with a sword. I routinely go out with lightsabers for dancing, and they're close enough to swords in a lot of ways. How I move when dancing is notably different from how I fight, and simply shifting to an appropriate combat stance with a larger (but less sharp) weapon has been enough to discourage someone from threatening me with a knife in the past.
The crazy thing is that it's perfectly legal to carry a sword, where I live, and people will often attack one another with bats, crowbars, axes, machetes, and knives, if they're not using guns. Shit, you can use a pipe, or a wrench, even. The only weapon against which HEMA wouldn't provide one very much experience with defending against, really, is guns, since you're not going to go deflecting bullets like a Jedi (as awesome as that would be).
Knowing people that have been battered with melee weapons in this area, I'd rather carry a sword or knife than no weapon, at all.
Another plus, if you carry a sword, most people (including criminals) will assume that you're fucking crazy, and subsequently interact with, or maybe mug, someone else, instead.
I may or may not have tested this by walking around with a sword.
Im not a HEMA practitioner (due to time constraints and a knackered wrist), i am a self protection practitioner & instructor of 35+ years who has worked in frontline security for 25+ years (bouncing,CP etc).
Alongside HEMA teaching quality unarmed techniques one particularly things i love about George Silvers teaching is part of its ranking system (or so im lead to believe) is that you must stand against opponents who are emotionally fuelled towards violence, a completely different animal than a calm (albeit animated) training partner. In my opinion this is something that is of utmost importance to simulate for self protection training as emotions/adrenaline are often the real enemy.
Im guessing this is in other HEMA systems also?
I did Ju-jitsu and Kung-fu where actual sparring was optional and my first thought was that the pressure testing you'd get from sparring alone should already be a great benefit. I never did the sparring (have stupid excuses) and although I learned a lot of techniques, I don't know if I could calm enough during a fight to use any of them.
Also a video on the unarmed side of Hema would be interesting.
Great video, i would add that hema can help train the athletic and mental qualities necessary for all kinds of fighting as well
Based on riots worldwide, HEMA is more relevant now than it has been in a long time.
Especially if you live in a nation where you cant just walk around armed (like you can in Wyoming)
Never quite seen you so passionate and emotive on a video before friend. Little buzzed maybe? That always brings out the passion in an academic.
All good points btw.
And also there is no substitute for sparring, and HEMA prioritizes sparring. I’ll take fencing/hema sparring over punching a bag for cardio any day. 👍
To be honest, I could say the same for any unarmed martial art in America where I can own and carry guns. lol
In fact, part of why I like HEMA is its emphasis on weapons, as weapons are always going to be more effective than your bare fists. So I prefer pistol shooting as my main martial art, and then fighting with a knife if I can’t use my gun for whatever reason.
In a lot of self-defense situations, a person will have trouble drawing a firearm without some luck or at least basic grappling & hand-to-hand fighting skills.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 True, though that's where drawing and shooting from retention often comes into play. Less accurate, but at point blank range where you're grappling, it's plenty.
Machine guns have been around 140 years yet hand weapons were still very prevalent through half of that thats kind of a mute point about guns being magical death sticks
@@chroma6947 Oh, of course, but at the same time, arms are better than no arms.
So HEMA still emphasizing sword, dagger and knife fighting is still more relevant.
screwdrivers are pretty similar to a rondel dagger.
I learn military saber mostly and any time I see stick laying around I know I can reliably beat the shit out of most people with it
when exploring abandoned buildings or just hiking I have weapon now everywhere I can effectively use cause saber skills I have translates very well (we did stick fighting and I basically treated it like a saber and it went very well), and I'm a small person (weak, 63kg) but Im somewhat confident I can defend myself with a stick now against most people, maybe not some super brute tho but hey still better than nothing, and I have lots of fun learning saber so actually all this stick usage is just a nice bonus lol
I always stress that even if you are using a sword in HEMA and don't have a sword for self defence, these skills are often transferable, like the more you know about fighting with weapons your ability to predict moves, form tactics in the heat of the moment, utilize improvised weapons against armed attackers, etc will all improve passively. Then you can combo these skills into said improvised weapon, i can now use a baseball bat like a hand and a half sword just by knowing how hold the pommel for leverage and tighter strikes compared to a traditional baseball swing , or i can use a walking stick as a hand and a half sword then combo into quarterstaff skills, maintain a defensive distance using the stick like a headless spear, etc and thats just striking, work in footwork, spatial awareness, grappling and armed submission holds and you're laughing instead of bleeding.
When you think about it, all martial arts are historical. Even if a guy invents a new martial art today it would likely be a collection of moves from other historical martial arts.
Matt have you seen sensei seths video on hema, he is famous martial arts youtuber and he did a first trying hema. Decent video, and yes hema is indeed a good martial art for modern days, i can tell you all the sword and other weapons transfer incredibly in form of a stick or a hammer or whatever you could use as an improvised weapon... plus the greatest plus of hema is sparring....we hit eachother in earnest, and yeah i did train kickboxing quiet competitvly aswell.
From what I've seen, I believe all martial arts are good in certain contexts. BJJ is the best 1v1 on the floor (where it equalizes), greco-roman wrestling is best in 1v1 wrestling, Muay thai in striking range, dagger in close range, spear at medium range and whatever gun you prefer at long range. I like HEMA because it has solutions for every context - albiet minus the floor considering from the treatises I've heard from it just says "and wrestle" assuming you know how to already.
Ringen for wrestling, Bartitsu for striking, Fiore's dagger for close range, longsword for medium range and archery for long range. These have all been taught at my HEMA club
I did kickboxing for 10 years in the past and it was so depressing to see how many people struggle to understand that it's a sport, not something you do primarily to pick up fights. Now I do HEMA and it's the same thing all over again.
If it's the sport you're after perhaps modern sport fencing would be more to your liking?
I don't understand that mindset.
Hi Roberto, Understand Boxing, MMA, kick boxing are sports that can be used for self-defense. HEMA can be that too although if one used a stick as an improvised weapon or karate or dirty boxing for self defense that would be useful in a defense situation. In Kenpo my guys and I have played with weapons vs unarmed, or different weapons against each other to hone our skills. That was outside of a traditional karate or HEMA class. We had all of the safety gear. I guess it is in how you train. Good luck Sir!
I think you misunderstand, while it is a sport now days, kickboxing is a way for people to kill each other and win battles. It also grinds my gears when people call it "self defense". No. It was designed to hurt people in the most efficient way possible and win wars.
@@Immopimmo HEMA should be seen as a sport today. Having people thinking they can get into a knife fight because they do HEMA can put themselves and others at risk.
Could it be useful if you find yourself in need? Possibly, but from experience, what you do in a fight is more instinct than manual techniques.
I knew i guy that had a cheap dull " wall hunger" sword just for the looks of it
One day someone tried to break in to his back yard, he grabbed the sword to use it like a batton or something but the guy trying to get in upon seeing the sword immediately changed his mind 😄😄😄
Reminds me of the use of bayonets in the modern world, not used so much to kill, as much as they are to frighten people into retreating. The best weapon to have is the one you don't have to use, after all!
Deterrence is a viable strategy.
I would seriously like to see more about the unarmed aspects, especially from the earlier periods
Judo is the modern art encapsulating the most effective techniques of grappling against armored opponents (and unarmored as well, though that is the sporting side of it) that’s literally what it was developed against.
Had a fascinating series of bouts against a friend of mine who was an experienced competitive karate practitioner using a dagger against him and he didn't stand a chance despite me being very mediocre and him being very experienced.
My walking stick just happens to be the same length as my practice long sword (which happens to be "short" for me). Yes, it is a bit heavier but balanced the same...
Remember the plethora of Asian martial arts are fractured bits of a former unified martial art like HEMA is.
As an aikido practitioner - if you practice any martial art purely for self defense, you're doing it wrong. There are self defense classes for this.
Great video. A lot of people don't understand that historical martial arts includes not only a broad range of weapons in armed combat but also many different forms of unarmed combat. For example, one of the most important form of historical Chinese martial art was actually archery, with more military texts and manuals dedicated to archery than with any other weapon. So people might not know that archery is a common Chinese martial art just like how people might not know that HEMA also includes unarmed hand to hand combat.
A story from the 90s-00s about 'who walks around with swords". Poland, Warsaw, evening. A guy looking like a slanky, Neo (Matrix) wannabe (or a potential school shooter...) walks awkwardly holding his leather trench coat. Some muggers take notice and decide to say "hi". Imagine their surprise when this "weirdo" throws his trench coat to the sides and takes a stance with a longsword in his hands. They run away as the dude continues going home after sword fencing training.
I'd really like to see you do a video just about fighting with tomahawks. I know you've mentioned tomahawk in videos ,I'd just like you to go into more detail. Also mixing a tomahawk in the left with a short-story in the right which I find most comfortable AL long as you dond mangle the off hand( tomahawk hand)
I did Taekwondo for 2 years. It was great for my balance, flexibility and core muscles. Much of what I learned wasn't very good in a real fight though. I might not have a sword, but a good stick is easy to come by.
"But what about guns?" Yeah, that's not a problem unique to HEMA.
One thing that people tend to overlook about martial arts in general is that they teach you how to remain calm in a dangerous situation. I believe that the worst thing you can do in a dangerous situation is panic, you revert back to your automatic reactions and often you loose in that situation when you panic. If you train with and against weapons then when someone pulls out a weapon you try to figure out what to do about it rather than panicking.
It goes without saying that this won't guarantee you get out of the situation alive and unharmed, but it greatly increases your chances of surviving.
I'm going to comment this before I even finish watching the whole video :)
- Fencing is, as Matt said, not just swordfighting, but using any type of bladed weapons for combat; knife fighting is a form fencing (just to give you an example).
- It is from fencing that many forms of stickfighting come from, and I think you can definitely find a stick anywhere and I don't think using one as a self-defense tool is a bad choice.
- Fencing has principles that you could arguably extrapolate to other forms of fighting; measure (mensura), the understanding of distances between you and your opponent's mean of inflicting damage -it could even be the fists and not a weapon at all- gives you a level of consciousness of when are you at a dangerous distance and helps you be aware of the space between you and a possible aggressor; the tempo, which is the reckoning of the times during a bout, are going to help you have the upper hand in case of an aggressive encounter; footwork, something oftenly way too overlook even among us HEMAists, will aid us putting our bodies in better positions to defend ourselves and counter effectively and with as little effort as possible.
Pugilism, Catch Wrestling, Firearms and Bowie Knife/Dagger fencing. These 4 hema styles are a fantastic foundation for modern self defense.
For a martial art to be practical it should lay the groundwork in stopping the threat as simply as possible. Defence is like electricity; it will take the path of least resistance and the less complex steps the better. The art should also easily transfer techniques of unarmed combat to armed combat. Sword and buckler to me have more in common with my boxing stance than any other hema swordsmanship. Archery breath techniques have won me many military-based marksmanship competitions. Really we just have to be severely honest with ourselves and ask if I go out how I normally dress will my training be applicable? DO NOT LIE to yourself.
I’m in Viking hema and it is fun, we talk about history, it teaches you all aspects of historical fighting! If your a good fighter, your a good fighter!
No, you are not a good fighter: you are a person who learn techiques in theory but not in practise.
Idk if you get this enough, bro. But I love you. Don't ever change.
I love and hate that you have to explain this to people 😄 I think people've fallen into the same problem with HEMA that they have with MMA and Wushu, they've decided that they're their own specific style instead of an entire arsenal of different ones.
My background's in Japanese Jujutsu and I've trained with a variety of knives, staves, swords and bows including a few european ones, just like you Matt I think swords are beautiful I love my longsword, still haven't got around to legally getting a katana I'm using a bokken.
You couldn't say that I only train in the one style, it's rare to find someone that does train in only one and honestly I learnt to fight like this from a young age because I'm from a broken home, not a good reason to learn but now I'm not afraid to defend myself and everyone around me and sadly being from London I've had to a few times.
Don't judge a technique you've only read about, it's entirely down to the technique and its instruction, there're good and bad instructors you can't say any technique is bad because you've seen someone with a poor instructor do it there're plenty of examples
Gloriously put, Matt!
Keep up the great work!
I like your enthusiasm and most of all, you are point on.
I practice HEMA because it's fun. (Also, you can walk around with swords here, so that's a null point) But I carry a pistol for fighting, because I'm small, very injured, and have neurological problems, I'm not interested in getting into a fist fight, and if it happens, I'm not interested in making it "fair" for the other guy. That sounds like a stupid plan.
Have you done Halberd vs. Dagger and Buckler yet?
What's it like?
Random question. Been watching for a while and you often mention different sources but i dont recall you ever dedicating a video specifically to comparison of treatises or rather traditions.
Was wondering if there are any major themes that change when learning from longsword treatises from italy or germany, or even if mostly same equipment is taught differently by different treatises due to time period e.g. 13th vs 14th century arming sword techniques being different even if the treatise isnt knowingly taking armour differences into account.
And let's also not forget: HEMA (unlike most other martial arts) includes the use of shields, capes and any other item, that can be used to block attacks. Not just the body or the weapon. Someone, who is trained in HEMA is far more likely to know, how to utilize, what is available, to protect himself from getting hit by what he's attacked with.
Does anyone know where I could find manuals on historical knife fighting that aren't specifically for dagger?
Even the sword stuff is relevant. There are a variety of stick and staff-like objects in everyday life. You can also carry a telescopic baton, which is an excellent everyday carry and allows you to be non-lethal, which is hugely important. Leaving a body after a self-defense situation is so much paperwork.
Agree with everything you're saying! Though with Japanese Koryu arts Kenjutsu for example the style is in that classificaion because swordsmanship is what's strongest in that Ryu usually there's all sort of other matial weapons/aspects to the styles they're just named after what they sepicialise more on. The majority of kenjutsu styles will have something else incorperated into the syllabus the same is true for Naginatajutsu, Jojutsu ect. ect. so there's focus on other weapons just to a lesser degree.
Thanks for another great video that takes on the principles behind things, in concert with your excellent work on the things themselves. (I know "things" is terribly vague, but your videos cover so many topics I was stuck). I've always felt a little odd when people have approached me/our group with the "but could you use this stuff in a real fight" question. The practicality should be assumed by its lineage; if this is a system that was passed down for some time, it had to be practical application in its time and somewhat universal in its application. This question tempts us to take it as a serious challenge to separate what we do to "faux jitsu" or "bull-shido", but this is a trap in most cases. The people who ask things like this are often in poor physical and mental health, wanting to either pump up their self-estimation by feeding into domination through violence or feeding into paranoia about just how dangerous our neighborhoods are...in short, the people most likely to ask this, are also the least likely to benefit from a response. What we do looks hard, requires a discipline of mind and body; and both are outside of their motives. They just want to scoff at something real so they can go home and read a pdf on the secrets of the ninja or pretend they can kick ass because they're good at Dark Souls. This has just been my observation through experience.
I would love to see a video from you, Matt, on how adept an average medieval knight would be at unarmed combat. And also how adept he was expected to be, in that I imagine armed combat might be a bit more valued. Or was it?
I cant fight, I'm weak and getting frail. Im going to start Hema at this stage of life. Because I realise that the best way too defend myself is by having a mechanical advantage of having a weapon. (frying pan, broom stick , kitchen knife, baseball bat ect...) and if someone wanted too cause harm to me they most likely would too have a weapon too.
i was learnig a tournament way of longsword fencing , (to clarify i also at school was in self defence class and before that i trained judo once a week for a year) and turns out there's a lot of grappling in longsword fenscing, i even managed to outgrappe and win against my teacher, and lots of stuff i learned form it can be practical in real unarmed fihts, liek look at enemy's heart to get better view of their stikes so you can read them faster and react, the whole philosophy behind blocking ,or stances liek the classic boxer stance start being a lot more clear
I knew you could answer that one! I have also studied multiple Chinese, multiple Filipino, Multuple Japanese, multiple Forms of Jujitsu… and so on. All it took to convince me was to see for the first time you to test feel the handling of one weapon. When people make those statements they have, at best, neither begun to learn the ways of motion nor the ways of touch! And it looked like your passion started to come up, he wrote with a grin.
After many years in the police I wish I’d have had the opportunity to do hema. Fighting in body armour is exhausting and if you have other armour or a helmet it really changes thing things. Make a head butt easier too. Determination to win and overcome is really important and incidentally that is the bit that never looks good on camera. Violence or rather unscripted violence never looks pretty.
1312
It is an umbrella topic. All other umbrella topic and systems also have lots of things under them. Only the richest, most long living, and determined guys can get hold of a gigantic syllabus. Others only talk about some of the aspects.
Hema also involves some grappling so I would never call it useless
Are you familiar with Shiner Handicrafts armor? Is it realistic?
Any martial art or even sport experience in which somebody is trying to hit you with something is extremely useful in a fight. I fenced for a few years way back when and it teaches you about a) distance b) footwork and c) paying attention to what you really need to pay attention to and d) and to do all of the above at speed. I suppose that HEMA and lots of other arts / sports do the same. So if somebody were to pull out a knife and rush me I believe I would be better composed than most, and hopefully that gives me that extra fraction of a second to take action (ie., dodge / block and run like hell). This is even MORE important in the context of firearm. Remaining composed when somebody comes at you with a knife, stick or whatever increases you ability to bring the gun to bear quickly. That said, HEMA could be a huge determent if it gives you false confidence to fight when your really ought to flee.
I don't usually see you this emotionally-invested in a topic! But for a video that is partly a defense of your profession and livelihood, that makes sense.
I have a question about HEMA as a martial art. A lot of people are involved (or get their kids involved) in Asian martial arts because of the emphasis on self-discipline (physical, mental, and emotional) and respect (for yourself and others). Does HEMA in general have a emphasis on these values and/or others?
It depends on the specific group, though I am inclined to say it tends 'no'.
In my experience it certainly isnt as rigid. There's much less emphasis on hierarchy and authority structures. More mutual respect, comradery and scholarly pursuit. Generally in the groups i've been part of the general idea is that if you want to accomplish anything you have to put in the effort to study and practice on your own. The only real discipline i've seen enforced is safety and being considerate of your opponent and any spectators at all times.
Here there's a strong anti competitive mindset. A lot of the instructors left sports fencing because of internal politics and toxic, overly competitive mindsets. So i can understand the more friendly group approach compared to what they were used to.
@@NevisYsbryd are you giving that answer based off your own personal experience, or are you just guessing?? I'd argue that most hema clubs/schools do indeed teach discipline and control. Most schools won't even let you spar if you haven't learned some level of discipline and control first. At least every club/school that I've ever heard of, or visited.
@@gwynbleidd1917 Both, although my firsthand experience is very limited. HEMA did not develop under comparable levels of centralization, hierarchical structure, or authority as a lot of popular Asian martial arts did by virtue of 1) arising in the decentralized, more peer-based internet-era culture, 2) being a revival rather than a maintained lineage with a tradition.
Discipline in not hurting causing undue injury in the activity is not, I think, what the poster was asking about. A considerable portion of Asian martial arts come with personal/ethical/philosophical development as part of the package and (at least hypothetically) extend that discipline beyond the school, much like a meditative practice. I have not seen much parallel among HEMA, where the two are often kept relatively separate.
I want to learn hema but there's no places close to where I live dose anyone know how to learn at home
Which source talk about boxing? im very curious
Yes!!! My group embraces the wrestle, and I have found I can hold my own against other martial artists. Don't get me wrong, I still get my ass kicked on a regular basis, but HEMA, has given me the skills to not fully embarrass myself given any situation.
Anybody know of any HEMA or stick-based fighting forms going on in Cardiff or South Wales ?
I have a question maybe you can give me an unbiased honest answer on. How much does Boxing both European classically and both modern European and American boxing have in common with both Classical fencing and modern Olympic style fencing? I was trained in Olympic style foil fencing first by an American and then by French and also come from a background of martial arts such as TKD, Hapkido, Judo and Northern Long fist Kung Fu and have taken an interest in both modern boxing and more classic arts like Bartitsu though options here in either of those is scarce. I noticed a lot of similarities in teaching structure, analysis and tactics are very similar to what I was taught by my French fencing coaches.
Some of the things I learned from the French masters was the structure and format of French style is very different to what I got from the American(who was a former Olympian himself so definitely accomplished in his own right) and when I asked about other styles like the Italian(I loved watching the Italian foilists as they just moved and fought totally different from the French, less structured and rigid and more fluid, dynamic and intuitive rather than the more methodical and formulaic French style). They told me the Italians are a lot more freeform and they tend to keep their secrets to themselves which is why the Italian style always stood out here in the US were we have all sorts of styles ranging from German to Russian to Japanese(modified French with emphasis put more on footwork to compensate for stature) but Italian was rare and always stood out. We also had the famous Ed Korfanty(not from my club but from our region) as our saber teams coach who was Polish and his saberists were famously on another level. Its hard to find European martial arts beyond weapons combat, you can of course find the books on Defendu/Fairbairn gutter fighting but no one here actually teaches it. Theres also the Bartitsu lab here on TH-cam as well as stuff about arts like Glima though again that is not available here and just like with Defendu if you call it by its name people think you are making it up. Ive been looking for European knife and hand to hand arts that are purely european as Ive been seen plenty of asian and east asian arts such as Panantukan, Kali, Dumog, Silat, Muay Thai, and more and wanted to find more about exclusively European arts but most are either remnants pieced together like Pankration or a hybrid like Bartitsu and Savate. is there any purely European traditional martial arts with no influence from asia or India? Not a race thing, Ive just always wondered what did Europe have all those ages ago and what could I learn and even where could I learn it? I love the asian arts but outside of modern fencing its all Ive ever known.
do you have any videos of hema vs other styles :0