Having a variety of tools for a variety of approaches to training can be very beneficial for training historical fencing.
But also having enough money to start up training with full sparring gear and metal swords can be prohibitevely expensive for many people.
In such cases getting some foam swords and minimal protection (mask, gorget, cup, lighter gloves) can go a long way to help folks start out their fencing journey.
And if you're trying to start a club it's potentially a difference between 'tough but doable' and 'straight up impossible unless a big life change happens'.
Today there are many options for foam swords you can order online, but it can be great to be able to DIY some of it.
The above link is a finnish guide on how to do it that many high level hemaists there have used, and similar to how many larpers and sca etc. folks have made their own weapons for years back, but a bit optimized for hema purposes.
Google translate is imperfect but you should be able to understand all the general concepts and get better with follow up attempts.
Also keep in mind the first attempt once you have all the relevant materials(that are fairly cheap pretty much everywhere) it'll likely take you anywhere between 30min and 3h to finish a single foam sword.
But after a few tries you may need no more than 20min per foam sword.
These types of training tools are also great for any day where you don't want to put full regular gear on but still want to fence a bit in minimal gear. They're also great for instilling confidence in beginners to move freely, even if in full gear.
They're also more forgiving and safer if you know there's folks who struggle with control, at least a stepping stone before they're ready to fence freely with steel.
They're also slightly lighter than the steel versions so also more appropriate for beginners if you want more class time to be devoted to training skill, whether through drills, games etc. than to building physical capacity.
However even an experienced student may find them a great tool for improving timing and distance management.
Good luck and hope you all find this useful.
For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the following links:
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Some advice on how to start studying the sources generally can be found in these older posts
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Remember to check out A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym as it may help with your own club/gym/dojo/school culture and approach.Check out their curriculum too.
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Fear is the Mind Killer: How to Build a Training Culture that Fosters Strength and Resilience by Kajetan Sadowski may be relevant as well.
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“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills” by Rob Gray as well as this post that goes over the basics of his constraints lead, ecological approach.
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Another useful book to check out is The Theory and Practice of Historical European Martial Arts (while about HEMA, a lot of it is applicable to other historical martial arts clubs dealing with research and recreation of old fighting systems).
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Trauma informed coaching and why it matters
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Look at the previous posts in relation to running and cardio to learn how that relates to historical fencing.
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Why having a systematic approach to training can be beneficial
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Why we may not want one attack 10 000 times, nor 10 000 attacks done once, but a third option.
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How consent and opting in function and why it matters.
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More on tactics in fencing
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Types of fencers
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Open vs closed skills
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The three primary factors to safety within historical fencing
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Worth checking out are this blogs tags on pedagogy and teaching for other related useful posts.
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And if you train any weapon based form of historical fencing check out the ‘HEMA game archive’ where you can find a plethora of different drills, focused sparring and game options to use for effective, useful and fun training.
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Check out the cool hemabookshelf facsimile project.
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For more on how to use youtube content for learning historical fencing I suggest checking out these older posts on the concept of video study of sparring and tournament footage.
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The provoker-taker-hitter tactical concept and its uses
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Approaches to goals and methodology in historical fencing
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A short article on why learning about other sports and activities can benefit folks in combat sports
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Consider getting some patches of this sort or these cool rashguards to show support for good causes or a t-shirt like to send a good message while at training.
