#hema training

[arcadiaak]

Twice a week I become a cool bitch with a sword

Thanks to @tereceratops for filming me! 💜

[mindhost]

Inspired by a video tutorial, Adam Frus has created this impressive articulated Pell-Mate to practice winding and other sword on sword contact skills.

Materials:  Top row: PVC Primer/Cement, 6x golfballs (assembly shown), 6x hose clamps (1-1/16"-2") 

Second Row - 2" PVC T connector, reducing bushing (2" to 1-1/4"), 1-1/4" T connector, reducing Bushing (1-1/4" to 3/4), reducing bushing (3/4" to 1/2"), 3x bolts (3/8"-16 x 4"), 6x 3/8"-16 nuts. 

Last two rows: length of 1-1/4" PVC and a length of 1/2" PVC, and two straps or other attaching system.

Source and related discussion thread:  HEMA Hacks: Kit Modifications, Tips & Tricks (post 1 / post 2)

[franonimous]

How to run a HEMA club

You will need:

At least one other person A venue Insurance, if you want to book most venues Time Energy Rules An image Passion Money Gear Books and other resources

Method:

1. Book a venue on a regular weekly time-slot that benefits most people.

2. Advertise this weekly event every single week.

3. Go to this event every single week. When you aren’t there plan what you are going to do when you are there - READ, PRACTICE.

4. Share your passion with those you train. Share it with everyone you meet if you want to grow your club or school.

5.Make everyone aware of the rules - these can be as simple as: “no pay no play” or “always help pack at the end of class”, but there must be some or you will be constantly firefighting unexpected drama.

6. Socialise regularly- straight after class is great because you can discuss what you did in more detail. It also helps people bond and want to hang around with each other more.

7. Have an image: Tshirts, rashguards, patches, websites etc - let your members feel they belong to something.

8. Be prepared to put in lots of time to get it working. Encourage members to contribute towards the club’s success in multiple ways so you don’t end up doing everything while they have all the fun - running warmups, coming up with lesson plans, research, managing subs, running the website and social media, advertising etc. Reward and recognise effort, ideas are easy to come by, people who give back are worth their weight in gold.

9. Steal, er, be inspired by others. Take advantage of the community around you, there are some excellent teachers and videos and classes out there. See how other schools and clubs run things - you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

10. Never stop learning - HEMA is infinite and nobody holds all the answers. Former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, who spent 18 years in business prior to his career in sport, said that being a “sponge” – by soaking up new information – was vital.

“The secret is trying to keep everyone a sponge-type person,” said Woodward. “You have to really understand the power in learning.

[mindhost]

Get HEMA Strong

Intro Want to get better at your martial art? The fastest way to do so is to simply practice it more often.

A simple two-day strength training regime for HEMA practitioners

[mindhost]

Physical training for longsword fencers

There are three areas of training that you want to include in a most optimal format.

Skill Training

Strength Training

Fitness Training (Cardiorespiratory mainly)

Skill training consists of performing the specific activities that you wish to excel at in your area of study. On a surface level this could be doing a large number of cuts and transitioning through guards but ideally it would be going through specific plays or doing specific free play exercises that encourage you to develop your body to excel at specific tasks.

Sparring has a specific role in testing the level of physical and cognitive development you have achieved, it lets you know what you are doing well and what you need to improve upon, but you need to do activities other than sparring to further hone the skills that sparring has shown you need to work on.

Strength training consist of some resistance training program, it could be body weight, machine driven, or free weights. Even holding your sword in a high guard for like 10 minutes while watching something could be considered strength training. Now for Strength training you have several goals that you could be looking for, those goals include, Strength, Power, Hypertrophy, and Muscular Endurance.

If you are new to or not consistently involved in a strength training program you want to start developing your body for hypertrophy, that is to say that you want to increase the cross-sectional area and mass of your skeletal muscles. To accomplish this, you want to design a weight training program in a very specific way, you want to find your 1 Rep Max (when applicable) and you want to work with a weight that is between 67 and 85 percent of that, your goal should be 3 - 6 sets with repetitions from 6 - 12 per set, and you should rest for 30 seconds to a minute and a half between sets of the same exercise.

If you are experienced with strength training and do it consistently you might want to start developing your body for power as that is where most of HEMA longsword benefits from. For power oriented strength training (different from Power Lifting) you want to ideally be doing 75 - 90 percent of your 1 Rep Max (which might have changed if you last measured it a month ago when you were training for hyper trophy) and you want to be doing 3 - 5 sets sets of only 3 - 5 repetitions per set, and you want to allow a greater rest period between sets (2 - 5 minutes)

Now what exercises would be the most beneficial to HEMA longsword? Well major muscle groups to target would include;

Your arms and chest; Brachioradialis (very important for almost all armed HEMA) Triceps brachii, Biceps brachii, Deltoids (Posterior, anterior, and lateral), and Pectoralis Major.

Your back and core; Trapezius, Latissimus Dorsi, Rhomboids, Your Rotator Cuff (Supraspinatus, Subscapularis, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor), Internal and External Obliques , Rectus abdominis and Transverse adominis.

Your legs and butt: Quadriceps (Rectus femoris, Vastus medialis, vastus lateralis), your Hamstrings (Bicep, Femoris, Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus), your Triceps surae (Gastrocnemius and Soleus), and your Gluteus Maximus (it is difficult to target the Gluetues Medius and Minimus)

Wow that is almost your whole body, so in order to hit all of those you have several options available to you, the first is breaking up your strength training workouts (which should be 3 - 4 times a week) into different days for different muscle groups, (IE; Leg day, chest and arms day, back and core day, etc) another option is to set up various circuit rotations for your workout, so while your legs are resting from your squats you go to do your bench press and work your chest and triceps, then you go to work your back and biceps with rows and then back to the squats.

You also want to work on your cardiorespiratory fitness level, there are many ways to accomplish this, from activities such as running, cycling, and swimming to machines such as the treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster, etc. However, there are several caveats here to make note of. The first is that training your body for strength affects a particular muscle fiber type, Type II (Fast-twitch) muscles fibers (particularly Type IIB) Doing long distance/stamina based activities such as prolonged running/cycling work a different type of muscle fibers Type I (Slow twitch). At first this might seem like a good thing but developing one of these actually impedes the development/growth of the other. Knowing this you might want to consider how you develop your cardiorespiratory fitness level and it might lead you to focus on shorter period but higher intensity activities (which incidentally are time saving as well) In particular an effective route are exercises referred to as HIIT, High-Intensity Interval Training (also known as High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise). This will still allow you to grow your VO2max and train your heart and lungs but will still support and develop those Type II fibers from strength training.

Lastly we want to talk about stretching, you could argue that it might have advantages into your lunge or something else but the main reason why you should stretch often is Injury prevention. Stretching prevents injuries, stretch before and after your skill training, your strength training, and your cardiorespiratory fitness training.

This is based on our current understanding of the various sciences relating to sport and exercise, if this understanding changes then you will have to incorporate those changes and reevaluate how you train.

- Training overview posted by HercSpeed on reddit.

I doubt there are many successful, or at least aspiring to be, longsword fencers out there that do not follow a training regime along these lines.

[franonimous]

When you start fencing other people

Do not assume you are in any way scary or intimidating. You are an enormous target first and foremost - anyone with any fighting or fencing knowledge is just deciding which part of you they are going to hit. Bear this in mind when you fight; when you do strike, make sure you are covered or can get away. Fence comes from Defence.

[franonimous]

In which Fran discovers how to make Gifs.

[franonimous]

Single rapier seminar with Phil Marshall today at The School of the Sword.