Discover Top Posts Tagged with #historical fencing

in HEMA (aka historical european fencing), much of the sport is done with fencing masks on, so identifying your clubmates during sparring or tourneys is just based on gear. you know, what color their jacket and pants are, what patches they have on it, how is their mask painted. If someone borrows someone else's jacket it's legitimately jarring, like having someone with an entirely different body type and way of moving stealing your friend's face.

Once i read about historical fishermen in the north sea and how they each had a specific hat pattern that their buddies would use to identity them while they were bundled up. It was so much part of their identity that they were often buried wearing those hats. The gear is like your name, a visual identifier of YOU when you do not have a face.

anyway, back when I was buying gear i got my pants in ELECTRIC blue. I figured i was gonna get a black or grey jacket. but HEMA gear is kind of expensive because it's all custom- or handmade, so instead of spending $400 on a new jacket I picked up one secondhand for like 20. Except the only jacket that fit me was bright, SCARLET red. And I already had my expensive, new, custom, BLUE pants. I look like a damn rocket pop or like, a mixed Icee. I was like, shit! I should switch my jacket before i become the rocket pop guy!!!

Long story short, not only am I now the rocket pop guy, the color scheme has bled into my entire wardrobe. Every-fucking-thing I own is red and blue. I look like a french revolutionary. I look like a founding father in a school play. I have become a northern fisherman in my stripey hat. Now, even if I DO get a new jacket, I feel like I GOTTA buy it in red, yk? Otherwise they won't recognize me. Maybe I won't recognize me. I'm the rocket pop guy!!!

#Hema #historical fencing #historical european martial arts #Fencing #longsword fencing #western martial arts

So I have a class I teach at HEMA events that I used to call “holding space” before that term got associated with therapy speak. Now I call it “holding your own in the face of combative pressure” and it’s designed to teach tentative people not to crumple under stress.

The thing about this class that always makes me feel some kinda way is that at the beginning I say “you have a right to occupy the space you inhabit, and nobody has the right to move you unless you want to be moved.”

There is always at least one person who has never been told that before.

It’s very validating to hear “you have a right to stand where you stand and be unmoved” responded to so positively by people, but man I will tell you it has made me very aware of how many people have grown up being told the opposite and crushed when they pushed back.

Once I said that and a student immediately started crying. I didn’t quite know what to do about it. They were able to continue after a few moments, but teaching this class has given me a burning personal grudge against anyone in a leadership or mentoring position who crushes those beneath them.

Anyway since many of you may not have heard this before: by virtue of being a person, you have an inherent right to the ground on which you stand, and nobody has a right to move you if you don’t want to be moved.

Your power is yours. Nobody else’s.

Take that for what it helps.

#holding space #therapy speak #combat #hema #historicaleuropeanmartialarts #historical fencing #martial arts #learning #stress management #stress #fear

I was fortunate enough to be invited to do a sword demonstration at a Beltane festival this Saturday, and while we did a good bunch of weapons (longsword, sabre, rapier, rapier & cloak, sword and buckler), my favourite part, potentially on part of being a bit of an attention whore, was demonstrating greatsword!

Look at me go!