The Pointy End

What's All This For, Anyway? Virtually none of us earn our living from doing HEMA. Being good at HEMA doesn't necessarily make you a good person either. So what is the point of doing it? There certainly are more effective ways to get fit. There are other combat sports out there if you want medals. It's certainly not going to make you look cool in the eyes of society. We do it because it's fun, right? Even in stuffy koryu circles, we admit we do classical martial arts at least in part because it's fun. But is there more than the funsies? We're In This Together Is there a deeper purpose to our training? Certainly not for everyone, but we all have our own reasons for doing what we do. For a bit of perspective from other martial arts, the stated purpose of Kendo is to "discipline the human character through the application of the principles of the Japanese Sword". Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, said its purpose was "to strengthen body by practicing...

Check Your Ego at the Segno It's OK, People Have Always Had Their Heads Up Their Butts There's been an interesting phenomenon in HEMA lately. OK, it's not lately. It goes back to the dawn of our modern discipline. Some practitioners and instructors have the idea that they know more about swordsmanship than the masters they purport to study. My first instructor (admittedly a very good sport fencer who decided to take up HEMA) would say things like "Don't read the manuals, I've read them all and will show you what you need to know", and "You have to trust your own intuition and knowledge rather than the manuals". Admittedly two contradictory statements from one person, but I'm not making this up. He also told me that in order to interpret the manuals you had to be "a special person, and I don't think you have that". At least he was right about me not being special. I'm not special, neither was he, and neither are you. The good...