European Martial Arts (Armored combat: HEMA, HMB, IMCF, SCA, et.al)

[GeneChing]

The Academy of Western Martial Arts opens in Hutto


(Courtesy Bryant Coston)

By Kelsey Thompson | 11:35 AM Nov. 6, 2019 CST | Updated 11:35 AM Nov. 6, 2019 CST

The Academy of Western Martial Arts is now bringing "historically accurate" medieval and Renaissance practices to Hutto, following its official opening on Nov. 3. The business, located at 125 Lemens Circle, Hutto, offers both adult and youth fencing classes to attendees of every skill level. www.academyofwma.com

I like how historically accurate is in quotes.

This Workout Class Combines Swordplay and Martial Arts

This fitness class combines swordplay and martial arts!

Sunday, November 3, 2019 9:55PM

If you drive past one Chicago alley you may find yourself watching medieval and renaissance swordplay, and it's all just for a great workout!

Forteza Fitness is trying to build a strong community through martial arts and swordplay.

"What we are is an eclectic fitness and martial arts gym," said Jesse Kula, Forteza Fitness' manager.

Kula said "forteza" is the Italian word for strength.

"Playing with swords, there's nothing like it," said Thayne Alexander. "They say swords are sexy, and they really are."

Click the link for vid.

Listen to me now and hear me later.

CMA is headed towards a come-uppance with the rise of swordplayers. So many Chinese martial artists practice sword. So few have actually sparred. It's got the potential to be as humiliating as the MMA Challenges to Kung Fu.

[GeneChing]

A ROUGH KNIGHT: MEDIEVAL FIGHTER SLASHED IN SUBWAY
Posted on November 11, 2019
By Colin Mixson


Zorikh Lequidre sustained a seven-inch gash amid an assault on the L train in Williamsburg.
Photos courtesy of Zorikh Lequidre

Some wacko slashed a modern-day knight in the face aboard an L train in Williamsburg on Nov. 8, after the chivalrous straphanger prevented him from assaulting another man.

The victim — who dons plate armor to engage in armed duels as part of the Society for Creative Anachronisms and New York City Armored Combat League — sustained a seven-inch gash amid the attack, and said Medieval warfare has nothing on the city’s transit system.

“My sport involves swords and axes, but the only thing I’ve gotten from that is a torn ACL and a couple broken bones, and here I finally get a scar,” said Zorikh Lequidre.


Zorikh Lequidre in armor circa 2017.

Lequidre said that he boarded a Brooklyn-bound L train at Manhattan’s Union Square subway station at around 10 pm, when he noticed the knave repeatedly hurling a smaller man off the train, and yelled at him to knock it off.

The villain then started shouting at the victim, resulting in a back and forth that ended when the other man snarled “suck my dick,” to which Lequidre quipped “only if it comes with horseradish,” eliciting some chuckles from his surrounding straphangers.

The nut then attempted to hock a loogie at the victim, but managed to hit another man instead, according to Lequidre, who said the hapless bystander’s girlfriend had to talk him down from fighting the creep.

It wasn’t until the train pulled into the Lorimer Street stop in Williamsburg that things turned bloody, and the lunatic slashed Lequidre across the left cheek before scurrying out the door.

“He took a swipe at me, and I thought he just scratched my cheek,” he said. “I waited until the guy turned around and left, then I put my hand on my cheek and realized, oh yeah, I am bleeding.”



Detectives with the 94th Precinct are investigating the attack, and have not made any arrests, according to a spokeswoman for the Police Department.

Lequidre — who suspects the knife-wielding lune may be a former homeless shelter resident, or patient at a hospital near Union Square — described his attacker as around 40 years old, six foot three inches tall, and approximately 190 pounds, while sporting a beard and oversized clothes.

The warrior from Williamsburg studied jiu jitsu and wrestling before making his own suit of armor and traveling to Poland for his first Battle of Nations in 2012, an annual armored slugfest where he represented Team USA battling other combatants with weapons including swords, maces, battle axes, halbreds, polearms and warhammers.


Zorikh Lequidre in hand-made armor ahead of Battle of Nations 2013.

But the fighter claims his most powerful weapons have always been his sharp tongue and cool wits, and says he was happy to put them to use for a good cause.

“Part of the point of being a knight is to defend people. and that’s what I was trying to do,” said Lequidre.

He'll wear that scar like a badge of honor for the rest of his sword fighting career

[GeneChing]

What good is that Kung fu jive if you can’t even use it? READ The Kung Fu of Comic Cons 2019 – Wizard World Bay Area by Gene Ching



THREADS
Comic Cons
European Martial Arts (Armored combat: HEMA, HMB, IMCF, SCA, et.al)

[GeneChing]

January 19, 2020
HISTORICAL EUROPEAN MARTIAL ARTS. AN INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW (JANUARY 2020)
Publication
Our report for the International Centre of Martial Arts for Youth Development and Engagement under the auspices of UNESCO (level 2 centre) is now published, as a book and as a downloadable file.


Daniel Jaquet, Audrey Tuaillon Demésy, and Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis. (c) ICM, South Korea, 2020. ISBN 979-11-965532-5-8

The reports attempts an international overview of the communities today, based on two surveys (one qualitative, one quantitative). It offers as well critical views on elements of definition of HEMA, a short history of the movement, an overview of the primary sources, and some discussion about the main directions of the movement.

Written by academics with expertise in history, sociology and arms and armour studies, but also HEMA practitioners involved into HEMA organisations, this report is however not adressed to the HEMA communities, nor to the academics, but to the general public. We hope it will be considered as one more step towards the recognition of HEMA as a whole.

We thank the ICM for providing us with the opportunity, IFHEMA to have let us use their communication channels, but foremost the HEMA practitioners and organisations who engaged with us through our surveys, as well as the colleagues who helped.

Out of the quantitative survey, we managed to get an interactive map with HEMA groups worldwide. Check it out on Infogram. Of course, we do not claim that our dataset is exhaustive, but it gives a pretty nice overview.


Happy reading! If you did not manage to get the file through the Korean website, you can download it here.

I've only skimmed this so far - it looks quite interesting.

[GeneChing]

Man held over Macron slap was medieval swordsmanship fan
By Tangi Salaün and Caroline Pailliez 5 hrs ago

By Tangi Salaün and Caroline Pailliez

© Reuters/BFMTV/ReutersTV FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron is protected by a security member after getting slapped by a member of the public during a visit in Tain-L'Hermitage
PARIS (Reuters) - The man alleged to have slapped French President Emmanuel Macron in the face ran a club for enthusiasts of medieval swordsmanship and had no previous criminal record, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Wednesday.

© Reuters/BFMTV/ReutersTV FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with a member of the public before he was slapped during a visit in Tain-L'Hermitage
A police source identified the suspect as 28-year-old Damien Tarel. Acquaintances in his hometown of Saint-Vallier, in southeastern France, described a man who loved period role-play and did not cause trouble.

Tarel is under investigation for assault against a public official, the local prosecutor said.

Macron, who was on a trip to take the country's pulse after the pandemic and with less than a year to go before the next presidential election, was hit on Tuesday during a walkabout in southern France as he greeted a small crowd of onlookers.

The president reached out to greet a man, who shouted "Down with Macronia" and "Montjoie Saint Denis", the battle cry of the French army when the country was a monarchy, and slapped Macron across the cheek.

A source close to the investigation described Tarel as someone who was "a bit lost, a bit geeky, a bit of a gamer".

Tarel and a second man were still in police custody on Wednesday, the source added. The charge of assault against a public official carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail and a 45,000 euro fine.

Reuters was not able to identify Tarel's lawyer.

Tarel managed a local club focused on the practice of historical European martial arts, including traditional swordsmanship, and had founded a board game club called "The Knights of the Square Table".

Aurélien Laniece, a friend of Tarel, told Reuters he knew him as a decent person ready to help neighbours and who liked teaching his passion to others.

Laniece expressed surprise at reports in French media that Tarel's social media accounts showed he followed far-right and monarchist groups. Reuters could not corroborate this because Tarel's accounts had been made private.

"He's not the kind of guy to do that (hit someone)," Laniece said. "Lockdown was hard, but he was keen to work on the reopening."

Government officials have expressed concern in recent weeks about pent-up frustrations erupting after lockdown. France has been under a curfew for more than seven months.

Macron said he had not feared for his safety, and continued shaking hands with members of the public after he was struck.

"You cannot have violence, or hate, either in speech or actions. Otherwise, it's democracy itself that is threatened," he told a local newspaper after the incident.

Macron has been targeted before by disenchanted citizens. He was pelted with eggs by trade unionists over labour reforms when he was economy minister in 2016. Two years later was left shaken after being heckled by anti-government protesters.

"We can disagree with what President Macron has done. We vote next year and there will be plenty of people voting against him, said Parisian Louis Bernard "but this electoral campaign cannot be based on violence."

(Reporting by Tangi Salaun and Caroline Pailliez; Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Richard Lough, Angus MacSwan and Giles Elgood)

Sir Damien, Lord Slapper of Macron.



too soon?

[mawali]

He'll wear that scar like a badge of honor for the rest of his sword fighting career

As a former Marine, the reason for the high neck dress blues that Marines wear (for ceremonies and special events today) was that in the days of the Barbary pirates, the North Africans miscreants would often slash at the neck (vulnerable) to maim as worst as possible anyone attrempting to subdue them. Marines were definitely not swordsmen but they often trained (physical conditioning) in the weapons of the day in their fight for survival

Barbary Pirates and US Marines:
https://www.thoughtco.com/young-u-s-...irates-1773650

Part II: https://cdapress.com/news/2020/dec/2...feat-barbary-/

[GeneChing]

More on Damien

Medieval martial arts teacher who slapped French leader gets jail time
BY ELAINE COBBE

UPDATED ON: JUNE 10, 2021 / 11:32 AM / CBS NEWS

Paris — The 28-year-old man who gained instant infamy by slapping French President Emmanuel Macron has been handed an 18-month jail sentence, but will only serve four months behind bars as the rest of the sentence was suspended. He told investigators that he'd acted "without thinking" when he struck the president.

The medieval history and martial arts enthusiast, identified only as Damien T., said he wanted to "express his unhappiness" with Macron's policies.

The public prosecutor believed him, saying it was clear there was no premeditation, and that the man had acted on the spur of the moment when the president walked directly over to him as he went to greet a waiting crowd in the village of Tain-l'Hermitage in the southeast region of the Drome. A video of the incident was posted to Twitter.

Macron's bodyguards immediately moved the president away and pulled the man to the ground. He and another man were arrested. Damien T. appeared in court Thursday, charged with assaulting a person in authority.

threads
European-Martial-Arts-(Armored-combat-HEMA-HMB-IMCF-SCA-et-al)
Busted-Martial-Artists

[GeneChing]

Sword fight convention strikes up crowd in Costa Mesa
By Mia Mejia 2 hrs ago

Multiple martial art forms were showcased at the Orange County Fair and Event Center. (Mia Mejia / Daily Titan)

Blades, swords, daggers and sabres swept Costa Mesa during SoCal Swordfight 2024, a Historical European Martial Arts tournament.

Hosted at the Orange County Fair and Events Center from Friday through Sunday, SoCal Swordfight remains the largest HEMA tournament in the world. The event held competitive matches in which contestants demonstrated historic fighting techniques and attempted to strike their opponents for points.

Competitions exhibited a variety of weaponry dating back to the 14th century, including longswords, rapiers, sabres and daggers. The event also introduced new weapons at the tournaments, such as the cinquedea dagger, which is an 18-inch dagger that originated in Italy.

SoCal Swordfight began in 2012 and was originally hosted in a Southern California elementary school before growing to its current magnitude.

The event now includes more activities than just competitions. Chris Ponzillo, managing director of SoCal Swordfight, works to provide new amenities and plan events that participants of diverse backgrounds can enjoy.

“If you don't want to fight, you can learn. If you don't want to come in and do classes, you can watch,” Ponzillo said. “We’re trying to have activities for everybody and that I think is where we’re different than we’ve ever been in the past.”

This year’s tournament featured an antique weapons showcase with items that were up to 8,000 years old, 110 hours of classes and vendors from across the United States.

Last year, Ponzillo was surprised to see 400 spectator tickets purchased and hopes to see that number continue to rise as the event grows in popularity.

“Some of our plans going into next year are again focused on how we make it more fun for spectators, how we make it a little bit more of an event for the community to come to,” Ponzillo said.

SoCal Swordfight also serves as a hub for the martial arts alliances and allows groups to explore different fighting styles, connect with other teams and represent their clubs.

The Cal State Fullerton Medieval Swordsmanship Club attended over the weekend with members participating in various competitions.

Nishan Jayasinghe, a second year computer science major at CSUF and club speaker for the Fullerton Medieval Swordsmanship Club, was grateful for the group to be represented and exposed to other organizations.

“It's wonderful meeting all the different people with all the different opinions. Seeing how other groups differ from ours, how ours differ from theirs,” Jayasinghe said. “There’s so much interesting cultural retinue to dissect in an event like this.”

Jayasinghe studies longsword techniques. However, he explained that the tournament is about much more than combat.

Studying the history of various fighting styles is an important aspect to participating and is often what attracts people to the sport. Members of the club study texts written by knights and work to master their techniques using modern safety equipment.

“I think it’s really engrossing and immersing to be able to sort of imagine people hundreds of years ago doing the exact same stuff we were doing, reading the same books that we are and coming to sort of similar motor conclusions about how to do things,” Jayasinghe said.

Robin John Price, a featured instructor, also emphasized the importance of history and connecting with one’s ancestry.

“A lot of people of European descent wonder ‘what did my ancestors do? what kind of martial art did they do?’” Price said. “You learn a lot of the traditions and cultural aspects of the different arts as you learn them.”

Price has attended SoCal Swordfight since its first meeting 12 years ago and believes everyone should try a martial art because of the self-confidence it can give.

As the event continues to evolve, directors take recommendations from participants to improve. Coordinators are already planning for next year, considering new martial arts styles and displays to include.

One of my friends from Man at Arms, R.J. McKeehan, is heavily involved in this. He invites me every year, but it's in the middle of Chinese New Years activities, plus my wife's birthday, so I can never make it.

[GeneChing]

Sword-Sparring
Jedi-Academies
European-Martial-Arts-(Armored-combat-HEMA-HMB-IMCF-SCA-et-al)

[YinOrYan]

Its very interesting that he says a lightsaber is like fighting with escrima sticks. Will have to dig up some literature on something like just using one, perhaps cane forms that may be adaptable to lightsaber if all the hooking moves are removed.

[GeneChing]

Enter to win The Art and Science of Sword Fighting: A Complete Instructional Guide Autographed by Joe Varady
Contest ends 9/12/2024.

[GeneChing]

Enter to win The Art and Science of Sword Fighting 2-DVD by Joe Varady
Contest ends 10/17/2024.

[GeneChing]

WINNERS-The-Art-and-Science-of-Sword-Fighting-Autographed-by-Joe-Varady