Research and Discussion Forums

That is one reason that i think this is relevant to HEMA, because if you look at most battle's the side who win's usualy has the best logistic's, even if both side's are bad with regard to logistic's, it can mean winning or losing, that is partly why most battle's in Europe are in the late summer o...

They also, initially, had NO supplies, NO logistics, and often starved for lack of it, especially for lack of meat which remained a major problem throughout the campaign. Yeah. Most people don't realize that Cortez was not the first person to lead troops into the Yucatan and the mainland of the Ame...

Actually, linking knighthood and concepts of chivalry from the conquistadors is not that hard at all-- if you quantify what you mean by 'chivalry'. I agree with Mr. Gentry that culture is everything and the Spanish conquistadors brought the culture of the Reconquista with them. So some brief points:...

People also tend to forget that the Aztec empire had a lot of internal weaknesses. The Aztecs had entered and established themselves in Lake Texcoco only recently (the 14th or 15th century) and its empire was basically founded-- like all empires-- on coercion and repression of subject peoples. It wo...

The Spanish did not use their firearms in the New World like that and they had so few of them they were not particularly decisive. Against the Aztecs, cavalry was far more decisive than gunpowder.

The gladius was likely the primary weapon of the Roman soldier, given that he only carried two pila, which could not be retrieved. The legionnary also spent a considerable amount of time training in swordsmanship.

Mr. Demick, I followed the link to that forum and saw that the Germans usurped the FIE (which is well-known, Heydrich Reinhardt was a passionate fencer) and carted away the FIE's archives. If I remember, somebody in this forum once posted scans of a Hitler Jugend longsword manual. Perhaps the Nazis ...

Would this fall under the same category as the EMA guys training in hakamas and gi?

I'm writing my masteral thesis on the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, so I've read up on of East vs West martial encounters-- although very, very few of them specifically deal with swords. Unfortunately, they were all from Spanish language sources and not very detailed. One reason why I'm so in...

I can only assume that the many benefits of WMA can best be shown on their own terms and not from a supposed need to 'beat up' Japanese styles. This does not particularly show the 'superiority' of WMA over EMA and neither does it seem like a particularly historical approach. *shrugs*

Well, I don't like this whole obsession with "who came first" any more than the people in this forum (what does it matter who came first if the use of it was ineffective?) but I was educated in post-colonial history and sometimes this assertion of martial art superiority (or non-material c...

Hmmm... good that this was brought up. Would any of you advise solo training in an area where I have absolutely no hope of finding an established group or teacher to train with? I am currently buying up all the manuals and books that I can. I already have the two commercial Ringeck translations and ...

Yes, but how does this relate to left-handedness. What if your opponent is left-handed? Or even if somebody just decided to switch sides in the attack? Wouldn't that give undue advantage to him if it seems as if all the openings I saw in Ringeck started with this assumption of right to left?

This, I assume, is the monumentally stupid question of a newbie, but I have just recently purchased the two commercial translations of Sigmund Ringeck and... Um, granted that you're supposed to strike from your strong side (right to left for a right-handed person) but then... what if you're fighting...

Don't tell my school, but in the EMA I practice in, a Japanese kenjutsu ryu, I have no fear of getting hurt when 'sparring'. Of course this is because there is no sparring and all that you worry about is forgetting stuff or not doing it form-function right according to your sensei or sempai. Who wil...