George Silver's Three Trials

In George Silver's 1599 book "Paradoxes of Defence", he asserts that a way to test a true master is to fight three bouts against three different archetypes of fighter.

This article is a discussion of my approaches to fencing against the three archetypes in the context of longsword.

Reaction Layers - Perceive, Decide, Act

I find breaking down reactions into three "layers" of timing is beneficial in training. The Perception Layer, the Decision Layer, and the Action Layer. This article summarises my thoughts of the three layers, and how to work on them each distinctly to improve your reaction times overall.

These layers are somewhat a simplified version of John Boyd's decision cycle, the OODA loop.

Axel Pettersson Longsword Seminar 2017

In Scotland we are lucky to say that Axel Pettersson will be teaching a seminar at the IHA on the 18th & 19th of March. This will be the third time he has taught here, and each time is always an incredible learning experience.

Axel's seminar in 2016 filled the training hall (photo from The IHA)

Gamification in HEMA Classes

The term "Gamification" essentially refers to turning a non-game task or situation into a game. It is used often as a learning tool, in an attempt to make the experience more fun, and therefore more memorable and easier to digest. I find some gamification can be very beneficial when teaching HEMA, particularly where your audience have a somewhat casual interest in learning HEMA (I do not mean that in a derogatory fashion - not everybody has to work towards competing at Swordfish).

This article is a collection of methods I use myself, or have seen others use, to gamify HEMA lessons.

A thrust from the bind using winden (photo by The IHA)

The Use of Half Swording in Bloßfechten

Half-Swording has a special place in my heart. When done correctly, it can be incredibly effective (especially against an opponent who has a tendency to step too close when attacking) - and not to mention it looks awesome. 


This post is a collection of a few examples of Half Swording being used in Bloßfechten from historical sources. The translations used in this article are all from Wiktenauer.

HEMA Goals for 2017

With classes off for the festive period, I have decided to start a blog in an attempt to satiate my appetite for HEMA. I will likely post here a few times a month. Without further ado, below is my first post.

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Towards the end of 2015, a few of us Scottish fencers set some personal HEMA goals that we wanted to achieve in 2016. This seems like a reasonable time to reflect on whether they were achieved, and set some new ones for 2017.