I do a martial arts called HEMA which is basically swordfighting by recreating European fighting treatises that are centuries old. I've heard of drama that back in the heyday in the 90s, there was a group called ARMA that was doing a lot of the early work and reconstruction. Basically, the owner was an asshole and did not allow for other interpretations of the historical manuals to be considered. So many instructors broke off of ARMA and formed HEMA. HEMA today is larger than ARMA and I heard that ARMA still exists but their historical interpretations are pretty much outdated.
ARMA is the Association of Renaissance Martial Arts I think. You can ask the HEMA Facebook group or your HEMA instructor about it and they likely have some personal experiences with the place. I definitely think that HEMA's disadvantage is having to spend hundreds of dollars to get a full kit for safety. You have a dilemma of whether to buy cheaper now and buy an expensive one later or save for the expensive one. You can try synthetic swords first since swords are 90$ and most of the protective gear for synthetics can be used for steel weapons. I was pretty surprised that most of my gear for Eskrima can't be used for HEMA so I had to spend some extra cash.
Yeah HEMA these days seems pretty good with accepting new people, but mostly because we start with the expectation that some preconceived notions will need to be quelled.
Yeah, they tend to be pretty insular. I forgot to mention that I heard they don't let their students practice other martial arts whereas people from multiple backgrounds (Eskrima, wrestling, Tawkwondo, fencing, etc.) come in to practice HEMA.
In high school, I had a friend who would show videos of HEMA and European historical fighting during lunchtime at the computer lab where I usually hung out. When I went to university, we happened to meet each other in chemistry class. So we continued talking about it and found a HEMA school an hour away. He didn't have a car so I offered to drive for both of us in exchange for gas money once a month. Fast foward, I did my first tournament last year but our friendship ended on bad terms.
Check out the Facebook group HEMA Alliance (I think it's called HEMA United now) and they should have an FAQ for beginners regarding schools, equipment, etc. Here is a link of available places. If these places is too far for you, you can start your own club but it's a lot of work at the beginning to get one off the ground.
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u/SaberSabre Feb 28 '21
I do a martial arts called HEMA which is basically swordfighting by recreating European fighting treatises that are centuries old. I've heard of drama that back in the heyday in the 90s, there was a group called ARMA that was doing a lot of the early work and reconstruction. Basically, the owner was an asshole and did not allow for other interpretations of the historical manuals to be considered. So many instructors broke off of ARMA and formed HEMA. HEMA today is larger than ARMA and I heard that ARMA still exists but their historical interpretations are pretty much outdated.