First Swordsmanship class free

If it is you first time, come visit us at the Fulton Place Community League on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm for your first HEMA lesson.

We’ll hand you a sword and we can practice together!

Why Us

We practice the full range of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), with a special love given to the sword! Emphasis is placed on effective real-world techniques described in historical arms treatises. You can expect to study all period weapons including pole arms, swords, daggers, and hand-to-hand fighting. While we focus on the teachings of the great masters, Johannes Liecthenauer and Joachim Meyer, we are not afraid to learn from other sources.

If you seek an authentic martial arts experience in an inclusive atmosphere that emphasizes real-world techniques over stage fighting and repetitive forms, look no further than the Academy of European Swordsmanship.

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New member intake

First class free! Join us on the first Tuesday of every month to explore the fundamentals of historical European martial arts. This is the day we encourage newcomers to begin with. Ee ensure everyone gains new insights and skills. Our classes start at 7:00 PM, beginning with a structured segment dedicated to essential techniques, drills,... Continue reading→

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From our Blog

What Makes a Complete Martial Arts System

Latest News, Self Defence, Training

I recently answered a question on a site called Quora,  regarding this. Quora is a site where people post questions for others to answer. It’s one of the most civil discussion sites I’ve ever seen, which is why I like it. Trolling is kept to a minimum, and active, intellectual discussion is encouraged. Anyhow, here’s the answer: Read Johanus Haidner‘s answer to What makes a martial art a complete system? on Quora There are tonnes of sources available for Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) found on the web, and probably the best of these is Wiktenauer. Continue reading→

Hit Data – history vs. today

Latest News

I had to read this article by Sean Franklin: http://swordstem.com/2019/10/02/historical-injury-vs-modern-tournament-targeting/ It’s fascinating how the data shows so much about targeting in the contexts of the history, versus our tournaments today. Does it have to do with the context of the tournament versus the battlefield? Franklin does address this in his article (read it). I do wonder if that is a big part of it. When fighting in a group, one might imagine that the tactics and movements would be significantly different for people fighting as individuals. What might be interesting to continue this kind of study is to look at... Continue reading→

Our Sources and What We Study

Research & History, Training

HEMA has a wide variety of sources nowadays, unlike when the AES started back in the early 1990’s. We had few resources – the Lichtenauer poem, Talhoffer’s 1467 treatise (only in German), and a few other references that were incomplete. Since then the scholarship in this has expanded greatly! Today we have people translating treatises and publishing them on a semi-regular basis. There are multiple interpretations of some of the same works. And there are articles and web sources galore. I can’t even imagine what it would be like today if something like Wiktenauer had existed 20 years ago. There... Continue reading→