This has been developed for an 8 week beginners course on longsword that I am teaching. It is designed to introduce a beginner to the...

One of the hardest things to do as a new HEMA practitioner is to understand when to use the techniques you've learned. You spend time in...

This week I taught a lesson on double hits, which saw a big improvement in the quality of fencing from the students. Whether this is long...

I recently wrote an article about tempo: Using tempo/timing to fence better (hema101.com). This article is a continuation of that. I...

Fencing has often been compared to chess, and in fact I've included a copy-paste of what Microsoft Co-pilot AI has to say on the subject...

See Part 1 where I introduce the attacks and guards. Firstly, a bit of guidance on parrying: There are two ways to parry with the...

Single sword (Spada Sola), or the sword in one hand, is the foundational weapon in the Bolognese tradition (well, it can be debated that...

"Containing some useful observations on the time thrust; the most advantageous manner of attacking an adversary, either out of measure,...

Make sure you read part 1. In part 2 of his smallsword manual, McArthur provides a further 20 lessons on more advanced concepts,...

To learn the basics of smallsword, I'm going to use: The Army and Navy Gentleman’s Companion or A New and Complete Treatise on the Theory...

The lateral strike is made usually with a thumb grip, i.e. with thumb on the flat of the blade. It is made from the right shoulder, and...

The Zornhau is described as a 'peasant's strike', and in Meyer is described as a diagonal Oberhau from the right to the left ear of the...

Joachim Meyer called them the 'Master strikes' and this is how they are mostly known in modern parlance. However, in the LL glosses they...

The bind is simply when fencer A's and fencer B's blades are touching, likely because Fencer A has parried Fencer B, or vice versa. The...

In simple terms, the Nach means 'after' and refers to the defensive actions. It also designates the status of the fencer who is being...

Vor means 'before'. In my last post I talked about exactly what this means, but in summary it refers to attacking actions. It can...

The five words describe, in a nutshell, good fencing in the LL system. They are: Vor, Nach, Weak, Strong, and Indes. The RDL Glosses do...

Parries in LL system can be broken down into: Common parries: not used if you can help it, but probably necessary to train against in...

Basic attacks Attacks can be divided into thrusts, cuts and slices, depending on how close the opponent is. Thrusts are made with the...

'Guards' is such a poor name for these. They are better described as 'noteworthy positions'. You will use the guards a lot, but really...