Anyone ever train ONLY HEMA or WMA?

[Killrover]

I am very new to practicing HEMA and really enjoy it, after many years of practicing nothing - a little Tai Chi once, a few martial arts demos, but generally nothing - there was nothing around my small town. I think that the WMA are on par with martial arts of the east and other areas and hope for the day when every major city has a HEMA studio, offering anyone choices in training and especially, cross-training.

A lot of instructors note how they started in eastern (EMA) and had to work hard to find WMA to train in. I was wondering if anyone has been able to train only in WMA all their life. If I wanted to be the best all-around artist possible, it would be silly to not cross-train; but since my interest is more historical and educational in nature, I am hoping to continue in WMA only. This is in no way anti-EMA; a good friend is a Kung Fu teacher with a very open door, and another sword instructor has popped up with an offer of kendo in my area that I was considering. However, I was hoping that if I have any success in swordplay, I would be able to say 'see, the HEMA schools are equal to the EMA schools'. (I think it can get kids interested in their ancient cultures if they get to do the 'fun things' like HEMA instead of just folk dances, costumes, etc)

So, anyone out there a 'gold star' HEMA practitioner?

[Abomination]

Oh there are loads.

People tend to come in via several routes of which EMA is only one. Lots come in via Olympic fencing, Which may or may not be a martial art, but it's certainly western. Others come via re-enctment or LARP which definatly aren't. others do come along just because they fancy swordfighting because they've read some fantasy novels, played warhammer or happen to be goths.

[admin]

As Nigel says, yes there are lots of experienced people in HEMA who never did anything else. Most of my current Free Scholars never did any martial art before joining Schola.
I suspect that it is a generational thing - I started HEMA in 1997, pretty much at the beginning of its rebirth in the UK. I had to do EMA and sport fencing before that, because there wasn't any HEMA available! As soon as I heard about HEMA I started it. If I had been able to then I would have started HEMA at the earliest age possible and stuck with it. I always wanted to do HEMA from as young as I can remember.

[Matt Galas]

The best example I can give you is Kristine Konsmo, a woman who recently won the sword & buckler tournament at Swordfish 2011 against a field of mostly male competitors. She had 2 years of HEMA training, and has never had any other martial arts or sport fencing training. Her only other physical training was 12 years of ballet. By the way, the opponent she beat in the finals had over 15 years of Asian martial arts experience.

So, yes. No other background is required or necessary, assuming you get a competent instructor.

Regards,

- Matt

[The Salmon Lord]

I never did any other martial arts.

However I had a lifetime of playing footbal, rugby, cricket etc.

The most important thing is I think a backgrouond of doing regular physical excercise. Mainly as you will have experience of controlling your body.

[Fab]

I never did any other Martial Arts.

And had no particular sportive background either. Quite the contrary. Always picked last when choosing teams, blah blah.

[kit]

I've done a bunch of eastern stuff and enjoyed it, but I'm afraid that it's always been contaminated by my Silver (and sports fencing)

[Bulot]

I did a few years of greco-roman wrestling as a kid (which is western, and not really a MA), other than that, only HEMA.

[Andreas Engström]

Did judo as a kid, which has, I think, given me a slight advantage in understanding Ringen.

Also done some Bujinkan, which hasn't really helped my HEMA much apart from making me rather good at rolling and breakfalling.

Both activities of course also gives you a good amount of body awareness and control as well.

Since I started doing HEMA about seven years ago I've done nothing else. I don't feel a need for anything else. I think I would have done well in HEMA even if I hadn't done other MA before.

I'm not sure what type of cross-training you're after, but in our club you can train longsword, military sabre, sword and buckler, pugilism, wrestling and staff weapons (and if you do all these you have absolutely no spare time left at all). Especially the longsword, sabre and pugilism groups also have a substantial amount of pure strength and endurance training as a natural part of training.

There are loads of people in our club who never did any MA before, and quite a few who never did any sort of sport before.

-Andreas

[Phil C]

It can go the other way, I'd never have considered attending, let alone finding myself enjoying, a Jiujitsu class before I became interested in some of the later European martial arts (most notably French and English self-defence systems).

[Killrover]

Awesome. Great to hear. And I looked up Ms. Konsmo's fight on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7bh9RHfOnI - she did awesome!

[KeithFarrell]

Sounds like there are a good number of people who found WMA first. I'm afraid I am a relative new-comer to WMA; 13 years of karate, interspersed with sports fencing and some archery, about seven years of historical re-enactment, and about three or four years of WMA. Because of all my previous martial arts experience I have been able to pick up and understand WMA very quickly and I think that everything acts as a complement to everything else. Even the sports fencing and archery: sports fencing is very useful as it develops some lightning fast reflexes and some excellent lunging, and archery develops tip control for a weapon that will hit a target a number of yards away!

[fullplate]

I came to WMA by way of EMA, primarily Goju-ryu karate, also Judo and Hapkido. I enjoyed these activities but during a trip to London in the 1990s, I saw the fight interpretations at the Tower of London and realised that there were people who knew how these weapons were used. I joined a group in Auckland that purported to teach "medieval combat" and was quite happy until realising that what we had learned was not the real deal.Have been reading, researching and trying ever since.
Phil

[Thearos]

Two thoughts, even though I will probably get jumped for expressing them:

1. In HEMA, is the emphasis on "Historical" or "Martial Arts" ? I.e. do you practise it because of interest in the past (be it the C14th or the C19th), or because of a desire to learn a fighting art (for whatever reason: fitness, exercise, self-defence, self-confidence, discipline, stress-management, recreational value of fighting without getting arrested as BD once wrote...).

2. Most HEMA streams are not living traditions-- there is no living continuous school of longsword, pollaxe, rapier, Ringen, pugilism; even the military sabre and the "canne" transformed into sporting forms (in the last century: there must have been British or German or French men alive in the 1950s who had learned how to fight with a sabre or sword, say the pre-1908 style British military swords, with a serious view to hand-to-hand combat). HEMA are reconstructed by scholarly research, and are young: 20 years at most ? First generation.

In contrast Eastern Martial arts are, for the main part, living traditions— even sportified or prettified or ossified...Likewise, BJJ or say Krav Maga are in their second or third generation and hence have tradition, transmission, and experience, that have streamlined practice and teaching and weeded out bad practice and improved the art.

So to practice (only) HEMA means something a bit different from eastern Martial arts-- it's experimental, historical, scholarly, bookish:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17759


The consequence seems to be that to practice HEMA must affect all the martial arts aspects (fitness, self-defence, etc): you can't just do it as you would learn judo or karate; you have no master or tradition to fall back on, but you're constantly innovating and trying to find out something lost. Is that fair ?

[Carletto]

Karate, Aikido, Kenjutsu, I sucked at all of them as I do in Hema, it's my trademark.

[Bulot]

1. In HEMA, is the emphasis on "Historical" or "Martial Arts" ?

Both. That's the point.

2. Most HEMA streams are not living traditions

I'd go on a limp here, and say none of the HEMAs have a living tradition (or more precisely, has'nt needed some kind of reconstruction, at one point). That's what makes them "historical". That and the source, of course.

[Thearos]

is HEMA a form of experimental archaeology ?

[Motley]

is HEMA a form of experimental archaeology ?

If you are an experimental archaeologist, I guess so. It would be a bit silly for me, a random guy, to claim I was doing experimental archaeology.

May be amateur practical archaeology would be a more appropriate term

[Marc]

I started learning Ledall in June/July. It is my first and only combat art. I have never done re-enactment either. The only sports I was involved in were golf, badminton and running but that was all back when I was at school.

[Thearos]

is HEMA a form of experimental archaeology ?

If you are an experimental archaeologist, I guess so. It would be a bit silly for me, a random guy, to claim I was doing experimental archaeology.

May be amateur practical archaeology would be a more appropriate term

If what you do is reconstructing the past through physical experimentation based on sources and objects, and it generates knowledge, ideas and insight, that's practical experimental archaeology.