HAMMABORG: Historical Swordsmanship
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Archiv1. HEMAC-Trainertreffen

1st HEMAC Instructors Conference

As most of you know, Colin Richards hosted our first HEMAC Instructors Conference this past weekend (March 17/18 2007) in Apelern, Germany. The event was attended by Gabor Erenyi (SAGA), Hans Heim (Ochs), Jonathan Miller (Lineacre), Colin Richards (Arts of Mars), Bart Walczak (ARMA Poland), Roland Warzecha (Hammaborg), Harry Winter (Dreynschlag), and me. We had a very full agenda, with a long list of topics to discuss over the course of two days. Among the topics we covered were the following:

Community Issues:

  • Reputation, Image, and Recognition of HEMA
  • Trends & current issues in the HEMA community
  • Establishing contacts with national fencing associations

Teaching:

  • Essential teaching skills for instructors (not specific to martial arts)
  • How to Structure training sessions
  • Developing lesson plans and curriculums
  • Establishing a HEMAC Instructors College

Specific Aspects of Training:

  • Using combative games as warm-up
  • Proper combative distance
  • The individual lesson: Adapting the sport-fencing model
  • Timing & tempo
  • Cutting form & power generation
  • Combat stress and how to simulate it in training
  • Teaching defense
  • Integrating historical technique into sparring practice

All of the heavy discussion was broken up by a variety of combative games and drills, which provided a nice physical counterbalance to all the talk. Special thanks in particular to Colin Richards and his wife Sandra, who did a fantastic job of organizing the event, as well as to Jonathan Miller, who was most helpful in moderating the discussion.

At the end of the weekend, all attendees agreed that the gathering had been worthwhile. As far as tangible results, we generated a list of "action items" that we have already begun to work on. We plan to present a report on the conference at this year's HEMAC Annual Gathering in Dijon, to discuss our conclusions, and to announce the date and location of the next HEMAC Instructors Conference.

In closing, this was an invaluable opportunity to exchange views with other HEMAC instructors in a fun and experimental environment. I encourage as many of you as possible to attend the next Instructors Conference. You can expect a more detailed post on this weekend's event once we have consolidated our list of conclusions and action items.

Regards,
Matt Galas