Good HWMA Blogs

[Brian Brush]

I enjoy reading blogs. I've been able to find blogs about a lot of different subjects, from the politics that affect space travel, to the rambling thoughts of Ricky Gervais. What I haven't been able to find are good, well-written, thought provoking blogs about Historical Western Martial Arts, and the experiences people have studying them.

So my question is, can anyone make some good suggestions?

[Mike Cartier]

by BLOG i assume you mean a web page with text on it

[Jonathan_Kaplan]

no, a weBLOG, like a journal of someone's experiences in their personal journey of HWMA?

[Richard Strey]

Well, there's
http://hemaboy.blogspot.com/

[Brian Brush]

Yes. Like a journal.

Blogs are pretty common. If you don't know exactly what a blog is, I'd recommend you take a moment to explore the internet and read a few. They can be absolutely abysmal, (and painful to read) or they can be really thought provoking and informative. I'm looking for the latter.

This forum is great for conversation. But sometimes those conversations get sidetracked, and become difficult to follow. That's why I'm looking for blogs. Insight can be found anywhere.

[Stacy Clifford]

I think part of the reason you don't find more of them is that it's hard to write such a thing without revealing a lot about what you do, and not much worth reading if you don't. A lot of people who study this subject, including us in ARMA, are still protecting hard-won research and information for the benefit of their other group members, their pocketbooks (publication, seminars, etc.), or both. This isn't yet like Asian martial arts where ten million other people are already practicing the same art as you, so you're not revealing anything new that's going to cause problems for someone if you talk about the techniques you spent all morning practicing. It's not a conspiracy by any means, just the nature of courtesy and caution among peers in a small and still hotly contested field of research. I imagine as the field grows and everybody starts to know what everybody else knows, those sorts of blogs will probably start popping up eventually. Of course the other possibility is that nobody ever thought of it...

[Axel Pettersson]

Or people can't be arsed to write because they spend enough time infront of the computer at work or in school .

Either way here are two HEMA blogs I know of:

http://laches.wordpress.com/

http://www.artedellearmi.net/

[Randall Pleasant]

http://www.artedellearmi.net/

This is off topic but I'm fairly shocked at the picture in that blog where Guy Windsor is placing a sharp on the neck of his student. I remember Windsor stating on SFI that his students and he did freeplay with sharps but I was assuming that wore armour. I can think of nothing that justifies using sharps for that training.

[Mat Clarke]

Here are a few other HEMA related blogs that I know of.

http://hemaboy.blogspot.com/
http://almostinfamous.blogspot.com/sear ... rdfighting
http://sanityisfortheweak.blogsome.com/ ... swordsman/
http://shinysharpthings.blogspot.com/
http://ladyatthegate.blogspot.com/
http://salmon-lord.livejournal.com/
http://amschwert.wordpress.com/
http://talhoffer.blogspot.com/
http://thedisappearingman.blogspot.com/
http://www.thefightschool.org/

[Mat Clarke]

http://www.artedellearmi.net/

This is off topic but I'm fairly shocked at the picture in that blog where Guy Windsor is placing a sharp on the neck of his student. I remember Windsor stating on SFI that his students and he did freeplay with sharps but I was assuming that wore armour. I can think of nothing that justifies using sharps for that training.

Some more info on that here.
http://thedisappearingman.blogspot.com/ ... ay-14.html

[Risto Rautiainen]

I can think of nothing that justifies using sharps for that training.

Sorry for the OT. Training with sharps isn't that uncommon in martial arts. Experienced escrima guys do it quite regularly. Check the video clips at the right of this page: http://www.biffuk.com/gallery.htm I know this is not HEMA, but the training intent with sharps is quite interesting. Do they get cut? Yes.

[Randall Pleasant]

I can think of nothing that justifies using sharps for that training.

Sorry for the OT. Training with sharps isn't that uncommon in martial arts. Experienced escrima guys do it quite regularly. Check the video clips at the right of this page: http://www.biffuk.com/gallery.htm I know this is not HEMA, but the training intent with sharps is quite interesting. Do they get cut? Yes.

Are they foolish? Yes!

All of the training I've seen in the pictures can be conducted just as well with blunt weapons.

[Randall Pleasant]

http://talhoffer.blogspot.com/

I would encourage scholars, especially ARMA scholars, to not waste time reading this blog. This blog is by Hugh Knight, who's interpretations and goals are very different from that of ARMA. In addition, Hugh Knight is very anti-ARMA. I highly doubt any value would come from following his blog.

[Stacy Clifford]

Yes Ran, he did ask for good blogs, after all.

[Brian Brush]

Thanks folks.