Sacto Hema

ATTENTION: Due to health problems, I will not be able to run classes for the foreseeable future. I apologize.



 Sacto Hema offers classes in Historical European Martial Arts. Classes focus on German Longsword in the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer, Sigmund Ringeck, and the rest of the German masters. We also teach dagger, wrestling, and long knife (messer) techniques from the same tradition, based on the fightbooks written by those masters to spread their methods.

     Contrary to what popular culture would have you believe, the martial arts of Europe were just as subtle and sophisticated as any on the planet. HEMA compares favorably to jujitsu, kendo, escrima, and kung fu.

Here is a taste of what HEMA can look like:

   
If you would like to learn a serious martial art with a history normallly ignored by films and TV, please stop by. Meetings are on Saturday at 10.

We are at:
Mission Park
3344 Mission Ave.
Carmichael, CA



Class Calendar

916-420-8797
Aaron Harmon
HEMA Instructor

Combat in 15th century armor.

Terrific Fiore Video

Mindfulness and the sword

Often we fence and perform the plays, but have trouble getting them to work to our satisfaction. Sometimes you must consider your mind along with the physical movements.

when winding and setting aside, perhaps in all plays, there is a tendency to think about where your sword tip is almost exclusively. Unfortunately, this an cause your to lose track of the strong of your blade, leaving you open to after-hits and giving your a lack of control in winding.

Place more presence of mind toward the strong of the blade. The strong is the unsung hero of fencing. it does the work of parrying and guiding your opponent's blade during winding. It is the base of the "cone of steel". It is the frame of the speaking-window.

Some thoughts on controlling the bind and winding effectively.

I have been working on a concept that seems to help during sparring when in the bind and seems to help with some winding while there.

How often do we see two opponents come into the bind strongly and their guards go upward almost into a kron position? It seems that if two combatants are driving forward and their swords bind strongly, their weapons have to be deflected somewhere perpendicular to the forces. Often this is upward.

If you move through the positions of right ochs, right pflug, left pflug, and left ochs you will see that your guard moves in a circle while your points stay fairly stationary. This creates cone. All of the points on the base of that cone lie on a line perpendicular to the forces between two people in a strong bind.

 

When you bind strongly, the combined hilts are going to move to a point on the base of the cone. All the strikes done during winding come from those positions. I do not refer here to changing under or take offs. We should drill controlling where the blades go on that line.

If they go directly upward, you can do crown strikes or techniques from crown such as running through. If you control the deflection to your left, either by pushing that way with your arms or stepping to the right, you come to left ochs and the first winding or a zwerchau. If you deflect it the others way, by hand or foot as before, you can perform the second winding or a doubling by zwerchau.

If the force deflects more horizontally, you can come to pflug positions. To the left gives a shielhau or a thrust and to the right another doubling, this time with the long edge.

You can control which point the blades move to with straight arms and a good frame coupled with footwork and good body mechanics.

I will post more and I clear up my thoughts better on the subject.

Sword Sparring May 7, 2016

William and Aaron working Double Failer and Zornort takeoff