Meyer’s Four Types of Fencers: How we conceive of them and ourselves

Posted on Oct 28th, 2019 - By James Reilly - 1 Comment

And the first are those who, as soon as they can reach the opponent in the Onset, at once cut and thrust in with violence. The second are somewhat…

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A Wonderful Struggle: The 16th Century Art of Civic Combat, Part 1

Posted on Oct 19th, 2019 - By Adam Franti - 0 Comments

There is a particular tension at play in the modern Historical European Martial Arts community regarding the the early and later period expressions…

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On The Five Words and Withdrawal

Posted on Aug 12th, 2018 - By James Reilly - 0 Comments

Mark, this is that before all things you shall rightly undertake and understand these two things, which are the Before and the After, and thereafter…

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Meyer Pilgrimage Part 2 – Basel

Posted on Aug 5th, 2015 - By Roger Norling - 2 Comments

Almost exactly a year ago I was lucky enough to be taken on a small journey that has been a long time dream of mine; walking in the footsteps of 16th…

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The Ringen of Joachim Meyer

Posted on Jun 26th, 2015 - By Keith Cotter-Reilly - 3 Comments

This article shall group Joachim Meyer's Ringen into collections of similar throws. Hopefully this will better aid the modern student in learning…

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A key to Meyer’s mechanics & footwork – part 1

Posted on May 12th, 2015 - By Roger Norling - 1 Comment

Here is a rough diagram that tries to explain the core mechanics that go through all of Meyers fencing and which are the foundation for the…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 10

Posted on Oct 27th, 2014 - By Roger Norling - 1 Comment

For practitioners of German longsword it is fairly commonly known that with some stances and cuts we should put our thumb against the flat of the…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 9

Posted on Oct 21st, 2014 - By Roger Norling - 0 Comments

This time I will speak rather briefly about stances and the ideas behind them. This does not just apply to the longsword, but is applicable to…

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Meyer Pilgrimage Part 1 – Straßburg

Posted on Aug 1st, 2014 - By Roger Norling - 1 Comment

We all share the same love for our personal and shared discoveries of a forgotten European martial arts tradition and studying it we all learn to…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 8

Posted on Jul 18th, 2014 - By Roger Norling - 0 Comments

Although not originally planned to be included in this series, I decided to add an article on a topic that deserves special treatment, since to…

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Teaching progressions in Meyer’s longsword 1: the attacking skill tree

Posted on Feb 22nd, 2014 - By James Roberts - 1 Comment

Over the last five years, I’ve given several workshops in both South Africa and Europe focused on sequencing the teaching of techniques from…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 7

Posted on Feb 15th, 2014 - By Roger Norling - 1 Comment

This week we will be taking advantage of one of the greatest benefits from reading somewhat later masters, like Joachim Meyer and George…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 6

Posted on Dec 6th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 0 Comments

Throughout history going all the way back from at least medieval times up until modern military bayonet training a diagram typically depicting four…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 5

Posted on Nov 15th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 2 Comments

This week's article will be talking about the topic of various ways of counterstriking against an attack. Different masters and traditions handle…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 4

Posted on Nov 8th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 1 Comment

This time we will start moving into somewhat more unexplored and unmapped territory, working with various clues gathered from different places, to…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 3

Posted on Oct 25th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 0 Comments

Time for part 3 in the Onion Article Series, this time taking a closer look at the parts of the weapon and how it relates to handling of distance and…

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The Onion – Basics of European Longsword: Part 2

Posted on Oct 18th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 7 Comments

Continuing with part 2 in the Onion series of articles we will now focus on the topic of controlling the fight, or lack thereof and regaining it. In…

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The Onion: Basics of European Longsword: Part 1

Posted on Oct 10th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 2 Comments

For the last year or so I have been working on a group of primarily longsword exercises based on studying fechtmeister Joachim Meyer's…

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Meyer freeflow exercises

Posted on Mar 11th, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 10 Comments

To begin with, just for clarification, this is not a typical article per se, but rather a text sorted under the Meyer Research Project, thus a more…

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Meyer’s masters

Posted on Feb 23rd, 2013 - By Roger Norling - 13 Comments

On this day, 443 years ago, Fechtmeister Joachim Meyer published his magnificent fencing treatise 'Gründliche Beschreibung der Freyen Ritterlichen…

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Doing what we are told or what we are taught?

Posted on May 2nd, 2012 - By Roger Norling - 10 Comments

Here's an old but still always relevant question for us HEMA practitioners to ask ourselves: When we read the old fencing treatises, should we only…

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The history of Joachim Meyer’s fencing treatise to Otto von Solms.

Posted on Mar 21st, 2012 - By Roger Norling - 2 Comments

The Joachim Meyer fechtbuch named MS A.4°.2, a beautiful hand-written and watercolour-illustrated fencing treatise dedicated to Herrn Otto von…

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The tools for the job

Posted on Feb 26th, 2012 - By Roger Norling - 3 Comments

To understand the body mechanics involved in a technique we not only have to train our bodies so we are strong and agile enough, we also need to use…

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Strengthening exercises

Posted on Feb 5th, 2012 - By Roger Norling - 6 Comments

Here are some very crude video clips we shot today of the strengthening exercises we have begun working with in the Meÿer Halben Stangen class at…

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