The Sword Guy Podcast

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-210-from-homeschool-to-author-with-amos-wilson 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Amos Christian Wilson is an independent Christian author, poet and musician. He is also a home school graduate and third born of 12 who loves reading, the outdoors, theology and history. He went from high school to a wide range of trade jobs, from carpentry to piano tuning to horse shoeing. He seeks to write books which centre around religious characters and immersive world building.

In our conversation we talk about growing up as one of 12 and being homeschooled, and how a picture book about arms and armour sparked Amos’s love of swords, followed by a Fiore manual from a homeschool organisation’s catalogue of “toys for growing men”.

We talk about some of the different jobs Amos has done over the years to support his true career as a writer. He describes his four-book Gwambi series as Treasure Island meets Chronicles of Narnia, with maybe a little bit of Charles Dickens thrown in there. You can find Amos on Substack and download a free ebook there. Or find out more on his website, https://www.acwilson.net. 

As Amos isn’t a historical martial artist, he has a different idea of what he would do with $1 million, and it’s one that Guy is fascinated by.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-209-medieval-european-body-culture-with-dr-maciej-talaga

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr Maciej Talaga is an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw. His research interests have revolved around premodern European martial traditions, with particular focus on late medieval, Central European and the so-called German School of fighting. His goal is to elevate HEMA studies into a legitimate field of research within academic history and archaeology.

Maciej is a member of HEMAtac, a HEMA coaching organization, and is a qualified Olympic fencing instructor in the Polish Fencing Association. He also runs the Sprechfenster blog on Patreon. Guy first came across Maciej’s work through his article Probing the Depth of Medieval European Body Culture: Preliminary Research on Methods of Physical Training, 1250 to 1500.

We talk about how Maciej got into historical martial arts, and a bit of background of the development of the HEMA scene in Poland. Both Maciej and Guy have experience of sport fencing, and we talk about how sport fencing coaching techniques can be beneficial in training historical fencing, giving you a framework for understanding concepts in historical fencing.

Maciej sees HEMA as a grand project, with tournaments having a key place within this project. We discuss the benefits of the competitive environment, how it affects your training, and how it reveals the differences between what’s in the fight books and how we practice sword fighting today. Guy talks himself into getting back into tournament fencing – for seniors only, mind you.

We also discuss the topic of Maciej’s article about medieval European body culture. What sports did people do, how did they train? What sources do we have to prove what people did?

Links of interest:

Probing the Depth of Medieval European Body Culture: Preliminary Research on Methods of Physical Training, 1250 to 1500

HEMAtac: https://hematacticalanalys.wixsite.com/hematac

Maciej’s Sprechfenster blog: https://www.patreon.com/sprechfenster

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-208-swords-are-where-i-can-be-me-with-vera-martocchia 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Vera Martocchia is a professional sword fighting instructor with nearly a decade of experience in historical martial arts. She co-founded the historical martial arts club Swordpunch in London, and teaches a wide range of weapons, including sidesword, longsword, dagger, sickle and more.

In addition to her historical martial arts practice, Vera holds a master’s degree in international business, works as a marketing professional in tech and is a certified fitness professional with over 16 years of experience.

Our wide-ranging conversation covers how getting pregnant is what got Vera into historical martial arts (in a roundabout sort of way) and the reasons she and her business partner Jack set up their own club. Setting up your own club may not be the practical choice, and we discuss how to manage all the responsibilities of both the club and life – hint: the answer is not to sleep.

One of Vera’s driving forces was to create a club that is welcoming and a healthy learning and training environment with professional teaching methods. We talk about how to help vulnerable students, and how to professionalise HEMA teaching.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-207-the-perfectly-rational-fencer-with-martin-hoppner 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr Martin Höppner has been involved in historical martial arts since joining a local reenactment club, “Berliner Rittergilde” in 2008 before getting into historical fencing in 2015 studying classical sabre and rapier at the University of Berlin club. He then moved into sword and buckler, inspired by Roland Warzecha’s work (you can hear from Roland here) and Fiore’s Art of Arms, before being seduced by Manciolino and Marozzo. In 2017 he co-founded Schildwache Potsdam as a collaboration between the Berliner Rittergilde and the University of Potsdam’s Academic Sports Centre. In 2020 and 2021 he was on the DDHF national longsword first squad. And since 2022 he was on the Rapier national squad, where he is now head coach. He runs the Schildwache Potsdam YouTube channel, and is one of the organizers of one of my favourite events, Swords of the Renaissance. He is a research associate at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and has a PhD in economics and social sciences.

Economics is very relevant to this episode, because Martin and I discuss how Game Theory relates to fencing. What is it rational to do when sparring and what do people actually do? What is the most rational way to react to an opponent who hits you increasingly hard or fast? Should you match them, or walk away?

We also talk about rule sets in tournaments, and Martin’s thoughts on how to devise them to stop people gaming the rules, and make the fencing cleaner and scoring fairer.

 

Links of interest:

Schildwache Potsdam (Martin’s club) and info on Swords of the Renaissance event: https://schildwache-potsdam.de/

The Schildwache Potsdam Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SchildwachePotsdam

Schildwache Potsdam YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/schildwache-potsdam

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-206-you-re-a-fechtmeister-too-with-liam-clark

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Liam H. Clarke is a historical fencer with a focus on Renaissance-era German fencing traditions, specifically the work of Joachim Meyer. He has been practicing since 2016, first in the Rocky Mountains before returning home to the Pacific Northwest. For the last few years, he has been delving into the archives, researching the lives and times of the contemporaries of Joachim Meyer, publishing his findings, including illuminating Joachim Meyer’s family through his Substack, Evergreen Historical Fencing.

In our chat, we discuss the appeal of delving into archives instead of just doing swordfighting: does having a better understanding of the lives of past masters help us fence better, or have a deeper enjoyment of practising historical fencing?

Liam explains who Meyer was, his family’s background in paper production, and what life was like in city states like Strasbourg in the 16th Century. Every (male) citizen had a responsibility to own arms and armour and be prepared to protect the city, whether on night watch, military conflicts, or fire calls. Liam’s research can help us picture what daily life was like for Meyer and his contemporaries, and how they had the same struggles with money and other commitments that we have today.

One thing Liam’s research has highlighted is how young these fencing masters were, and how a “Fechtmeister” wouldn’t have been a wizened old man with a long beard. Meyer was only in his early thirties when he died. Many of us practising HEMA today would qualify as a ‘Master’, which is a nice thought for reducing the imposter syndrome!

All of Liam’s research findings and articles are open source and freely available at https://evergreenfencing.substack.com/p/three-other-fechtmeisters-of-strasbourg Check it out!