The Glamorgan school of Arms Swansea
About
What is HEMA?
THE GSA
HEMA stands for Historical European Martial Arts, sometimes called Historical Fencing or Western Martial Arts.
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As there are no living Masters of the art we take historical manuscripts striving to understand and recreate the techniques of the original masters in as a realistic but safe manner as possible.
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Core Syllabus
The Glamorgan school of Arms was founded by Dirk Neumann in 2004 the club has seen many changes but has always maintained its foundation of respect and integrity.
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We are a student focused club who's instructors can take both group and private lessons.
The schools core Syllabus consists of four main weapons Langes Messer, Sword and Buckler, Longsword, and the Fighting Cane.
The Langes Messer or long knife.
They could vary in size and shape but they all have a wooden grip riveted to the blade, a single edge and most often have a nagel a nail-like piece of metal coming from the right side of the cross-guard to protect the wielder’s sword hand. Our syllabus comes from Johannes Lecküchner.
Sword and Buckler.
The number one choice for personnel defense. A small heavy shield starting off round but its shape changed over the years to accommodate different fighting techniques.
Our syllabus comes from the Walpurgis manuscript dated around 1300 although the buckler its self was still in use during the Renaissance.
The Longsword.
The weapon everyone thinks about when asked to describe a medieval sword well balanced and fast. We use two systems the first by Johannes Liechtenauer the art of fencing dating around 1389. The second by Fiore dei Liberi The Flower of Battle dating around 1409.
The Fighting Cane
During the Victorian era lots of different systems of self defense where introduced many of them using a cane in replacement of a blade in the school we focus on two main areas of study are Leboucher of Rouen self defense with a cane 1843 and H.G. Langs cane method of self defense 1920.
We occasionally run classes on other subjects as well including but not exclusively pole arms. Early Italian and German dagger French and Spanish knife fighting (Note these are not beginners classes and are for academic use only. Knifes are not big or clever). as well as the Saber.
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We are also developing excellent relationships with other martial arts school and occasionally get in guest instructors.