For our last episode before Longpoint we are finishing up the series of interviews with Sword Carolina and including an interview with the founder of MEMAG.
Matthew Stinson interviewed Ashley Polasek of Sword Carolina. Ashley is a Women's Longsword competitor and Gold medal winning student of Sword Carolina. She also has a podcast of her own called the Baker Street Babes, an all-female group of Sherlock Holmes fans dedicated to approaching the fandom from a female point of view, as well as engaging in fun, lively conversations about the canon, film and television adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, and associated topics. Her podcast is available on iTunes.
Sword Carolina can be found online at http://swordcarolina.com/
Cory Winslow is the founder of the Medieval European Martial Arts Guild, or M.E.M.A.G. He is also a HEMA Alliance Certified Instructor and the Vice Director of the HEMAA Curriculum Council. He has been seriously researching and training in Historical European Martial Arts since 2003. In 2006 he founded the first MEMAG training school in Salisbury Maryland with his assistant instructor Joshua Reptsik and continued to teach regular classes at the Peninsula Fight School of MEMAG until early 2014, when he and his wife Betsy established the Blue Ridge Sword School in Luray, VA where they currently instruct regular classes.
MEMAG can be found online at http://www.memag.net/
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This week's episode is again with guest host Matthew Stinson. We're continuing the series of interviews from Sword Carolina. This time with Josh Lucas. Josh is Aaron's right hand man and also started up Sword Carolina with him.
Sword Carolina can be found online at http://swordcarolina.com/
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This week's episode is a special guest Host episode with Matthew Stinson of Steelwind Fencing Academy from Jacksonville, FL. Matthew recently interviewed Aaron Shober of Sword Carolina. He was kind enough to share the interview with me to get it out to the rest of the HEMA Community.
Aaron stumbled onto HEMA in 2010 and quickly became passionate about it. He practiced largely on his own for the next year, through books, DVDs, online resources, and events, before starting his own group in a local park. In September 2012, Aaron leased a Main Street space and opened up a dedicated HEMA school, one of only a few in the country. He is blessed to be a professional HEMA instructor, teaching and training as his full-time career.
Aaron has taught classes at events such as IGX, SoCal, and his own Study in Steel. He has won medals in Longsword, Dussack, and Dagger and has helped coach several students to win or place in tournaments. Sword Carolina’s YouTube channel is recognized as one of the best free resources to start to learn HEMA, and Sword Carolina Online is the first online school of HEMA available. Through Sword Carolina and Sword Carolina Online, Aaron now has students around the world.
Sword Carolina can be found online at http://swordcarolina.com/
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In this episode I interviewed Jake Norwood of CKDF about Longpoint. America's premier HEMA gathering. We spoke about what goes on at Longpoint, and why people should attend Longpoint.
Jake Norwood is an internationally known competitor and instructor in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), with over 30 medals from national and international full-contact competitions in longsword, military saber, dussack, messer, and target cutting since 2010. A multi-tour combat veteran of the 101st Airborne, Jake combines the training regimen and psychological toughness of the modern warrior to the reconstruction and physical application of Europe’s traditional fighting arts.
As an instructor, Jake has presented his aggressive, dynamic approach to Kunst des Fechtens, or the Art of Fighting, at workshops and conferences across Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He is the head instructor at Capital Kunst des Fechtens and founder of the xKDF Network. His students are among the top competitors in the U.S. HEMA tournament scene. Jake is a former board member and the former president of the HEMA Alliance, an educational not-for-profit organization established to provide independent HEMA clubs and schools worldwide with the resources of an international cooperative.
Capital Kunst des Fechtens can be found at http://www.capitalkdf.org/
More information about Longpoint, including schedule, and registration can be found at http://www.fightlongpoint.com/
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In this episode I interviewed a couple of amazing ladies who are a part of the HEMA community.
Christy Conley is a massage therapist and is working with HEMA fighters to reduce stress and injury by providing her services at HEMA events. Her website is http://www.unwindthehema.com/ And her business number is (607) 862-6863 or, if you're feeling like a cheesy comercial, (607)UNBOUND. Her facebook page is not yet live but should be up shortly.
Nina Cafaro is a graphic designer and member of my home club of L'Arte Della Bellica, and helps me with a lot of design work and helps to keep me on task. If I uploaded this post correctly, the PDF of my home club's flyer was designed by Nina, and she is working on designing a HEMA-Cast logo for me.
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In this episode I interviewed a couple of the suppliers of HEMA gear. Destroyer Modz and Purpleheart Armoury are two makers and suppliers of HEMA gear and accessories in America. I was able to interview Josh Parise of Destroyer Modz and Natasha Darce of Purpleheart Armouy.
Josh not only founded Destroyer Modz, but also established Broken Plow Western Martial Arts in Pittsburgh. He competed at Fechtschule New York and took third place in the Cutting Tournament and Second place in the Longsword Biathlon.
Destroyer Modz can be found online at http://www.destroyermodz.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DestroyerModz/
Broken Plow Western Martial Arts can be found online at http://www.pittsburghswordfighters.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/brokenplow/
Natasha Darce, along with her husband, Christian Darce, have run Purpleheart Armoury for 18 years. They host two events every year, the Purpleheart Open in the spring and a Singlestick Tournament in December. More information about both events can be found on their website, as well as contact information if you'd like them to come to your event.
Purpleheart Armoury can be found online at http://www.woodenswords.com/
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Over the weekend of June 3rd through 5th I went up to Andes New York for Fechtschule New York, and the NYHF-Point Tournament. While I was there I got to interview TOBY Hall about the NYHF-Point Tournament. Toby designed and managed the tournament over the weekend and was kind enough to talk about the logistics and ideas behind the tournament.
Toby is an instructor at the New York Historical Fencing Association. He placed 3rd in the open longsword tournament at Shortpoint and will be competing in the Longpoint Historical Fencing League finals at Longpoint next month. The NYHF-Point Tournament was the first tournament he's managed.
The New York Historical Fencing Association can be found online at http://www.newyorklongsword.com/
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Over the weekend of June 3rd through 5th I went up to Andes New York for Fechtschule New York, and the NYHF-Point Tournament. While I was there I got several great interviews in. Today's episode is a shorter episode of short interviews with Jacob Kelly of the Pennsylvania Klopffechters, and Joseph Michel and Christian O'Connell of Tristate Historical Fencing. This is a shorter episode just getting to know some of the other members of the HEMA Community.
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Today's episode isn't really an episode so much as an announcement that I will be taking a two week break. Our next episode will be posted June 2nd, and I'll let you know who I'll be interviewing as soon as I figure that out. In the meantime, here are a couple other podcasts related to HEMA that you should check out. And a link to the next event I'll be attending beneath that.
Frank Docherty - English Martial Arts and Self Defense at http://maister1.buzzsprout.com/ and also on iTunes
Description - (from the website) This series of Podcasts will explain in simple terms the English Martial Arts and the self defense that English Martial Arts training equips us with. These podcasts will include descriptions, and the use of various weapons and Bare Fist Fighting. The Principles of the art and the true fight will be explained as well. These podcasts will be once monthly, and there will be occasional podcasts on self defense.
Swordguild Podcast - a discussion podcast hosted by Swordguild Portland https://soundcloud.com/swordguildpdx
Description - (from Soundcloud) A Historical European Martial Arts group in Portland, Oregon which has plenty to say and plenty to drink. NSFW and not to be taken too seriously, experienced instructors, intermediate students, and beginners in both drinking and HEMA round-table whatever comes up.
Fechtschule New York 2016 - June 3rd to June 5th http://www.newyorklongsword.com/fechtschule-new-york/
Information and rules can be found on their Facebook event page - Fechtschule New York 2016
On May 7th, there was supposed to be an event called Klopfterfecht. It was an event that wouldn't be about classes or tournaments, but instead about having fun. Ultimately, the event didn't happen, but not for lack of trying.
In this interview, I visited John Rothe of the Pennsylvania Klopffechters. John organized the aforementioned event, as well was one of the founding members of the Klopffechters.
More information for the event referenced in this episode, Fechtschule New York, can be found on Facebook.
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On April 23rd and 24th I had the opportunity to go to Springeck, an event in Wanaque, NJ, hosted by the NJ Historical Fencing Association. I had a blast free-sparring, learning and even got the chance to interview several people over the weekend.
In this episode, I interviewed Eric White from the New Jersey Historical Fencing Association, Ben Lehman and Chris Taylor both from the Wisconsin Historical Fencing association, and Jim Brooks from Broken Plow in Pittsburgh.
Eric White is the Principle instructor at the New Jersey Historical Fencing Association. He organized Springeck and we have him to thank for putting it all together. He also received the distinction of being a Journeyman in the Historical Fencing Affiliates at Springeck this year.
Ben Lehman is now a Senior Free Scholar at the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association having played his prize at Springeck.
Chris Taylor is also from the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association, and is the 2016 Springeck King, having won Balloon Wars.
Jim Brooks is with Broken Plow Western Martial Arts. He helped to found Broken Plow a couple of years ago with Josh Parise.
You can visit the NJ HFA website here, and the WHFA website here. The Historical Fencing Affiliate's Charter can be found here.
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On April 23rd and 24th I had the opportunity to go to Springeck, an event in Wanaque, NJ, hosted by the NJ Historical Fencing Association. I had a blast free-sparring, learning and even got the chance to interview several people over the weekend.
In today's episode, I interviewed Tom and Zack from the NJ Historical Fencing Association, Aaron Pynenberg from the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association in Appleton, and Jeremiah Backhaus from the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association in West Bend.
Aaron Pynenberg is the founder of the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association, as well as the Historical Fencing affiliates. He has been involved in HEMA for about 15 years or so. At Springeck he taught a class "Finishing the Dagger fight" where he used modern self defense with historical technique to stabilize, control, and finish an opponent where the historical masters left off.
Jeremiah Backhaus is a Provost in the Wisconsin Historical Fencing Association. At Springeck this year he taught a class on Ringen called "Wrestling Away," where he introduced techniques and basics for those who feel "Ringen is not for me."
You can visit the NJ HFA website here, and the WHFA website here. The Historical Fencing Affiliate's Charter can be found here.
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I'd like to apologize for the tardiness of this podcast. I am still getting used to the amount of time it takes to edit the raw interviews into something manageable. I personally found this podcast difficult to edit because of the length and variety of topics covered. I feel that this is the best podcast that I could release while still being genuine and letting the interviewees speak for themselves. Because of this the podcast is slightly longer than intended, but not quite long enough to be two separate episodes.
Today's podcast focuses in on my home HEMA club, L'Arte Della Bellica. I interviewed the founder of L'Arte Della Bellica, Brian Miller, as well as two founding members of the club. Violett Shaw, and Joshua Gieringer.
L'Arte Della Bellica can be contacted through their website or facebook page.
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Shortpoint Info: Shortpoint 2016 website
Our interviewees
Toby Hall - Toby is a certified instructor at NYHFA. He trains Lichtenauer's KdF as well as i.33 and Andres Liegnitzer Sword & Buckler. And went on to take 3rd place overall at Shortpoint, his first metal for open longsword.
Stephen Cheney - Steve Cheney is a student at MEMAG NJ and has been working on translating some untranslated material in his free time.
William Buscher - Student at Capitol Kunst des Fechtens
Mike Edelson - Mike is a founder at NYHFA. He took 4th place overall in the Shortpoint tournament. His event Fechtschule New York is June 3rd through 5th in Andes, New York. And he has two novels out, Seed, a sci-fi thriller about 50 people who go to sleep in their own beds and wake up in a compound in the middle of the jungle. and The Talhoffer Society, a contemporary fiction novel about an underground dueling tournament that is so much more than what it seems at first glance. You can find them on his website at michaeledelson.net, where there are descriptions of his books as well as links to Amazon where you can read the first three chapters for free. You can also go to your local bookstore as ask them to order them in for you as well.
Information about the Longpoint Historical Fencing League
http://www.fightlongpoint.com/longpoint-historical-fencing-league/
New York Times Article - Medieval Weapon Finds Modern Appeal
Back to the Source - Youtube video
To find a HEMA club near you visit http://www.hemaalliance.com/club-finders/
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An introductory episode where I introduce myself, and some of my goals for the HEMA-Cast.
About myself: I am a relatively new member of HEMA having started in July of 2015 with L'Arte Della Bellica, a Fiore school in Kutztown, PA. I decided to start this podcast because I personally listen to podcasts and wanted to listen to a podcast about something I'm very passionate about, HEMA.
About the Podcast: The goal of the HEMA-cast is to have a dialogue within the HEMA community, as well as provide another way to introduce HEMA to a greater general audience. This will be done by interviewing members of HEMA about themselves and their studies, talking about events with event organizers, and having roundtable discussions about important topics.
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E-mail us at HEMApodcast@gmail.com
Listen to us on the web at http://hemacast.libsyn.com/