If you have stumbled across the word HEMA for the first time, you might be picturing a few different things. A sport fencer in white. A historical reenactment group with swords and shields. A Japanese sword practitioner. A cosplayer. None of those are quite right.
HEMA stands for Historical European Martial Arts. It is the modern reconstruction and practice of the fighting systems documented by European masters from roughly the 1300s to the 1700s, drawn from manuscripts and treatises that survived the intervening centuries. If you have ever picked up a medieval history book and seen illustrations of two men fighting with longswords, a bind captured in mid-motion, and wondered what that looked like in practice, HEMA is the community that has spent the last thirty years answering your question.
This post is a friendly introduction. What HEMA actually is, what it isn't, and why it has quietly become one of the more rewarding martial arts communities in the world.
The Short Definition
HEMA is the practice of historical European fighting arts using their original source materials. Practitioners work directly from manuscripts written by European masters during the period when these arts were alive. They study the text, interpret the techniques, and test the interpretations through drilling and sparring against modern training partners.
The key word is historical. HEMA is not about reinventing medieval fighting from modern imagination. It is about reconstructing the specific documented systems that specific masters wrote down. When we train Fiore dei Liberi's armizare at HEMA Penzance, we are working from the Getty manuscript that preserves Fiore's own instructions in his own words, alongside illustrations his scribes drew six hundred years ago.
What HEMA Covers
HEMA is a broad umbrella covering many traditions. Some of the main ones:
Italian longsword tradition. Led by Fiore dei Liberi in the early 1400s and continuing through other masters like Filippo Vadi. This is what we study at HEMA Penzance.
German longsword tradition. The Liechtenauer lineage, documented through the Zettel verses and numerous 15th-century glosses by masters like Sigmund Ringeck, Pseudo-Peter von Danzig, and Hans Talhoffer.
Bolognese sword and buckler. A 16th-century Italian school covering sidesword, rapier, and two-handed weapons.
Italian rapier. The civilian duelling sword of the 17th century, with masters like Salvator Fabris and Ridolfo Capo Ferro.
Sabre traditions. Polish, Hungarian, British, and other national sabre schools from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Dagger, messer, staff, polearms, armoured combat, and grappling as documented by various masters across the whole period.
Different clubs focus on different traditions. Most clubs specialise in one or two areas rather than covering everything. If you walk into a HEMA club and ask what they teach, expect to hear something like "Liechtenauer longsword and some Meyer" or "Fiore's full system" or "Italian rapier and sidesword."
What HEMA Is Not
Not sport fencing. Modern Olympic fencing (foil, épée, sabre) descends from late civilian duelling sports. It uses electrified scoring, lightweight blades, and strip-based movement rules. HEMA uses heavier weapons, full protective gear, and fencing rules that closely mirror historical combat.
Not kendo. Kendo is the Japanese sport descended from samurai sword traditions. Different cultures, different weapons, different techniques. Both are valid sword arts, but they are not the same art.
Not LARP or cosplay. LARP (live-action role-play) uses foam weapons and game rules; HEMA uses steel training swords and documented martial techniques. The overlap with cosplay is occasional and superficial (both communities contain people who love historical periods) but the activities are very different.
Not reenactment. Historical reenactment focuses on recreating specific events or periods in costume; HEMA focuses on reconstructing fighting techniques. Some people do both, but they are distinct hobbies.
Not film stage combat. Stage combat is choreographed performance fencing designed to look good on camera or from the audience; HEMA is pressure-tested martial practice designed to work.
The History of HEMA as a Community
Historical European Martial Arts disappeared as a living tradition over the 18th and 19th centuries. Firearms replaced swords on battlefields; civilian duelling died out; the few remaining fencing masters specialised in sport-fencing precursors. By 1900, no living lineage of European longsword work remained.
The manuscripts survived, mostly forgotten in libraries and private collections. A few scholars studied them historically. But nobody seriously tried to train from them as living martial arts until the late 20th century.
The modern HEMA community began to take shape in the 1990s, with groups like the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA) and various European enthusiasts working independently on manuscript reconstruction. The internet accelerated the conversation; digital scans of manuscripts (particularly the Getty's publication of MS Ludwig XV 13) democratised access to the sources.
By 2010, HEMA had a thriving international community with annual tournaments, peer-reviewed interpretations, and club networks across Europe, North America, and Australasia. By 2026, the community is in its third generation of practitioners: people who started in the 2000s are now training teachers who are training their own students.
This is not a community that inherited its art from unbroken lineage. It is a community that reconstructed the art from documents. That is an unusual and remarkable thing.
How HEMA Is Trained
A typical HEMA training session, whether at HEMA Penzance or elsewhere, usually looks something like this.
Warm-up. Footwork drills, light cuts, general movement to prepare the body for two hours of training.
Technique. An instructor demonstrates a play from the manuscript (for us, typically from Fiore's longsword material). The play is broken down into its components: starting guard, initiating move, response, counter, resolution.
Paired drilling. Students pair up and work the technique at whatever speed they can manage cleanly. Instructors walk the room correcting.
Sparring (for students with full protective kit). Controlled freeplay where interpreted techniques are tested against partners who are trying to hit you back. This is where theory meets practice and often humbles theory.
Debrief and discussion. Sometimes, especially when working through a difficult interpretation, the class will stop and discuss the manuscript directly. What is the master telling us? What is he not telling us? What do other scholars think?
The blend of physical training and textual study is one of HEMA's distinctive features. Members of most clubs read the manuscripts, argue about interpretations online, attend seminars with visiting interpreters, and generally treat the historical scholarship as part of the discipline itself. A HEMA fencer is also, by the nature of the activity, a lay historian.
Why HEMA
Why train a reconstructed medieval martial art in 2026?
Because it is genuine martial practice. The techniques work. Sparring tests them continuously. This is not theatrical swordplay; this is fighting.
Because the intellectual depth is real. Reading Fiore or Liechtenauer and working out what they meant is a genuinely rewarding scholarly activity. The manuscripts were written by intelligent men who thought hard about what they were teaching.
Because the community is good. HEMA clubs tend to be intellectually curious, welcoming to beginners, gender-inclusive, and low on ego. The culture is closer to a reading group that happens to involve swords than to a typical combat sport gym.
Because the physical training is whole-body and sustainable. HEMA trains coordination, stamina, strength, and reflexes in ways that generalise well into the rest of life. It is kind to joints and supports long-term practice into older adulthood.
Because of the weapons themselves. There is simply something unique about learning to use a medieval longsword properly. It connects you to a line of practitioners running back six hundred years.
How to Start
The HEMA Alliance club finder maps most clubs worldwide. In the UK specifically, there are clubs in most major cities; in Cornwall, HEMA Penzance covers Fiore and Cornish Sword Kledha Kernewek in Camborne covers a broader HEMA curriculum.
Our guide to starting HEMA walks through the practical steps: find a club, go to your first lesson (usually free, usually no experience needed), use the loaner gear, and commit to regular attendance for a few months to see whether the art is for you.
Most people who try HEMA for one evening come back for a second. That is the simplest answer to "is HEMA for me" we can give.
Come and See
HEMA Penzance trains every Tuesday evening at Penzance Leisure Centre, 7pm to 9pm. Your first lesson is free, all equipment is provided, and no experience is necessary. Come along and see for yourself.