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Fighting with the Longsword: Modern-day HEMA Practices
practiced. In the technical part of the treatises, this difference can be seen as well: the
Liechtenauer-based German system’s terminology tends to be temporally descriptive,
focusing on timing, while Fiore’s system describes the fight in terms distance, i.e. of
close or long play. Of course, this is merely a matter of emphasis – the two traditions
reference both.
The tactical training feature may also explain an “unrealistic” element of the Fechtbücher
– the principle of same-weapon contests. While a fighter in war is unlikely to be faced
with a single opponent with precisely the same weapon and protection, the equality of
weapons (like the same set of figures on the chess board) condenses the training effect
on the tactical, rather than technical, aspects of the fight.
IV.
MODERN TOURNAMENT COMPETITION AND HISTORICAL
RULE SETS
IV.1.
Modern Longsword
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Tournament Competition Rule Sets
For the purpose this paper, we shall refer to the rule sets applied in the typical modern
tournament as “sportive rule sets”.
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As their distinguishing feature, these rule sets, as
opposed to the rules applying (mostly) to Olympic fencing, include most but not
necessarily all of the following:

Target area is the whole body;

Movement is on the plane, not just back and forth;

A scoring hit needs to be palpable – a mere touch, glance, or “kiss to the
mask” as a rule does not count (and occasionally differentiated by strike with
the edge (good) or the flat (bad));

First touch alone does not win, the action is not over until completion of the
“tempo”, and a successful after-blow (a counter-strike within one or two
movements of the first contestant’s strike landing) is fully or partially weighted
– i.e. a “clean hit” is an action where the attacker successfully lands a palpable
hit and the other fencer cannot retaliate in the fencing tempo or the retaliation
is parried;
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In addition to longsword, there are tournaments in other weapons such as rapier, sabre, small-
sword, langes Messer, dussack, dagger, wrestling and others; the principles outlined here broadly
apply to those tournament rule sets as well, with variations.
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“Sportive” is a loaded term within the HEMA community, but here shall be used to denote a
HEMA tournament rule set as opposed to a historical one.
HEMA tournaments experiment with different rule sets – participants are regularly advised to
familiarise themselves with changes and the applicable rule set is published in time for the
tournament registration; see e.g. Longpoint (< www.fightlongpoint.com >, queried 15 May 2017)
or Swordfish (< swordfish.ghfs.se >, queried 15 May 2017).