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perspectives on historical fighting that are unexpected and that a purist approach would
likely not have revealed. And even if we may never realise an authentic recreation of
historical fencing,
37
HEMA has, in a fun and hands-on way, helped broaden the public’s
appreciation for a more balanced, a less dark, barbarian and primitive view of the
Middle Ages.
38
Ultimately, HEMA is an activity sui generis – it is not academic research or experimental
archaeology.
39
Whether or not HEMA yields academically relevant results is a question
to be asked by academic specialists, applied to a specific hypothesis and tested with the
tools of the academic discipline. This will remain possible so long as HEMA as a
practice remains committed to the Fechtbücher as source, inspiration and touchstone for
its reconstructions.
The areas of reconstruction divide themselves broadly into three branches common to
any martial art: physical conditioning; technical skills; and mental conditioning.
Physical conditioning is a weak spot in reconstruction efforts, with practitioners tending
towards modern methods as these are readily available.
The refinement of technical skills has been successful, as great strides have been made
in reconstructing the techniques and applying them in non-cooperative settings.
The mental conditioning aspect is one that is emerging, and being explored to a greater
degree as the technical skill of the fencing increases. The fight books are proving to
have surprising depth in their understanding of tactical as well as (arguably) strategic
concepts. Our experience with those strategic and tactical concepts leads us to question
whether the Fechtbücher had a wider connection to other strategic and tactical contexts,
such as politics and small unit warfare.
The rule sets of competitions present unique challenges, which are unavoidable, but
they are none the less necessary for the evaluation of reconstructions. An examination
of historical rule sets leads us to the conclusion that rather than trying to eliminate
artefacts
created
by
safety
concerns
and
the
competition
setting,
the
historical
tournaments embraced the abstractions in ways that created tactically and strategically
demanding competitions, placing mental conditioning above the other two aspects.
37
See Burkart, Limits of Understanding, esp. the discussion on pp. 23-27.
38
Deacon, Prologues, pp. 86-87.
39
Burkart, Limits of Understanding, p. 24 classifies it as “Practice as Research”.