Forte Swordplay

Come see us at the NH Ren Faire! There will be swords, fencing, and best of all - really bad jokes!

May 16th and 17th

One of the things I love best about HEMA is that it is a source of many worthwhile journies, both personal and communal. Case in point: competition -- how best to not just test but express swordsmanship. For me, this journey is ongoing and worthy of further effort and evolution -- allow me to share a bit of that communal journey from the past couple years...!

HEMA Spotlight | Continuous Fencing Tournaments HOT TAKE: contemporary modern HEMA tournaments are not perfect. SO if there is still room for improvement, what might future evolutionary steps look like......

Happy New Year!!! Belated holiday gift: a very simple template for any of you thinking of owning (leasing) your own (HEMA) club space one day...!

YT55 Finding Home in HEMA 02 YT Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Let's wrap the year with a discussion on how ot incorporate fear into your HEMA training (inspired by a valuable dialogue with Dr. Nathan Clough from Arms & Armor)! Happy Holidays from Forte to you all -- 2025 has been a very eventful year, and we've got some big developments for 2026, see ya next year...!!!

VIDEO RESPONSE | Addressing FEAR as part of HEMA training Apparently it's 3 weeks in a row of fun public dialogues -- final video response of the year to Dr. Nathan Clough at Arms & Armor, on the specific point of h...

...ANOTHER response video 🫢🤭🫣?!!!

Words for James Reilly and Nathan Clough -- it be just rainin' opinions over here...

VIDEO RESPONSE | Words for Messrs. REILLY & CLOUGH Wow, another video response, 2 weeks in a row...? What on earth could I be on about now???- James Reilly and Nathan Clough: https://youtu.be/emlOy0czyQQ?si=...

Oh I've got words for Dave Rawlings and Federico Malagutti...

VIDEO RESPONSE | Words for Messrs. RAWLINGS & MALAGUTTI Oh I've got things to say... check out the original source videos here...!!! - Dave Rawlings: English Two Handed Sword (they were wrong) https://www.youtub...

'TIS THE SEASON!!! What's in the box...???

UNBOXING! Holiday Cheer thanks to Adam Bodorics & Ashanti Ziths...!!! Ashanti Ziths Void Historical Fencing Kite Bag: https://voidhistoricalfencing.com/shop/kite-sword-bagAdam Bodorics Swordmaker FB: https://www.facebook.com/pr...

"...why does this lens matter in martial arts and especially weapons combat? ...when I've actually taken things apart as I've been trained to do essentially and gone 'What are the actual things that are making the biggest difference in this, and I've almost invariably landed on: if you're teaching something and it doesn't make the person FEEL like things are easier, if they're not going 'Wow this feels so so much easier mentally, I feel like physically more relaxed doing this, then you're probably asking too much already."

HEMA Spotlight | COGNITIVE EFFICIENCY with Asante Lawla "...why does this lens matter in martial arts and especially weapons combat? ...when I've actually taken things apart as I've been trained to do essentially...

"...we're going to be talking about chronic illness in HEMA, specifically who is affected by it and what challenges they might face due to chronic illness, how we support those both as leadership... and as community and allies if we are dealing with chronic illness ourself, what things we can look for in safe spaces, and things that can help us stick with martial arts."

HEMA Spotlight | CHRONIC ILLNESS with Ella Rose "...we're going to be talking about chronic illness in HEMA, specifically who is affected by it and what challenges they might face due to chronic illness, h...

One the highlights of IGX 2025 Fall for me: a lecture from Scholar Bob Powers. Iron Gate Exhibition is about HEMA, but it is ALSO about understanding the culture that gave birth to HEMA traditions, so that we can continue to re-evaluate: do we truly understand our Historical European Martial Arts (Liechtenauer in this case) as well as we THINK we do...???

"...the phrase 'frequens motus' appears as a Latin phrase inside an otherwise Middle High German treatise... the Codex 3227a (a.k.a. 'Döbringer'). So the question we could ask ourselves is: 'Why is this phrase in Latin when the rest of it is in Middle High German. ...I'm going to try to make the case that 'motus' should be understood in the context of medieval philosophy and Aristotlean physics and how they understood it. And I'm going to try to broaden our idea of motus from 'motion' to 'change' more broadly. And I'm going to use the concept of the Five Words (of Liechtenauer) to demonstrate that."

HEMA Spotlight | FREQUENS MOTUS with Bob Powers "...the phrase 'frequens motus' appears as a Latin phrase inside an otherwise Middle High German treatise... the Codex 3227a (a.k.a. 'Döbringer'). So the q...

"...she was so famous that when Henry III of France, who was about to be coronated King, visited Venice, the local officials said 'She's the courtesan you should visit'... it was on the down low and a secret, but she's the [clear recommendation]. ...and then she published a book of her letters that was dedicated to him very obviously, and then... it wasn't really a secret." Let Kendra Brown spill the tea on the letters of Veronica Franco, an Italian poet and courtesan in 16th-century Venice, and see how that connects with culture that many of study in the Historical European Martial Arts...!

HEMA Spotlight | DANGEROUS LIAISONS (IN VENICE!) with Kendra Brown "...she was so famous that when Henry III of France, who was about to be coronated King, visited Venice, the local officials said 'She's the courtesan you sh...

"...in HEMA we talk a lot about how they fought, where they fought, when they fought (when we can place it), but we don't talk a lot about why they fight." Come on a tour of Medieval law and martial culture, gain some insight on how those in power often justified the waging of combat and war.

HEMA Spotlight | JUSTIFYING WAR in the Middle Ages with Edward Meyers "...in HEMA we talk a lot about how they fought, where they fought, when they fought (when we can place it), but we don't talk a lot about why they fight." ...