A.S.E.M.A
Auckland School of European Martial Arts
A school dedicated to the study, practice and
re-establishment of cultural and historical Martial Arts from Across Europe and through out the ages as functional Martial Arts and Traditions
What is H.E.M.A?
The Term H.E.M.A is regularly misused, H.E.M.A is not a sport or a single art.
H.E.M.A is an Umbrella term for Historical European Martial Arts.
The umbrella encompasses a large mix of Martial Arts (arts of war i.e killing arts),
Martial Sports (combat games and physical contests) and Self Defence systems,
it includes both armed and unarmed systems.
H.E.M.A is a combination of study, interpretation and reconstruction of these arts through experimental archeology and the application of biomechanical principals in an attempt to reconstruct these arts and systems as historically accurately and martially functional as possible.
We seperate these systems in a few different ways
Intent:
Martial Arts
Martial Arts are arts of war, killing arts, most Martial Arts are armed systems however Military Combative systems include armed & Unarmed arts.
Self Defence Arts
Self Defence Systems were designed to be used in personal conflicts such as street fights, H.E.M.A self defence systems include both armed & unarmed arts.
Martial Sports
Martial Sports are combat games thatyou win by scoring points, submissions, pins or knock outs.
In H.E.M.A there are armed & unarmed Martial Sports
Armed vs Unarmed
Weapon Arts
Weapon arts will generally require a lot more protective equipment than unarmed arts and systems.
They emcompass everything from Medieval Knightly Arts, to dueling systems, to self defence with
Walking-stick, knife and umbrella
Unarmed Arts
Unarmed Arts range through all periods as every H.E.M.A system until you reach classical fencing included grappling.
But H.E.M.A has multiple other forms of folk wrestling along with pugilism, Savate & Mixed Arts like Bartitsu.
By period and place of origin
Knightly Arts - Medieval Martial arts
From the Middle Ages we focus on the Liechtenauer tradition of what is now Germany.
This tradition is what we would call a complete martial art as it includes everything from grappling to sword play to pollweapons and everything in between, in and out of armour.
Later period fencing & dueling
The Age of Piracy gives us a wide variety of sword arts which cross over from late period transitional rapier to smallsword, backsword, broadsword and the proto-cutlass, along with forays into bayonet fencing, with potential to expand into the partisan, boarding pike and boarding axe.
18th-19th century self Defence
This period provides us with a wealth of martial sports and self defence systems, from Savate to Pugilism, multiple forms of folk wrestling arts and the more unusual systems of self defence of bartitsu and DDLR allowing us to explore cane fighting, umbrella fencing and knife fighting.
H.E.M.A extends from I33 the earliest known surviving treatise on swordsmanship, through to the self defence and military combative systems of the 19th and early 20th century, some of which are W.M.A (Western Martial Arts) with living traditions rather than dead historical systems which require reconstruction.
Due to the limitations of time and a limited number of both instructors and students we presently focus our studies
on only three periods of History to cluster our training on arts and systems that can be easily paired .
Other forms of H.E.M.A
While our school has a few specific systems we focus on during our terms we attempt to expand our learners knowledge, skills and interests by expanding into additional systems, arts and weapons during out of sequence months and the use of a cultural calendar.
Our aim as a school rather than just a club or group is to develop our learners and practitioners to the point where they can work on their own interpretations and study the many different forms of H.E.M.A and W.M.A in the aims of presenting their findings back in facilitated sessions, gaining exposure to and experience in research, interpretation, instructional design and training facilitation.
Below is a categorized list showing a selection of the diverse range of arts and systems covered by the H.E.M.A or larger W.M.A umbrella.
While we presently only study a very small number of these we will work with any dedicated H.E.M.A or W.M.A practitioner who wishes to study and interpret these arts as long as their desired outcome is in line with our approach, i.e to reconstruct these arts in the most historically accurate and martially functional functional manner possible..
Weapon Arts & Dueling
​Bayonet -American
Bayonet -English
Broadsword-Scottish
Cane Fighting -English
Cane Fighting -French
Cane fighting – Irish
Cane fighting -Swiss
Knife fighting-Spanish
Knife Fighting-Italian
Knightly arts-English
Knightly arts-German
Knightly arts-Italian
Rapier-Italian
Rapier-Spanish
Rapier-English
Sabre-Polish
Sabre-English
Sabre-French
Sidesword-German
Sidesword-Italian
Shortsword-English
Smallsword-English
Smallsword-French
Smallsword-Scottish
Staff Fighting -Portuguese
Staff fighting-English
Staff fighting – German
Umbrella Fighting -French
Umbrella Fighting -English
Self Defence Arts & combatives
Martial Sports & Grappling
Cane Fighting (Bartitsu)-English
Cane Fighting (Savate)-French
Cane fighting (Bataireacht)– Irish
Cane fighting (shillelagh)– Irish
Cane fighting (Vigny) -Swiss
Catch as catch can-English
Combatives -Fairburn-Sykes -English
Combatives -LINE-system-American
Combatives -Abwehr Englischer Gangster Methoden – German
Defense Dans La Rue (Savate)– French
Knife fighting (Navaja)-Spanish
Knife Fighting (stiletto) -Italian
Knife Fighting (Savate) -French
Pankration-Greek
Pugilism – English
Rough and Tumble – American
Savate- Défense dans la rue - French
Savate - Défense (modern) - French
Umbrella Fighting (Savate)-French
Umbrella Fighting (Bartisu)-French
​
Abrazarre-Italian
Backhold wrestling-English
Backhold wrestling-Scottish
Bare Knuckle Boxing- English
Catch as catch can-English
Classical Fencing
Collar and elbow wrestling-English
Collar and elbow wrestling-Irish
Free style wrestling -American
Glima-Icelandic
Gouren -French
Greco-roman wrestling – French
Kampfringen-German
La-Canne-French
La Lutte -French
Lucha Canaria-Spanish
Lucha Leonesa-Spanish
Narodno Rvanje -Serbian
Pankration-Greek
Rough and tumble -American
Single-stick-English
Schwingen-Swiss
Savate – French