Western Martial Arts (WMA) refers to formalised fighting techniques and skills of European origin, as distinct from those originating in Asia. A European is primarily a person who was born into one of the countries within the continent of Europe. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ...

The term "Western Martial Arts", originally coined during a discussion between Gregory Mele, Pete Kautz, and Dwight McLemore, is used to reference the study, recreation and preservation of combat skills developed during the 14th through 18th centuries, and is often distinguished by the term Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA). The related term historical fencing is specific to the recreation of weapon-based martial arts. WMA is now also used in reference to traditional European martial arts and combat sports such as savate, Jogo do Pau and catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The first page of the Codex Wallerstein shows the typical arms of 15th century fencing Historical European Martial Arts are martial arts of European origin which were formerly practiced, but have since died out or evolved into very different forms. ... Historical martial arts reconstructions are attempts at reviving martial arts with no living tradition. ... Savate (pronounced ), also known as boxe française (French boxing), French Kickboxing or French Footfighting, is a French martial art which uses both the hands and feet as weapons and combines elements of western boxing with graceful kicking techniques. ... Jogo do Pau. ... An idiomatic phrase in English describing a situation in which an ad hoc solution must be improvised due to the lack of ideal conditions. ... Ancient Greek wrestlers (Pankratiasts) Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two competitors competing for a physical advantage. ...

History

Traditional Western martial arts often possess no formal, written histories, being transmitted from one generation to the next largely via oral tradition. This is especially the case of traditional forms of wrestling, stick fighting and knife combat associated with rural areas and/or with criminal subcultures. Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. ... Ancient Greek wrestlers (Pankratiasts) Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two competitors competing for a physical advantage. ... Stick fighting is a generic term for martial arts which utilize simple long slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden sticks for fighting such as a staff, cane, walking stick, baton or similar. ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... In biology, a subculture in a population of a microorganism is when one microbe colony in such a population is transferred onto blank growth medium and allowed to freely reproduce. ...

There are no living masters of Historical European Martial Arts because their practice was largely allowed to die out in the 18th century with the emergence of more effective combat skills, mostly due to the introduction of firearms. Some practices such as Military Saber and Horse Lance were in use until the early 20th Century. A firearm is a kinetic energy weapon that fires either a single or multiple projectiles propelled at high velocity by the gases produced by action of the rapid confined burning of a propellant. ...

Contemporary enthusiasts and scholars of HEMA attempt to recreate the "art" using period sources, experience in existing living traditions, and practical experimentation, a process equivalent to that of other forms of experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology employs a number of different methods, techniques, analyses, and approaches in order to generate and test hypotheses or an interpretation, based upon archaeological source material, like ancient structures or artifacts. ...

This research has, in part, been spurred by a resurgence of public interest in Western Martial Arts as is illustrated by public interest in Renaissance Fairs, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and by interest in adventure, fantasy, and historical films and tales such as The Lord of the Rings, Zorro, The Princess Bride, Braveheart, and role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons that depict pseudo-medieval or later combat. Entertainers at the Golden Gate Renaissance Festival 2005. ... The Society for Creative Anachronism (usually shortened to SCA) is a historical reenactment and living history group approximating mainly pre-17th century Western European history and culture. ... The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the British academic J. R. R. Tolkien. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Princess Bride is a 1973 novel written by William Goldman and originally published in the USA by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ... Braveheart is an American 1995 historical action/drama produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. ... This article is about traditional role-playing games. ... The original Dungeons & Dragons set Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Gary Gygax and David Arneson in January 1974. ...

Weapons

Commonly used swords include longswords, arming swords and rapiers, and to a lesser extent smallswords and backswords (modern fencing with foil, épée, and sabre is a rather different sport). Clubs and maces were used as crushing weapons, spears, staves, various polearms, and flail weapons are used for longer reach and greater momentum. Shields include the buckler and the kite shield. Swiss longsword, 15th or 16th century Look up Sword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Longsword is a type of European sword used during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1250 to 1550. ... The term arming-sword refers not so much to a sword design as the situation under which the sword was used. ... A rapier is a relatively slender, sharply pointed sword, used mainly for thrusting attacks, in use in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. ... The Smallsword is a sword intermediate in historical period between the rapier and the classical épée, ancestor to the modern sporting épée. ... 19th century French Navy officer sabre A backsword is a sword having a blade with only one edge. ... Fencing advertisement for the 1900 Summer Olympic Games This article is about the sport, which is distinguished from stage fencing and academic fencing (mensur). ... An Italian-grip foil A foil is a type of weapon used in fencing. ... An Épée fencer. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Szabla. ... A club, cudgel, truncheon, night stick, or bludgeon is among the simplest of all weapons. ... An advance on the club, a mace is a strong, heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel. ... Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National Park. ... For other uses of the word staff, see staff. ... A pole weapon or polearm is a close combat weapon with the main fighting part of the weapon placed on the end of a long shaft, typically of wood. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. ... A buckler (French bouclier shield, from old French bocle, boucle boss) is a small shield gripped in the fist -- it was generally used in hand-to-hand combat during the Middle Ages, as its size made it poor protection against missile weapons (e. ... A kite shield was a distinct type of shield from the 10th-12th centuries. ...

The Masters

WMA knowledge was originally passed down from master to student with very little written instruction or documentation. Manuals that were written during the medieval ages were most likely closely guarded documents commissioned by the nobility of the day for use only by the nobles themselves, their knights and masters at arms. There are a scarce handful of manuals written between the 15th and 17th centuries available today. One of the the most notable is the work of the Italian Maestro Fiore dei Liberi circa 1409-1410, known as Fior di Battaglia, or Flos Duellatorum which roughly translates to "The Flower of Battle". Fiore is considered to be the earliest master of the Italian school of swordsmanship. This manual covers his studies in Dagger (Daga), Sword (Spada), Long Sword, Short Sword, Poleax, Staff, Stick, and Wrestling / Grappling (Abrazare), both unarmoured and in armour, both on foot and mounted combat. Another well-known manual is the Fechtbuch Manuscript I.33 (pronounced "One thirty-three" rather than "Eye-thirty-three") which deals with 13th century German Sword & Buckler skills, and now resides in the collection of the Royal Armouries in Leeds, England. The German Master Johannes Lichtenauer started a whole tradition of masters in the German school of swordsmanship and Fiore likely began with the work of the Germans and then built upon their work as a foundation. There were a number of Bolognese masters, such as Fillipo Vadi, Filippo Bartolomeo Dardi, Guido Antonio di Luca, Antonio Manciolino, Achille Marozzo, Angelo Viggiani dal Montone, and Giovanni Dall’Agocchie. The rapier masters include such masters as Salvator(e) Fabris, Camillo Agrippa, and Ridolfo Capo Ferro. In England George Silver and Joseph Swetnam were well-known fencing masters. Rince an Bhata Uisce Bheatha, a mode of combat better known as Bata which employs the Irish walking stick shillelagh, was invented by the Doyle clan of Ireland, though no one person can be ascribed as its creator. Fiore dei Liberi (ca. ... The sette spade Diagram from the Pisani facsimile (fol. ... The sette spade Diagram from the Pisani facsimile (fol. ... The sette spade Diagram from the Pisani facsimile of the Flos Duellatorum (fol. ... Bold text This article is about the weapon. ... Swiss longsword, 15th or 16th century Look up Sword in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The pollaxe is a type of European polearm which was very popular for foot combat during medieval times. ... For other uses of the word staff, see staff. ... Ancient Greek wrestlers (Pankratiasts) Wrestling is the act of physical engagement between two competitors competing for a physical advantage. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... fol. ... fol. ... A buckler (French bouclier shield, from old French bocle, boucle boss) is a small shield gripped in the fist -- it was generally used in hand-to-hand combat during the Middle Ages, as its size made it poor protection against missile weapons (e. ... Looking up the main stairwell of the armouries The Royal Armouries houses the British national collection of arms and armour. ... sitting fencing master, probably representing Liechtenauer, fol. ... page of Mscr. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Fillipo Vadi (also spelt Philippo Vadi) was a native of Pisa, Italy. ... Antonio Manciolino was a fencing master and author from the Dardi tradition. ... Achille Marozzo (1484 - 1553) was an Italian fencing master teaching in the Dardi or Bolognese tradition. ... Angelo Viggiani was an Italian fencer and author who published his text Lo Schermo in 1575. ... Giovanni Dall’Agocchie was an Italian fencer and author who published his text in 1572. ... Salvator Fabris, one of the most celebrated sword masters of Old Europe, was born in or around Padua, Italy, in 1544. ... Camillo Agrippas portrait, found on his Treatise. ... Ridolfo Capo Ferro was a Maestro of the Most High German Nation who published a fencing manual in Italian in 1610. ... George Silver was a gentleman of England during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who is known for his writings on fencing. ... Joseph Swetnam was a fencing master that published his rapier, backsword, and quarterstaff text in 1617. ... Bata (Bataireacht or Uisce Beatha Bata Rince in Irish) or Irish stickfighting is a traditional martial art of Ireland. ... A shillelagh (commonly pronounced (IPA: , in Irish Gaelic, (IPA: É•ale:lÉ™)) is a wooden club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob on the end, that is associated with Ireland in folklore. ...

Further Reading

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts ( ARMA ) has a good deal of information about the masters as does The Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts which has a good library. More information can be found at many sites including Schola Gladiatoria which has a lot of good information on two main translations of Fiore's work, known as the "Getty" or the Getty Translation, and the Morgan Translation. The most recent periodical available pertaining to WMA has a Web site at: Western Martial Arts Illustrated, and the editorial board includes one of the three gentlemen who coined the term "Western martial arts," as well as other highly respected men in the martial arts arena, like Tony Wolf and Roger Siggs. The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA), is an international educational non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the study and practice of historical fencing and the exploration and promotion of the martial heritage of Europe. ...

Schools and Training

There are number of schools and guilds available to the inquisitive scholar. Note that there are no universal titles or ranking for either teachers or students nor accreditation systems for schools in WMA, therefore any "masters-at-arms" are self-appointed, however well-earned, and any "guilds" are not medieval or renaissance in origin. However, a number of schools make use of the ranking system detailed by the English historical Master, George Silver. These ranks are Scholar (acknowledged student), Free Scholar (advanced student), Provost (instructor, often the most senior student), and Master (the head instructor).

A list of schools: Maintained by the Chicago Swordplay Guild

Canada

• The Academy of European Swordsmanship in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta
• The Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts in Toronto, Ontario

Europe

• Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo
• Dreynschlag located in Vienna, Austria. School for German Longsword and Wrestling
• Schola Gladitoria located in West London, Great Britain
• Academy of Historical Fencing located in South Wales, Great Britain. Specialises in historical fencing with the use of longsword, sword and buckler, arming sword, rapier, polearms and zweihander.
• Nova Scrimia in Italy researches Italian fencing and fighting arts from 1300 to modern time and combine them for modern day-life martial arts. This group published several books on this field, in particular a detailed 1000 page study on "Flos Duellatorum"
• Ochs - Historische Kampfkünste in Munich, Germany
• "Scrimia Schuola D'Armi" is a historical research group that develops protocols of philological studies on traditional fencing and Italian fighting styles International Scrimia Organization - OIS
• School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, teaches the Italian systems (Fiore and Vadi)

United States

• The Association for Historical Fencing
• Schola Saint George studies Fiore
• Tattershall School of Defense which studies Fiore as well as other 14th through 19th century WMA
• Chicago Swordplay Guild
• Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild
• The Cateran Society studies Angelo, Page, Mathewson, the "Highland Officer", and others associated to varying degrees with Scotland