HEMA Alliance - USA

05/25/2025

Transphobia has no place in HEMA.

The HEMA Alliance believes our art should be an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. By building diverse and inclusive communities, we all grow together in pursuit of a common goal.

HEMAA believes that everyone is entitled to respect and dignity. We also believe in fostering a supportive and inclusive environment free from racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, elitism, and entitlement. Maintaining such a space requires actively preventing harmful attitudes, insensitive comments, exclusionary behaviors, and unjust actions.

Every HEMAA member is responsible for upholding our code of conduct, challenging prejudice, and contributing to mutual respect.

We urge our members to remain steadfast during these trying times. We ask everyone who is a member or is thinking of becoming a member to visit our page for information regarding our code of conduct, resources for members to help create a safer environment for students, and to report any harassment: https://www.hemaalliance.com/provisional-code-of-conduct-and-safespace

02/04/2025

04 February 2025

Announcement from HEMA Ratings

Dear HEMA Community,

We are reaching out on behalf of HEMA Ratings to address a recent issue regarding the submission of tournament results. Over the past few months, we've encountered confusion between competitors and event organizers about how tournament results are submitted to HEMA Ratings, and we need your help in clearing this up.
There have been instances where competitors believed their results wouldn’t be submitted to HEMA Ratings, or where organizers mistakenly told competitors they could anonymize their results in our system. To clarify, HEMA Ratings does not support anonymizing tournament results.

To help prevent further misunderstandings, we are asking event organizers to include a clear explanation in their tournament documentation that results will be submitted to HEMA Ratings (when applicable). This is crucial in setting accurate expectations for all participants and avoiding confusion.

For guidance, the German Historical Fencing Federation (DDHF) has recently updated their participation document to include a clear section about HEMA Ratings. While this document is tailored for Germany, we believe it can serve as a helpful example for other organizers.

This updated section includes:

-A clear statement that results will be submitted to HEMA Ratings, and that acknowledging this is mandatory for participating in the tournament.
-Information for participants about how their data is used and how to learn more.
-The possibility for competitors to have their entire profile anonymized, should they wish.
-A clear explanation of the organizer’s responsibility for data management.

We strongly recommend that other event organizers consider using a similar approach to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Please share this message with your fellow HEMA organizers and let us know if you have any questions or need further clarification.
Thank you for helping us improve clarity and transparency in our community!

Best regards,

HEMAA Governing Council

On behalf of
Petter Vegsund Brodin of HEMA Ratings

Send a message to learn more

10/20/2024

05 September 2024

By joint decision of the HEMA Alliance Board of Directors and Governing Council, the general HEMAA GC Elections for the 2024-2026 term will not be held. There were five positions up for election and five eligible candidates.

Aidan Blake and Nickolys Hinton will continue in their roles on the GC. They both do a lot of work behind the scenes and we’re thrilled they decided to run for their third and second terms, respectively.

We're pleased to introduce our new GC members: Donald McKay, Edward Meyers, and DJ Nero!

Donald started HEMA in 2017 with an interest in I.33 and sword and buckler. He has been the president at Vier Blossen Historical Fencing since 2021. He loves the research side of HEMA and the community of people HEMA has brought together.

Edward briefly started HEMA when he co-founded a high school club back in 2009. Since then, he has trained with Dawn Duelists in Edinburgh, Scotland before taking a break for law school. He now trains with Black Cat Historical Fencing in Rhode Island.

DJ Nero has been studying HEMA proper since 2011 but has always had a fascination with swords and blades, slaying his first “monster” as a child with a stick of some sort. His parent club is Sword to Sword in Houston, but he was also formally adopted through blood, might and glory into Nachreisen (Formerly known as Ordo HEMA). He is a proud member of SHFL (Southern Historical Fencing League), a non-profit association with multiple clubs throughout the South. Outside of HEMA, DJ has nearly 30 years of martial arts experience, having dabbled at some level from Judo, Taekwondo, Karate and other Eastern arts. He is primarily an IT Admin, web developer &/or code scripter by trade during the day and a professional DJ by night. Throughout the HEMA-sphere he is known as “The King of Hugs” which if you meet him, you will nearly immediately understand why.

The HEMAA and the HEMA community are grateful for the work Jordan Hinckley and Michael Thompson have done during their time on the GC. Their efforts both behind the scenes and in public-facing roles have helped immensely and we wish them well as they move on to other endeavors in the HEMA community.

The GC handles the day-to-day operations of the HEMAA. This mostly includes answering questions regarding membership, policies, insurance, and event, promotional, and research support. Additionally, the GC works with the Curriculum Council to shape its programs, handles updates to the website and Club Finder, arranges discount codes with vendors, community outreach initiatives, and meetings with other martial arts and martial sports organizations to see how we can each best support and learn from each other.

To continue on our core mission, we need volunteers to help with these initiatives. Please get involved. The HEMAA is an organization tasked with providing services to the HEMA community. It is whatever we make of it. Volunteer for a project and help guide our course.

Regards,

HEMA Alliance Governing Council and Board of Directors

09/10/2024

"If you’ve ever thought about starting a kids HEMA class, you’ve probably already looked at the basics like insurance and lesson plans. You probably even have a few students in mind for your class. But what can you do to ensure that your program lasts?"

Excerpt from: Four Tips for a Successful HEMA Youth Program
By Sean Ellis
Read more here: https://www.hemaalliance.com/kids-classes

Photo courtesy of Dan Halliday

09/02/2024

Insurance, and What It's For

“One of the most basic elements of operating a HEMA club in the United States is that the club should carry insurance. “You need insurance” is often repeated as a truism, and indeed it is something of a red flag.”

Read more here:
https://www.hemaalliance.com/insurance

Photo by Janna Datahan
Event: Salt Lake Open 2023

08/23/2024

"Fighting with a sword is inherently dangerous. Although serious injuries in HEMA are rare, they are not unheard of. Whether you are planning a fencing group of your own, or getting involved in leadership decisions at an existing club, the safety of your people should be your top priority."

Get more information here:
https://www.hemaalliance.com/training-safely

Photo by Ian Crowe

08/16/2024

What Kind of HEMA Club Do You Want?

Our "How to HEMA" series has a helpful guide on how to build the kind of club and community you want. You can find the article here:
https://www.hemaalliance.com/what-kind-of-club

Photo from HEMAA club member True Edge Academy of Swordsmanship

07/23/2024

Wondering where to start with HEMA gear? We got you: https://www.hemaalliance.com/club-gear

Photo credit: Ian Crowe at Iron Gate Exhibition Spring 2024

06/11/2024

Confused as to what gear is required by the HEMAA insurance policy for the activity you have planned? Check out our Interactive Gear Check App!

https://hemaa-ic.github.io/Gear-Check-App/

03/07/2024

Hello HEMA Alliance Members!

It’s already March and we have a number of updates and announcements we wanted to share! Find everything on this post at:
https://www.hemaalliance.com/

How to HEMA

The HEMAA recently launched How to HEMA to our website’s Resources section! This collection of articles and guides were written by experienced HEMAists who consulted with club runners, senior instructors, and veterans to compile information, experiences, and best practices. They are written for people who already know what historical European martial arts is as a hobby, and are looking for more information on either starting their own club, or developing the club they already are a part of. This is an ongoing project!

If you are interested in contributing to this growing resource, please reach out to Sigmund ([email protected]), who we thank for championing this project!

Membership Tracking for Affiliate Clubs

One of the requirements for HEMAA Affiliated clubs to be covered by the HEMAA insurance policy is for all of your active club members to maintain an active HEMAA membership. Ensuring compliance with this is the responsibility of the affiliate clubs. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished using the TidyHQ platform you are already part of! Please see the HEMAA Membership Tracking for Clubs resource for details.

HEMAA Event Support

The HEMA Alliance believes that events, from tournaments to workshops to exhibitions, are important to raising awareness of HEMA with the modern public. We offer support to events that align with our goals and promote HEMA as a legitimate set of martial arts to the public.The governing council votes on a support budget each year, and allocates funds based on availability and event need.

Event Calendar

The HEMAA provides an event calendar as a service to the global HEMA community. Not all events are HEMAA supported or run by affiliates. Though we do have a GC member actively adding events pulled from other sources to the calendar, you can also add them directly.

Club Finder

Another serice provided to the global HEMA community, is our Club Finder. This resource will be getting it's yearly overhaul over the next two months where we'll reach out to ALL of the listed clubs to identify incorrect contact information and remove defunct clubs. If you run a new HEMAA Affiliated Club, please fill out the from in the link to have your club added!

There are some other big announcements on the horizon, so stay tuned! If you have any questions, ideas, concerns, or would like to volunteer for a project, please reach out the the Governing Council at [email protected]

The HEMA Alliance supports the Historical European Martial Arts community across the world.

08/28/2023

LAST CALL!!!! Only 4 more days in the HEMAA GC Nomination period! Nominations close August 31st! If you're interested in joining the Governing Council, check your e-mail associated with your HEMA Alliance Membership! Self Nomination Form can be found in your recent e-mails from the HEMA Alliance!

08/25/2023

One of the benefits HEMA Alliance members have is our vendor discounts. Our vendors give all active members a discount when you use the discount codes that have been e-mailed to the active TidyHQ e-mail. The HEMA Alliance would like to highlight our vendors as a thanks and will be sharing a vendor every week.

This week's vendor highlight is HEMA Strong (https://www.hemastrong.com/
). HEMA Strong is a community of fitness professionals with the goal of getting you in the shape you want to be. HEMA Strong is offering HEMAA members a discount when you sign up for fitness or nutrition coaching. Chuck Gross and Michael Adams, along with the community they've built, will help you with your fitness goals.

Courage and strength make your enemies hesitate