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The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts
The warriors, knights and duellists of old depended on their skill at arms for their lives.You can learn their techniques and tactics too.From renowned swordsman and teacher Guy Windsor comes an indispensable resource for anyone interested in martial arts, swordsmanship, and history.Through this book Guy will teach you how to train your mind and body to become an expert in historical martial arts. It includes the seven principles of mastery, considers the ethics of martial arts, and goes into detail about the process of recreating historical martial arts from written sources.On the practical side, Guy explains how to develop your skills, and lays out the path for students to become teachers, covering the basics of safe training, looking after your body, and even starting your own training group and teaching basic classes.An accessible, motivating read that includes many suggestions for further study, including courses, books and other resources, this book sets out to answer every question about historical martial arts you may have. Note that this is not a training manual for a specific it provides the foundations for every style.Your journey starts here. You decide where it ends.
344 pages, Paperback
Published April 6, 2018
33 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Guy Windsor
54 books47 followersDr. Guy Windsor is a world-renowned instructor and a pioneering researcher of medieval and renaissance martial arts. He has been teaching the Art of Arms full-time since founding The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki, Finland, in 2001. His day job is finding and analysing historical swordsmanship treatises, figuring out the systems they represent, creating a syllabus from the treatises for his students to train with, and teaching the system to his students all over the world. Guy is the author of numerous classic books about the art of swordsmanship and has consulted on swordfighting game design and stage combat. He developed the card game, Audatia, based on Fiore dei Liberi's Art of Arms, his primary field of study. In 2018 Edinburgh University awarded him a PhD by Research Publications for his work recreating historical combat systems. When not studying medieval and renaissance swordsmanship or writing books Guy can be found in his shed woodworking or spending time with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 7, 2021
Original posted to blog: https://c0d5579.blogspot.com/2021/03/...
Guy Windsor's "The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts" is a useful addition to any swordsman's bookshelf - not merely because Windsor himself is a world-class swordsman, but because one of the things he does well in the book is break down how to develop a training program, both at the individual and club level, from developing a core drill to developing a whole curriculum of instruction.
The book is divided into three components. First is "Theory," which deals primarily with how to choose a historical text, how to analyze both an original and a translation, and a framework for what matters in the text. Windsor, as he discusses in his Fiore Translation Project and its associated From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, tends to build a three-part context - historical, fencing, and martial. Thus, an outside-context text is likely not to inform what you know about a system, a text that is written primarily about rapiers is probably of little to no use bare-handed or with a longsword, and a text that is written primarily aimed at duelists is probably of limited use on a battlefield. The theory section also contained a great deal of information about fencing (in this case, "fencing" means "dealing with swordcraft") theory in general, which may be too high a level for a casual reader but, after the whole book, is worth a re-read to see what you have picked up.
Where the book is at its very best is on the boundary line between its theory and practice sections. The idea of creating a core drill that distills what the student has to know out of a system is a critical lesson, and the way Windsor develops this theme into the four-part drill is something I literally went from book to back yard to implement in the same day, it was that fundamental and immediate a lesson. Establishing that his training process worked as advertised was a key component in selling his case as a trainer.
I draw this in comparison to another recent read, Paul Porter's The Bellatrix System, which was my "historical" text for evaluating whether Windsor was on the right track. Windsor's emphasis on process over product made sense of much of Porter's work; where Porter spent a lot of time talking about variations on a single shot, for instance, Windsor's four-part drill adapted very rapidly to accommodate all of the variations I could throw at it without bogging down in the minutiae of the variations the way Porter did. Windsor also spends a great deal of time on the subject of controlling variables and "tuning" in a way that, from my own experience, adapts quickly to multiple skill levels on the field, a subject I wish Porter had spent more time on, as I know he has a wealth of knowledge on the subject - but they were books with a different purpose.
The other area that I found Windsor was absolutely spot-on with was his discussion of how to establish a training group. In my case, I just draft my two older children, and we go out in the back yard several times a week and run slow drills until "slow" is in the eye of the beholder; most people need more work in finding training partners. His method is basically as follows: Think of the problem you want to solve; now think of the problems you have to solve to solve that problem; now solve them, bit by bit, until you're running at full speed over the entire thing. This approach is both how he has the drill section organized, and how he has the "how to start a club" section organized. It is not "here are the providers that I recommend" or "here are some resources," but "here are the likely issues you will encounter, and here are some approaches to solving them." This is, in my experience, much more likely to produce an effective and sustainable solution to most problems than a prescriptive approach.
The weakest area of the book, in my estimation, was the "attributes" section - remember, Theory, Practice, Attributes. This read much more like "this is what worked for Guy Windsor," which is a valuable perspective, and it did a good job of selling why he believed his approach worked, but at the same time, when discussing physical attributes, it is impossible to write a book of three hundred pages and give useful advice to all comers. He did three things effectively in this section: first, he sold me on his fundamental humility and honesty; second, he described breathing exercises and their importance both to him and to martial arts in general in sufficient detail to get the average fighter down the road; third, he gave copious in-line references for areas where people might wish to do their own research, and encouraged that research. I would have preferred the references also be collected at the end of the chapter or section, or even in the (excellent) references section at the end of the book; pulling them from the middle of an article breaks flow.
There is much more I could say on this book, but what the average reader of reviews needs to know is this: Windsor has a very sound grasp of historical swordsmanship, how to teach historical swordsmanship, and how to develop an entire program of instruction. In that regard, the book is exceptionally solid, and while it is not itself a fencing manual, fechtbuch, or even philosophical text, I would consider this a worthy addition to any martial arts library for what he has to say about instruction, program development, and how to mentor new instructors. I would go so far as to call it foundational - as in an entire structure could be developed based largely on what Windsor has to say in this book.
Guy Windsor's "The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts" is a useful addition to any swordsman's bookshelf - not merely because Windsor himself is a world-class swordsman, but because one of the things he does well in the book is break down how to develop a training program, both at the individual and club level, from developing a core drill to developing a whole curriculum of instruction.
The book is divided into three components. First is "Theory," which deals primarily with how to choose a historical text, how to analyze both an original and a translation, and a framework for what matters in the text. Windsor, as he discusses in his Fiore Translation Project and its associated From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, tends to build a three-part context - historical, fencing, and martial. Thus, an outside-context text is likely not to inform what you know about a system, a text that is written primarily about rapiers is probably of little to no use bare-handed or with a longsword, and a text that is written primarily aimed at duelists is probably of limited use on a battlefield. The theory section also contained a great deal of information about fencing (in this case, "fencing" means "dealing with swordcraft") theory in general, which may be too high a level for a casual reader but, after the whole book, is worth a re-read to see what you have picked up.
Where the book is at its very best is on the boundary line between its theory and practice sections. The idea of creating a core drill that distills what the student has to know out of a system is a critical lesson, and the way Windsor develops this theme into the four-part drill is something I literally went from book to back yard to implement in the same day, it was that fundamental and immediate a lesson. Establishing that his training process worked as advertised was a key component in selling his case as a trainer.
I draw this in comparison to another recent read, Paul Porter's The Bellatrix System, which was my "historical" text for evaluating whether Windsor was on the right track. Windsor's emphasis on process over product made sense of much of Porter's work; where Porter spent a lot of time talking about variations on a single shot, for instance, Windsor's four-part drill adapted very rapidly to accommodate all of the variations I could throw at it without bogging down in the minutiae of the variations the way Porter did. Windsor also spends a great deal of time on the subject of controlling variables and "tuning" in a way that, from my own experience, adapts quickly to multiple skill levels on the field, a subject I wish Porter had spent more time on, as I know he has a wealth of knowledge on the subject - but they were books with a different purpose.
The other area that I found Windsor was absolutely spot-on with was his discussion of how to establish a training group. In my case, I just draft my two older children, and we go out in the back yard several times a week and run slow drills until "slow" is in the eye of the beholder; most people need more work in finding training partners. His method is basically as follows: Think of the problem you want to solve; now think of the problems you have to solve to solve that problem; now solve them, bit by bit, until you're running at full speed over the entire thing. This approach is both how he has the drill section organized, and how he has the "how to start a club" section organized. It is not "here are the providers that I recommend" or "here are some resources," but "here are the likely issues you will encounter, and here are some approaches to solving them." This is, in my experience, much more likely to produce an effective and sustainable solution to most problems than a prescriptive approach.
The weakest area of the book, in my estimation, was the "attributes" section - remember, Theory, Practice, Attributes. This read much more like "this is what worked for Guy Windsor," which is a valuable perspective, and it did a good job of selling why he believed his approach worked, but at the same time, when discussing physical attributes, it is impossible to write a book of three hundred pages and give useful advice to all comers. He did three things effectively in this section: first, he sold me on his fundamental humility and honesty; second, he described breathing exercises and their importance both to him and to martial arts in general in sufficient detail to get the average fighter down the road; third, he gave copious in-line references for areas where people might wish to do their own research, and encouraged that research. I would have preferred the references also be collected at the end of the chapter or section, or even in the (excellent) references section at the end of the book; pulling them from the middle of an article breaks flow.
There is much more I could say on this book, but what the average reader of reviews needs to know is this: Windsor has a very sound grasp of historical swordsmanship, how to teach historical swordsmanship, and how to develop an entire program of instruction. In that regard, the book is exceptionally solid, and while it is not itself a fencing manual, fechtbuch, or even philosophical text, I would consider this a worthy addition to any martial arts library for what he has to say about instruction, program development, and how to mentor new instructors. I would go so far as to call it foundational - as in an entire structure could be developed based largely on what Windsor has to say in this book.
December 23, 2024
Giving it three stars might be a little harsh on my part. It isn't that I disliked the book, or that there's anything wrong with it for what it is--rather, it turned out to be not quite what I expected.
I'm a beginner, but have already joined a club and taken some lessons. This means that sections of the book dedicated to learning how to teach lessons, how to start your own club, etc. aren't all that relevant to me at this point. Another section of the book is dedicated to sleep, nutrition, and conditioning--and while relevant and helpful, a lot of it comes down to recommending other books. There's nothing wrong with this, and I'm sure they're beneficial to read, but it feels a lot like reading a selection of articles on a website.
While it's true that the book doesn't focus on any particular weapon or tradition, the author's general focus on Fiore and other Italian sources in his overall work is clear. This makes a lot of sense (it is his overall focus, after all) and isn't really a weakness, but as a beginner who has mainly been learning German longsword so far, I do notice when Italian terms are used in most of the examples. Again, not a problem--just means I look them up as I go.
I'm a beginner, but have already joined a club and taken some lessons. This means that sections of the book dedicated to learning how to teach lessons, how to start your own club, etc. aren't all that relevant to me at this point. Another section of the book is dedicated to sleep, nutrition, and conditioning--and while relevant and helpful, a lot of it comes down to recommending other books. There's nothing wrong with this, and I'm sure they're beneficial to read, but it feels a lot like reading a selection of articles on a website.
While it's true that the book doesn't focus on any particular weapon or tradition, the author's general focus on Fiore and other Italian sources in his overall work is clear. This makes a lot of sense (it is his overall focus, after all) and isn't really a weakness, but as a beginner who has mainly been learning German longsword so far, I do notice when Italian terms are used in most of the examples. Again, not a problem--just means I look them up as I go.
April 27, 2018
Great HEMA book for beginners for sure. Useful for its overview of the historical records alone, this work also contains lots of advice to benefit anyone planning a fitness or martial arts training regime. Also of note is the information on creating and teaching HEMA curriculum.
A little obsessed with breathing exercises for my taste, but otherwise a helpful work!
A little obsessed with breathing exercises for my taste, but otherwise a helpful work!
November 11, 2018
I enjoyed reading this and I am sure that it will help me with my HEMA journey. Clear and concise, chapters are well put together and there is a wealth of information from how to teach HEMA all the way though to diet and sleeping. Some sections I enjoyed more than others but overall a well put together manual.
June 19, 2019
A good, broad overview of different aspects of swordsmanship as a martial art with all necessary links to sources for further study.
I never took martial arts books seriously before, but this one is so well researched that i had to change my mind.
I never took martial arts books seriously before, but this one is so well researched that i had to change my mind.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews