same here. try find an alternative like kalis ...

themonkeywarrior111 I have searched for alternatives. But sadly, sportsfencing is literally the only thing anywhere near... (And since I have already done that, I'm a bit buggered.)

Master of the Sea bummer. well you can always wiggle a stick and do solo drills :)

Definitely do solo drills if you can-and there's a bunch of great youtube channels that showcase stuff to practice. And you can try starting up your own club or study group or get at least one partner and do something with them. And sport fencing may be less fun at times but can be a great asset-great footwork & tempo & general athleticism advise to be learned there.

And there's really looots of things online(these two links are primarily mostly lists of what you can do+some general advice historicalfightingguide.tumblr.com/beginnerresource historicalfightingguide.tumblr.com/longsword ) Also go to facebook groups and ask for advice-The HEMA Alliance and HEMA International Discussion are great for that. HEMA Hacks too,especially if you're trying to do something with low amounts of money.

+Max Kaspersson I've always wondered about that too. Surely the techniques were discovered at some point in history by experimenting, right? So maybe one more way of reconstructing Historical martial arts could be attempts at discovering something that works well that isn't in any historical source that's been found yet?

+Max Kaspersson To an extent, that's what they said they did here

There are a few different ways of thinking on this and it depends on what your purpose is. * Some people think that learning the old masters techniques is the best because they were doing this to live and not for fun so the cost of a bad form was at a much higher cost. * Some believe in as you said extending the old masters to meet current needs. For example in many major competitions different things that are mixtures of styles to make something newish. * Some study for historical purposes only and don't really which is about authentic which means extending it doesn't serve them a purpose. It was about understanding more than skill. I am sure there are more I have not even considered but ones above are what I see most often. One thing that is important to understand is the old manuals are not all that clear so a lot of things are people's interpretations of the manuals. This means in some ways they are messing with what the manual says and adapting it to fit best for themselves. This can then turn into a tradition within schools so that the main trainers interpretation because the way he/she trains it and then the practitioners start to do it that way too which might be a different interpretation from someone else.

#3 is the worst option. It offers the least traction (highest slip potential) and is most likely to result in stress or injury on the joints. As for 1 and 2, try both and see what works for you. I tend towards #1, but "many" is about two steps before I'm back in a neutral stance.

You can try and start something yourself-get a study partner or group or start up a club. You can do a lot simply doing solo drills. And there's lots of things online(these two links are primarily mostly lists of what you can do+some general advice historicalfightingguide.tumblr.com/beginnerresource historicalfightingguide.tumblr.com/longsword )

Also go to facebook groups and ask for advice-The HEMA Alliance and HEMA International Discussion are great for that. HEMA Hacks too,especially if you're trying to do something with low amounts of money.

Michelle Dhyana it's called a dussack

What's wrong with bare feet? At my HEMA club we aren't aloud to wear street shoes because it is bad for the late and gets dirt everywhere. I don't have any gym shoes, and I don't want to train in socks because they slip, so I go bare foot.