Wednesday HEMA: Now on Thursdays! No. 2

So, my plan to do a regular GIF of HEMA techniques being implemented in sparring or competition was disrupted right away by some traveling, but here it is, a day late! In the context of recent discussion on takedowns in HEMA tournaments, here's a GIF of a fight between Arto Fama and Simon van Gemert. It's a slightly longish one, as it involves a somewhat extended grappling exchange preceding the takedown, and I wanted to get it all in one shot. It's also a shame that I couldn't get the GIF to run entirely smoothly, but you get the gist I'm sure. Hopefully I'll get better at making these things in future posts.

Notice here that Arto clearly has no interest in engaging in the bind, striking merely as a diversion in order to get Simon to raise his arms up to parry. As soon as Simon does this, Arto immediately discards his weapon and drops levels for a full grip around Simon's waist. Simon is somewhat hard to take down, however, and Arto switches to an underhook in order to pull Simon over the leg and land in top position.

Now, I don't want to make this a political post per se, but what I do want to close this post with is saying that grappling, throws and takedowns in my mind at least clearly have a place in competitive HEMA, and this is an example of how it can be executed properly, with full intensity and intent.