\u00abBodies at Work\u00bb
\n\u2014Three HEMA Workshops by Karin Verelst
\n(making sense of the Sources and a lot of Fun!)<\/p>\n
27 – 28 january 2024
\nCompostela – Galiza<\/p>\n
Hosted by Arte do Combate
\nwww.artedocombate.gal
\ninfo@artedocombate.gal
\n+34 622 26 26 42<\/p>\n
With the support of AGEA Editora
\nwww.ageaeditora.com<\/p>\n
==================
\nBIO: KARIN VERELST
\n==================<\/p>\n
Karin Verelst, a biologist and philosopher who teaches at RITCS School of Arts and Brussels Free University (VUB), practices Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and martial arts per se since more than two decennia. She was founding president of the Belgian historical fencing Federation SBSN, and holds at present the IFHEMA (international historical fencing federation) presidency. Karin\u2019s main practice focus is on medieval longsword and unarmed combat (\u201cringen\u201d). Her further martial experience includes Olympic boxing, Tai Jutsu and Shaolin Kung Fu. She moreover acquired the basic professional qualification of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (BADC) in 2016. She also followed several digital workshops with the well known fight choreographer Tony Wolf. She developed a comprehensive Self Defence program based on her martial experience, focusing especially (though not exclusively) on the needs of women. Finally, Karin is active as a researcher and scholar in HEMA-Studies. She published (together with Daniel Jaquet and Timothy Dawson) a scholarly reference work, Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books \u2014 Tradition and Transmission of Martial Arts in Europe, published by Brill, in 2016, and curated with Roberto Gotti and An Smets an international symposium and exposition at the Museum of Martial Art at Brescia in 2022.<\/p>\n
===============================
\nWORKSHOP I: Abrazare and Ringen
\nWorking with three stable triangles in basic throws and take downs from the Abrazare and Ringen curriculum
\n===============================<\/p>\n
The transmission of the eldest European fight systems through concise and secretive manuals destined for experienced practitioners poses specific problems to their interpretation as a system. Many basic issues, like footwork and body posture, are passed over quickly or not mentioned at all. This could give the modern observer the wrong impression that Liechtenauer’s and Fiore’s fight systems lack sound foundations and are merely heuristic catalogs of more or less effective techniques.<\/p>\n
We shall see that this is wrong: the techniques in Liechtenauer’s Ringen and Fiore’s Abrazare betray a keen awareness of body mechanics, and specificially of the use of planes and axes of motion in both the set up and the efficient execution of techniques, and independently of the question whether those insights were implictly acquired by students or explictly shown in the context of oral teaching by example. We shall revisit some some techniques to illustrate this point of view, and demonstrate that modern approaches to the teaching of ancient combat curricula can profit from using modern biomechanical insights, for the simple reason that these insights are incorporated in them already at least implicitly.<\/p>\n
Our workshop will deal with some basic throws and take downs, as well as their counters, from both the Ringen and Abrazare curriculum. We shall show how they can all be understood and learned effectively by taking the existence of three stable, transversal triangles along the longitudinal axis of the body into account, as wel as of the displacement of this axis through space. Executing a technique comes down to breaking the symmetry (structure) of either of these in the position of an opponent, which changes the postion of his central line and thus presents an opportunity to execute the technique. As a side-effect, force is hardly needed to execute the technique successfully.<\/p>\n
============================
\nWORKSHOP II: Ringen am Swert
\n\u2014 Wrestling applications to armed Combat
\n============================<\/p>\n
This workshop is the natural extension of the former one. Interestingly, the same structural requirements which hold for unarmed combat remain directly valid for two-handed longsword, al be it that the difference in distance has to be taken into account. This is especially true for ringen am swert \u2014 when we close the distance to our opponent and the exchange of blows is not possible anymore. There are different ways of dealing with this situation: going to halbswert and using your blade as a lever, using the blade of the opponent to destabilise his or her body, or sacrificing your own blade and going for full ringen.<\/p>\n
In all techniques the stable triangles will prove important; we will deal with some examples. The biomechanical situation changes drastically when shifting to one-handed weapons and techniques, because the orientation of the relevant planes of symmetry changes. When these changes are taken into account, the same principles however hold. We shall only indicate this in the one- handed case, because that subject is material for a separate workshop.<\/p>\n
====================================
\nWORKSHOP III:
\nWorking with the Female Body in HEMA
\n====================================<\/p>\n
Women (and some men) face a lot of obstacles when they want to practice HEMA (or other martial arts) on a high level. Even when physical by nature, many of those are not biological in origin and can be remedied. culture shapes bodies and the identities that go with them. It defines and imposes the way we sit, stand, move, look, behave, touch. It even shapes to a large extend the body\u2019s physical shape and capacities, way beyond biology. Cultural norms on diet, sports and medical treatment influence to a large extend seemingly objective characteristics like body length or muscle development. Especially gender differences are strongly amplified and ingrained from the moment infants are born. Under the age of 13, there is no biologically determined physiological difference in development of capacity between the sexes at all \u2014 so everything that presents itself as such before that age is 100% cultural \u2014 nevertheless the physical impact is very real. From early on women are trained to behave in a very particular, unnatural, constrained way. As a consequence, they lack self-confidence and learn to expect less. They do not know “how to take the space”; ideas and expectations with respect to behaviour shape things like body pose, knee position, shoulder strength, and the mental incapacity to strike back when stricken at to a surprisingly high degree. In general women are, as young adults, not up to the level they could be \u2014 whatever their biological potential. This makes them vulnerable to abuse and creates an atmosphere of insecurity around everything they can achieve or are allowed to do in the public sphere as well as in their private lives. We tend to be unaware of this, because the cultural codification of bodily submission is precisely that it is biological in origin. The emancipation of the female body has yet to start. This, however, is not true for women only. Some young men and especially young non-binary people often suffer similar impediments, and would profit from a liberation process as well. It is the goal of this workshop to make HEMA practitioners and trainers aware of these problems women face and provide tools to tackle them in a hands on, practical manner, within the context of a normal training setting.<\/p>\n
This is a hands-on workshop in which we learn to spot problems in posture, biomechanics and attitude, and learn to deal with them on a practical level in standard training contexts. The bulk of the workshop focuses on ringen and other forms of unarmed combat, but we shall work on some examples with longsword as well. We learn how to use warming-up exercises to help people to work with each others\u2019 body in a confident and respectful way, and learn to deal with the psychomechanics of fear and self-confidence. People from all genders are welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karin Verelst, a biologist and philosopher who teaches at RITCS School of Arts and Brussels Free University (VUB), practices Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and martial arts per se since more than two decennia. She was founding president of the Belgian historical fencing Federation SBSN, and holds at present the IFHEMA (international historical fencing federation) presidency. Karin\u2019s main practice focus is on medieval longsword and unarmed combat (\u201cringen\u201d). Her further martial experience includes Olympic boxing, Tai Jutsu and Shaolin Kung Fu. She moreover acquired the basic professional qualification of the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (BADC) in 2016. She also followed several digital workshops with the well known fight choreographer Tony Wolf. She developed a comprehensive Self Defence program based on her martial experience, focusing especially (though not exclusively) on the needs of women. Finally, Karin is active as a researcher and scholar in HEMA-Studies. She published (together with Daniel Jaquet and Timothy Dawson) a scholarly reference work, Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books \u2014 Tradition and Transmission of Martial Arts in Europe, published by Brill, in 2016, and curated with Roberto Gotti and An Smets an international symposium and exposition at the Museum of Martial Art at Brescia in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[351],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-4990","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-uncategorized","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","first","outofstock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-variable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/4990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=4990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}