Historic Knightly Physical Training

Why Historical Training Matters

When I first started HEMA Strong, one of my dream ideas/projects was to run a seminar or event based on historical training methods because about once a month someone in the group asks: “How do we set up our physical training like that of a historical knight?”

Why does that matter? Why would we?

I did some initial research to figure out how and why I might do this, and had a few conversations with Arturo Camargo. We talked about his project and some modern analogs to historical training, things like Strongman, Highland Games, and specifically the Swiss living traditions of Steinstossen (rock throwing) and Schwingen/Hosenlupf (folk wrestling).

If you are looking for a good starting point and summary of historical training, please check out Arturo’s article on HROARR: https://hroarr.com/article/take-great-pains-in-your-knightly-practices-a-brief-review-of-medieval-and-renaissance-training-methodologies/

Then, as fate would have it, earlier in 2019 Charles Lin mentioned that he actually wanted to do this since I hadn’t done anything beyond have a few conversations about it. This made me incredibly happy because it was one less thing for me to have on my to do list, and because Charles isn’t a personal trainer, and is thus free from the modern training biases that I know I have. In my opinion, Charles’  “specialty” is doing research, experimentation, and asking questions in order to make the history aspect of HEMA far more accessible to everyone.

I probably would have set this event up like a race or competition with keeping score and recording distances, times, etc. Instead, there were teams, and an open discussion about what each person’s strengths were. In retrospect, I’m glad it was done this way as the team aspect was one of my favorite parts!  Go red team!

Event Summary

The Historic Knightly Physical Training event took place on October 13th, 2019, outside of the Washington, DC area. We got started at 10am, and anyone arriving late was sentenced to 20-40 burpees. There were about 25-30 people total, including some staff.

After a brief introduction and explanation of how the day would break down (2 hours of training, lunch, 2 hours of training, then discussion and free time). I believe this was based on a historical account of training for a judicial duel, minus the discussion/free time. We were formed into 3 groups of 5-6 people. The idea was that would be training together as a unit and that were not in competition with other groups or each other. 

Training 1 was a weighted ruck/run. Some people had weighted vests, others had mail, and each time were given assorted and varying objects like stones, tires, car rims, palettes, logs, water barrels, bags of soil, etc. The idea was to keep a brisk pace and work with your team to share the load, and trade off when necessary.

I personally wore a 25lb weighted vest for most of the events. 

Training 2 was sprinting as a team, similar to shuttle runs in basketball. As a team, we ran to an object (wooden wall)  touched it, and ran back. One of the staff members noticed that the teams tended to go into formations, either a v shaped, or snake, both following the person running point. We also added a 2nd object to run to, a tree, to effectively double the distance. 

Training 3 was learning to do a long jump, with no specific emphasis on form, just going as far as you can and figuring out what worked vs what didn’t.

Training 4 was a wall up and over, the wall being about 5ft tall. 

After that, we combined the long jump and wall up and over into a circuit, with the goal being that we do them together. After the initial wall and jump training, we sent the people that were just OK at getting over alone first, while the best wall jumpers helped those that needed assistance. This way, we all essentially arrived on the other side of the wall as a team. Fun note, I got stuck on the wall, and my teammates pushed me over and off of the wall. Thankfully, I remember my safe fall training! 

Then, we finished out the pre-lunch 2 hour training block with Tim Hall teaching ringen drills.

Lunch was a series of rations given to a team. We had to distribute the food amongst ourselves in whatever way we decided.  The food was beef jerky, soft cheese, and hearty bread of various types (noble vs peasant breads). 

After lunch and some socializing, the teams were called back into action with a short weighted jog to warm up and help digestion. 

The second half of the day (2 hour block) was broken into 3 stations: javelin, sling, and stone throwing.

My team (RED TEAM) did javelin first. Our goal was to throw the javelin for accuracy a short distance. Getting the point to stick mattered as far as our team considering it a good throw or not, compared to modern javelin throwing where this doesn’t matter and it’s scored for distance. We played with aiming at objects closer into order to ratchet further objects with better form. We also added things like throwing the javelin with a running step, using a shield in our off hand, two javelins, one after another. Others teams experimented with a leader calling out who would throw in rapid succession to keep javelins in the air constantly.

My group next moved to sling, using both a regular simple sling and long sling on a stick. This is the oldest human weapons. We used tennis balls, but others were experimenting with heavier objects and the sling seemed to work better and be more accurate the heavier it was. For example, a clementine orange was said to be easier to use and aim than a tennis ball. Even if you weren’t great at the simple sling, the sling on a stick requires no real effort to be effective in aim and power.

Then, my team moved to stone throwing. There were stones of various sizes and weights, although they were not weighed. Some were rough, while others smooth. We experimented with throwing them for accuracy into set of tires on the ground. We also tried to pick them up with our finger grip and lift them one handed. Some people were pressing the stone overhead with their non dominant hand. 

Lastly, were some final challenges not done in our original team, things like climbing a ladder while wearing a weight vest or mail as described in Boucinant, mounting a giant tire via a leap just like mounting a horse, throwing a tire into the air over a tree limb, and then archery.

I wasn’t able to stay around for the free play as I had a long drive home to pick up my kids, but it was an amazing and tiring day spent in good company.

I never really trained in a weighted vest before except for some low intensity hiking so it threw me off a bit as some things we did were higher intensity. My lower back was bothering me so I wasn’t super happy with how I did, but I wasn’t there to compete with anyone, just to show up, learn, and had fun, and I certainly did that!

More pictures available via Historic Knightly Physical Training https://www.facebook.com/events/504968667013222/

Wrapping it up

One of the biggest takeaways for me came from a discussion that James Reilly, an instructor from Wisconsin who traveled all this way to take part, had with the group. James is working on a more detailed article about this, but his general thesis is that fencing isn’t something done in isolation, but it’s context is that it’s just one of the many ways that a knight would have trained for their way of life. And that by asking if HEMA is a sport or martial art, we are missing the point, and asking the wrong question.

Some of the common ways that a knight would have trained for their way of life were

“throwing апd pushing stones,

dancing апd jumping,

fencing апd wrestling,

Running and swimming…etc”

Again, their training supported their way of life. Why does that matter? Modern fitness has this context for many people as well. It prepares us to do the things we love to do in life, but to do them better. It is surprising how little things can change even with the application of modern sport science. Yes, modern sport science gives us the critical components of progressive overload, specificity (fitness domains and how to best train them) and periodization (temporarily focusing on one goal at the exclusion of others that don’t synergize well), but look at these similarities:

Historical Knightly Training: Throwing and Pushing Stones, Jumping, Running

HEMA Strong Coaching & Training: Throwing medicine balls, explosive jumping, deadlifts, weight lifting, Running/Jogging/Sprints, Bodyweight training, Farmer’s Walks

New Army Combat Fitness Test: Medicine Ball Throw, Deadlift, Pushups, Sled Drag/Push/Carry, Timed Run 

So, the tools and methods have slightly changed, but the basics are still there! There you have it. Historical knights, modern warriors, and combat athletes (like us!) all benefit the most from similar training methods!

If your training doesn’t include some of these things, and your goal is to train like a historical knight, and/or improve your fencing performance, it sounds like you might be missing out on something that you may likely enjoy, and get great benefit from!

Want to hold your own Historic Knightly Training event? 

Good news! Charles Lin will be writing up some guidelines soon. I’ll replace this text with the link once it’s available and also share it on the blog and group!