We have collected and written some useful resources for club leaders, instructors, event organisers, and general HEMA enthusiasts. Here you can find our organisation’s official documentation, as well as some general advice.
In time we may also add some links to external websites that we believe are useful.
Coronavirus updates
Please see our most up to date summary of our understanding of the rules and guidelines surrounding the reopening of HEMA clubs in the current coronavirus situation:
Coronavirus updates and summaries
BMABA Return to Play policy and AHA summary (access for affiliated club instructors only; please contact us if you think you should be able to access this but cannot)
Guidelines for the safe practice of HEMA during Covid-19
Policies and paperwork
We have been updating our various policies and paperwork, so that our documentation is more easily available and also much more relevant to our organisation and to our affiliated clubs today.
If you are looking for information about our insurance for insurance for affiliated clubs, this is where we have published our most up-to-date guidance.
Affiliating your club to the Academy
For several years, we have offered clubs the opportunity to affiliate to our organisation and to receive a variety of membership benefits. If you are interested in more information about this, please see our affiliation page.
If you are looking for information about our insurance for insurance for affiliated clubs, this is where we have published our most up-to-date guidance.
Video training courses
We have published a series of video training courses that you can purchase to work through in your own time and at your leisure:
- Flourishes for German longsword
- Longsword warming up & technical exercises
- Introduction to Indian clubs
Members-only content
We have recently become able to offer members-only content to our affiliated clubs. To access this, you must be a club leader of an AHA affiliated club, and must be signed into your user account.
Tournament information and advice
Tournaments are a regular occurrence in the HEMA community, and many clubs will decide to try running one at some point in time. We have written quite a lot of advice about running tournaments for affiliated clubs who would like to have a go at it, based on our own experience of event organisation over the years. We have also written up and collected the various tournament rulesets that we have used in our organisation over the years, so that affiliated clubs have some exemplars to look at.
Books
If you are interested in books about history or HEMA, then Fallen Rook Publishing is one of our sister companies, and we think that the publications are good for the HEMA community. You can buy the books from the Fallen Rook Publishing website, or from our own online shop.
Blog articles
Blog articles are an excellent source of information and ideas about HEMA. Although the AHA no longer runs a blog, as an organisation, here are some well-written and thought-provoking sites that are well worth reading.
Keith Farrell maintains a blog at his own website, KeithFarrell.net, where he posts regularly with his thoughts and ideas about HEMA, training, and life in general. As Keith is one of the driving forces behind the Academy of Historical Arts, it might be quite interesting to read his thoughts and to see where so much of our direction and philosophy comes from.
Sean Franklin maintains a blog called Sword STEM, where he posts about the science behind swords and their use in HEMA. He attempts to simplify the physics and maths behind many of these issues so that more people can understand the science without needing a background in engineering themselves.
Research documents
Over the years, some of our members have produced research on various aspects of history and HEMA. This page will collect some of these items, to make them more easily discoverable. [page forthcoming]
Of course, it is almost impossible to talk about research without mentioning the Wiktenauer, which is probably the most valuable resource available today to practitioners of medieval and renaissance HEMA.
AHA branding
We will collect and publicise some of the branding information and files for our organisation. [page forthcoming]