This Saturday was the first training session of our brand new ringen and abrazare group within our school. I had an intention to write about it immediately after training, but for the last few days I have been wondering how to structure my first, and future posts.

I have decided to go over what we trained during each weekly session, and explain why we chose said exercises, what they were supposed to teach, and how the student are advancing.

First, some explanations are probably in order. More than a decade ago my instructor In HEMA was a part of the Medieval society of Bulgaria. They were not a usual reenactment group, as they focused less on battles, and more on scholarly discussion, medieval camps, etc. My instructor was already beginning his study in HEMA, and he decided to create a closed, experimental group for study of European Medieval fencing as part of this society. Later on, when he opened the group to outsiders, he renamed it a “club”. Two years ago, as we already had a set and evolved (not perfect, of course) curriculum, junior instructor, and a handful of experienced advanced students, he renamed it a “School”.

When I got permission to form the group, I decided to follow his example. The people in the R&A group are only people who study fencing, and for now, people who have studied it at least for a few months. This is positive in its own way.

The training sessions, as I mentioned, would be weekly. Two hours each Saturday, to be exact, and we have mats, too, although the thinner jigsawed blue-and-pink ones, which are not as comfortable for falling and rolling as others.

The instructors are two – me and Dinko. Besides having spent the summer studying (both physically and scholarly) Fiore, Ott, Liegnitzer, Talhoffer, Auerswald and others, we both have a good amount of experience in martial arts. I started my training in Aikido when I was 8, and I have since managed to also spent some time on jujutsu, karate, wing chun, and just have a taste at boxing, Tai Chi Chuan, and MMA. Dinko has quite some experience in wrestling, and asian martial arts of different sorts, as well as some encounters with boxing. Together, we probably have more than 35 years of experience, a lot of it in grappling arts. Not to mention our HEMA experience.

Why do we study ringen and abrazare? Well, as a HEMA school, we certainly are adherents to the Pan-european theory – simply, martial arts in Europe between 13-16th century are not just similar, they share the same core. And while some people might be against applying that to weapons, I would laugh out loud if anyone thinks that Fiore and Ott wrestled differently.

There are differences in the material, and how it was presented, of course. But this could only help – a lot of the Ringeck, Ott, and Liegnitzer’s stuff on wrestling is a bit advanced. Fiore is better at the basics. Auerswald, although a later source, is very clear, and has wonderful illustrations (not to mention a great sense of humor). A valuable source is also Johann Georg Paschen.

Between the two of us, ringen and abrazare is a complete martial art. It involves throws, locks, handstrikes, kicks, elbows, and could be called “”Medieval MMA”. Of course, medieval people had different priorities than modern MMA enthusiasts and sportsmen. Because of that strikes are secondary, wrestling primary – but we do believe strikes are important and should be taught and trained, as a student should be mindful of them in real life. We do not strive to turn R&A into some modern self-defense system, as self-defense is much more complex than just fighting, But if it could help people – that’s great!

You may find it strange that we do not immediately go in teaching people “techniques”. I do find it strange for people to learn strikes and binds with the sword before they learn proper footwork and guards, so the same goes for R&A. So the first few lessons will be on very basic stuff, which is the same – or it should be – for all kinds of wrestling, be it judo, aikido, catch-as-catch-can, BJJ, freestyle, or sumo.

And as this post is becoming incredibly large and filled with my joy over our new training opportunity, I’ll write up the first session in the next one.