Indywest HEMA is closed and will no longer run practices or maintain an online presence.
Monday, November 14, 2022
Monday, May 28, 2018
Member Pictures
Indywest HEMA club members pictures
This is a set of pictures we recently put together of members at that practice.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
July 2017 Update
It's been a bit since we posted anything, This is because the club has been very active and I have been putting off making posts till the next night continuously. So this is just a quick update to talk about some of the things we are doing now and some plans.
We will very soon start work on
Enjoy
- Tony
Weapons
The weapons we are currently focused on- Longsword
- Sword and buckler
- Saber
- Dagger
We will very soon start work on
- Round shield and sword / axe
- Spear
Some events coming up and information
- Youtube training videos : We are going to create and post some training material to youtube to share. We are not planning on becoming youtubers but this is for those people that can't attend so we can share some info around what we do.
- Shield making day : we are going to have club members get together to make their round shields.
- Festivals : Doing talks and demonstrations at some upcoming festivals, They will be on the calendar when we confirm them.
- Longsword Training : this is still on the agenda but because of some logistical issues and complications around timing we have put this on a back burner a bit.
Some blog posts I have on the agenda. because writing them here will make me do them.
- First youtube intro to longsword from IWH
- Good philosophy in HEMA,
- Tips and Tricks, a random list of things we have figured out
- HEMA makers, how HDPE, silicone, wood and other materials are useful
- Round shield maker day, document our process
Enjoy
- Tony
Friday, December 30, 2016
IndyWest HEMA Branding
We have recently done some work to get our logos and branding together so we can start to order shirts and stickers for the club. Below is some of our branding images.
General sticker Logo
Black Banner
Square Logo used on back of shirt and tagging locations
White Banner with website (click to see image)
White Banner without website (click to see image)
Friday, November 11, 2016
Easy Way to Create a Website for Your HEMA Group
Hello everyone,
Because a lot of groups in HEMA don’t have a website or internet presence I wanted to supply a way for those people to setup a website for little to no cost easily.
Google Brings this all together
I don’t want to spend too much time touting google but the reality is the services they supply brings this all together for free. Web hosting, calendars, emails, voice, video, and more...
Create a New Google Account
First thing you want to do is create a google account you want to associate with your hema club. You can use the standard google account settings or setup a https://gsuite.google.com/ for custom email domain and more features. I have gsuite setup for some other things in my life and it works really well but for IndyWestHEMA I just went with a standard gmail account for right now as it works perfectly fine for my purposes. If you need to have multiple people you need setup with emails pointed to the your sites domain you might be better with a gquite setup.
If you set up a gquite you will probably first want to get a domain, you can google this or jump down where I briefly look at this in the section header below named “Domain”
Hosting
Blogspot.com is your answer here. I have used this resource to setup websites for everything from tech blogs, to charities, to IndyWestHEMA . With just a little knowledge this can go a long way at free hosting and all you need is a google account.
To get started go to your gmail account and in the upper right corner click on the
dots and choose more… then Blogger. From here you will want to click on 
, label it and follow the prompts. Congrats you have your blog setup now that easy, but you might want more than just a simple blog.
To get started go to your gmail account and in the upper right corner click on the
dots and choose more… then Blogger. From here you will want to click on , label it and follow the prompts. Congrats you have your blog setup now that easy, but you might want more than just a simple blog.Domain
To obtain a domain you can use the google suggested domain or one of the many sites such as domain.com .
If you go to
then 
you will see the option under Publishing to both 
or/and to 
. I will not go into any detail on this section because there are too many variables on possible options you can choose and depending on the domain provider you decide to use it may look vastly different, if you need help here I suggest going to Googles Help Resource Here .
If you go to
then you will see the option under Publishing to both or/and to . I will not go into any detail on this section because there are too many variables on possible options you can choose and depending on the domain provider you decide to use it may look vastly different, if you need help here I suggest going to Googles Help Resource Here .Calendar
Again this is a simple thing within google. Just open up the Calendar page within the google account you have setup for your HEMA group. On the left side where you see 
the dropdown arrow and choose 
.
the dropdown arrow and choose .
One the calendar is creation make sure you check to “Make this calendar public” if you want to post it on the website.
Once you have finished this you can now share this calendar with the people you want to be able to control it and/or post it on the blog
- Sharing your calendar with people
This is as simple as clicking the dropdown on the calendar and clicking Share this Calendar. It should be fairly intuitive how to this works.
- Embed the calendar in the website
There are a few ways this can be done but I will post how I did it and I am sure you can figure it out from here.
First create the page you want to post it on in blogger, go into the blog settings and choose 
then click on 
in the top left make sure to choose HTML 
Put this aside for a moment while we get the share location for the calendar. This requires that you set the calendar to public for everyone to see it.
Next go to “Calendar settings”
then click on in the top left make sure to choose HTML Put this aside for a moment while we get the share location for the calendar. This requires that you set the calendar to public for everyone to see it.
Next go to “Calendar settings”
The look for the section that is titled “Embed This Calendar”
Copy everything in the text box and paste it into the blog page then click 
, it should now show up on the page when you visit it.
, it should now show up on the page when you visit it.From here
From here you can add more pages, use the blog to post information, remove the blog and make it a website front without a blog.
Some more useful services we use that are free
- https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive : to share documents between each other.
- https://www.google.com/voice/ : to setup a phone number to use and I can set a custom voicemail and hours it is available
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/ : A location to have internal conversations
- https://www.google.com/maps : to embed a location on the map and share it for meepup locations or your clubs store front.
Conclusion
I know this is an overly simple post for anyone that already knows about it but for those that don’t it may provide you a way to setup a web presence for your HEMA club/school/group etc…
Enjoy :)
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
The Random Cut Drill
The random cut drill is a web based application that can be used to present a random cut line for someone to execute solo or with partner drills.
Link to drill location : http://www.indywesthema.com/p/blog-page_8.html
The settings :
- In the first drop down box you choose the time between strikes to be displayed. This can be used to tune how fast or slow you want to react to the cut in seconds.
- In the second drop down box you can choose the number of cuts you want to display or set it to non-stop (9999) to get a continues chain of cuts
- Once you have the desired settings you can click start and the first cut will be displayed X seconds (based on setting) in the display window.
- Click reset to reload the page with fresh settings
- To help keep track of the number of cuts there is a Count value at the bottom you can use.
* For a solo drill you can use this to practice random cuts or cut combinations. It is important when doing this drill alone you avoid sword twirling and perform well executed strikes at an imaginary target in front of you. One thing I personally do to help this is lay a sword pointed at me on the ground and something at the hilt to show the location my target would be. This helps keep in mind the target has a sword while also working on measure. Another possible way to use this is with cutting mats or with pells.
* For a partner drill you can have this set behind a partner at a safe distance and try to attack the target with the displayed line. A faster speed can be used to help combo many strikes together or a slower to allow for more of a sparring style system. This may force someone to address target areas they are not comfortable with and get outside of their comfort zone.
Link to drill location : http://www.indywesthema.com/p/blog-page_8.html
The settings :
- In the first drop down box you choose the time between strikes to be displayed. This can be used to tune how fast or slow you want to react to the cut in seconds.
- In the second drop down box you can choose the number of cuts you want to display or set it to non-stop (9999) to get a continues chain of cuts
- Once you have the desired settings you can click start and the first cut will be displayed X seconds (based on setting) in the display window.
- Click reset to reload the page with fresh settings
- To help keep track of the number of cuts there is a Count value at the bottom you can use.
* For a solo drill you can use this to practice random cuts or cut combinations. It is important when doing this drill alone you avoid sword twirling and perform well executed strikes at an imaginary target in front of you. One thing I personally do to help this is lay a sword pointed at me on the ground and something at the hilt to show the location my target would be. This helps keep in mind the target has a sword while also working on measure. Another possible way to use this is with cutting mats or with pells.
* For a partner drill you can have this set behind a partner at a safe distance and try to attack the target with the displayed line. A faster speed can be used to help combo many strikes together or a slower to allow for more of a sparring style system. This may force someone to address target areas they are not comfortable with and get outside of their comfort zone.
The application should work on mobile devices such as phones and tablets. I have also found that the chrome browse seems to respond better and quicker even to such a light weight little application.
Here is a list of the available cuts in the application.
I avoid using terms such as oberhaw and fendente to help keep it neutral as possible to any system and also allow for flexibility between strike types as long as they are to the target location.
This is the default start image with no cuts set
This cut is a horizontal strike to the head or upper body
A 45 degree strike to the targets left side to the head or neck area
A 45 degree strike to the targets right side to the head or neck area
A 45 degree strike to the targets left side coming from below
A strike to the arms
A 45 degree strike to the targets right side coming from below
A thrust to the center line
A lateral strike to the targets left side
A strike to the target's hands
A lateral strike to the targets right side
Friday, October 7, 2016
Introduction
First off for anyone that doesn't know HEMA stand for Historical European Martial Arts.
The goal of this group is to have fun improving our skill in swords as well as other medieval and renaissance weapons. This includes the study of historical masters such as Fiore, Liechtenauer, Meyer, Capo Ferro, and many more. We are located in Plainfield, Indiana area and will to schedule meetups and events along with a regular schedule for people that want to do training.
To help get this started we put together a few links to introduce people to HEMA. If there are any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments or join the facebook group and ask there.
Youtube Links
- Short playlist I created for someone that has never heard of HEMA : https://www.youtube.com/playlist…
- Blood and iron :https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBbd3QJ-IT2g8kSvq3r3RA
- Skallagrim : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3WIohkLkH4GFoMrrWVZZFA
- Swordpals : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGNxP2qPwB2Fc596OIBAFLg
- Swordschool : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uq_HEjUMRpe8Rn3CWhYuw
- Bjorn Ruther : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqY4z_JKCBi18SZJV9vWjbA/videos
- Schola Gladiatoria : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt14YOvYhd5FCGCwcjhrOdA
Web links
Books
There are tons and tons of books I could suggest but it really depends on what form you want to take. For example we are currently reading Guy Windson's "Medieval Longsword" book which teaches Fiore longsword. We personally enjoy polish saber as well and Richard Marsden has a good book "The Polish Saber". Once we get a group of people together I plan on running through the weapons and help get people with the right masters and books.
There are tons and tons of books I could suggest but it really depends on what form you want to take. For example we are currently reading Guy Windson's "Medieval Longsword" book which teaches Fiore longsword. We personally enjoy polish saber as well and Richard Marsden has a good book "The Polish Saber". Once we get a group of people together I plan on running through the weapons and help get people with the right masters and books.
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