Too long, didn’t read:

Your strikes should be as light as possible while still accomplishing your training goals.

Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier.

Good advice for a sword fight, bad advice for a training partner

15th century Italian fencing master Philippo di Vadi advises us to go “hammering the head from every side” when we fence, and he’s definitely not the only historical master to suggest that the head is a good target. His advice is all well and good for a fight with sharp swords, but poses problems for our modern practice of historical fencing.

Non vo’ che in tutto sia puro riverso
Né sia fendente, ma tra l’altro e l’uno
Sia tra quel comuno,
Martelando la testa in ogni lato.

I do not want you to only use backhand strikes, nor just downward
Instead switch between one and the other
and between all the common strikes
hammering the head from every side

– Philippo di Vadi, ca. 1480s

There is no healthy way to get hit in the head

A growing body of research suggests there is no safe way to get hit in the head.

Some key point summarised:

• There is no “safe level” for head strikes
  • Anything stronger than a casual tap is potentially dangerous
• Head protection mainly protects against superficial injury, not brain injuries
  • A helmet will not prevent head trauma, at best it can only mitigate the severity of the trauma
  • Additional padding will not prevent head trauma, at best it can only mitigate the severity of the trauma
  • Concussions and other brain trauma are caused by the brain bouncing around inside the skull; if a blow causes your brain to move inside your skull, you can still get a brain injury no matter how much steel is wrapped around your head.
• Symptoms of a concussion don’t always appear immediately
  • If you get hit hard in the head, it is a good idea to stop training immediately
• Once you get a concussion, you’re more vulnerable to concussions in the future
• Sub-concussive blows to the head are also dangerous
  • Sub-concussive blows are less severe than a concussion, but occur more frequently and can lead to long-term damage over time
  • Sub-concussive blows often occur as a matter of normal training, for example while practising an action that involves result of repeated blows to the head
  • Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of brain damage linked to repeated blows to the head and currently can only be diagnosed during an autopsy

For more detailed information on concussion diagnosis and prevention specifically for HEMA, see this article by Martin Höppner here.

What should I do to avoid bad head hits?

We cannot eliminate the risk of head trauma through protective gear alone. We must compromise the realism of our training in order to keep it safe.

1. Do not throw a strike that would injure your opponent if the strike lands as planned
   • Fencing can be unpredictable and chaotic, but your plan should not involve injuring your opponent if it works out as intended
   • “You should have parried!” isn’t a valid excuse
2. Do not throw hard strikes to the head with the intention of breaking through your opponent’s parry to hit them anyway
   • Important distinction: If your opponent parries and you notice a weakness in their structure that you can break through, you may use that weakness to strike through their parry in a controlled fashion, but do not initiate a blow to the head the with intention of overpowering any defence with force; that would be a violation of rule (1) above.
3. Pull blows to the head whenever you can
   • Pulling blows inherently compromises the quality of your hit, but – in this case – that’s a good thing
   • If you can avoid hitting the head entirely by simply imitating a strike, do that instead
4. Adjust your expectations for hit quality for hits directed at the head
   • do not judge the quality of head hits based on the momentum of the sword
   • do judge them based on:
     • Intentionality (Was the strike done on purpose or was it incidental?)
     • Edge alignment (Is the edge directed at the target?)
     • Distance traveled (Did the sword move through a wide arc, or only a short distance?)
     • Body structure (Is my body oriented to support a powerful strike if I wanted to, or do I need to contort my body to bring the edge in contact with my opponent?)
5. Choose to miss an opportunity rather than risk your or your partner’s safety
   • Often times you might see an opening and think “If I move quickly, I might be able to hit them in time!” but if you then do so without considering the consequences of success, you might be in violation of rule (1) above.