Academy
of European Medieval Defensive Arts
(AEMDA- formerly MMAW)
AEMDA
was founded by Michael 'Tinker' Pearce and Marcus Colt with the
intention of practicing and teaching the martial
arts of medieval Europe for the purposes of education, interpretation
and preservation of these arts. We do not maintain that we are
recreating medieval fighting arts with total accuracy, but merely
approximating them to the best of our ability within a safe training
environment based on the current state of knowledge of these
arts. AEMDA
will be working primarily from the Italian
Tradition of fighting
methods as expressed in the writings of Fiore dei Liberi. His
writings
constitute the frame-work of a complete system of combat techniques;
AEMDA will be
primarily concerned with the following skills:
Abrazare (wrestling or grappling)
Daga, (Dagger - includes both the techniques with the dagger and
defenses against an opponent armed with a dagger)
Spada a un mano (one-handed sword)
Spada a dui mani (longsword)
It's fairly awkward to say, "We study the martial arts outlined in the
book 'Fiore De Battaglia' written in 1409." We have taken to
referring to the techniques outlined in the book by the name of the
book as a sort of shorthand, saying that "We study Fiore de
Battaglia." This is increasingly becoming viewed as a proper name
for the art, like 'Kenpo Karate' or 'Tai- kwon-do.'
Teaching these arts is a somewhat schizophrenic endeavor; on the one
hand these techniques constitute an effective and well-rounded system
of martial arts that, excepting specific weapons, is as relevant and
effective today as it was 600 years ago. On the other hand for
the last several hundred years this has been a 'dead' art; there is no
continuing tradition and there are no living masters. We have to
do a lot of interpretive work as we go along and to this end we are in
continuous contact with older, more established groups. Amongst
the community of groups studying Historic European Martial Arts we are
always cross-checking our interpretation and comparing notes with other
groups to insure the highest quality interpretation that can be
managed. To this end we are committed to intellectual honesty as
a core value; we cannot afford to have closed minds or to become so
'married' to an interpretation that we are unwilling to consider new
developements or insights, whether they come from our own experience of
the experience of other groups.
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