I was always interested in swordplay.
But i was not thinking that it would be possible to practice it as HEMA in Turkey.
Therefore i practiced Japanese fencing which i was assuming closest thing to that one.
I practiced roughly two years Koryu Kenjutsu.
However, as soon as i found the opportunity to practice HEMA i jumped in without any hesitation.
We've been occupied with European swordplay...
... for more or less 1,5-2 years.
I am engaged in swords...
...i think since 12-13 years.
I began with Kenjutsu.
We had an underground school here (Istanbul).
I still exits, they still work out.
But after i moved abroad,
i could not find what i was looking for in Kenjutsu.
Probably biggest problem of Kenjutsu...
Biggest problem of far eastern martial arts...
...is that they do not perform the art in combat situations.
our dojo was totally opposite.
All we do was focused in combat, and aimed to develop combat skills.
We ere training strength and endurance for combat...
We were practicing techniques for combat...
If a technique was not applicable in combat, it had no meaning for us.
I heard about HEMA almost two years ago...
...as i was researching the differences of weapons on Youtube.
I had not research if there was any group practicing HEMA in Turkey.
However, in a store i got in thinking it was a gift shop...
...i was really unaware..
till i would realize that there was sword training derived from HEMA in there.
Then i decided to join them.
After almost one year as i realized that i wanted to practice HEMA,
... we formed our association with my friends who were thinking like me.
I started to practice HEMA 3 years ago in May.., sorry April of 2014.
I was with İlker Can Karagülle in Kuzgun Academy back then.
After taking lessons several months,
i headed to stage combat,
to stage and performing arts.
I worked as an extra in TV series "Diriliş Ertuğrul",
in action and sword fight scenes.
Besides, i kept my weekly sword training going.
Then in Semptember of 2016 i've parted ways with Kuzgun Academy and,
we formed Istanbul Historical Martial Arts Association with several students i was instructing in there.
One day i grow mustache, and a friend of mine directed me to a casting agency.
I realized that there was another aspect of this business besides acting.
This aspect started to draw my attention more than acting.
Then i sent mails to international organizations,
i sent them my videos, they sent me videos about my techniques.
I know HEMA since 7-8 years, i started in Canada with Devon Boorman.
He also came here and held a seminar.
I learned this sport with him during 2 years.
Actually i started to practice HEMA 4 years ago.
But i had to have a break after one year of practice.
I heard about this association a month ago, thanks to a seminar.
There was an instructor who came from Canada to hold a workshop.
I met this association thanks to him. I practice here since a month.
In October 2014, i joined a seminar of my coach Aaron Pynenberg in Greece.
we hit it off during this seminar, we reached a good harmony.
and he said: "i think you can do this in Turkey. Start your own club, and let's affiliate you to HFA. Start to teach HEMA in Turkey." That's how we begun.
HEMA SOCIETY
People of HEMA society are easygoing, people you could easily meet and spend time together.
and i can state that they are poor in spirit.
For example i met Istanbul Historical Martial Arts Association thus and so. When you address a school and say "hey i am coming, i want to train with you" nobody is considering that strange.
They easily welcome you and make you feel embraced. It is the same all over the world.
I traveled across South America. I visited and trained with schools in Lima, Buenos Aires, Rio
People and clubs were very varied and diverse. But there was an important think: I was fighting and they were looking forward to fight with me.
We were barely able to speak a common tongue to each other, but sharing something with each other was the most enjoyable think we could do.
There is a high average of age, beyond the estimations. Over 20's.
mostly university students are interested in.
maybe because i am 30 years old, the population i could reach are people who are already graduated, postgrads, or people who already started to work.
People who like to play fantasy roll playing.
I first contacted Doğan in this group.
We were playing fantasy roll playing together.
I was talking about swordplay time to time, how it was performed etc...
He was also interested in, and we started to practice together.
HISTORY
HEMA'nın kendi içinde bir çok bölümü bulunmaktadır.
hepsi aynı doğrultuda gider, ancak ilgi alaka bakımından farklı derecelerindedirler.
Sadece araştırma yapan bir HEMA'cı olabilirsiniz,
ve el yazmalarına bakıp, onları yorumlayabilirsiniz.
çünkü, orijinal anlamın muhafaza edilebilmesi için metinlerdeki dilin beş yılda bir tercüme edilmesi gerekmektedir.
ve böylece bazı ifadeler veya deyimler veya yorumlanması şeyler elde edersiniz.
veya daha ziyade sanat eseriyle uğraşırsınız...
bir hareketin resmedilmesi veya tasvirini görürsünüz.
tabi bu yazarın tasvir edebilme yeteneğine ve yazarın yaptıklarını sanatçının çizebilme yeteneğine bağlıdır.
ve burada çok ilginç bazı yorumlar, temsiller, icralar elde edersiniz.
işin araştırma kısmına yönelen insanlar, bütün bu kaynaklarda anlatılmaya çalışılanları günümüz koşullarıyla anlamaya çalışırlar.
bir de gerçek teknikleri el yazmalarındaki sanatsal şekilerde olduğu haliyle yapmaya çalışan uygulamacılar bulunmaktadır.
ben işin bu tarafına daha yakınım. çünkü bu işi gerçek silaha çok benzeyen kör bir silah ile yapmakla uğraşıyorum.
bunu uygun biçimde ancak bunu kimseye zarar vermeyecek şekilde gaddarlıktan uzak olarka yapmak gerekli.
bir de müsabaka ile ilgilenen kişiler var. gerçekten çabalıyorlar. güreş ve fırlatma teknikleriyle uğraşıyorlar. bu bir dövüş hali en nihayetinde.
modern eskrimdeki gibi bir müsabaka yapılıyor.
It is very difficult to separate this fields from each other. Without an academic research, sport training will be vain and ambiguous efforts...
... or if you remove the sportive spirit of HEMA, academic research will only be an on paper research.
Hollanda ekolü var, İtalyan ekolü var, Alman ekolü var, Fransız ekolü var vs...
teknikleri belirli şekillerde icra eden bir çok Usta var.
hatta bazı konularda birbirinden çok daha farklı düşünen ustalar var.
mesela şöyle kişiler görebilirsiniz ........ dar mesafeden ve kısa oynayan.
ya da şu gibi pozisyonlarda oynayan insanlar... her iki yaklaşım da işlevlidir.
there are two main schools. Italian and German.
we assort them clearly, because only German and Italian manuscripts inherited to our day.
we prefer to follow the German school, because as people who just started to practice it, we can reach many resources and materials.
We started first with Meyer in our Association.
then we decided that we don't want to be limited with that.
because the world of swords is very wide.
In June 2017 we met Fiore system thanks to the visits of Devon Boorman and Tom Outwin for holding seminar in Istanbul.
It is nice to study the similarities and differences between the schools.
As Tom Outwin said, a good fighter should be able to switch styles during the combat.
Personally i prefer to follow Liechtenauer school.
Even though he didn't leave a manuscript behind.
I think that he is influenced from Fiore.
So i can't say i choose strictly a school. However in order to form a common language with new students we lead in with Meyer and use German language.
HEMA'nın daha ziyade Alman ekolleri üzerinden yürüdüğünü düşünüyorum.
Niye böyle olduğunu da bilmiyorum.
ekolleri şu anki hallerine gelmelerini sağlayan
bazı katı kurallar var
yaptıkları bazı şeyler, bana sorarsanız biraz garip görünüyor.
çünkü, dövüş sırasında sizi koruyamayacak teknikler bunlar.
there are two outstanding schools in HEMA, Italian and German.
Italian school, especially Fiore, has a more compact, integrated approach and gave more detailed information in his writings.
In Italian school, especially Fiore is explicit and easier to learn and understand.
apart from that, German school has a more ancient history.
in German school, since the Masters have written on different types of tournaments and/or on real duel situations, and since they have implicitly written, it is hard to translate and understand the subtext.
ve follow the manuscripts of German school.
we follow the manuscripts of Joachim Meyer and Johannes Liechtenauer.
because it is easier to find resources.
Since we are starters and we don't have nobody to teach us in Turkey, we try learn and practice by ourselves and ...
... there are many people who can guide and instruct us in other countries and most of them follow German school.
if people want to practice detailed and diverse techniques, they can practice German school.
especially Liechtenauer, Talhoffer, Sigmund Ringeck, Meyer, these are outstanding names
apart from that Fiore is an outstanding name
İtalyan ekolünde benim öğrettiğim Fiore, dövüş için tasarlanmıştı.
güreşirken de, hançerle de, uzun kılıçla da, tek elli kılıçla da yaptığınız aynı teknik.
istediğiniz silahı alıp, ya da hiç silahsız olarak tekniklerin çoğunu icra edip kendinizi savunabilirsiniz.
İstanbul'daki ekiple çalışırken, burada Alman ekolünün belirli bir etkisinin olduğunu görüyorum.
ve buna müdahale etmek istemem.
ama İtalyan ekolünde teknikleri icra ettiğimiz yol farklı.
ben de yavaş yavaş onların, teknikleri neden bu şekilde yaptığımızı anlamalarını sağlamaya çalışıyorum.
bu bizim Fiore sistemimizin daha iyi bir öğreti olduğu anlamına gelmiyor. bence daha iyi. ancak bu mutlak olarak herkes için öyle olduğu anlamına gelmiyor.
to tell the truth, we couldn't determine what school to follow among manuscripts.
the reason we can't make a choice is that there are too many sources and we try to profit from all of them.
Mostly we profit from Meyer and Fiore de'i Liberi. One Italian, other German. These are for longsword.
For rapier and arming sword techniques we are reading Spanish and Italian masters.
here is my choice. if what you study is not practicable, either your research is wrong or your practice lacks something.
personally i don't enjoy to read something i can't apply.
i read and i try to practice whatever is appropriate to me biomechanically and what i can apply in real life.
Meyer says in the beginning of his book: not every technique is for every person.
Meyer also says: what is more important than read and study a technique is the practice.
Eğer bir şeyi yapmanın tek bir yolu olsaydı, sadece bir kitap yazılmış olurdu, ve kimse de onu okumazdı.
Doğru.
OBSTACLES
there is a totally different world abroad, with all the events, tournaments.
In England people are joining another tournament every weekend.
It's living and growing more and more.
There are not so much events in Turkey yet. They are a little isolated.
and it's not their fault. The reasons are that they can not import swords in Turkey,
or the visa fees they need to pay every time they want to go abroad,
the worriment if they can get the visa or not
When there is a tournament, they need to go abroad and buy flight ticket in foreign currency, it's a huge cost. That is the problem.
In Europe people say "hey there ise a tournament in that country" and easily can go there.
Birincisi: bir çok iyi eğitmen var...
ve ne yaptıklarını bildiklerini temenni ettiğim bir çok insan da var.
söylemek istediğim, biz bireysel bir spor yapıyoruz.
dolayısıyla ne öğrendiğiniz konusunda dikkatli olmalısınız.
youtube veya benzer yerlere baktığınızda, bir çok farklı insan görürsünüz.
İkinci zorluk, maliyet olabilir.
Çünkü silahlar pek de ucuz değil.
Bir uzun kılıç (longsword) için 300 ila 1500 dolar harcayabilirsiniz.
There are obstacles we meet since we're a beginner group. There are obstacles we meet because we live in Turkey.
Biggest problem in Turkey is the obstacle of State (bureaucracy).
Most of the time people ask for the support of the state when they are in front of a camera.
We don't ask for or hope state support. it is enough for us if the state does not hinder us.
We decided to manufacture our swords because bureaucracy and legislation is tie our hands about the importation of our training weapons.
We were not able to import weapons suited to tournament standards.
Especially equipment problems.
You can overcome the lack of instructor somehow...
by training, by making more effort... but when there is a lack of equipment, other things lack too.
For example, i could not practice sword a while because of this wound (Doğan: my apologies Sezer)
such things are temporary but hinder our trainings, i think it is the biggest problem.
truth to be told the most important and difficult thing for us is to find a place to train
time is of course important, you have to find and spare time
we have a difficulty to find a place to train especially. as you can see now we are training on a grassplot somewhere in our university's campus.
we train in Parks outside of the campus with our friends who are not students of our University due to the restrictions to enter the campus
in winter we use the sport hall in the campus in free hours. but all of these are temporary solutions.
we had some difficulties because i don't have a gym
i was regarded as strange as i was training outside.
further to that in 15 december 2017
I was preparing for a tournament in Italy. A policeman appeared as i was training on an empty spot in front of my house.
He asked me furiously what i was doing there.
probably he had a prejudice and expecting a worse profile, but after he realized that i was speaking and properly he acted tolerant.
he said me not to train there at this time of the day
because someone in the neighborhood made a complaint...
s/he said that there is a kind of a fool man on the street doing weird things.
it was sad that the policeman found me unjust.
i was really upset because the policeman thought that the complainant was right trying to prevent me to do sports and i was guilty
Istanbul Team is doing HEMA since 9 months... it's not that long
and the distance they have covered in 9 months is incredible.
they understood that they can not import swords and they have manufactured their own
before fulfilling 1 year, just in 9 months, they invited a Master from Canada to hold seminar... these are great success.
we have a lot of problems actually. equipment, translation of manuscripts etc.
we always confront a problem, however we always find a solution.
first they ask for a sticker of the university on your car to make entrance. or people having the same family name can enter the campus.
we generally insist politely, we say that the driver will just drop us off in the campus. we enter the campus together, we train and then our friends leave.
and they charge the car 10 Turkish Liras in the entrance.
i think our biggest problem is that we can not allocate enough resources
both time and material resources
because in order to perform this sport in a health way you need to meet at least minimum requirements
like mask (head guard), gambeson, gauntlet, knee guard, reasonable weapons like synthetic or wooden swords
you need to provide those, and if you can not provide their continuity it will block your development at some point
first of all, we meet some problems about continuity since we are a new group
to me it is the one of the problems we can easily overcome, because every person in this group want wholeheartedly to practice HEMA, and they are persevering
There are people who regard what we do as child play
There are people who ask "what do we profit from it?". Because Turkish people are not process-driven, they are result-oriented.
There are people who are ignoring the process and asking "... and what will we do then?"
We love and practice HEMA wholeheartedly.
The criticism that we get the most is about Turkish sword (kilidj).
People keep asking us why do we not train or not interested in Turkish sword.
The biggest problem about training Turkish sword in HEMA is that there are no manuscripts written about Turkish sword in Ottoman era.
In general the Ottoman culture was based on oral culture. Masters used to pass down their knowledge verbally and practically not by writing books.
In this regard, we experiencing the same problems and even worse as the Turkish Archers (Kemankesh) trying to revive the Turkish archery. Because we don't have any resource to reference.
We don't have a master like Devon.
But we have something very important: to train with people who set their heart on HEMA.
I attribute the low number of my students to...
I want people dedicated people like myself.
I want people who see it more as a lifestyle.
Nobody is obliged to think like that of course... Maybe this is a huge request.
But now since i try to develop myself as much as i can, most important since i don't see them as students but future partners,
...i expect too much devotion. Most of the time i don't charge my students.
Therefore, it is a balance of giving and taking.
I don't ask for money but that doesn't mean that i ask for nothing. I ask for effort and respect for the thing we do.
I think the best thing about here, nobody is thinking to make money on this or doesn't have such an intention.
As our team grows and i meet new people very young and very talented i realized something
...and my motivation has changed
We have to provide this young people the opportunity for athletic success that i can not reach.
If there was someone who could teach me HEMA as i was 20 i would not do any other sport.
I wouldn't do rowing or mountaineering or kenjutsu.
I can, the formation me and my friends started can provide this opportunity to new generations.
For example, a 16-17 year old can say us that s/he wants to learn swordplay, can start to practice, learn techniques...
and as s/he is 23-24, s/he can join the world wide prestigious tournaments , and can reach the success which is already late for me in my name and i'll be glad of that.
It was an unexpected motivation for me that arose two months ago after seeing several person who were very talented.
Before, i had a more simple and selfish motivation just like to grab a sword, have fun, find friends and developing a good technique. Now i am heading a new direction.
In this regard i don't consider any difficulties as an obstacle.
When i first started, i had a wooden sword and had no partner...
I was training with basketball hoops on the street. I was imagining them as people. I was shooting videos of that and sending to my Coach...
I was prepared for my first tournament like that. I had even no partner.
SOLIDARITY
Sharing knowledge, sharing views, sharing equipment... exchanging ideas with more experienced people when you want to buy an equipment...
such a solidarity is possible... of course on internet. sometimes people perform visits between clubs.
the situation is the same in other countries, just the scale is larger.
i don't know whether the number of people doing HEMA is over 10.000...
But it's a densely woven community. Thus people can help each other on those matters through forums and facebook groups.
We met Deniz İnce from İzmir on internet, then we made a phone call.
After a while i went and visited him, and he came to Ankara once.
I couldn't go to Istanbul yet, but our friend Taha from Istanbul who is studying here in Ankara is now in Istanbul and he is keeping our communication with our friends Istanbul.
We are thankful. They gave us lessons on techniques as much as they can, and told us how can we provide equipment.
Now we're in contact with Istanbul and Izmir teams.
We can say they are really friendly and generous.
i can say that our friends from both Istanbul and Izmir and also other cities are very generous and sharing in terms of knowledge and equipment.
HEMA is a very different society from eastern martial arts society. A lot smaller society.
and a society where everybody is very conscious. Nobody thinks highly of him/herself.
I think it is the problem of eastern martial arts: Everybody is thinking highly of themselves and do not appreciate the effort of others.
In HEMA the situation is different. Everybody is aware that they are not competent yet and that they have to work harder.
and the society has already settled the culture of growing by sharing.
Even when it has only been several years. It's a society of 10 years at the utmost.
OBSERVATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Türkiye'deki ilk HEMA antrenmanımdı.
Ama daha önce Eylül ayında Modern Sword Fighting semineri vermeye geldiğimde tanışmıştık.
Türk dövüşçüleri seviyorum, bir çok güçlü dövüşçü var.
Bugün dövüştük, çok ilgi çekiciydi... çok güzeldi, çok zorluydu, çok ilginçti.
Henüz emekleme evresinde, çok hevesli ve gayretliler.
Katılan insan sayısını gördüğümde şaşırdım.
bir eğitmen gözüyle bakınca, maalesef kimi iyi kimi kötü bazı bilgiler edinmiş gibi görünüyorlar.
ve yine farklı ekolleri benimseyenler olduğunu düşünüyorum, çünkü henüz bireysel olarak hangi yönde gitmek istediklerine karar vermemişler.
çok farklı yönlerde ilerliyorlar, ancak bunun için bir tutku olduğu kanaatindeyim.
ve daha iyi olmak istiyorlar, bunun için rehberliğe, bu yolda onlara yardım edecek birine ihtiyaçları var.
ve şahsi olarak, Türkiye'de vakit geçirdiğim müddetçe bu konuda katkıda bulunmayı ümit ediyorum.
mesafe hissi, şok saldırılar, hızlı şok saldırılar(-a ihtiyaçları var)
ve belki farklı pozisyonlarda kılıç kullanmaya, yüksekliği değiştirerek oynamaya (ihtiyaçları var)
alçak pozisyonlarda, yüksek pozisyonlarda dövüşmeye ve daha hareketli olmaya (ihtiyaçları var)
farklı unsurlara, bileşenlere....
WHAT DOES SWORD MEAN TO YOU?
A reflection of my soul...
Sword is a symbol,
with which you can harm a person if you want to, however you should not,
that you could hurt your workout partner with, but you should make an effort and pay attention not to do so,
a tool that you should use with respect.
because no matter how strong our armor is, it's still very easy to hurt or injure your partner
Therefore when you hold that sword, you should respect both the sword and your partner, and you should be aware that it's something that can easily harm someone even though it's has a blunt edge and point. You have to approach with such a dignity.
There are flashy scenes in movies, people spin the sword like this and yell...
When you hold a real sharp blade you realize that the sword is not a thing you could perform such movements.
Because when you hold it and feel its sharpness and understand that you could harm your partner, you'll see that it's something we have to approach seriously.
Sword is struggle for me...
A struggle, a struggle with yourself. Something you walk up to over and over again relentlessly even though you lose. Sword is (the) life for me.
Kılıç benim hayatım!
I think that the sword is a symbol of action. Action in general.
You can not only stop or concur your opponent with it but you can also protect. So the sword, in my opinion, is a symbol of action in general.
A symbol of willpower, of character, of personality. A symbol of achievement of any goals.
For me it was my childhood dream to fight with a real sword and not with sticks like we did when we were little.
So it's something romanticized and interesting to me in addition to being a sports exercise.
More than a hobby. I think the reason for that is a fantastic novel i red as i was in high school.
It compared the swords to people.
Swords are exposed to thousands of hammer blows like people face the hardness in life...
They enter in the fire and then they enter back in the water.
They endure all sorts of challenges in order to turn from a small ingot into a huge deadly weapon.
So do the people... We have to resist the hardships the life force upon us, and if we don't, we will have a crooked personality.
It's the same for the swords. They break, they crack, they rust. If they can resist the hardships, they become pieces of arts. I think it is the same for the people.
What does sword mean to me? It has begun as a hobby, but now it's a passion.
A different understanding, also a kind of meditation. Getting rid of the stress caused by the difficulties of life. Thats it. And of course a sport.
It's like a part of my own body. Sword the way i express myself.
Everybody expresses him/herself with an other way, some by talking, some by dancing... When i grab my sword, i beliece i can reflect state of mind at the moment.
To me sword is more a part (of me) rather than a tool.
I don't feel like i lack something when my sword is not with me, because some scenarios are always playing in my brain.
There is something in my head i can't stop. I always think, "if they hit from there what would happen... what can i do whan he hits from that angle... there is something against the main principles but i can apply it in practice..."
Since i always have such things in my mind, eventually i am not far away from my sword.
A funny way to let off the steam.
Most important: of course the friendship.
because even though HEMA is a sport and a martial art, i made friends more than i gained experiences or got information.
To me sword is a way to express yourself.
I believe the idea that "you can not know someone without fighting against him/her"
It doesn't have to be a sword necessarily. We can say it's struggle and a a convergency.
Kılıç bir silahtır, ama bir iş görme aracıdır.
Sword in brief: the childhood dream.
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