EMMAA - European Medieval Martial Arts Academy is ran by Stuart McDonald and Kit Houston. The academy trains Sunday afternoons at the Core life Concept studio in all aspects of medieval combat. Training runs for 2 hours and is $15 a class, while open to everyone please contact admin@emmaa.com.au before visiting.

Our syllabus is a structured lesson plan that runs on a 7 week rotation and consists of physical condition, armed and unarmed techniques and drills. We use documented techniques from the manuscripts of the 14th and 15th century’s and where possible cross references all core techniques. Each lesson examines the first 4/5 reactions/skills needed at the start of any medieval fight (wrestling, dagger, sword, armoured sword and pole arm). Slowly we break down the technique into its individual components and drill the movements in isolation so that once we understand the mechanics we can execute at skilled force and speed. Please find below an cut down example of one lesson plan and a cross referenced example of a single core technique.

Cross referenced core technique.

The defensive guard called ‘Cross’ (Italian)/ ’Shear’ (German) as taught by 4 different teachers over the 15th century. Following this image in almost all manuscripts we find similar (if not the same) techniques to do from this displacement. Fiore's description of the cross, “The strongest defence and while better in armour (due to coming up short) you can do dagger techniques”. Talhoffer description “The shear, displaces’’.

Fiore 1400	Talhoffer 1449	Gladiatoria 1450	Vadi 1485