LONGSWORD, MESSER & DUSSACK RULES 2013

To whom it may concern,

There has been a lot of discussions about tournament rules and regulation for longsword tournaments.We the AMEK always been reluctant to get involved in these discussion either on panels or on forums.However recently people have been showing an increasing interest in how we run our business and our tournaments.

We have a ruleset that we use for the HEFFAC event.We do not claim this is the 'ultimate' ruleset, but would like to share atleast a viable alternative to the current way of judging tournaments and the general rules involved.In developing the rule sets we tried to base the point granting system as much as possible on real life fighting with sharp steel weapons, without protection. We also aim to keep the rules simple and not to far off from what most international tournaments are used to.

We all know and feel that judges have to be educated and trained, but as long as we have a problem finding judges in the first place, I believe that this is a challenge that we can not easily remedy at this point.I believe that the framework of our rules allow the right fighter to continue to the next round. And that the lack of judging experience is compensated by the framework of these rules.

These rules are officially longsword rulesets and we don't take any responsibility for the efficiency of these rules when implemented either for sword & buckler, Rapier or other weapon disciplines.

I added further comments and explanation to the original 2012 rulesets to clarify our choices and rule structure for other audiences.

Tournament SetupThe fighters will go in to the ring with a steel sword and a wooden rondel dagger.This means that the setup is different than previous years.We want to stimulate the fighters and motivate them to use a larger amount of techniques and make them explore the possibilities that historical fighting has to offer.Getting stabbed with the rondel is likely to be noticed by the judges and by the fighter and can possible hurt.

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Getting thrown and landing on the dagger can also be a quite annoying.We don’t want people to get hurt, but on the other hand we don’t want people to have a false sense of security. We want to stimulate a sense of awareness that goes beyond just fighting with the longsword. In short a fighter is pushed to think outside the box.With this tournament we want to simulate a historical fight as well as we can in a contemporary tournament setting.

Honour & gaming the rulesAlthough it is quite hard to game the rules for this year it is however not unlikely that we did not cover every opening in the rules that could fall victim to exploitation.Therefore this rule is mandatory, if the judged feel a fighter is gaming the rules he will receive a warning and with the second warning he looses points depending on the situation with a maximum of 5 points.

It could also be possible that the other fighter is granted points depending on the situation with a maximum of 5 points. (it is either one of the two options, not a combination of both)If a fighter is for a third time accused of gaming the rules he/she will immediately loose the fight.

Comment:Good example of what happened at the HEFFAC event you will find below in the end sentence in 'comments' in the topic “The targets are divided in 4 categories”

Mandatory protective gear Sport shoes that do not leave marks. Mask + back of the head protection. Padded jacket Throat protection Closed padded gloves with overlapping fingerparts. Elbow protection Knee protection Shin protection Cup (for men)

Advised: Breast and groin protection for women Forearm protection Dutch Knuckles Mouth guard Upper leg protection

WeaponSteel feder (Peter Regenyei sword or Jan Chodkiewicz swords recommended)Hanwei feders are not allowed due to safety hazards

Fight timeFights are 3 minutesTime is not stopped

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Comment: (2 minutes fights have proven to be a inefficient time lapse to prove, who is in fact the better fighter, assuming that the tournament rules are based on a system where every target of the body grants the same number of points.Simple math: Average points awarded in a final score is between 3 and 4. with 2 minutes fights. Wrong calls followed by points granted to the wrong fighter, average 2 per fight. 50% change the right fighter continues.However we believe that 2 minutes fights could be implemented in 'our' frame work of rule sets, but making it 3 minutes makes the outcome even clearer. Of course shit can happen and even with these rules set there is a slight chance Murphy's Law can peak around the corner. But changes are slim to none and has never occurred in any of our tournaments.

Referees and flaggingThere are two kind of flags; red ones and blue ones.There are 3 Judges judging a fight and one Referee

The Referee will keep track of combination attacks and counts the points.He is also the one who can raise the question if a strike was a scratch.And counts the single handed strikes or the attempts to do so.The judges job is to just show who hit who and where.Or give an opinion/vote on a question raised by the Referee.

Comment: 4 judges would be better but we assume there's always a lack of judges)

These line judges can and should move around.The arena should be round to prevent the problem that one judge has to cover two sides. Comment:Round arena:When you use a circle and two judges are looking straight on the two fighters from both side then the third judge should look straight at the back of one of the two fighters or from a slight angle and not take the same perspective as one of the other judges till an exchange happens. Because often you can see a double hit from this 'back' perspective, where you can often only see a clear strike of one of the two fighters looking from a side perspective.Problem: If two judges stand on one side and it is in fact a double hit and two judges on one side only seen what happened on their side then the judge on the other side is always outnumbered and point get awarded falsely.Square arena:If the mat is square then you can solve the problem by letting the fighters switch corners every time after every exchange to cover at least part of the problem.Because you have always two judges on one side seeing the same and one judge covering two sides of the square, and he is alone. And it is impossible to move around for a judge as with a round arena.

When you see a hit you SCREAM “HIT”And you raise the corresponding flag to a horizontal position.Make sure you raise the RIGHT colour!If there is a double hit you raise both flags to a horizontal position.If an afterblow occurs you raise the flag of the fighter who scored first horizontal.You will signal the afterblow by raising the other arm as high as possible.

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If you don’t know exactly what happened, you cross the flag below and let them rest on your legs.

Comment: The following rule we added to the already existing international rules as used in the more significant tournaments/events)When the head judge/referee calls 'target' the line judges point out the target that was hit on their own body using the flag!The referee calls the awarded point(s) and all judges have a responsibility to correct the score keeper when he makes a mistake.

Important It’s very important to react directly when you see a hit.We don’t want a judge to look around to see what kind of flags the rest of the referees are raising. Be impartial. You have to be alert and when you make a mistake and realise this, do not be afraid to change your verdict.In my life I changed my verdict around quite a few times, if you are sure it’s for the better. People will appreciate you for doing it.Nobody is perfect and nobody can see it all.Judging is very exhausting and it is not easy, and mistakes are bound to be made.All you can do is your best. It’s up to the fighters to fight clean and therefore making it easier on the judges.

Comment: You don't need to look down like some are used to in other tournament, because this principal only gives a false sense of security regarding honesty, while it is in fact in my humble opinion nonsense.A good martial artist can look at his shoes and still be able to tell which person around him is picking his nose and who is not.It will be quite hard to miss a coloured flag getting raised 4 meter away from you.Peripheral vision is something everyone has and assuming most of the judges are trained martial artist themselves, makes this rule superfluous.Also in our rules there is massive security measure and this is the fact that a judge will have to show the target that got hit. And he has to do this immediately.

As soon as the referee calls 'Target' you have to respond..There is no reason why a judge should be delaying here, as he had significant time to think about it. If someone is looking around to see who is pointing at what target it is clear that this person did not have an clear opinion on the initial target and should be expelled as a judge if this keeps occurring. In short judges are accountable for their calls. I believe this is a good development.

Rules for preliminary roundsIn case of a draw both fighters get 1 pointWinner gets 2 points, loser gets 0 pointsIn case of four double both get 0 points

Target areas and awarded pointsThe original 2011 rules where based on an Italian system that Matt Galas and I talked about one time. And I believe they implemented it in Fechtschule America.But I myself was not happy with this rules applied in a contemporary tournament setting.

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Other alternatives of judging could also work fine, for instance Jake Norwood's approach at Longpoint, which was a complete different set up and in my opinion quite original.

There is a problem with the afterblow rule as implemented in many tournaments nowadays, or 'naerslag' as some call it. One of the problems is that the afterblow is now being gamed. We want to see the afterblow rule being used but not exploited.

I adjusted the afterblow rule slightly.Biggest chance is that we divided the points differently then with HEFFAC, for instance the head this year is 4 points instead of 3.

Target prioritisationBasically we want to create an environment where the points granted to a fighter make sense not just in a martial way but also from a realistic perspective.We must keep in mind that Blossfechten in medieval Germany was done with sharp steel weapons having no protection except basic clothing.What we tried to do here is to look closely at historical fights and wounds that where inflicted back then and make an attempt to translate these to a point granting system.

The targets are divided in four categoriesHead 4 pointsUpper body & Neck 3 pointsLegs 2 pointHand & forearm & upperarm 1 point

It will enable fighters to concentrate more on the vital targets then just playing it safe with distant managing and only going for the hands.Also we are using an accumulating system where one gets extra point when a combination of techniques is executed.

Comment: Normally we explain the following rule on the spot.What is still a arm and what is upper body?When the upper arm (near shoulder) would be hit in a real fight, while it is positioned next to the upper body, then the incoming blow could infact go through the arm and enter the torso as well, however the arm would absorb most of the impact and likely the impact on the torso would be minimal.

In combination with our choice to keep things simple we decided to grant any place on the arm with one point.It doesn't matter from a fencing perspective if you just loose your hand or your whole arm.If the blow comes in diagonally and it clearly hits the shoulder then we assume the strike would enter the body and we grant it with 3 points.So this could be the only interpretation sensitive target, because 3 points or one point is quite a difference. And you have to see exactly where the strike lands.But there is a security measure if you are not sure you look at the angle of the impact.The difference between a horizontal strike and a diagonal strike is also quite distinctive. A horizontal strike also has less power then a diagonal strike.And if judges do not agree we take the average between torso and arm which is 2

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points.

Note: We had a case where a fighter threw up his arm to block a incoming hit to prevent a strike to the head. He claimed by accident...The judges however granted after 15 seconds of debate the attacker 5 points...Referring to the rule that trying to game the rules is punished.(like discussed above)From the other perspective in a realistic situation the defender would have lost his arm and the blade would have hit the head. Accumulated in game play this would ad up to 4 points according to our rule set. Which is quite close to 5, so although the fighter did not agree with the judges call and claim it was an accident he was in the best case deprived of one point,which is quite acceptable.

Quality of cutA sword has to travel at least in a arc of 60% to qualify as a legitimate strike.Some people use flimsy 'push' cuts when a sword is already next to the opponents body. Mosly to force a double hit or an afterblow. In a real fight this would not work or make a significant cut. In this tournament a judge just has to look at it from a realistic position and think if this indeed would work.

First KillThis rules is based on the fact that in medieval times or any fight nowadays a fight is often determined by initiative. When one is able to execute the first blow and it is successful then the fight is over. With a sword this is certainly the case.The person who makes the first lethal blow or stab gets 2 extra points awarded.The torso and head are the only deadly targets so the fighter has to focus on either of these two. Legs and hands do not count.Also it has to happen clean without an afterblow.This rules is a tribute to our ancient masters and the fights they fought, a duel in a duel so to speak.It's also meant to have the fighters completely focussed from the start.Some fighters don't take the first exchange that seriously either they will win a point or lose one and if they lose one they can take counter actions in the next round.In contemporary tournament setting it is actually possible to let yourself be hit a couple of times and pick up on someone’s strategies and start from that point on implementing your counter tactics.In a real fight this is a bit harder.

Illegal targets & TechniquesThe only illegal target is the back of the headNo throwing of sword and no Mordslag.Note: You can however drop the weapon to wrestle.

ScratchingFirst I shall specify what we consider a scratch and realise I would just explain this on the spot it is easy.This is a attack where the sword travels and is unhindered in its trajectory and when it looks like it didn’t hit anything, but you hear faint / very soft sound.Everything more then that is a solid hit!!These scratches are often not even called by a lot of judges in other tournaments.But I want these hits called, because the word HIT implies that something got hit and

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there was contact.More over these little scratches in a real fight could still cause serious damage.The head Referee will call it if he feels it was a scratch and ask the judges to vote. The Referee has just one vote. 2 against 2 then outcome will be in the advantage of the attacker. And it will NOT be a scratch. In the rule the scratch rule will only be significantly noticed on the mask and knees and hands. And the Referee should only call it as such when it is utterly clear and then the majority of the judges still have to agree to make it solid.In short if there is a clear sound of impact it is solid.

One handed Strikes & ThrustEvidence suggests that one handed strike where not allowed in certain historical tournaments.We have 1 plate in Talhoffer that describes a one handed blow (geisel), there is a reference in Meyer and a few others (Fiore dei Liberi, Di Grassi and Silver to cite a few), but one handed strikes make only a very small part of the fencing curriculum, yet are being used disproportionately compared to other strikes by some fighters in my view. If one wants to improve the martial skill and make the fight more appealing to the eye then I believe that use of single handed blows should be minimised when one has only 3 minutes fighting time.

Comment:In a real fight a single handed strike might be successful, but the strike is likely to be aimed at the legs and one risks in a real fight the afterblow to the head.So if someone throws this at you it would either mean loosing your leg, or dying of infection or surviving with a rehabilitation period of at least one year (looking at contemporary rehabilitation after severe leg injuries) In case you are able to execute a successful afterblow the other fighter dies and you perhaps survive your injury.

If there is no afterblow then the one that gets hit in the legs is likely to be able continue fighting and stand in one position for a period of time even with cut muscle or tendons, this due thriving on adrenaline and cortisol (high stress hormone) On the other hand if the ligaments in the knee are ruptured there is simply no way of putting pressure on this leg.In some cases hitting someone in the leg could in fact be counter productive and stimulate the targeted fighters senses even more and feed his adrenaline pump, where he feels he has nothing more to loose. Or in favour of the attacker the targeted fighter mentally implodes, where fear takes over and a fighter finds himself overwhelmed in a victim role and faces doom in the end. In this case the single handed attack would be successful.

Anyway the reason why people often throw the afterblow in tournaments now is fear. It is a safe tactical way to keep out of distance and at the same time reaching your opponent. (Well this is the point of fencing you might say?) Well you could also offer an alternative which is even safer.. for instance throwing your sword at the opponent from 5 meters using it as a spear, it would even be historical correct... But does it make good fencing from a tactical perspective? perhaps but does it a visual perspective, let's say to sell the art, either on TV, documentaries of life feed on internet?) These are all important questions that should be considered.

We from the AMEK don't oppose one-handed strikes but we certainly don't want a fighter to rely his/her strategy and victory on them as it makes uninteresting fencing

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in our opinion. I believe the argument from people that are 'pro' on one-legged strikes that 'one simply should be able to defend against them' does not negate the other arguments and problems. We are a martial art and some say a sport so when there is only three minutes of fighting time shouldn’t there be some restrictions?

One reason perhaps to constrain the use of one handed blows could be because these strikes are likely to occur at the end of fight, when a fighter is in need of some quick extra points. And thus while you reach the end of the fight, where the fight should become more tense and interesting is does in fact not and people start playing it safe and it becomes uninteresting.Nowadays you can rely on 'quick points' scoring tactics, because if you get hit by the afterblow you didn't loose anything. The one handed strike can in the best case be neutralised but not submitted to punishment.

Another good point is that throwing your sword at ones legs and immediately turning around to run away from your opponent exposing your neck is not considered honourable and again it doesn't make visible interesting fencing. It looks flaky and weak.Moreover having to deal now with my own neck injury due to a similar situation I can state that it 's also very unsafe to do so.If I have nerve problems from a simple Dussack hit... I believe we should not sit around waiting for a similar situation happening with a steel feder.Because I'm 100% convinced that this person can enjoy HEMA from a wheelchair for the remaining days of his /her life. In our rules if someone would make a single handed blow and expose his neck by turning away he/she would get points against him/her for dishonourable behaviour (and secondly for the contemporary sport environment reasons concerning safety)

Rules concerning the one legged strikes.So how to translate this to a contemporary setting and encourage better fencing in a point-based system?In short some people oppose one handed strikes, out of principle or in reference to historical documents. Some people think they are great. We aim for a middle ground.Remember there are only 3 minutes of fighting and we the AMEK only oppose to disproportioned use of these techniques in this short period of time.

We solved the problem by permitting 2 single-hand actions over a period of 3 minutes; this means 2 actions in one bout.So people that like to execute these moves have a chance to score a considerable amount of points with them when done right.You can choose to make two thrusts, or two strikes or one thrust and one strike.If you attempt a one-handed strike and fail you can still try one more time.If you fail again you can’t use one-handed moves any more in that bout.You can do so to intimidate your opponent but they wont be counted anymore.

What is considered a one handed attack? As soon as you let go of one hand while make a strike this will be considered a single handed attack.

Note: When you let go of your weapon during an exchange of strikes to parry or block a incoming arm with your own left arm or hand, while you attack single handed with your right arm, then this is of course NOT considered a single handed attack as described above. You can execute these manoeuvres at will as many times as you

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like.

The same points are granted as with two handed strikes.In this way, several consecutive single handed strikes alone should not determine the outcome of the fight.And hopefully with this rule everyone will be happy.

AfterblowsThe rule nowadays in many tournaments would be that an afterblow negates the preliminary strike.But I myself am not a great fan of the afterblow rule as defined above.Two years ago we implemented the afterblow rule like this in both AMEK and HEFFAC events and in most tournaments to this date this is how it is being used.Last year we decided to changed this. We implemented the rule that a target area would be subtracted from a higher target area when an afterblow occurred.To simplify things we decided this year that an afterblow leads to one point reduction on the initial strike. No more no less...simple. Explanation why will follow.

An example from last year (head 3, upper body 1, legs 2)Fighter A (Red) strikes fighter B (Blue) on the head.Fighter B makes an afterblow to the B’s wrist.The judges raise the Red flags horizontally to confirm the strike of Fighter A who made the preliminary strike.The judges will then raise the Blue flag to a high position to call the afterblow from fighter B.The score keeper will subtract the strike to the arm from the head strike.Fighter A gets 2 points awarded.If the afterblow would have hit the legs then the head shot would be reduced with 2 points. And Fighter A would have been rewarded 1 point.A afterblow could however never supersede the initial attack.

Again this year we simplify things and an afterblow reduces ALL preliminary strikes with 1 point. For the simple reason that the initiator should always be awarded for taking initiative and not being punished for it. Based on Liechtenauer principals on fencing.

What is an afterblow and what is a double hit? Explanation and comments

An afterblow is a one tempo strike as a response to a incoming receiving blow.So when a fighter gets hit he can still execute one attack in a attempt to hurt his opponent.If you implement the afterblow rule it should be used in the framework or system that was used during the historical tournaments that included this rule.But this is often not the case with the contemporary setting.Another problem is that not everyone agrees on what is exactly this tempo?We first have to determine what is 'one tempo' and how does this apply to a real fighting situation with steel weapons.

An afterblow should be recognised as a realistic possible reaction or counter and not just a method to negate an effective preliminary strike.Because when one gets hit on the head and the neocortex is split or even the

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cerebellum then there will be no afterblow in a real fight.Interesting is what would in fact happen if the signal to the brain is already given when one sees an incoming attack...Would the second strike in fact land?

People have been discussing this on internet quite elaborately. What would happen if a incoming hit is entering your skull, but you have already started executing your own attack?What influence would this have on the trajectory and control of your blade on the remaining distance that your blade has to travel still to reach your opponent?

One major problem with this theses is we can not really research this because it's quite difficult to find volunteers.A surgeon I talked to claimed that it is likely that there will be a spontaneous nerve overload as a result of the impact that will either result in a contraction of the muscles in the limbs or a total malfunction and complete lack of signal from the nerve which implies that there would be no muscle tension at all from that point on.In case A an attack would abruptly stop in mid air even if the blade would be only 5 cm removed from the opponents head. And in case B it would continue but extremely sloppy. In the last case the rule applies the sooner this lapse of muscle tension occurs in the trajectory the greater the change that the sword will deviate from it initial course

So lets assume that you get the benefit of the doubt and you are able to land your strike on the opponent while your own brain matter is already flying all over the place...You both get killed. But the reality is that the advantage is more in favour of the first attacker.In tempo time in contemporary tournament fighting this would be considered a 'double', although the strikes are not landing at the same time...

We feel therefore that the afterblow rule should really be adjusted for the head as a target area.We saw in Swordfish that people had been thinking about this and they excluded the afterblow rule for the head what I personally thought was a very wise decision. But its not enough because the result would only be that this strike will grants you only one point in most tournament rulesets.And there should be a difference between hitting someone's head and hitting a hand.

It is clear that even with a double hit as described above the initiator has a good change to survive the exchange and kill his enemy, where the guys striking a fraction later will likely not.When we look at the huge tempo to describe an afterblow in contemporary tournaments it becomes almost ridiculous to let a initial strike to the head be neutralized by an afterblow when looked at from a 'realistic' perspective. In our tournaments we try to imitate/mimic a real fighting situation to the death as real as it can get in a contemporary 'sport' or 'martial arts setting.

I encountered a few knife fighting incidents and combined with what I know from others and their 'incidents' is that most stabbed victims, where not even aware they got stabbed or that it went even unnoticed that they lost a finger...A strike to an arm would probably allow an afterblow in a lot of situation in a real fight.. as would the torso and legs.

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We solved the translation of reality to a contemporary ruleset by simply reducing the initial hit by one point when an afterblow occurs.

For the hands and arm this would mean you get 1 point for hitting them and the afterblow would reduce the total score to 0.With a strike on the legs you end up with 2 points and this is reduced to 1 point with an afterblow. You end up with 2 points when hitting or stabbing the torso with the the afterblow and 3 points when hitting the head.So the afterblow rules stays more or less the same for the hand and leg targets when compared to the 'negating rule' that's going around, with a slight advantage to the initiator, which I believe is fair from a martial perspective but also from the Liechtenauer theory perspective.But for the head it would be a drastic change when it comes to granting points.The torso is somewhere in between.

If a fighter hits the head he will score quite well and a fighter will end up with 3 points even with an afterblow. For the reasons stated above.

TempoWe the AMEK calculate the afterblow using a music analogy (drumming). When two hits land at the same time it's a double, if it would be a 'flam' (drumming terminology) where 2 hits land very closely after each other then this is still a double hit. Everything a fraction later then this is already considered an afterblow..

So from a rhythmic perspective if one uses a triol with an up tempo beat, which is spread out over 1 bar then this results in 12 beats in one bar lll lll lll lll and if you take out one note the distance that remains between the two notes would be considered an afterblow. So space 'l l' is an afterblow, where the space between 'lll' is a double.

This perhaps sounds fuzzy, but it very easily explained on the spot by hitting two Dussack on the floor and showing how it works by just listening. Then an individual judge does not have to rely on what he/she thinks should be an afterblow it becomes clear for all judges.

Nowadays with tournaments different judges look at a different specifics when judging a afterblow. It's all highly subjective and prone to interpretation.

If you work with sounds and rhythm then everyone can hear it and recognise it and you have everyone on the same page and the fighters also know what to expect.

Double HitsYou are allowed a maximum of 3 double hits during a fight.4 Double hits and both fighters loose the bout.Originally we calculated that 3 doubles would suffice, but we added one to give the fighters a bit more slack (As our skillsets improve we should make it harder on our selves, atleast that is our opinion so next year we perhaps will make it 3)The point of punishment is to emphasise that double strikes are not part of the historical fencing curriculum. No point dying together…

Stepping outside the ringA fighter can push another fighter out of the ring.

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When a fighter is pushed outside the ring, the other fighter is awarded 1 point.Also stepping outside the ring with two feet while moving around, will grant your opponent an extra point.Here we don't apply the same rule as for instance with the one handed strikes. That you could for instance only execute it twice, because if one wants to rely on winning by just pushing your opponent out of the ring then this will turn out to be quite difficult as a single strategy. There is enough possibility for a fighter to come up with a solution that will grant him more then enough points to counter this action.

Pommel strikes and punches in real swordfight?Some people think that a pommelstrike alone would be an enough devastating blow to incapacitate an opponent in a real fight. And worth a point when delivered in a tournament scenario. I know from my own experience and practical street situations that a blow with a blunt trauma impact weapon is not always devastating...My experience is that people tend to get MORE aggressive after losing their teeth and not recognising their own noses anymore.Only a very small number of people I encountered or heard off panicked, got knocked unconscious or fell to the ground.Of course this depends also entirely on the state of mind of the attacked and on his/her experiences and capability and resilience. Contemporary situations of which I'm speaking involved either experienced fighters or people under influence of a substance. Not the sober regular civilian without any training.But fighter in medieval times where also no pussies.

In short I dare to claim that a pommel strike in medieval times might have been counterproductive as a single action and feed a fighters aggression. In a real fight you can ask yourself how motivated you would be to directly strike back after receiving a pommel strike to the face. This is what I believe to be the power behind the pommelstrike. It does give you a window of opportunity to follow up with a second move, because of the stunning effect that it has.And this is what I see also on the streets. People need some time to get their wits together but when it comes back it comes back hard. But when the attacker starts continuing attacking in this window of opportunity it gives him quite an edge to finish the fight in his advantage.It's the same reason why a boxer will not lapse and relax after seeing a opponent is affected by a uppercut but you immediately use that moment to finish the job. So therefore I feel that the following way of awarding points is realistic in this regard.So in tournament setting a pommel striker needs to make use of this window of opportunity to execute another more lethal attack.Note: You have to strike of course harder then you would have to in a real life situation to have the same stunning effect, this of the obvious reason that the protection that the mask provides, but it can be done as some video's portrait of sparring situations.

Pommel strikes and combination movesWe want to emphasise that good and clean fighting is what the judges want to see.Also we want to create a fighting environment where the fighters get rewarded when trying complicated techniques or a combination of techniques.Technique points are only awarded when they are followed up by a lethal or incapacitating wound.Single pommel strikes are not awarded with points. But they are allowed in a fight.

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You can however make a point with a pommel strike in combination with a follow up move. The same counts for throws or halfswording techniques.If you execute a pommel strike and you stun your opponent and you follow up with a second strike and this strikes lands, you get this strike awarded as usual, plus 1 extra point for implementing the pommel strike.On the other hand if someone hits you with a pommel, but you are not impressed, or your opponent is to slow to follow up with a finishing move, and there is a opportunity for you to hit him back before he can launch or execute his next attack, then you get your points for your target but 1 point is subtracted because you received a pommel strike first...simple.This is noticed and calculated by the Referee not the judges. The judges can however remind the Referee if he forgets.

Fist strikeIf one compares a pommel strike to a strike with the fist then one could safely say that the fist strike is in fact more efficient from a biomechanical point of view.Although a pommel strike will do way more damage to skin, teeth and bone, the pommel strike in the rule comes in straight at the face and so the face moves backwards, but doesn't rotate.So a fighter receiving the pommel strike will 9 out of 10 times be looking at his opponent when he follows up with his next attack.With a hook/strike with the fist however the head of the attacked is almost always rotated either to the left or right.This means in the rule less damage to the face, but it takes longer time to stabilise and focus for the receiver of the hit to see what the next attack is going to be and where from.It takes considerable time to move your head back in position and analyse the new situation.

Game play

Example 1#Fighter A makes a pommel strike to Fighter BFighter B steps backward because of the blow but is not impressed and strikes back.Fighter B hits Fighter A on the head.Fighter B gets 3 points for hitting the head. Head = 4 point minus one point from the initial pommel strike that A received.Fighter A gets points

Example 2#Fighter A makes a pommel strike to Fighter BFighter B is stunned and Fighter A makes another head strike on B.Fighter A get awarded 5 points (4 points for the head and 1 for the combination with the pommel strike)

Example 3#Fighter A makes a pommel strike to fighter BFighter B is stunned and Fighter A makes a halfsword technique and throws Fighter B on his back.

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The throw its self does not give any points, but if Fighter A can strikes Fighter B (let’s say on the legs, while lying on the ground) then fighter A gets awarded 4 points (1 for the pommel strike, 1 or the throw and 2 for hitting the legs)It’s the combination that makes it valid.If A would have hit B in the head while lying on the ground then A would have been rewarded 6 points. To prevent fighters from holding someone down and punch him 20 times before striking with the sword or stabbing you can only receive a maximum of 4 points in total.So what ever combination you use it's ok but 4 points is max.

Striking twiceIf you are able to strike the opponent twice, without him being able to defend himself, you get both hits awarded. No more than two strikes after each other will be counted.Note: the second strike has to be another target.

Comment: You have to be able to defend yourself and in case of a real situation and shit hits the fan, you should always continue fighting regardless of your injuries.Taking the foetus position on the floor and cry will not improve your survival changes.So if you are unable to defend yourself from your opponents initial attack you should at least be able to counter his second. Or reversed when you as a attacker hit your opponent you should be presented an opportunity to finish him off.In short, If you hit your opponent clean on the hands with the long edge and follow up with a clean short edge cut to the head this will be awarded accordingly adding up to 5 point in total.

Throwing & SubmissionSubmission is 1 pointIf you just throw someone this is not being rewarded with a point.You have to get your opponent to submit. Or hit him with your sword or stab him with your dagger.This means holding him for an amount of time till the judges call the action as a valid submission or when one of the fighters taps firmly on the ground or on the opponent. You get awarded only one point with a simple submission (like lying on top of someone), because you have two weapons to your disposal, which you where evidently not able to put to use.However if you are able to put an arm, leg or neck lock on someone and this person taps out because of this then you get the points awarded the same as with a dagger or sword.

Note: Choking someone is a special manoeuvre and although it concerns the neck which would imply that this should be awarded with 3 points a real choke however will cause certain death or unconsciousness and there for it is given the same points as a strike to the head which is 4 points.

Armbars and LocksThe fighters are allowed to use armbars and locks when wrestling.You can do this standing up or fighting on the ground.If however a fighter hurts another fighter and this person is no longer able to continue because of injury the inflicter will loose the fight.More about this in Security and Safety in the arena below.

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Strikes and kicksStrikes and kicks are allowed but they are not rewarded with any points as solo techniques.You can use them in combination with other techniques and you will be rewarded in the same manner as described previously with the pommel strike, throws and halfswording techniques.So again if you punch or kick someone and you follow up with a strike or thrust you get your point for your target plus 1 point for the kick or punch that lead up the final blow.Remember it also works the other way around if you just hit a person but not follow up and your opponent is able to hit you in the head with the sword for instance directly after your punch, he receives 4 points minus your punch (1 point) but he will still end up with 3 points!

Security & Safety in the arenaStrikes to the face are allowed therefore it’s important before the fight to check your mask and if it in fact can resist a strike.Problem areas are the nose and the throat.Make sure to check it by letting someone strike you with a fist on your mask before entering the ring.

Striking with the sword should be somewhat constrained, uncontrolled whacking can result in punishment.If a person can not continue fighting you loose the bout.

Comment: This is a steel swordfight tournament and accidents are likely to happen.We don't like it but as long as the fighter agree that this is an acceptable price to pay then we do as well as organizersTherefore we feel that we can not punish people by excluding them from the tournament because of accidental injuries.Depending on how, what and when an accident occurs this can be punishment with points.Of course if some hack and slash person would enter a HEMA tournament with no skills and is hacking away at the opponent just to force massive strikes with no consideration for timing and distance, than this person can be expelled for not practising HEMA. :) DaggerBiggest chance the dagger will come into play is when wrestling on the ground or just after a throw or when someone looses his sword.The same accumulating system is also used for dagger techniques.Let’s say you strike someone with the pommel, you drop your sword on the ground and you throw your opponent, you pull your dagger and stab him in the neck.Then you get 4 points for the neck stab, 1 point for the pommel strike and 1 point for the throw. In total 6 points.If you punch someone in the face you throw him and stab him it would be the same.However if you punch, kick or pommel someone and throw him on the ground and this person is still able to draw his dagger before you can finish it and he stabs you then he gets his points for the target that he stabs, minus the actions which you executed on him before hand. In this case the throw and the kick/punch/pommel is subtracted.

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Example #Fighter A makes a pommel strike to fighter BFighter B is stunned and Fighter A makes a halfsword technique and throws Fighter B on his back.However fighter B recovers and grabs his dagger and stabs A in the stomach.Fighter B gets awarded 3 points for stabbing the stomach (minus 1 for the pommel strike and 1 for the throw) So he receives 1 point for this action.

So in short your have the points for the targets.The judges point out the target hit.Afterblow reduces a hit by 1 point.4 double hit both loose.Special action add 1 point per action.In the rule no more then 3 special action are made in a exchange so calculating this is very easy

These are the rules for the HEFFAC tournament 2012Have respect for your opponent fight strong and may God be with you!If you have are any questions please don’t hesitate to ask us.

Best regards,Mishael Lopes CardozoPresident AMEKHEFFAC MEMBERHost & Organizer HEFFAC 2010/2011/2012

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