Learn historical fencing by exploring the exchange, not just reading about it.
Step through a fight one decision at a time. See what both fencers are doing, spot the cues, choose a response and find out what the opponent might do next. Every German term you meet opens its definition in place, and flashcards help you keep it.
Featured scenarios
All 9 scenarios →Taking the Vor: attacking from Vom Tag
You strike first. Choose the opening attack, then deal with what the opponent does to it: a flat parry, a counter-cut, a step back or a thrust set into your cut.
In the bind: hard, soft, or gone?
Two blades have met in the middle. Feel what the opponent is doing and choose between winding, changing through, slicing and following after.
The Krumphau: breaking Ochs and the thrust
The crooked cut against an opponent whose point is on you. Cut to the hands, cut to the blade, or wait in the barrier guard, and see what each earns.
Responding to an Oberhau
An opponent closes and cuts down at your head. Explore the Zornhau, Absetzen, Krumphau and simple retreat, and what each opponent reaction opens up.
Provoke, take, hit: fighting with invitations
Make the opponent attack where and when you want, with the answer already loaded. Invitations, the beat you ask for, sniping the hands, and what happens to a provocation the opponent reads.
Reading the opponent's guard
Before you attack, read what the opponent's guard covers and what it leaves open. Match each of the four guards to the cut the tradition says breaks it.
The Scheitelhau: Alber, the Crown and overrunning
The vertical cut against the fool's guard, the crown that catches it, the slice that breaks the crown, and why attacking low invites a cut from above.
The Schielhau: Pflug, the long point and the buffalo
The squinting cut against a rising point, a strong cutter who beats at your blade, and the standoff of two long points in the speaking window.
How this works
1. Observe
Each state shows two schematic fencers: guard, distance, blade angle, the line of attack and the openings. Before revealing the notes, decide what you see.
2. Decide
Choose a response. Then choose what the opponent does, because fencing is not a script: a bind can be hard, soft or already leaving.
3. Connect
Terms like and open in place and link to techniques, other scenarios and the historical sources.
4. Keep it
Mark how well you know a term, then drill it with spaced flashcards. Progress lives in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
55 German longsword terms
Guards, cuts, timing, blade and bind vocabulary with searchable alternative spellings. Try , or .
33 techniques
Cuts, guards, windings and tactics, each linked to the terms they use, the techniques that counter them and the scenarios where they appear.
Fence an opponent
A bout of several exchanges against a rule-based opponent at three levels. Rewind, override the opponent, and record the bout to replay or share.
Flashcards and stats
German to English and back, with light spaced repetition. Nothing due yet.
About this prototype
LearnHEMA is an open-source experiment in teaching historical European martial arts through an interactive knowledge graph: scenarios, techniques, terms and sources all reference each other by stable ids, so a term learned in one exchange is the same term met in the next. It starts with German longsword in the Liechtenauer tradition, with Joachim Meyer's reading noted where it differs, and the content model is built to take other masters and weapons.
Everything here is a modern instructional simplification. The diagrams are schematic, the scenarios are teaching examples, and the sources page tells you where each idea comes from and what you may reuse. Quick sample terms: , , , , , .