Historical Pedagogy

Wrestling in HEMA: Ringen at the Sword

By HILT Official · Jul 26, 2026 · 8 min read

The sources are full of grappling and most clubs train none of it. A practical guide to wrestling in HEMA, what to drill first, and how to do it without hurting anyone.

Half the Fight Happens Inside Sword Range Wrestling in HEMA is the part almost every club quietly skips, and it's the part the sources spend an enormous amount of ink on. Open any German longsword gloss and grappling is sitting right there in the middle of the fencing. Arm breaks. Throws. Disarms. Whole sections on what to do once two people have closed past the range where swinging a sword makes any sense. Ringen, the German word for wrestling, isn't a bonus module bolted onto the treatises. It's load-bearing. Then you walk into a typical Tuesday class and watch two fencers bind up, freeze…

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