Spotlight on Anthony Buonomo !

Spotlight on Anthony Buonomo !

We here at the Sword Experience are excited to be working with our new Sword Partner, Anthony Buonomo, for our upcoming Con Experience at the Greater Austin Comic Con. Anthony was brought to our attention by one of our wonderful musketeers, Erik Middleton. A fantastic find Erik, thank you. We had quite a few submissions from our other musketeers, which we are very grateful for, but there was something about Anthony’s fighting style and fight training that caught our attention. We sat down with Anthony to learn a little more about the man, his fight training background, and what exactly this HEMA thing is that he’s brought to Austin.

Sword Experience (SXP): So first off, tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What is your martial arts background?

Anthony Buonomo (AB): Though this always gets me odd looks in Texas, I’m a Yankee. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York, roughly an hour south of Albany. I went to college in Philadelphia, and lived there for about 9 years before I made my way to Texas in 2010. Perhaps fittingly, my martial arts background is as varied as the places I’ve lived. In my hometown, several friends and I got into ‘boffer’ fighting – we’d take PVC pipes, wrap them with pool noodles and duct tape, and make swords. This was little more than a bunch of guys hitting each other with padded sticks, but definitely solidified my love for weapon combat. In Philadelphia I took classes at Zhang-Sah Martial Arts, in a system that combined multiple styles into one; we studied a mix of Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Judo, and Aikido. I studied with them for 5 years, and was able to receive my black belt. During this time, I also was exposed to SCA (The Society for Creative Anachronism) combat, and did their heavy fighting (rattan weapons, metal armor) for about 3 years as well. There was an unfortunate lull in my training from when I moved to Texas until I found HEMA, but in 2014 I met some crazy guys in a park, swinging metal swords at each other, and was hooked.

SXP: Tell us about the Austin Historical Weapons Guild. How long have you guys been in operation? What is HEMA?

AB: HEMA stands for Historical Eurupean Martial Arts. We’re not just swinging swords around, doing things that look cool, but instead are basing our teachings and techniques on our best interpretation of what was done in the past, back when people still fought with swords. We are fortunate to have dozens of manuals from that time that we can reference, and they often have pictures of the actions they are describing, aiding in our understanding. HEMA can cover a broad range of topics, and time period. One of the earliest manuscripts that people study teaches Sword and Buckler, and has been dated to around 1200; others will look at Saber manuals from the 1800s. Other weapons that we have manuscripts for include wrestling, dagger, poleweapons, rapier, side-sword, and of course, longsword.

Austin Historical Weapons Guild is my labor of love and passion project that has exploded beyond my wildest dreams. When I started in 2014, there was a group of guys that met up once a week at a park. Soon after I joined, the head of the group had to move and the rest of the group was left adrift, no direction, and no leader. With my previous martial arts background, I offered to help the more experienced members ‘go back to the sources’ and create our own understanding and interpretation of things. When we started this, we were purely focusing on longsword, and even went by the name ‘ATX Longsword’. As we slowly expanded our weapons base, the longsword became less relevant, so in 2016 we rebranded as Austin Historical Weapons Guild. We now offer classes 5 days a week and cover six different weapons.

SXP: What is the benefit of training in a multiple weapons system?

AB: One of my favorite idioms has become “it’s all just sticks in hands”. The human body can only move in certain way, and when you put a weapon, any weapon, in your hands, the options actually get smaller. You need to deliver force through the weapon, and to do that, you need to keep body position and structure.

By training with multiple weapons, we are able to focus on a technique or concept and learn it in the easiest way. Sometimes it’s with a shorter weapon, like the dagger or through wrestling; other times, it’s easier to learn something with a longsword. Regardless of where we start, we can take that idea, learn the basics of it, and then swap out the weapon and do the same core idea with only minor modifications.

SXP: What is the Lichtenauer system?

AB: A system is a bit of a misnomer, but it’s the easiest short hand to describe what is going on and how we approach things. In the 14th or 15th century, there was a fencing master by the name of Johannes Lichtenauer. By all accounts, he wrote a poem, called the zettel, and this is what he gave his students so that they would remember what he taught them, a sort of mnemonic device for sword fighting. In this poem, he has a verse that is translated as follows:

4 Wrestle well, grappler.

Glaive, spear, sword, and knife,

5 Manfully handle.

And in others’ hands ruin.

To me, this is part of him defining his system, saying that you need to be able to wrestle, that you should be able to fight with a polearm, a spear, a sword and a knife. Only after that, do we teach you how to use longsword. This also is a large reason why our classes are set up the way they are. However, if all we had was this poem, we’d be in a lot of trouble. His verses areintentionally vague and confusing. If you know what he’s talking about, it’s clear, but if you don’t, it’s all but useless. Fortunately, some of his students wrote their own manuscripts, or fechtbooks. These are glosses of the zettel, where they will transcribe the poem, but then have multiple plays describe what the passage means. It is from these plays that we are able to begin to understand the art of fencing as Lichtenauer describes it.

SXP: For those that are interested in learning more about HEMA and the courses you offer, where can they should they start?

AB: Well, if you’re in Austin, reach out to us! We run Beginner’s Courses year-round, and have one starting up at the end of June! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, or our website. For everyone else, I highly recommend you check out the HEMA Alliance Club Finder. This will help you find a club in your area and give you a place to go. If there isn’t a club nearby, starting one yourself is an option as well. HEMA is a very welcoming community and we’re always happy to help people get started.

Another great resource that everyone should look at is Wiktenauer. This is a free database of dozens of the manuscripts people are working from. You can see the original images as well as a transcription of the original text and any translations that have been done of it.

We here at the Sword Experience are excited to add Anthony to our roster of Sword Partners and we cannot wait to work with him at the Greater Austin Comic Con. His style will be a great contribution to the experience. We always strive to bring you the best resources in sword culture and we value the ideas that Anthony has shared with us. If you or anyone you know thinks they have what it takes to become one of Adrian’s Sword Partners, email the Sword Experience at contact@swordxp.com with a resume and a video of your skills.