This oral presentation is on the relevance of the practice of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) to modern persons. My main arguments centered around applications in self-defense, cross-applicability to other fields, and general fitness. While no one is walking around carrying swords today, I argued that the general biomechanical competency studying their use gives is widely beneficial, especially in developing senses of balance, distance, and reaction time, which all can be used, for example, in dancing. While I have no intention of persuading every person in the world to pick up the study of HEMA, part of my hope with the presentation is merely to bring it into other people’s conscious spheres, as, regardless of active participation, it is a fascinating field. If some choose to treat it as a mere point of curiosity, then there is no harm in that, and I have still achieved one of my goals. If people decide to dive deeper into the subject, then the persuasive part of this presentation has worked, though that was not one of my primary aims.

 

The other main goal with this speech was to curb my rambling tendencies, as I have a habit of pontificating and spiraling off into rabbit trails whenever I have even the slightest room for free-form in public speaking. On the presentation previous to this one, I had put all of my time into the first section and had none left over to address the next two parts. So here, I intentionally kept each part short, and tried to keep my sentences short as well.