Welcome to the Stoccata School of Defence

NSW, Tasmania, & Qld Australia. Est. 1998

The Stoccata School of Defence is a modern school of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) (also called Western Martial Arts (WMA) or Historical European Swordsmanship (HES) or Historical Fencing (HF), that teaches systems of fencing described in texts written between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries.

These systems were designed explicitly for dealing with life-and-death situations, and they are taught as a martial art, not as re-enactment, or theatrical stage-fighting (although many students do engage in these activities as well). However, given that no modern person will ever be in a real sword fight, our emphasis is on safety, control, competence, skill, and of course enjoyment.

We offer regular courses of instruction in a variety of different weapons and historical styles. Age requirements are different at our various branches however the minimum age is 12 for some classes, and 16 for the majority of our classes. See Branches for details of what we teach at each location, or Styles for a summary of the systems we teach.

Inclusivity

You can read our inclusivity statement here.
For information about which branches train on which day, please see the Branches tab above.