Welcome to the Stoccata School of Defence

NSW & Tasmania, 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), that teaches systems of self-defence 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, sport-fencing, 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, and skill.

We offer regular courses of instruction in a variety of different weapons and historical styles. These are appropriate for anyone of reasonable physical fitness over the age of 12. See Branches for details of what we teach at each location, or Styles for a summary of the systems we teach.