Getting your message out there: Press releases for HEMA

Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, but other than a tragic sword related accident, or something catastrophic, how do you get the news to cover your event, or club without putting a lot of money into advertising in a lot of different places and hoping you see a return. This article is written with the new press person in mind. If you have found something else works better for you, that is great, keep doing it, but if not, I may have a few ideas to help you grow your club.

I have been getting press to come out and cover my sword club for years now and have had some success in doing so multiple times a year. By way of a disclaimer, I am not an advertising expert, but I have been doing advertising for my club, as well as the Utah Scottish association for several years now and would like to share my experience with my fellow clubs.
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Know your audience. You may have to write 2 or 3 press releases based on who the readership/viewership of the media you are sending a press release to, but if that reaches them better, it is worth it. Most of the time, I write press releases to the general public, some of whom may show up after seeing us in print or on the news, so I write a very broad press release. Your audience may know what you are talking about when you explain what your club does, but assume that they do not and then, when they show up if they know the subject better, talk at a higher level about it to them.

In as much as possible, give them something that they could go to press with, with little or no adjustment. What this means is answer 4 W's for them. (Who, What, When, and Where) What it all comes down to is this: You teach a sword class. That is awesome, and it may be interesting to your audience, but it is not something that a news organization will spend a lot of time covering. Before I started sending out focused press releases we had 1 or 2 people come out in the time frame of a couple of years, but now, we have 2 or 3 every 6 months. Timeliness is important here. A story on the fact that you teach a class, since you teach it all the time, it is not timely, as they could run it this weekend or 3 weeks from now and it would make no difference to them.

What they are willing to cover is an event you are holding, or a special class or seminar you are teaching. News organizations are looking for things people can come and see, or things that people can do, this is your bread and butter. Does that mean that you can't talk about what classes you teach? Absolutely not, but rather than lead with "We teach a sword class and it is awesome." Lead with, "We are teaching a different weapon, or style this month."  or "We have a class for new people that starts on this day and costs this much" THEN follow it with "this is a part of our regular class, which teaches X, and here is where you can get more information about who we are and what we do.

Make sure you have a good website, Facebook page, or good way for people to get a hold of you. If it is a website, make sure that most of the questions you get asked by new people are answered there. That way when people do go there it will cut down on answering the same question over and over. You may still have to answer those questions some, but it at least will cut down on the number of times you have to do so.

Now you have a piece of beautiful writing, how do you get it to the press?
The way I go about it is this. Go to the website for any organization you want to cover your event, and look for an email of the editor, or where they take press releases. Often, it is something as simple as news@Newspaper.com, or editor@tvchannel.com. Most papers or tv channels will have this information on a contact us page or on the bottom of the main pages. If you are not sure, send it to the press release and the news tip emails. The worst that happens is that they do nothing. If they have a public events calendar, post it there. Most public radio stations for example will, pull stories from their public events calendar for announcement on the air, so it does not hurt to post those to as many calendars as you can. Make sure that you send it out a month before the event, and again a week or so before the event, so they have a chance to run it and a better chance of someone seeing it. What you do not want to do is to send it out weekly or daily to the same people as they will stop paying attention and may ignore things you send them in the future.

Now,  you have done all that and you get a call or email from a news source who wants to come out and talk to you. What next?

Be willing to be a little silly. If you are on a morning show, they may want to do something silly as a part of what they are showing. I get it, you teach a martial art, that can be serious business, but if you can't have fun with it, they will not come back. The interviewer may ask a silly question, assume that your interviewer, or your audience knows nothing about the topic and keep it simple. If that means that you are teaching the person a drill, or you are showing a drill, do that, but do not go too far into explaining it. You have limited time with a TV crew so keeping it simple is better than explaining a lot and not covering everything you want to due to time.

Show, don't tell.
When it comes to TV they want to see something interesting. Show some sparring, show some drills, show the different weapons you teach, show a page from a manual, but do not just stand in front of a camera without a sword and say we teach HEMA and it is a lot of fun. Instead,  show students doing it or doing a fun game you use in class. They want to see something different, not just a guy in front of the camera talking about your event, even having people spar in the background is better than a guy with a mic talking with nothing going on in the background.

Lastly, know that as good of a story as you write or they come out and do, at the end of the day, your story is a fun human interest story, and could be bumped due to another more important story. Do not get discouraged, it might happen but even if they bump it today, they could run it tomorrow. On a slow news day they may give you a little more time, but be willing to go with the flow on it.

Because I believe in showing not telling I have posted one of our press releases below.

The United Clans Swordsman Association and True Edge Academy of Provo to hold 2^ndannual sword fighting competition of the year in Salt Lake City

For immediate release September 24, 2016 Salt Lake City, UT

The United Clans Swordsman Association and True Edge Academy of Swordsmanship will be holding their second bi-annual sword fighting competition of the year October 8^th 2016 from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. Both groups are members of the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance a national nonprofit dedicated to Historical European Swordsmanship. Techniques taught include Long sword, Short Sword, Dagger, and unarmed fighting and defense. Participation in the competition will be limited to members of both groups; however, all are welcome to come to watch the event which will be held on the east side of the park by the large stone fireplace.

There will be a beginner’s synthetic longsword tournament, a Synthetic open weapons tournament, and a steel Long Sword tournament all taking place during the competition on October 8^th.

“The Historical European Martial Arts are really an emerging field,” says Jordan Hinckley a Salt Lake native and Instructor for the UCSA’s Saturday class.  “In other sports, what you do is just a game. Even modern Olympic fencing has changed over time and lost much of its original martial intent and skills. This art was something that I always wanted to learn, but up until several years ago did not know existed, what to call it, or where to go learn it. Now having been involved in it for as long as I have it is something I am proud of, and that teaches me skills that go far beyond how to properly swing a sword."

The reasons behind joining for many of the participants in class vary. Some students join because they want to explore the fighting styles of Europe, others come to learn a unique martial art that is not widely practiced, still others find themselves attracted to it because they have always wanted to learn how to fight with a sword, but it does come with a particular caveat.

“We are not playing a game when we show up to class,” Says Travis Emery, the head of the UCSA. “All of our technique is based historical texts and things that were done with the weapons and technique that we teach. In swordsmanship as an art, we look at what is in the historical texts to see what was taught, and how we can practice it safely while still learning the initial intent.  More often than not we are surprised by many of the things that are shown in the historical manuals that would be against most modern sporting rules but make total sense in a self-defense situation. This is a combat art that was practiced for centuries through fighting on the field, as well as taught in fencing schools all over Europe.”

“There is a huge misconception that in Europe, the fighting style until fairly recently was very simply hacking and slashing at each other, that there were no martial arts of Europe, this could not be further from the truth. These arts are just as complex as anything taught in the east, after all the body only moves so many ways and can only do so many things.” Says Jack Stewart one of the instructors for the UCSA’s Saturday class.

Both groups teach classes throughout the week. More information about the organization, as well as the Historical European Martial Arts can be found on their websites at www.TheUCSA.com, and http://trueedgeacademy.com/ as well as on the Facebook pages for both groups.

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Combat Con 2017 Making progress.

I did it, now what?
But we will get back to that.

This past weekend was Combat Con 2017. For those of you not sure what that means, here is the skinny. Combat Con was the first sword event I ever attended and it changed my life. That can be found here: http://theswordsmanslife.blogspot.com/2014/06/getting-there-and-back-again-combat-con.html
The long and short is that my first Combat Con forced me to ask myself "How can, I?" Rather than staying stuck saying "I can't", I came back in 2015, and it had some great ups, and some major downs but it changed the course of my training just a bit more.
They can be found here:
http://theswordsmanslife.blogspot.com/2015/06/combat-con-matters.html
http://theswordsmanslife.blogspot.com/2015/06/my-personal-thoughts-on-moving-myself.html

This Combat Con was a turning point for me.
So, the review:
I loved the venue this year, the spaces were plentiful, the schedule allowed me to attend most of the classes that I wanted to attend. But there is something more than that to me. What makes Combat Con for me is the people. I have met people from all around the world here and yet, the thread that binds us all is our love for the art that we practice. For some, that is a particular weapons system, or a particular style of weapons or unarmed study, but that thread binds us all. At Combat Con, the Rapier student and the Long sword student can stand side by side and find common ground in the things that we teach and study.
Combat Con is a family not of blood but of steel. I have seen people help those outside their club improve because the better we all are, the more we have to push ourselves to BE better. I have stood in the corner and coached friends who did not have a coach there to help them, and this weekend I had friends who stood behind me no matter where they were from because they believed in me and were proud of the hard work I have been doing. These are MY people, and there was not a person I met who did not want me to do well.
I met a lot of new people, had one of my best days in HEMA and walked away not only excited for next year, but proud of myself and 2 friends of mine who had good showings in tournaments. One of our students who has moved clubs but still comes to our class from time to time took 1st in steel Long sword and Beginners cutting, but for me this year meant something bigger.

Cutting it
2 years ago at Combat Con I was not able to pass my cutting qualifier to be able to compete in the steel long sword tournament. This was hard on me and I did not do as well as I wanted to in the tournament I ended up in. A year ago, my job was in trouble, so I did not attend. This year, with work stabilized I decided would be the time to come back, and overcome the challenges I faced last time.
I have been working my butt off the last little bit, to make sure that this time I would pass. Going down to Vegas I told myself that if I passed, I would bring home a new cutting sword, and once down I told my friends that if I failed, that money would go to buying more mats so that next time I would be 100% sure that I would pass it. 4 cuts later, I was in. Months and months of worry and hard work to understand how to use my body properly to make sure I could do it was over and here I was, proud of all I had put into it. Not only my local guys cheered me on, but also those friends who have supported me over the years from other clubs.

On to Steel! 
The pools were set, mine was bigger than the others but I was going into it knowing that win or loose I would give it my best and prove that I belonged there. In my first match I had on of my friends who has been behind me for the last few years corner coaching me. This is why I love this community, RJ stood with me, when I felt like crap because I failed last time and believed in me that I could get where I wanted to be by this time. Though in California, he critiqued video I sent him and was super supportive all along this process.  At the end of the day, I won 2 of my 4 matches and moved on to eliminations since I did well enough to place in the top 24. I may have lost my next match but I made it further than I ever expected to make it, and if my friends are to be believed My fighting has improved since my first time 3 years ago.

Moving forward. 
This event has done more for my self esteem than any event I have ever been to. These people want me to do well and are really cheering me on as I work towards that. I am not sure what my next goals may be, but I know that my "Combat Con family" is there for me as I decide and work hard to get there. These are not the people I am related to by blood, but they are those who share a love for the art, and who want all of us to succeed, we may meet other places, but this event has a special place in my heart as where it all began, and where I know I can find a good fight, a decent drink, and some great friends always willing to stand in my corner when I need it.

Till next year my friends!
Jordan (You know that Henry VIII dude)