Workshops and lectures

Workshops

Please note: the level indicated under the workshop description is the minimum recommended level for participation. For example, a workshop with the recommended beginner level is open to intermediate and advanced levels.

Rapier and dagger fencing through 21 treaties

Presentation of the French translation of the manual “Sword and Dagger Fencing, 1628-1731”.

After a long research process, this manual aims to offer the bases to begin practicing cup sword and sail dagger fencing, also known as double harness fencing.

The swords and daggers that we can admire today in museums were once used as instruments of dueling and self-defense. Thanks to the study of historical pieces and 21 treaties of the time, applying the principles of efficiency and biomechanics oriented to combat with weapons, fencing applied to said weapons can be recovered.

-Alejo Iker and Patxi Peña Castresana –

• Recommended equipment: Rapier and dagger, basic gear
• Minimum level: Beginner

They don’t need their hands do they? Slices with Messer

We’ll take a look at performing slices (Schnyten) with messers, particularly around the hands and wrists.

-Kindred Willow-

• Recommended equipment: Messer, Mask, Gloves
• Minimum level: Beginner

Thrusts in British Militray Swordmanship

We’ll look at how best to make use of the point in British Militray swordmanship, whether that’s as feints, primary or secondary intention attacks and everything else.

-Kindred Willow-

• Recommended equipment: Sabre (or Spadroon/Broadsword), mask, jacket/chest protector
• Minimum level: Intermediate

The two swords of Antonio Manciolino – A lethal elegance – part one.

Part One – the Renaissance’s coolest game entry; how to intimidate your opponent before you even start fighting! The basic concepts of using the two swords will be addressed and then continue to footwork and the sturdy, dry yet elegant gestures of going to game!

-Moreno Dei Ricci-

• Recommended equipment: Two renaissance side swords; fencing Mask, gloves.
• Minimum level: Intermediate

The two swords of Antonio Manciolino – A lethal elegance – part two.

Part Two -The Art of the Masters: the two swords of Antonio Manciolino.
After addressing the fundamentals of this Art in Part One, the focal points described in the assault, attacks, defenses, and attitudes read between the lines of the Master will be addressed.
In the during there will be technical applications at different intensities.

-Moreno Dei Ricci-

• Recommended equipment: Two renaissance side swords; fencing Mask, gloves.
• Minimum level: Confirmated

TIKF – The Thrust/Stab is the Death of the Cut

The aesthetically appealing and dynamic Italian knife fencing is very different from other modern knife fighting styles. In this workshop, Özgen ‘Ozzy’ Senol offers a deep insight into the unusual knife fencing tradition of 19th century in Apulia and Sicily. Various fencing positions and tactics regarding long and medium distance and the concepts of circle walking will be covered. As far as time permits, the parallels between the knife and the shepherd’s staff are discussed.

-Özgen (Ozzy) Senol –

• Recommended equipment: No special equipment or protective needed
• Minimum level: Beginner

From Zero to Diestro 2.0

In this workshop I will give an updated introductional overview of important La Verdadera Destreza concepts, like Angulo Recto, Medio de Proporcion, Atajo and some more in a nutshell. With a more playful approach even beginners will become Diestras and Diestros step by step, who perform fencing from the bind in a more upright position. The result will be like light sparring, which will probably look like a dance. Some people might remember my workshop from 2023. Come and experience the new version.

-Özgen (Ozzy) Senol –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, chest protection, gloves, rapier.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Experimentation of a French prize fighting rule

I presented last year a kind of test a fencer apprentice had to face after a handful of weeks during the 16th cent. in France. During this workshop, we’ll try to make it revive with its every tiny rules.

-Olivier Dupuis –

• Recommended equipment: Fencing mask, padded gloves, a jacket and some kind of weapons
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Sidesword and Sword & Buckler: Exploring Provocations and Transitions in the Works of Dall’Agocchie and Manciolino

This workshop focuses on the study of provocations and transitions in Dall’Agocchie’s épée de côté and Manciolino’s épée bocle. We will explore different pieces that incorporate invitations and provocations, enabling us to progress strategically from a wide game to a short game, and thus create maximum opportunities.
How do you transition well and move appropriately through the different guards of the Bolognese system? How can you deceive your opponent and take advantage? You will learn to play with distance, alternating between the role of agent and that of patient. You’ll move fluidly through this dynamic, using provocations to force your opponent to open up and breaking tempos to operate decisively.

-David Mene –

• Recommended equipment: Gloves, masks, sidesword nylon or steel, bocle steel or nylon
• Minimum level: Beginner

Gaulish group battle

‘How the Gauls fought as a group is virtually unknown to us. However, by taking into account all the archaeological data, it is possible to develop interesting avenues of work. (
The aim of this workshop is to get the students to think about and understand how the Gauls fought in groups, adding each parameter step by step: spacing, formations, movements, weapons handling and, of course, confrontations between two groups of warriors’.

-Régis Harter –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Mandatory: mask, gloves, jacket or chest protector.
  • Recommended: leggings and shell
• Minimum level: Beginner
• Number of places : 24

Mortschlag: pure subtlety.

We’ll see that this famous Mortschlag isn’t just a hammer blow from outer space to crack your opponent’s skull. It’s much more than that!
There’s a whole world of Talhoffer’s half-sword game…

-Nicolas “Vabo” Ferrand –

• Recommended equipment: Long sword, mask, light glove, jacket
• Minimum level: Beginner

Deestreza: opening

A duel is a game of rapier chess. Like a game of chess, it consists of an opening, a middle game and a final. This workshop will focus on openings, in particular the choice of atajo, by analysing recurring and classic situations.

-Sebastien Romagnan –

• Recommended equipment: Rapier, jacket, gloves, mask
• Minimum level: Beginner

How to catch when our hand are full

The aim of this workshop is to work on grabbing techniques with sword and buckler. We will use sources from the Germanic space such as the Liber de Arte Dimicatoria (aka MS 1.33) but also some iconography from the CGM 3712. We will see how this sources propose to go about grabbing from a weapon set that do not leave any hand empty.

-Clément Desoche –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, light gloves sword and buckler
• Minimum level: Beginner

Fiore Flow

The aim of this workshop will be to use Fiore’s system as a means of exploring “flow state,” the elusive notion of being in the moment while fencing, of keeping our opponent guessing and taking control of the pace of the fight.

Fiore’s fencing system is a fairly simple one. However, like a musical piece made up of individual notes, these simple plays can flow together to create something elegant, efficient and martial.

-Jordan Mock –

• Recommended equipment: Jacket, mask, gloves and a gorget as well as a longsword.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Principles of the sword-roundache at Lovino

Alongside the sword alone, the treatise attributed to Giovan Antonio Lovino (circa 1580), like many Renaissance works, presents a number of techniques for the épée-rondache. In the case of the Milanese master, the portion is small to say the least: just two sets, out of a total of 66! This small number is partly due to the particular teaching methods used by the author, who uses fictitious duels as a means of presenting and learning his system. In their progression, these duels see an increasing complexity of fencing actions, in parallel with a reduction – or even disappearance – of indications for the aspects already set out. Towards the end of the manuscript, the sword-round techniques must therefore be considered in conjunction with the previous weapons in order to look beyond the two games presented and consider their intrinsic principles and the richness of this configuration.

-Gilles Martinez –

• Recommended equipment: Side sword, rondache, mask, glove, jacket
• Minimum level: Beginner

Docciolini at work for the Bolognese

Docciolini published a treatise in 1601 at the crossroads of two great traditions: the side sword and the rapier. In this workshop, we’ll look at the technical and tactical elements of this treatise that can be used in Bolonese side-sword fencing.

-Aurélien Calonne –

• Recommended equipment: Side sword, mask, possibly dagger, bocle, cape
• Minimum level: Beginner

Improving your solo sword sparring

During this workshop, we will explore how to make your solo sword sparring cleaner, more enjoyable, and truly beneficial for improving your technique and game reading.

-Catherine Loiseau –

• Recommended equipment: Side sword, gloves, mask
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Durchtreten or Mutatio Gladii?

The first play of MS. I.33 addresses ‘falling under sword and shield and the Stichschlag’ and how this can be countered. It also mentions three different reactions to the counter. While one of them, the Mutation Gladii, is then covered in more or less detail in the second play, the information on the alternatives, i.e. the Durchtreten and grappling, is sparse.
This class will provide a repetition of the way towards the Mutation Gladii (which Stefan covered in his class at HEMAC Dijon 2023 in detail) before it focuses on a suggestion for Durchtreten and on how different situations call for one option or the other. If time permits, the grappling option will also be addressed.

-Stefan Dieke –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum: Sword, Buckler, Mask;
  • Recommended: Gloves
• Minimum level: Intermediate

What if Fiore dei Liberi knew MS I.33

In this workshop we will explore the plays for the two handed sword of Fiore dei Liberi presuming that Fiore’s system is related to the system depicted in MS I.33.

-Stefan Dieke –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum: Long Sword, Mask;
  • Recommended: Gloves
• Minimum level: Beginner

Post renaissance Grappling with one handed weapons.

A lack of knowledge of 18th and 19th century HEMA sources has led some members of the community to assume at first that corps-à-corps is totally absent from these various technical corpuses. The aim of this workshop will be to rectify this by introducing participants to a variety of grappling techniques present in the technical systems of this period, through several weapons, notably: the smallsword, the sabre and the cane. Particular emphasis will be placed on the technical and tactical particularities of these moves, including their interdependence, so that the whole forms a coherent system. The objective of the workshop is that the attendee leaves with the knowledge of a complete wrestling system, with little modifications depending on the specific one-handed weapon to be used.
The following sources will be covered, among others: French smallsword (Girard 1736, Angelo 1765, Liancour 1696, Hope 1707), Kreusslerian thrust-fencing (Weischner 1731, FAWL Roux 1847, Müller 1757, Pseudo JAK Roux 1797) and Italian (Rosaroll Scorza-Grissetti 1803), Saber fencing (Hutton 1891, Rhiner 1837, Fehn 185, Lonnergan 1771. Page 1746) as well as other later traditions (Canne Bonafont 1930, Coltello italiano, Antrim Bataireacht…)

-Romain Meister –

• Recommended equipment: Fencing Mask, Cane or Saber or Smallsword
• Minimum level: Beginner

The “iron gate” in transalpine fencing traditions

The Iron Gate is a unique guard, in that it is present in both the Germanic and Italian traditions of Liechtenauer, Fiore de’i Liberi and Bolognese style fencing. Yet it remains a bit mysterious, because it is never identical depending on the authors, leading to confusion and debates, including back in the day. As an undoubtendly ancient guard, it certainly is a residue of an old common substrate common to fencing in the center/southern Europe. The workshop is a journey through history from the first masters –Liechtenauer, the “other masters” of Ms3227a, Fiore de’i Liberi, Filippo Vadi, to the later masters (Joachim Meÿer, or Bolognese fencers). From a practical point of view, the workshop aims at exploring the use of this guard, both as a defensive stance and as an offensive stance; it also gives tools to people wishing to handle an opponent standing in the Iron Gate.

-Andreas Arnold –

• Recommended equipment: Longsword, fencing mask, gloves, fencing jacket
• Minimum level: Beginner

The first guard of Italian fencing. Offensive and defensive actions

In this workshop we will learn how to correctly use the first ropery guard of Italian fencing, both offensively and defensively and its strengths and weaknesses.

-Nacho González García –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, jacket, gloves and ropery
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Italian fencing vs. true skill.

In this class we will analyze the weaknesses of true dexterity and what are the best Italian fencing actions to counteract true dexterity.

-Nacho González García –

• Recommended equipment: Ropera, mask, jacket and gloves
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Self-defense against a knife like a 17th-century Amsterdam sailor.

This workshop aims to answer the following question: “How can I survive a knife fight between sailors without killing my opponent or challenging the local bajatero to a duel?” To do this, we will focus on a 17th-century source written by Nicolaes Petter (1674 – Klare Onderrichtinge der Voortreffelijke Worstel-Konst), or at least its 1712 French translation. The workshop will be divided into two phases: the first aimed at learning certain defensive techniques (locks, strikes) from the source, and the second aimed at practicing them in a fight situation.

-Mathieu Tondut –

• Recommended equipment: Mask and gloves may be required. Knife/dagger simulators
• Minimum level: Beginner

Scannatura, Capoferro’s way to slaughter your opponent.

We’ll dissect this simple action from the second guard from Capoferro, its variations and how to counter it.

-Marco Danelli –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, Jacket, Gloves and Rapier.
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Meyer Dussack

Zwingerhau? Brummerhau? Rosenhau?

…what are those????

MEYER DUSSACK.

Let’s have fun with the most underrated yet incredibly fun weapon: the Dussack after Joachim Meyer tradition

-Diana Matthess –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Dussack (mandatory)
  • Mask, Throat protection, gloves (optional)
• Minimum level: Beginner

Temperantia et Furia: Monte’s tactics for the two-handed sword

Learn a professional Renaissance soldier’s approach to surviving and thriving in combat.

The Italian general Pietro Monte had a renowned 30-year career as a commander and trainer of soldiers. As a professional soldier, he taught a conservative approach to combat, based on on the virtue of Temperantia – Balance or Moderation – focused firstly on surviving a fight. Yet he also recognises the time for Furia, or Fury, in the attack. In this workshop you will learn his tactics and techniques for approaching the opponent, entering, dominating and winning the fight, all while preserving your safety. The workshop is taught through two-handed sword or longsword but the principles apply to all swords.

-Mike Prendergast –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum: Fencing mask, two-handed sword (spadone, montante, Schlachtschwert, etc. ) or longsword, padded gloves.
  • You can wear more gear if you wish to train at more intensity.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Even Stabbing Requires Imagination

The point of this workshop is to teach and understand the stranger Rondel Dagger techniques presented in the MS Ludwig Xv13 manuscript. Most of the dagger techniques presented can be easily explained by the usage of biomechanics, but the oddest of all of them can only be understood with a combination of trickery and surprise.

-João Oliveira –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, fencing jacket, light gloves and codpiece
• Minimum level: Beginner

Fashion Risks – Turning your walking cane into a weapon

Do you like your accessories a little bit dangerous? Maybe with a bit of zing, and packing a punch? Perfect!
In this workshop, we will get acquainted with the walking cane as a means of self defense. We’ll have a look at this versatile and efficient weapon through the eyes of M. Pierre Vigny, a french fencing master, who has enriched the world of martial arts academies at the turn of the twentieth century. And maybe look just a little bit fancy, doing it!

-Jerca Primc –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Mask, gloves, cane (if you have one).
  • More, if you want to go faster or try sparring.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Damned doublehits and afterblows!

We all know that nagging feeling that creeps upon us when we had the experience of a doublehit or afterblow, especially during a tournament bout, when we thought we’ve got our opponent and then “Damn!”.
So we will look at the causes of this, try to understand what the old masters tell us that could help us there, if we heed their advice, and go through some exercises that will help us to get more skilled and don’t fall into these traps.

-Karl Rapp –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, chest and groin protection, gorget/Jacket/Full rapier gear
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Sparring in Armor and how to judge, exploring ways to find a good compromise between martial art and sport

As i participate in sparring and competitions/meeting, i often see the difficulties to reach a fair judgment and counting of hits, without impacting participants security nor forgot the realism in Armor fighting.
We’ll try to find the right spot between security and realism

-Julien Vuagniaux –

• Recommended equipment: Obviously, a set of armor, but participant in hema gears are accepted as the point of the workshop is as valid in blossfechten than in armor
• Minimum level: Beginner

Flat-handed wrestling, let’s go further into the fundamentals of French wrestling.

‘Exposé de Lutte à main plate, dite Lutte française par E. Keush.
Once again, I’m going to present this magnificent wrestling style, which is fun and easy to learn. After a quick explanation of the context and the notions you need to know in order to practice this type of wrestling, we’ll go over a wide range of techniques together. I’ll be giving you my thoughts and ideas on how to adapt these techniques when you’re fighting bigger and stronger opponents, or simply using little tricks (some might say cunning) that I’ve picked up over the years to make sure that, when it doesn’t work …. bin it still works!
Bring your good humour and your desire to learn seriously and have a good time.

-Vivien Poinsel –

• Recommended equipment: A body in almost perfect condition is enough – ideally a friend
• Minimum level: Beginner

Silver’s True Fight: an introduction

A brief introduction to some English Backsword techniques of George Silver, Joseph Swetnam and Charles Roworth

-Jed Pascoe –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum: Mask, Gloves, arming sword, broadsword, or backsword. Straight sabre acceptable.
  • Recommended: Fencing jacket, gorget, vambraces
• Minimum level: Beginner

The sport of English Singlestick (ECB)

An introduction to the ancient English sport of rustic backswording. Warning: very little normal HEMA protective kit allowed!

-Jed Pascoe –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Singlestick cudgels will be supplied. Required kit: Mask, gloves, box, vambraces.
  • Optional: Chest protector (ladies), gorget, elbow guards.
• Minimum level: Beginner

(Non-financial) investment advice

In fencing, you’re constantly faced with choices: do I stay in this bind or leave it? Do I wind or cut around? Do I cut or feint? Where do I focus my effort? You only have so much energy to invest; you’d better do it wisely!

-Michel Rensen –

• Recommended equipment:
  • At minimum, you require a mask with back of head protection, a gorget, a chest protector, gloves and a longsword.
  • More gear, such as elbow protection, jacket, etc. can be added if you want to up the intensity of the exercises.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Angelo (jr) ‘s Sabre and Cutlass drills

A look at Angelo’s naval cutlass drills.
Through a series of exercises, drills, sequences, and games we shall learn, practice and enjoy the positions, cuts, and forms set out in Angelo’s treatise.
So, step up to the rail, glory awaits!

-George Livermore –

• Recommended equipment: cutlass/ sabre, training cutlasses can be provided. Gloves, arm protection, masks, jacklets.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Fighting in Viking times

To sum up, we’ll use a quotation from Sigvatr Nesjavisur (to be found in Anders Winroth’s book “Au temps des vikings”):
“Then the battle began. As one poet put it, in a typically Nordic euphemism, ‘it’s not like having a maid bring you a leek or a beer’: in other words, it was a horrible experience.”
You’ll probably come away from this workshop with more questions than certainties. But isn’t uncertainty and experimentation what our practice is all about?
Beginners and experienced alike are welcome. You’ll need to be in a good mood, and leave your ego at the door.

-Alain Cariou et Vivien Poinsel –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Sparring equipment mandatory (mask and protection). /
  • Take, if you have, shields, spears, axes, swords, knives, ….
• Minimum level: Beginner

Karin’s Medieval Self-Defence System (K-MSDS)

This workshop doesn’t deal with fancy sword techniques, but with what to do when you are unexpectedly attacked in the street, pushed in a room against a wall, threatened with a knife, taken in a strangling hold in a bar or assaulted in your physical integrity. The sources for Europe’s historical martial arts present a plethora of real life situations (sometimes with a dash of humour) in which an impromptu reaction to a dangerous situation is required. We are going to unabashedly scour sources from different eras and linguistic realms to find the best self-defense techniques, learn to improvise, and learn to make use of whatever object is available to free us from an unpleasant, unwanted, or dangerous situation, even in the XXI century. Indeed, self-defense is not primarily about winning, but about surviving. In doing so, we will see that the fundamental principles underlying good martial arts nevertheless remain operative here as well. This will prove useful for men and women alike, but we will pay attention to problems encountered specifically by women while we go. We will try out what we learn in a number of tasty real life situations, and have a good time and a lot of fun doing so!

-Karin Vereslt –

• Recommended equipment: Good humour and sportive clothes
• Minimum level: Beginner

All in flexibility

The workshop will focus on the bridge and flexibility exercises.

-Chloé Monfort –

• Recommended equipment: BOX for men, possibly mouthguard
• Minimum level: Beginner

Antrim Bataireacht

Bataireacht is a centuries-old art practised in Ireland, and more specifically in our case in Northern Ireland (Antrim County).
It combines the use of a stick, a blackthorn cane, with foot/fist techniques and even wrestling.
The workshop will explore the historical and social foundations that led the Irish to develop this fighting art, as well as the movements and strikes that characterize it.
An application in group combat (Faction fight) may be planned depending on participation and available equipment.

-Cyril “Kurso” Perrier –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Optional mask and gloves
  • Simulator: walking stick.
• Minimum level: Beginner
• Number of places : 30

DaumanKrieg – Thumb Grip Mechanics

Understanding Fuhlen is important to using the principles of the Lichtenauer longsword tradition.

The lesson will focus on using the structure of our bodies to quickly cut and wind to our opponent’s openings. Using the thumb grip effectively allows you to respond to the various pressures and take advantage of your opponent’s strength.

Through a series of sparring exercises, we will look at how the thumb grip allows us to react quickly and create the opportunities to make our attack.

Bring as much kit as you’d like, the session will benefit from running these drills and sparring with rat a reasonable intensity, ensure to discuss this with your training partners.

-Sam Pearson –

• Recommended equipment: Ideally full longsword gear for sparring exercises
• Minimum level: Intermediate

I know that you know that I know, second intention in Bertolini’s sabre

Bertolini’s dueling sabre method has several layers of planning, from the simple stop hit, to the pre-planned counteriposte and we will walk up the stairs step by step

-Carlo Parisi –

• Recommended equipment: You need a sabre and sparring gear, fit for the type of sabre (steel or plastic) that you will work with, mask, gloves, jacket, cup
• Minimum level: Beginner

Stich, stich, stich, the power of the priest

The workshop will explore the use of the estoc, also called stich or fixura, in manuscript I.33. This move, specific to the teachings of the priest, is found in various pieces and lies at the heart of this entire art of combat. The first part of the workshop will focus on the biomechanical aspects of the estoc. The second part will analyse a series of situations described in some of the most advanced pieces of the manuscript. The aim is to arrive at a reconstruction that is as efficient and as close to the source as possible.

-Aurélien Nouvion and Marine Beaumel –

• Recommended equipment:
  • one-handed sword, bocle,
  • standard protective equipment: gloves, mask, jacket, shin guards, knee pads, shell, possibly breastplate.
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Supporting and exploiting asymmetry in opposition long epee fencing

Tactical and technical approaches to make the most of your abilities in a sporting context involving all physical categories. Too big, too strong, too fast… There are possible answers for every situation in which we are pitted against an opponent we consider difficult! In this workshop, we’ll take a look at a number of long epee exercises that can help you make these solutions your own.

-Tiphaine Vialle –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Equipment: Long sword simulator, mask, gloves.
  • Optional equipment: Fencing jacket and pants, breastplate recommended, gorgerin recommended.
• Minimum level: Beginner

The hard life of a bodyguard

We’ll be taking a look at “defending the lady/VIP” from Montante’s Iberian sources. During the workshop, you’ll learn the art of defending a VIP and experience it in action. the sources used will essentially be Godinho and Figuereydo

-Simon Lips –

• Recommended equipment: Full body armour, montante (if you have it), 1-handed sword or dagger.
• Minimum level: Beginner
• Number of places : 15

Majestic A.F.

A greatest-hits compilation of fencing plays from Joachim Meyer’s Art of Combat with the Longsword, this workshop will look at the methods, body mechanics, and techniques to get the most out of Meyer style play. Sacrificing hyper-efficient practicality for some theatrical flair, we can build a fencing style that wows the crowds as well as surprising and humbling our opponents!
This will be a great chance to practise transitions between different cuts and guards, and to build a flow into your fencing, with some tips to increase your range, speed, and athletic commitment to your fencing.
Prepare to get HUGE.

-Jonathan Spouge –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum requirements: Mask, head overlay, gloves and steel longsword or feder.
  • Full gear optional for maximum play time. Pluderhosen and other puffy pants encouraged.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Rum, Buggery, and the Slash – naval swordsmanship

Take your sabre game to the high seas with some low stances (and lower standards)! This workshop will be about fencing with the sabre and cutlass on board the deck of ship, and how to adjust your footwork and attacks to make sense in a cramped, confined, or even moving space.
Taking instruction from Royal Navy manuals of the 18th and 19th centuries, and adapting material from infantry sabre manuals with teaching notes from naval officers and sailors’ testimonies, this class will be a fun change of pace for historical context, and hopefully give cut-and-thrust fencers a few new tricks to best their opponents… and maybe help you if you ever have a sword fight on the rolling seas or in a speeding bus… or just on a slippy floor.

-Jonathan Spouge –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Minimum requirements: Mask, gorget, glove, forearm guard, plastic or steel sabre/cutlass/hanger.
  • Ideal equipment: Full sparring gear, including knee & shin protectors.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Fiore’s Fight Club: Abrazare

Fiore dei Liberi was a 14th-century knight, diplomat, and fencing master who created one of the first known fencing manuals, Flos Duellatorum (The Flower of Battle). In his manual, he describes techniques using all known “knightly weapons” like the sword, axe, dagger, and unarmed fighting, as well as both fighting in armour and without it. The foundation of the Fiore system is unarmed techniques, abrazare, which is the first part of all his manuals. During this workshop, we will look at Fiore’s unarmed techniques and discover how surprisingly similar some of them are to modern martial arts techniques, such as jiu-jitsu. We will also see that even while being smaller and weaker than our opponent, we can still overpower them using appropriate body mechanics.
This workshop is suitable for both beginners and advanced students.

-Emilia Skirmuntt –

• Recommended equipment: Comfortable, loose-fitting clothing that allows you to move freely.
• Minimum level: Beginner

Rondel dagger (Scheibendolch) of Meister Hans Talhoffer (Lecturing and Workshop)

“Here they are fighting with daggers, God help us all!”
Cod. icon. 394 a

This class is historical reconstruction by nature and it is dedicated to historically correct handling of German rondel dagger (Scheibendolch) according to Meister Hans Talhoffer.
After many years of hard work, we are proud to announce that we were able to recreate/interpret in practice ALL dagger techniques from Meister Hans Talhoffer’s manual Cod. icon. 394 a (1467), or Codex Württemberg, one of the most influential manuals of Meister Hans Talhoffer!
In our class/lecturing/workshop we will demonstrate, both, theoretical and practical approach to the rondel dagger/scheibendolch techniques from Codex Württemberg and some overall completely new discovered aspect of handling the rondel dagger! .

Our rondel dagger class/lecturing will cower historical background of German rondel dagger (Scheibendolch) primary guards and positions and historically correct terminology according the Germanic tradition of using the rondel dagger!
Even though this workshop is a complex one and it was primarily intended for instructors and advanced dagger practitioners. Beginner students can attend also! (We will modify our lecturing for less experienced students on the spot.)

Extra: If time allows, after the class, students will (may) have an opportunity to spar with the instructor and among themselves applying newly acquired knowledge!

*Please, note the following! During the workshop no warming up exercises will be done and all attendants are obliged to do warming up for themselves before the workshop starts!

Thank you in advance.

This workshop is a MUST for all rondel dagger practitioners!*

-Djordje S.Stamatovic –

• Recommended equipment: Fencing mask, rondel dagger simulator
• Minimum level: Beginner

All about Vier Leger und Vier Versetzen (Four primary guards and four displacements)

He who know Versetzen well,
Will break many strikes in swordfight!
Cod. HS. 3227a

The “All about Vier Leger und Vier Versetzen” class/lecturing/workshop is practical historical reconstruction in which we will cover ALL theoretical and practical aspects and applications of “Vier Leger und Vier Versetzen” (Four primary guards and four displacements) which is the one of most important principles/techniques from tradition of Meister Johanes Leichtenauer and the Germanic school of swordsmanship in general!

We will systematically go through the ALL elements and principles of ” Vier Leger und Vier Versetzen” starting with simple and followed by the more complex historical techniques dedicated to this subject, primarily according to Codex Dobringer (Ms.3227a) , Sigmund Ringek (MS Dresden C487) etc.

At the end, we will include some comparative views of the same or similar “Vier Versetzen” techniques from other Germanic treatises which are closely related in origin, such as Joachim Meyer Grundlicche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens 1570, (MS.A.4′.2), and Teodori Verolini – Der Kunstliche Fechter -1679, (HN 4′ 35), (More or less, depending on time and schedule).

EXTRA: Completely NEW historically correct interpretation of Krumphau will be presented!

Don’t miss this lecturing!!

*Please, note the following! During the workshop no warming up exercises will be done and all attendants are obliged to do warming up for themselves before the workshop starts!
Thank you in advance.

-Djordje S.Stamatovic –

• Recommended equipment: Fencing mask, protective gloves, federschwet sword.
• Minimum level: Beginner

How to attack in Lichtenauer Longsword while keeping safe from danger!

Through a progression of drills we will analyse and learn to attack a passive opponent [this is Case 1]without bringing oneself into danger, remain our of distance while the opponent is in distance. We will learn this on both sides from Vom Tag. If time permits we will will progress to Case 2 where the opponent steps back and forms a new defensive guard. Given more time we will explore Case 3 were the opponent basically disengages, we will learn to continue the attack. All of which is corroborated by the treatises.

-Colin Richards –

• Recommended equipment: Longsword, gloves, helmet, gorget. You can wear a jacket and arm guards.
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Fiore Dei Liberi: Detailed analysis of the 1st Master of Dagger 1st Technique

We will make a detailed analysis of the first master of dagger, exploring the different interpretations of this technique and seeing which has problems and which best fits the description and diagrams of this facinating technique. We will then explore some of the possible offshoots that spring from the positions created by different pressures given by the opponent.

-Colin Richards –

• Recommended equipment: Rondel Dagger or similar [wood or metal or plastic]
• Minimum level:Beginner

Mechanics of the Halberd

Effective use of a halberd relies on leveraging the entire body’s movement for thrusts and strikes, rather than just arm strength. The extended reach of a polearm allows the user to maximise power through a combination of leg, hip, and shoulder motion, transferring that energy to the head of the weapon. Actions utilise the momentum of the body to drive the weapons diverse range of techniques beyond simple hacking and stabbing. 

This workshop is designed for practitioners of all levels, to help them develop the necessary balance and coordination to step and strike on all planes, whether in or out of armour, and to optimise the use of their choice of weapon.

-Jay Maxwell –

• Recommended equipment:
  • Halberd (or Pollaxe, Halberd, Billhook or similar).
  • Armour is optional.
• Minimum level:Beginner

The PIP-principal (Pain – Impact – PlanB) How to make your Messertechniques work better.

We all know that moment when a technique doesn’t go as smoothly as we would like or when you need a partner who is too cooperative for a sequence to work. The mistake is usually not in the manuscript, as some people think, but in the details of the biomechanics, speed of execution and correct force vectors, among other things. All of these factors stem from the underlying principles in the manuscripts, which must be recognised, understood and applied to one’s own martial arts skills. Details that are not described in a given source, can often be found in other related fencing manuals, HEMA disciplines, or weapon types. This workshop is designed to raise awareness of how to make Meser techniques more fluid and functional, by paying attention to small details and adapting them. We will examine different pieces out of CGM583, to identify ways how to improve the techniques, and explore alternatives when this is not possible, examining the reasons behind their ineffectiveness.

-Martin Enzi –

• Recommended equipment: A Messer and a mask thats all
• Minimum level: Intermediate

Other

The 1st Dijon Muster

Gather your crew and prepare for battle!

To enter you need to gather up a crew of 5, A captain (yourself), a quartermaster, a boatswain, 2 crew.

Give your crew a name, write all this down onn the paper below, and await for glory!

Limited to 8 crews.

What is ‘Skirmishing’?

Skirmishing is a fun, fast, and furious game of swashbuckling swordplay: a ritualised form of combat, which might best be described as a cross between the sports of fencing and tennis.

It takes its influence from classical/sports sabre, single-stick, a study of historical and military fencing manuals and explores the use of the sword in the most unforgiving situation imaginable (think: naval boarding action – dear God, and pass the rum!), one where the player is placed in a position of constant peril and is thus pushed to the limit of their knowledge, skill, capabilities and artistry.

Played with “cutlases” and scored like a tie-break game in tennis, the Skirmish allows players from all sword-based disciplines to test themselves on an even playing field.

-George Livermore –

• Recommended equipment: Mask, jacket, arm protection, family jewels protection.
• Minimum level: Intermediate

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Conférences

Rapier and dagger fencing through 21 treaties

Presentation of the French translation of the manual “Sword and Dagger Fencing, 1628-1731”.

The swords and daggers that we can admire today in museums were once used as instruments of dueling and self-defense. Thanks to the study of historical pieces and 21 treaties of the time, applying the principles of efficiency and biomechanics oriented to combat with weapons, fencing applied to said weapons can be recovered.

After a long research process, this manual aims to offer the bases to begin practicing cup sword and sail dagger fencing, also known as double harness fencing.

-Alejo Iker and Patxi Peña Castresana –

Risk management in European Martial Arts, from 13 to 17th cent.

This lecture will address the kind of risk considered by our ancestours in their own HEMA practice, and how do they managed them.

-Olivier Dupuis –

The Arms Treaty by Giovan Antonio Lovino

-Gilles Martinez –

Archaeological news on Merovingian weapons.

Conference on current archaeological research into warrior equipment in the Merovingian period.

-Gabriel Boudry-Aubry –

The problem of historical translation for AMHE

The translation and transcription of available sources is a major challenge for the practice and understanding of HMA. From both a historical and sporting point of view, we depend on translation if we cannot master the original language. This is where the interpreter’s work is essential: as well as transmitting a word that is sometimes centuries old, he or she must make the text accessible while remaining faithful to it, and of course without making any misinterpretations. It is said that ‘Translation is sacred’, but ‘To translate is to betray’. What choices does the translator have to make to reconcile these objectives?

-Joanna Roux Mahieux –

Why Diversity Matters in Martial Arts

This lecture explores the importance of diversity and inclusion in martial arts, examining how gender, race, age, and ability shape participation and experience. We’ll discuss barriers to access, ways to foster welcoming training spaces, and the benefits of broadening representation within martial arts communities.

-Emilia Skirmuntt –