Alexander Kiermayer – Langes Messer – Drill to fight
Lecküchner’s fencing manual offers a seemingly inexhaustible catalog of techniques for fencing with the long knife. These techniques are often practiced in isolation. This is certainly important for understanding the technique. Nevertheless, there are often difficulties in applying these techniques confidently within the flow of a free fight. Cyclical exercises are a method for bridging this gap between individual techniques and free fencing.
In this workshop, we will develop various drills and cyclical exercises into which we can integrate individual techniques with the long knife (primarily from Lecküchner’s Fencing Book).
Gear
Fencing mask, gloves, forearm guards, knife simulator;
also great: neck guard, fencing jacket
About the instructor
Alex Kiermayer is a founding member and instructor at OCHS – Historical Martial Arts. He leads the OCHS training group in Pfarrkirchen and is an instructor in the historical fencing instructor training program at the Bavarian Fencing Association.
He has been training and teaching various martial arts from different cultural traditions since the age of 16. His serious engagement with HEMA began around 1999. The focus of his research lies in the historical martial arts of the German-speaking world, as well as the English martial art Bartitsu. Currently, he is particularly engaged in the study of mounted martial arts from various centuries.
Together with his friend Hans Heim, he has produced several instructional videos on the long sword and the long knife. He is the author of two books on Joachim Meyer and has taught various aspects of HEMA at seminars in many European countries.
Vera Martocchia – Sidesword
Seminar on Bolognese Masters with the unaccompanied sword.
Gear
TBD
About the instructor
Vera Martocchia discovered her love for HEMA, swords, and martial arts over a decade ago and has been passionate about teaching for more than 16 years. She is a professional sword‑fighting and fitness instructor specialising in Sidesword, Dagger, Sickle, Longsword and various other weapon disciplines.
Vera also holds advanced teaching qualifications in BodyCombat™, BodyBalance™, Pilates, and Kids fitness, bringing a unique and dynamic blend of her expertise into the classroom.
Mark Wilkie – Decoding the fight
A drill designed to develop the your sense of timing, distance, and tactical awareness through progressive phases. Each phase introduces new variables to help both the student and coach adapt to increasingly complex fencing scenarios.
Gear
—
About the instructor
I’m Mark Wilkie, an instructor at the IHA in Dundee and a dedicated practitioner of Historical European Martial Arts with 16 years of experience. My main focus is German longsword, which I study and teach in the RDL style, emphasizing both technical precision and practical application. Alongside teaching, I am an active competitor, regularly taking part in tournaments to test my fencing under pressure and to continually refine my understanding of the art.
Cornelius Berthold – What if my opponent does not bind?
This is a recurring question prompted by the focus on blade binds found in MS I.33. Binds ensue when both fighters move their weapons into the central space between them. Luckily, securing that central space also works without a bind. In this seminar, we will investigate how the latter can be done, using counter positions shown in the book, such as the schutzin positions against cuts from above. We can thus become somewhat independent of our opponent’s behaviour and perhaps even start thinking about what to do against the “catapult fighters” frequently seen at tournaments in the HEMA community.
For beginners and advanced students.
Gear
Required equipment: sword and buckler; if you want to make contact during the exercises, we recommend also a 1600 N fencing mask, gorget, thin gloves and perhaps even chest protection.
About the instructor
Cornelius started Olympic fencing in Chemnitz in 2004 and found HEMA while dabbling in reenactment fighting. With some experience in German longsword, dagger, wrestling and 19th-century sabre, he has for several years focussed on sword and buckler fighting (MS I.33) and Italian rapier (Salvator Fabris and students).
In 2019 he founded his own school in Hamburg, DIMICATOR Schola. Besides teaching regular classes, he has partnered with Roland Warzecha to developed the DIMICATOR online sword and buckler course on Teachable. Cornelius is adamant that good fencing is both true to the sources and works for competition.
Silas Pröhl – A Scoundrel’s Guide to Saber Fencing
Practical instruction in concepts and training methods for tactical preparation for free sparring and tournament matches with the military saber.
Format:
- Application exercises, drills, and guided free sparring
Prerequisites:
- Basic understanding of the saber in the HEMA context
Gear
Protective gear (gear suitable for free fencing, from head to toe)
Sabers (a few sabers will be available for rent—but not enough for everyone)
About the instructor
Career counselor – Student advisor – Pirate
Active HEMA fencer with ASV Mannheim – Schwertfisch; since 2019, with a strong focus on competition (sabre and long sword).
Amelie Eilken – Half-Staff with Joachim Meyer
In this workshop, we’ll dive into the half-staff (halbe Stange) as described by Joachim Meyer in his treatise from 1570. According to Meyer, the half-staff forms the foundation for all long weapons, making it a great entry point into this part of his fencing system.
We’ll start with some core basics and look at the guards and some basic drills before getting into partner work from the bind (im Band). From there, we’ll explore timing and distance, one-handed strikes, and a disarm technique straight out of Meyer’s system.
Gear
About the instructor
Amelie Eilken began practicing historical fencing in 2014 with Hammaborg. Her primary fencing interest lies in the Renaissance longsword tradition of Joachim Meyer from the late 16th century. She is a founding member of the Meyer Class and has led the Meyer Class Women training group at Hammaborg since 2019. She was German Longsword Champion in 2020 and a member of the German national longsword team from 2020 to 2023.
Christoph Lee – Half-Staff with Joachim Meyer
There are three types of flèche: the “I’m charging in now” flèche, the “range–controlled” flèche, and the flèche that’s actually a flèche.
What defines a flèche?
What is it for (and what isn’t it for)?
How do we incorporate it into combat without just charging headlong?
What drills will help us execute it cleanly and safely?
Gear
Bring a towel, a longsword, and your sweat–soaked gear* from the day before.
*Recommended: full gear. Minimum: mask and gloves.
About the instructor
Swords have always fascinated me. Ever since I was old enough to pick up sticks in the woods, I’ve been fighting with them—first just for fun, then more seriously. But it took nearly 20 years for that “swinging around” to turn into real training.
My introduction to the long sword began in the traditional way at a medieval reenactment club and ended abruptly after six months: COVID-19. Lockdown. A break. But not the end.
With Gladiatores and Sven Baumgarten as my coach, the real journey began. Fundamentals, drills, repetition. Alongside that, free sparring with my training partner Jonas. I tried a lot, learned a lot, often improvised. Two years of groundwork.
Then came the point where technique became a tool and development became my own task. New training partners, new dynamics, first tournaments. Disheartening at first. Then a turning point: the switch to the épée.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. Modern fencing theory met Lichtenauer, Fiore, and Vadi. The system became tangible. After a bumpy start, my first serious tournament season turned out surprisingly successful: After the first two tournaments, I was consistently on the podium.
Today, I see myself almost more as an épée fencer. But my heart belongs to the long sword.
My training philosophy follows precisely this tension: sharpening concepts in the épée, thinking ahead in the long sword.
Dierk Hagedorn – A Kastenbrust Harness in The Gladiatoria Style
Imagine you have acquired a very fine Gothic suit of armour; and imagine that you discover not much later that your true love is the Kastenbrust – one of the strangest and most peculiar armour styles that have ever existed. You cannot work against true love, can you? True love wins. Kastenbrust wins.
Imagine furthermore that your armoured combat training is based on the Gladiatoria manuscripts – which coincidentally feature Kastenbrust armour.
Everything falls in place. Armour being armour, you simply can’t have enough. A second suit of armour would be essential and deeply required, right?
Enjoy this little whimsical talk about books and art, about the curious and versatile world of the Kastenbrust, but mostly about true love.
Gear
About the instructor
Dierk teaches both unarmoured fencing with the long sword and armoured fighting in his club. He has been involved in historical fencing since before the term “HEMA” even existed. He has transcribed over 30 of the more than 80 surviving fight books in German and made them available on various websites or published them as an edition in book form, which some time ago earned him the honourable nickname “The Sourcerer”, which he has proudly borne ever since. His publications include editions of manuscripts by such well-known authors as Hans Talhoffer, Jörg Wilhalm and Albrecht Dürer. Apart from that, he works for the IT subsidiary of a major German airline on numerous creative matters such as user experience and corporate design, however, his unconditional love of aardvarks is much more significant.
Foto: @Diana Matthess
Jack Parkinson – Double Trouble – Learning to Fight with Two Swords
“In this seminar we’re looking to develop comfort and fluidity when using two swords.
We’ll compare the various different dual wielding methods of a few 16th century masters,
then see what common principles we can extract from these methods.
Using these principles we’ll create practice games that will teach us to flow smoothly and naturally though guards and strikes.”
Gear
About the instructor
Jack Parkinson is a professional sword fighting instructor and a certified Les Mills BodyCombat and BodyPump teacher. He has been studying and practicing HEMA for over nine years, training in a wide range of weapons, including Longsword, Rapier, Sabre, and Polearms, making him a skilled and versatile fighter as well as a professional coach.
Jack regularly teaches sword seminars across the UK and Europe and his favourite thing about teaching is that: “I get to share what I’m passionate about with so many people. It makes me very happy to see my students learn and grow and to witness the spark of curiosity in their eyes.
