Workshops

Fiore’s Dagger as Self-Defense

This seminar is designed to look at Fiore's Dagger as a method for self-defense. We will use principles and techniques from Fiore dei Liberi's Flower of Battle, along with Kajatan Sadowski's Fear is the Mind Killer and modern statistics and models. The class will consist of drills to learn some principles of dagger techniques and slowly increase intensity until we are working in self defense scenarios. These self defense scenarios will include a briefing and debriefing time period.

A mask, jacket and/or chest protector, and light gloves. are required for this class. Daggers will be provided for those who lack them.

Patrick McCaffrey is the instructor for L’Arte Berks. He has been training since 2015 years with L.A.D. Historical Fencing. He has been interpreting the words and pictures of Fiore’s works into martial action. He uses modern and traditional approaches to teach basics and conditioning for the physically strenuous arts of close combat. He regularly holds extended 12 hour seminars to teach the entirety of Fiore’s dagger material.

Sprechfenster and the Ort: Cutting to Point and Hidden Mastery

In this class Jeremy Pace will help students develop a detailed understanding of Sprechfenster (the Speaking Window) and early KDF (Kunst des Fechtens) mysteries. We’ll be answering questions like: Why is one of the most important teachings in KDF at the back of the book? What makes it important? Does it appear in other weapon systems? What can it tell us about fundamentals in KDF?

Applicable for all levels and disciplines but oriented towards Longsword, Messer, and Sword & Buckler in the early Kunst des Fechtens tradition.

Any sword and a mask and appropriate gloves are required for this class.

Jeremy Pace is the head instructor and founder of Cymbrogi School of WMA in Oklahoma City. Jeremy started Cymbrogi and HEMA in 2001 in his back yard with close friends but it has grown now into one of the largest and most successful HEMA Schools in the United States. Jeremy has had some success at Tournament but would rather point towards the success of his students both in Tournament and as Instructors in HEMA. Jeremy teaches Kunst des Fechtens as a complete discipline including Ringen, Dagger, Messer, Sword and Buckler and of course Long Sword.

Getting Hit Is Bad, Actually!
(An Introduction to George Silver’s Art of Defense)

Elizabethan fencing master George Silver offers his reader a unique proposition: he won’t promise that his system will let you beat everyone else, but if you follow his teachings you’ll be nigh on impossible to kill. While many modern HEMA schools joke that “don’t die” is the first rule of any fencing system, George Silver’s “True Fight” is one of the only surviving treatises to truly build itself around keeping the practitioner alive. If you’re tired of getting hit with doubles and afterblows, or if you’ve ever wondered what self-defense with a sword might really look like, Silver is the source for you.

This class will include a brief primer on the historical context of Silver’s work, proceed to a discussion of the tactical and ethical framework that informed his approach, and conclude with a series of drills and exercises for practicing his art.

A mask, one-handed sword (preferably broadsword or saber), and appropriate gloves are required for this class.

Dashiell Harrison has studied Historical European Martial Arts since 2013 and is currently a senior instructor at Indes Ferox Gladio in Portland, Oregon. His approach to HEMA is informed both by his extensive tournament experience (including a half-dozen gold medals) and his degree in medieval history and literature.