Photos of some instructors instructing

Instructor List

  1. Jörg Bellinghausen
  2. David Biggs
  3. David Borland
  4. Terry Brown
  5. Kristina Charron
  6. Mary Dill Curtis
  7. Puck Curtis
  8. David Cvet
  9. Dr. William Ernoehazy
  10. Matt Galas
  11. Craig Gemeiner
  12. Bill Grandy
  13. Colin Hatcher
  14. Sean Hayes
  15. Hans Heim
  16. Steve Hick
  17. Robert Holland
  18. Keith Jennings
  19. Craig Johnson
  20. Pete Kautz
  21. Jesse Kulla
  22. Rob Lovett
  23. Gregory Mele
  24. Dr. Les Moore
  25. Eric Myers
  26. John O’Meara
  27. Roger Siggs
  28. Christian Tobler
  29. Paul Wagner
  30. William Wilson
  31. Guy Windsor

Jörg Bellinghausen

Ochs-Historische Kampfkünste

Born in 1970, Jörg has had an interest in history and martial arts his entire life. Having been trained in saber fencing by a former German National team coach and having studied Karate under one of the instructors of the German GSG9, he turned to historical western martial arts since 1991, with emphasis on the German fencing masters from the 14th to the 16th century. His favorite weapons are the longsword and the dagger. He was certified as an instructor for Historical Swordsmanship by the Bavarian Fencing Federation in early 2007.

Jörg has taught seminars in Germany and abroad and has been networking with many researcher-practitioners around the globe for a number of years. He was a founding member of "Die Freifechter" and since 2002 he is a member of "Ochs-Historische Kampfkünste", where he runs the training group near Bonn, Germany’s former capital.

David Biggs

Tattershall School of Defence

David Biggs is a Rector in the Tattershall School of Defense, a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and instruction of the Western Martial Arts from the 14th thru the 19th centuries. As such, he has taught seminars on the techniques of Capo Ferro and d'all Agocchie across the US and into Canada.

David Borland

Northwest Academy of Defense/Tattershall

David Borland is a Senior Software Engineer at Electrical Geodesics, writing software for collecting and analyzing EEG. He began fencing in 1996 while attending college and has been studying classical fencing and fencing pedagogy under Maestro Sean Hayes since 1998. David just recently passed his examination to become a certified Instructor at Arms in classical Italian fencing from the San Jose Fencing Master's Program. His interests in historical fencing focus on the Italian rapier, specifically the writings of Capo Ferro, whose text he has been working with since 2002. He has taught Italian rapier classes as last year's WMAW and several other events over the past several year.

Terry Brown

Company of Maisters

A former British soldier, Maister Terry Brown has spent nearly 30 years studying and reconstructing Western Martial arts, with a focus on the reconstruction of his native English traditions. In addition to this, he has been training in the Beggar’s Art Kung Fu for over forty years, and was a direct disciple of the Late Grandmaster, Sifu Tan Siew Cheng of Singapore. He also spent 13 years studying, Khong Chang (a Singaporean striking art) and holds a 2nd Dan black belt in that art. Over the years he has served in a variety of posts in the martial arts community, including Honorary Secretary of the British Kung Fu Council; General Secretary of the European Kung Fu Union; Martial Arts Commission of Great Britain Delegate; Sports Council Representative (South East England); and Senior Referee for international competition.

Maister Brown is also the author of English Martial Arts, Anglo-Saxon Press, 1995, and has many credits as a WMA stunt-fighter and consultant in television work.

Kristina Charron

St. Martin 's Academy of Medieval Arms

Kristina Charron holds a B.S. in Animal Science with an Equine major from The Ohio State University. She has been riding horses for over twenty five years and has been a professional riding instructor and horse trainer for over fifteen years. For the last ten years she has applied her practical knowledge to researching the use of the medieval warhorse, including cavalry tactics and the use of sword, bow and spear from horseback. She has been invited to publish several articles, and to deliver numerous lectures and demonstrations on her ground-breaking research.

Mary Dill Curtis

Tattershall School of Defence

Mary Curtis has been fencing since 2001 and studying Spanish for over 15 years. She is working toward her Ph.D. in Golden Age Spanish literature at the University of California in Davis, and her dissertation will focus on the cultural significance of Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza’s fencing treatise. She is also the cofounder of the Destreza Translation and Research Project. While currently on hold in preparation for her doctoral exams, Mary has begun work on two Spanish fencing translation projects, one being a translation of Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza’s foundational text.

Puck Curtis

Tattershall School of Defense/Davis Fencing Academy

Puck Curtis began studying historical fencing in 1992 and began researching Spanish fencing in 1994. He is the cofounder of the Destreza Translation and Research Project and maintains the Theory and Practice section for the website. Currently living in Davis, California, he is the primary historical fencing instructor for the Davis Fencing Academy. Puck is certified to teach classical Italian fencing as a Provost at Arms through the San Jose Fencing Master's program. He is also a member of the SCA's Order of the White Scarf, and is a member of the Tattershall School of Defense.

David M. Cvet

Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA)

David M. Cvet, retired after 25 years as an IT professional, is the founder and President of the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts (AEMMA) established in Toronto, Canada in early 1998. AEMMA is an organization dedicated to the resurrection, reconstruction and formalization of medieval martial arts training systems. He is also the Academy's Provost engaged in never ending evolution, research and development of the art and related training curriculums that include armoured and unarmoured training systems. He was originally exposed to historical fencing (Liberi style) while on contract in Milan, Italy in the early 90's, employing steel weapons in Italian longsword techniques. In addition, David has formally studied and practiced historical European medieval martial arts for over ten years, and has also studied and practiced Chinese combat arts in his past. He has delivered workshops and classes at the WMAW in the past, as well as ISMAC in the USA, and other classes and workshops in Scotland and Slovenia.

David also works with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in an advisory/consultant capacity in programming on matters relating to the medieval period as it pertains to military history, tournaments, traditional archery, arms and armour. He has also earned the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) certificate, a national coaching certification program of the Coaching Association of Canada, and is editor of the Journal of Western Martial Art. He is the 2nd Vice President of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, Director of the Association for Historical Fencing (AHF), and in his spare time, he designs and deploys renewable energy systems which include wind turbines and photovoltaic technologies.

Dr. William Ernoehazy

Tattershall School of Defence

Dr. William Ernoehazy Jr., MD, FACEP, is an emergency medicine specialist in northeast Florida. He has been an expert witness in several criminal trials dealing with emergency medicine, trauma, and strangulation. “Dr. Bill” is also an avid martial artist, who has studied classical saber and aikido; he currently practices and studies the Fechtkunst, and is a member of the Tattershall School of Defense. An avid science fiction fan, De Doc often attends Worldcons, DragonCon, and the occasional relaxicon. He is also a Naval veteran, a pistol expert, and a past NASA/University Of Florida Physician Affiliate for Shuttle launch operations. Following Steven Brust’s example, he hopes to get some sleep Real Soon Now.

Matt Galas

Historial European Martial Arts Coalition

Matt Galas is an attorney working at the NATO military headquarters in Mons, Belgium. He holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Davis (1985) and a JD from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco (1989). An avid fencer since 1977, he has studied foil, epee, and sabre, fencing on his university's foil and sabre teams. In addition, he studied the Japanese sword arts of kendo and iaido for five years. To a lesser degree, he has a background in the Filipino martial arts, Aikido, and Tae Kwon Do. Matt Galas has been studying the fencing manuals of medieval Germany, sword in hand, since 1982. A member of HEMAC (the Historical European Martial Arts Coalition) he lectures and writes on the history of the German fighting arts, teaching swordsmanship at clubs and seminars across Europe.

Craig Gemeiner

Savate Australia

Craig Gemeiner -Director of the Gemeiner Academy of European Combat Arts, is currently offering private and group classes along with seminars on Savate and associated Western martial arts. With 30 years experience in the Martial arts including savate and its associated fighting disciplines, along with a background of over 2 decades of continuous coaching Craig Gemeiner has provide demonstrations, lectures, and workshops to various martial arts academies, educational institutions and major promotional events.

Craig is considered a pioneer in the process of rediscovering Europe’s traditional combat arts and adapting them to modern use.

He is an instructor of la canne Vigny, Baton Militaire, Defense Dan’s La Rue (street savate), a silver glove instructor in sport savate- French kickboxing, and a prevot fencing instructor in modern fencing. He has given seminars in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, USA, and Italy and is the current president and acting technical director of the Australian Savate Federation Inc . Craig is also member of the O’ Brien Academy of Fencing, Federation Internationale De Savate (FIS) and the Australasian Historical Swordplay Federation. He has competed in full contact martial arts, fencing, boxing, and kickboxing and currently competes in ‘assaut’ level savate competitions. Craig has released the ground breaking videos/DVDs -

  Defense dans la rue Vol.1
  Sport Savate Vol.1
  La canne Vol.1
  La canne Vol.2
  La canne Vol.3

and has written essays for Fighttimes.com, Bujitsue international, English Fighters, savateaustralia.com, Japan based cultural martial arts magazine “Hiden” - 2 issues and also been featured as author of month by Paladin press.com

Bill Grandy

Virginia Academy of Fencing

Bill Grandy is the program director and head instructor of the Historical Swordsmanship program at the Virginia Academy of Fencing. He is also a member of the myArmoury.com team, and regularly writes articles for the site. His primary focuses are medieval longsword in the German Liechtenauer tradition and renaissance Italian rapier fencing.

Colin Hatcher

Schola Saint George

Englishman Colin Hatcher, of the Schola Saint George, is a trial attorney in California USA, a martial artist of 30 years (aikido, jujitsu, kali, wing chun, wrestling, thai boxing, JKD, to name but a few), and a martial arts instructor for over 20 years with multiple black belts and instructor grades. Colin has fought full contact competitively in several martial disciplines, and for ten years also applied his martial arts weekly as a bouncer in clubs in London, England. In addition, during the 1990s he spent five years as the World Training Director for the International Alliance of Guardian Angels, teaching and practicing street-rules self-defense in the urban jungle and founding and running his own "street rules" martial arts network in Europe - known as "School for Warrior Spirit" - with several hundred members. For the past five years Colin has been a student of the Western Martial Arts, originally studying and practicing Fiore dei Liberi's martial system with Brian Price and Robert Holland in California, and thereafter teaching Fiore for Schola Saint George. Colin is currently busy translating Fiore's manuscripts from scratch, and has been carefully developing a complete Fiorean Dagger Method for the past two years.

Sean Hayes

Northwest Academy of Arms

Maestro Sean Hayes was born in 1962 and raised in the Midwest region of the United States. He initially studied classical French fencing under Maitre d'armes Adam Adrian Crown in Ithaca, New York; and also pursued studies of rapier and dagger under Maitre Crown. In 1995 he began his studies of classical Italian fencing at California's San Jose State University Fencing Master's Program, under the direction of Dr. William M. Gaugler.

Maestro Gaugler, a graduate of the Accademia Nazionale di Scherma in Naples, employs the system of instruction developed by Masaniello Parise, first director of the celebrated 19th century Military Masters School in Rome (Scuola Magistrale di Scherma), with certain elements drawn from the methods of the earlier Military Fencing Masters schools in Parma (directed by Cesar Enrichetti), Milan (directed by Giuseppe Radailli), and from the later Livornese school (as exemplified by Eugenio Pini and Beppe Nadi).

Maestro Hayes apprenticed under Maestro Gaugler from 1995 to 1999, and was trained to think critically about the details of fencing theory and the application of fencing theory in actual practice, to work with students closely and carefully, and to observe the most minute aspects of their performance in the lesson and when fencing. He earned his Fencing Master's diploma in May of 1999 after passing a rigorous three-year series of written, oral and practical examinations, including the preparation of an academic thesis in the final year.

Maestro Hayes' examination for Master At Arms was advertised and open to the public, and conducted by an international board of 6 fencing masters representing the United States, France, and Italy. The examination included oral and practical components: intense questioning on the smallest aspects of classical Italian fencing theory; the candidate required to teach group lessons, individual lessons, take individual lessons; and finally to teach any actions or combination of several actions in any weapons desired by the board to a fellow candidate.

Maestro Hayes teaches a strictly classical curriculum of Italian foil, épée and sabre at Northwest Academy of Arms in Eugene, Oregon, and through the University of Oregon and Lane Community College. He also researches and teaches Italian Rapier of the early and late 17th century and 18th century; the medieval martial arts system of Fiore dei Liberi; and German Sword & Buckler from Royal Armouries Manuscript I.33 (ca 1295 AD, the oldest known fencing manuscript).

Hans Heim

Ochs

Steve Hick

The Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship

Steve Hick is a computer and communications engineer (beltway bandit)

working for a large government contractor in North Virginia. He holds a BS in Physics and Mathematics from New York University (1971) and a MS in Computer Science from City University of New York (1978). He began his martial studies in judo and fencing while in college, then moved to iaido and kendo and continues his study in Japanese koryu.

Steve has recently been researching European fighting arts since 1978 and currently is investigating Iberian and late renaissance swordplay.

Robert Holland

Schola St. George

Robert's interests with medieval swordsmanship first began with his discovery of the Society for Creative Anachronism, which he discovered nearly 30 years ago and remains an active combatant in to this day. He first discovered the Western Martial Arts movement, when he attended a seminar on Fiore dei Liberi with Bob Charron in 2001, and was immediately "hooked". He co-founded the Schola Saint George with Brian Price later that year, and is currently the principle for Schola's San Francison Bay Area chapter, focusing on the work of Fiore dei Liberi and the anonymous sword and buckler manuscript, I.33

When not sword in hand, Robert is an Environmental Scientist, and lives with his wife in Northern California.

Keith Jennings

Chicago Swordplay Guild

Keith Jennings' interest in the martial arts began at an early age when he was enrolled in a local park district Karate class. In his teens, his study of the martial arts took on a much more serious role under the tutelage of a very traditional, and extremely strict Korean instructor. Currently, he holds black belt/instructor rankings in Taekwondo and Gumdo. Keith is also a founding member and instructor for the Chicago Swordplay Guild, where he is the principal knife/counter-knife curriculum developer. While living in Denver, CO, Keith founded a branch of the CSG, the Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild. Though he has since moved back to Chicago, the CSG and RSG still keep close ties. In addition to his training in the Korean and Western arts, Keith has extensive training in Filipino stick and knife arts, and under Mike Janich in his Martial Blade Concepts system.

Craig Johnson

Oakeshott Institute

Craig Johnson is Secretary of the Oakeshott Institute, a nonprofit education and research center with the purpose of furthering the study of ancient arms and armor and increasing access to this information by the public. This includes editing the Journal of the Oakeshott Institute. He is also currently the Production Manager for Arms & Armor Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has been with the company since 1986, producing high quality reproductions of weapons and armor for customers the world over. Craig also holds the office of Mr. Johnson is on the Advisory Council for the Swordplay Symposium International (SSI).

In these capacities he has delivered hundreds of lectures and presentations on the subjects relating to the middle ages. Mr. Johnson has practiced and taught the historical use of European weapons and armor in many capacities since 1985. This has included work with historical martial arts, stage combat, choreography, and professional jousting. He has worked as a consultant to many productions, both educational and commercial. The combination of hands on study of originals, accurate construction of reproductions and knowledge of there use in the historical context allows insight that is often missed by the academic treatises on medieval and renaissance matters of arms.

Pete Kautz

Alliance Martial Arts

Master at Arms Pete Kautz began his study of the knife and martial arts in 1977, after finding John Styer's book Cold Steel in the public library. Today, he is one of a small international cadre of researchers and teachers of the Western martial traditions of Europe and America and is highly versed in the skills, lore, and culture surrounding the weapons as well as their direct combative applications. He has been teaching professionally since 1989 and has worked with literally thousands of people in his career, ranging from private lessons to groups of over one hundred people. This experience as an educator allows him to make learning a serious topic like personal defense an easy, efficient, and enjoyable process for students.

Over the years, MAA Kautz has earned black belt or instructor level ranking in a number of American, European, and Asian disciplines. He earned his first black belt in 1991 from the late Professor Remy A. Preasas (The Father of Modern Arnis) and was awarded the title Master at Arms in 2001 by James A. Keating, founder of Combat Technologies (Comtech).

Pete is the Director of Alliance Martial Arts and the American Heritage Fighting Arts Association as well as the editor of Modern Knives (produced in association with MAA Keating). On the Web, he also maintains the highly popular AllianceMartialArts.Com, AHFAA.Org, and ModernKnives.Com which are content sites full of articles, techniques, links, DVDs, training gear, free weekly training tips and more. Master at Arms Kautz instructs a select group of students at his private school and teaches highly acclaimed two and three-day seminars on various aspects of the martial arts for groups worldwide.

Jesse Kulla

Chicago Swordplay Guild

Jesse has studied martial arts in various forms since 1995, when he began training at a small local school. He joined the Guild in 1999, and has been working hard ever since to study and grow the art. His own focus of study is in the long sword and close quarters fighting in the dei Liberi tradition.

In his eastern studies, Jesse attained black belts in tae kwon do and hai dong kum do. Within the CSG, is currently a candidate for the rank of free scholar, and has been teaching students at the Guild's beginner classes for more than 5 years.

Rob Lovett

The Exiles

Gregory Mele

Chicago Swordplay Guild

Curriculum Director for the Chicago Swordplay Guild and WMAW’s co-founder, Gregory Mele has been an ardent student of European swordsmanship for 17 years through a variety of venues, including reenactment, sport fencing, and historical fencing. His Asian martial arts background primarily includes Yang Tai Chi, aikido as well as some jujutsu and battodo. He first became aware of the surviving corpus of Renaissance fencing texts with his discovery of the 1899 edition of the Collected Works of George Silver, by Cyril Matthey in 1992, and never looked back (although he cringes to remember some of his earliest interpretations.).

In 1999 he co-founded the Chicago Swordplay Guild to create a formal sala d'armi to study historical European swordsmanship and its adjunct arts. In October of that year he also organized and hosted the first Western Martial Arts Workshop as an attempt to promote these arts amongst practitioners throughout North America. Mr. Mele is the founder and Director of Swordplay Symposium International, an interdisciplinary colloquium of historical fencing instructors, arms and armour scholars, and researchers dedicated to promoting and advancing the study of Western swordsmanship and its adjunct disciplines, and with Luca Porzio is the co-author of Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi: The 15th Century Swordsmanship of Master Filippo Vadi (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003), contributor to SPADA: An Anthology of Swordsmanship (Chivalry Bookshelf, (2003) and has presented several papers at at the Kalamazoo Medieval Conference. His current interests and research centers around Italian martial traditions from the 14th to mid-16th centuries, particularly the dei Liberi tradition the earlier Bolognese tradition.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with degrees in journalism and history, Gregory D. Mele lives in suburban Chicago.

Dr. Les Moore

Dr. Les Moore is an avid student and teacher of military combatives and combative sports. Dr. Moore particularly studies Western Martial Arts, with a focus on American Martial Art and Physical Culture. He was a former Army Infantry officer and is a senior advisor in close quarters combatives and defensive measures for a federal law enforcement agency. Dr. Moore is a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist and serves as the Director of Integrative Medicine at Clifton Springs Hospital, where he teaches American Physical Culture in an institution that used it as therapy beginning in 1850.

Eric Myers

Tattershall School of Defense, Davis Fencing Academy, Sacramento Fencing Club

Eric Myers has been involved in fencing and martial arts since 1984, and is a certified Provost at Arms in classical Italian fencing. He currently teaches classical and historical fencing at two northern California fencing clubs, and the local Tattershall practice. This year he and Steve Hick will co-present new material from their on-going work on Iberian two-handed sword texts, and he will also co-present the two-part class Teaching Historical Fighting Arts with Maestro Sean Hayes, Provost Puck Curtis, and Instructor David Borland.

John O’Meara

Chicago Swordplay Guild

John O’Meara is the rapier instructor for the Chicago Swordplay Guild. He studied foil and epee at McGill University, and as an actor he trained in stage combat with the New York Fight Ensemble. He joined the CSG in 1999, studying rapier and longsword; since 2001 he has been developing its rapier curriculum, based primarily on Salvator Fabris' "Scienza d'Arme".

Roger Siggs

Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild/Tattershall School of Defence

Roger Siggs is the curriculum director of the Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guild and a founding Recotr of the Tattershall School of Defence. Formerly the fencing/martial arts instructor for Glendale Community College, Mr. Siggs has been training in the martial arts for over 25 years, and has been awarded black belts or instructor status in several Eastern martial arts, most notably Tomiki Aikido, Kyokushinkai, and a Menkyo Kaiden license (license of full transmission) for the instruction of Daito-ryu Aiki-Jujutsu.

Mr. Siggs has focused the majority of his research and training to the Western Arts, focusing on the Close Combat dagger and grappling methods, and the Italian fighting arts, as well as the development of the 'Joining Cultures and Methods Way', combining Asian and Western martial arts into an integrated system of self-defense and combative theory. His formal training in the Arte of Defense and Western Martial arts began approximately 11 years ago, and had focused primarily on Italian 16th-17th century Rapier technique. He is a former member of the Society of American Fight Directors, and brings a broad base of teaching experience in the fields of combative application, research and historical interpretation in addition to his martial arts background.

Christian Tobler

Selohaar Fechtschule

Christian Henry Tobler has been a longtime student of swordsmanship, especially as it applies to the pursuit of the chivalric ideals. A passionate advocate of the medieval Liechtenauer School, his work in translating and interpreting Sigmund Ringeck's commentary firmly established him as an important contributor to the growing community of Western martial artists. This work is encapsulated in the 2001 Chivalry Bookshelf title Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship: Sigmund Ringeck's Commentaries on Johannes Liechtenauer's Verse, and Fighting with the German Longsword (Chivalry Bookshelf, 2004), a training guide for students of the Liechtenauer tradition. His most recent work is In the Service of the Duke, a full-color 1:1 scale reproduction, translation and analysis of the magnificent manuscript of Paulus Kal, a 15th c master at arms to the Duke of Bavaria. Mr. Tobler was born in 1963 in Paterson, New Jersey. A graduate of the University of Bridgeport's computer engineering program, Mr. Tobler has worked as a software developer, web designer, product manager, and marketing specialist in the analytical instrumentation and publishing fields. He is the Grand Master of the Order of Selohaar, an eclectic, mystic order of chivalry that he co-founded in 1979. A veteran of 20 years of tournament fighting, he is also an avid collector of reproduction arms and armour. He has been focused on the study of medieval fechtbücher (fight books) since the late 1990's. He has taught classes at the annual Schola St. George Swordplay Symposium, in the San Francisco Bay area, and at two of the annual Western Martial Arts Workshops, appeared as a guest on Cablevision News Channel 12's daily "The Exchange", and has traveled the United States teaching weekend long seminars. He has also lectured at the 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 2002 he was named to the Advisory Board of Swordplay Symposium International (SSI).

Paul Wagner

Stoccata School of Defence

Paul Wagner is a founding member of the Stoccata School of Defence in Sydney, Australia. Paul teaches courses in Highland Broadsword according to Thomas Page, Single Sword according to George Silver, Sword and Buckler according to I.33, Rapier according to Joseph Swetnam, English quarterstaff and English longsword. He has given seminars in Sweden, the UK, and USA, New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth.

Paul is a prolific author, who’s publications include: Pictish Warrior AD 297-841, Osprey Publishing, 2002, Master of Defence: The Works of George Silver, Paladin Press, 2003 Medieval Sword and Shield (co-authored with Stephen Hand), Chivalry Bookshelf, 2003Highland Broadsword (with Mark Rector), Chivalry Bookshelf, 2004, as well as several articles on Gaelic swordsmanship and reconstructing early medieval sword and shield fencing in both vols. 1 and 2 of SPADA: An Anthology of Swordsmanship, Chivalry Bookshelf 2002 and 2005.

William Wilson

Tattershall School of Defence

William Wilson is the President of the Tattershall School of Defence and is the advisor and coach for the fencing club at Northern Arizona University. Mr Wilson is also on the advisory board for Swordplay Symposium International. In the Society for Creative Anachronism he is known as Barwn Meistr Gwylym ab Owain, OL OP DWS and is the premiere member of the Order of the White Scarf of Atenveldt, the highest award for fencing in the Kingdom. In the SCA he has also been awarded masters level status for his research in historical swordplay and study of lifestyle of the Elizabethan period.

Mr. Wilson is a prominent researcher in historical swordplay. He teaches seminars internationally on the use of the Italian rapier and the Italian 16th century civilian spada da filo (edged sword/sidesword). He has been fencing for 30 years and began his fencing instruction under Master Bella from Canada and Mr. Silverberg in Buffalo, New York with further instruction from other masters and instructors including Maestro Sean Hayes of Eugene, OR and Dr Rita Ashcraft of Northern Arizona University. He specializes in teaching beginners’ classical foil, epee or saber and teaches beginning and advanced students the art of defence with rapier and sword. He also teaches beginning longsword and backsword. Mr. Wilson currently teaches Classical Italian foil for the PE department at Northern Arizona University.

Guy Windsor

The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki

Born in Cambridge, England in 1973, Guy has been interested in martial arts since childhood. He took up karate in 1985 and sport fencing at school in 1986, specializing in the foil for four years before adding the sabre. On entering Edinburgh University in 1992, he broadened his training with T'ai Chi Chuan, Okinawan Kobudo and Aikido. During his first year he met Paul Macdonald, who was also interested in "proper swordfighting". Research in the public libraries in Edinburgh unearthed a surprising hoard of old books, treatises on fencing such as McBane's The Expert Sword-Man's Companion (1728) which explained how to save your life in a real sword fight. They quickly decided to to get as much information as possible from these men who fought for their lives, as more likely to yield effective techniques than making stuff up for themselves. In 1994 they decided to form the Dawn Duellists Society, as a means to bring together more people to fence with, and found that while there were many interested people, almost none had relevant experience, and so they began to teach the things they had learned from the treatises. Not long after, they discovered that other groups all over the world had had similar ideas about learning fencing through historical research, round about the same time, and began co-operating with these groups.

After a year as an exchange student in Helsinki, Guy returned to finish his degree in Edinburgh, and graduated in 1996 with an MA (hons) in English Literature. After graduation he found work as a restorer of antique furniture, and later as a fine cabinet maker (with a specialty in carving and marquetry). At the same time, Guy taught swordsmanship at the DDS until, in September 2000, he decided to teach full-time. In March 2001, he opened The School of European Swordsmanship in Helsinki. Since then the school has spread to four other cities in Finland, and there are groups in Sweden and Singapore training under his direction.

Mr. Windsor has worked his way back through the history of fencing, specializing at first in the smallsword with a particular fondness for the work of Donald McBane. His rapier method is based on Capo Ferro's treatise of 1610, and may be found in his book The Duellist's Companion (2006). On opening the school, he decided that students would be best served by being given a solid grounding in close-quarter combat, and so chose Fiore dei Liberi's Fior Battaglia (1409) as the principal source for basic training. His longsword method derived from Fiore may be found in his book The Swordsman's Companion (2004). The sword and buckler method in I.33 (ca. 1300) was an early addition to the SESH curriculum, and it has been researched and refined since 2001. He also includes the smallsword method of Domenico Angelo, the Bolognese swordsmanship of Viggiani and Marozzo, and cavalry sabre drawn from late eighteenth century sources. The emphasis in all his training is on the martial effectiveness and historical accuracy of the techniques.

Guy is married and has a daughter, and divides what time is left between his own training, teaching at his salle in Helsinki, research, writing, and taking workshops across Finland and abroad. In his copious free time, he enjoys traditional bowmaking, archery, riding, shooting, woodwork and fine ale.