| Lars Lind Lars has trained and taught martial arts (WingTsun and Escrima) for more than 40 years. European Historical Martial Arts for only 28 years. In 2007, Lars founded his own system, namely Weapons Combat Systems™ built on his years of experience in martial arts and interest in history, the system combines both the practical and historical side of armed combat. Lars holds the rank of Grandmaster in Weapons Combat Systems and has schools or groups in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico and Canada. He is as active as ever and instructs classes and seminars in armed combat and weaponry understanding all over Scandinavia and Europe every month. Lars is also a KDF Chapter Master as well as a Member of the Society for Combat Archaeology. |
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Cornelius Berthold Cornelius started Olympic sabre fencing in 2004 and got into re-enactment fighting and HEMA soon afterwards. He headed the sword & buckler, military sabre and Italian rapier training at the German HEMA group Blossfechter zu Chemnitz before moving to Hamburg where he now trains and instructs at Dimicator. He is also involved in developing the coach training within the German HEMA association (DDHF). At the moment, Cornelius practises Olympic sabre, German longsword and his major discipline, sword & buckler according to MS. I.33. His specialities in fencing include posture, geometry and timing. |
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| Antti Ijäs Antti Ijäs is a doctoral candidate in the Doctoral Programme of Language Studies at the University of Helsinki, funded by the Kone Foundation. He received his master's degree at the same University studying Old English, Latin, Greek and Gothic. The working title of his current PhD research project is Analysis of the Language and Genre of Royal Armouries MS I.33. In his spare time, he is working on Greek papyrus sources on combat sports and a 17th century rapier manuscript in the Finnish National Library. His research interests include pragmatic literature, especially fight book literature and related genres, and historical terminology. A long time practitioner of martial arts, Antti is the chapter master of KDF Helsinki and teaches Wing Tsun and Weapons Combat Systems in Helsinki. He is also an active member of the Society for Combat Archaeology. |
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Luke Ireland Luke is a practicing martial artist with 20 years experience and has followed a direct interest in medieval combat since 2004. As a senior instructor with The Exiles, he is directly involved in their interpretation of Fiore dei Liberi and founded the Exiles Sheffield. Luke has given workshops throughout the UK on all aspects of Fiore, as well as Le Jeu de la Hache and Figuereido's Montante. In addition to teaching 3 HEMA classes per week, Luke also owns and operates Valhalla Martial Arts and Axe Throwing in Sheffield. |
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| Rolf Warming Rolf Warming is the founding director of the Society for Combat Archaeology and the chief instructor of the martial arts organization Weapons Combat Systems. Rolf regularly gives workshops and lectures across Europe, both as a martial artist and an academic. He holds an MA degree in both Maritime Archaeology and Prehistoric Archaeology, and has undertaken a number of projects and studies about conflicts in the past. Rolf is specialized in Viking Age weapons and warfare and is currently involved with two major research projects on shields of the Iron Age and Viking Age. He is also leading an experimental archaeology project for Trelleborg Viking Fortress (National Museum of Denmark) which aims at reconstructing an authentic Viking Age round shield. Photograph - Jacob Nyborg Andreassen |
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Herbert Schmidt Herbert Schmidt founded the Austrian club Ars Gladii in 1999 and has been its trainer since. He began to reconstruct the art of the longsword in the Liechtenauer tradition soon to be followed by work on the I.33. His aim has always been a faithful reconstruction of the sources. Having published two books on swordsmanship and one on the buckler he is giving talks and workshops all over Europe, especially regarding his work on the I.33. Herbert Schmidt lives and teaches in Austria. |
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| Dean Davidson Dean Davidson has over 20 years’ experience in martial arts and training in weapons combat, with a grounding in Tai Chi and historical fencing. He is the KDF International and EHCG Chapter Master at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. He is also an active member of the Society for Combat Archaeology, an international organisation committed to the promulgation of systematic research and developed knowledge of the nature of combat in the past. Dean has presented and run numerous workshops at conferences and seminars across the United Kingdom on European medieval martial arts and the traditions of Johannes Liechtenauer, most notably at the International Medieval Congress and the National Archives at Kew. |
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Ingo Petri Ingo started being a left hander in 1981. Via re-enactment fencing he came to historical fencing in 2008. Ingo trains at Dimicator in Hamburg and instructs at Dimicatores in Kalkriese. While his major discipline is sword & buckler fencing according to MS I.33, he also reconstructs the use of Germanic Iron Age and Viking Age swords and shields. |
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| David Rawlings Dave Rawlings of the London Longsword Academy and Boar’s Tooth has over 15 years’ experience of teaching western swordsmanship and is a long time practitioner of I.33. He’s been studying martial arts from the age of 5, and has over 15 years’ experience teaching Western Swordsmanship. He is one of only a very few professional swordsmen and bases his tuition on his extensive research of medieval to Renaissance swordsmanship texts. He is also the author of Obsesseo and two other DVD training guides based on I.33 and the use of the Sword & Buckler. |
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Konrad Kessler Konrad is a historian and has 35 years of fencing experience. In his early years he trained epee fencing for over 10 years. In the late nineties of the last century he started sword fighting. Since 2003 he is teaching sword fighting at the sport centre of the University of Applied Science in Jena shifting his focus from re-enactment fencing to a martial arts approach. In 2007 he published the book “Kampf mit dem langen Schwert“. Konrad is a KDF Chapter Master, Senior Instructor of Historical Weapons Combat as well as a Member of the Society for Combat Archaeology. |
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| Henry Yallop Henry is Keeper of Armour & Edged Weapons at the Royal Armouries, UK. Since joining the museum in 2012 he has curated exhibitions on the First World War, The Battle of Waterloo and the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard. Since 2015 he has also been Deputy Editor of the museum’s peer-reviewed journal Arms & Armour. He is particularly interested in 18th & 19th century military edged weapons. 15-20 years ago he practiced Foil, at regional and occasionally national competitions. Having not fought (or exercised!) since, Henry recently joined KDF/EHCG where he is grateful to learn from the very patient teachings of Dean Davidson and Stuart Ivinson. |
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Stuart Ivinson Stuart has made extensive studies of various aspects of medieval warfare, and has written one book: “Anglo-Welsh Wars, 1050-1300.” He is an assistant teacher at the Leeds chapter of KDF and has been practicing historical martial arts for seventeen years. He has given numerous demonstrations of historical combat techniques as a member of the Society for Combat Archaeology, and also the 3 Swords Historical Combat group. Clients for these demonstrations most notably include the Royal Armouries Museum Leeds, The National Archives at Kew, and the Leeds University International Medieval Congress. Stuart works at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, where he is the Librarian. His hobbies include hill walking, reading, and trying to make his numerous replica armours fit and work better. |
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