We are excited to announce our upcoming Summer Longsword & Rapier Open 2024! This event will be held Saturday, June 29th, 2024 in Russellville, KY. Hosted by the Nashville School of Historical Fencing, this one-day event will feature an Open Longsword and Open Rapier & Dagger tournament. Tournament sizes will be limited to 25-30 as we aim to keep this a smaller event. Our goal is to expand tournament opportunities in our region and this is an excellent opportunity for newer fencers to gain experience. We look forward to a great day of competition and camaraderie! Longsword ruleset https://nashvillehistoricalfencing.com/longsword-ruleset/ Rapier & Dagger ruleset https://nashvillehistoricalfencing.com/rapier-ruleset/ Make sure to register asap as space is limited!

NSHF's end of the year event! A full day of HEMA, skill development and camaraderie. We'll be having 2 morning  workshops, afternoon open/coached sparring sessions followed by an In-House Dusack tournament!  We'll be charging $30 for the full day event as a small fundraiser for the club, we hope that everyone can attend, whether you plan to fully participate or not it will be a fun day to hang out with lots to learn and share. We'll be giving out club logo stickers to those that attend. :) For our newer members who have limited sparring experience this is an excellent opportunity to get some quality sparring time and coached feedback. We'll have some extra equipment to loan but make sure to bring all the gear you have. If you need to borrow anything, let us know in advance! *We will not be meeting in the gymnasium but instead the multi-use facility, on the otherside of the baseball fields. Map of exact location will be in email. Please make sure to sign up for the event in advance so we know how many attendees we'll be having. The day's schedule will be as follows 9AM Doors open   9:30 AM Group warm-up   -10 AM Tactics in Fencing: Holding a Completed Piece in Your Mind  In this workshop, we’ll explore the tactics and concepts of entering the fight/engaging with the opponent, a topic that is not always straightforward and deserves a lot of attention. Beyond just a technical approach, we’ll explore the more fundamental tactical framework that governs the decision making and gives the fencer confidence in their approach to the fight/sparring. Taught by Chris   -11 AM Wrestling with the Sword/Ringen am Schwert  Close distance techniques including grappling, half-swording and disarms with the longsword and single-handed sword. The medieval sources are full of examples of close-quarter combat techniques throughout the centuries. A necessity for armored (harnisfecthen) fighting, they are more of a last resort option for unarmored (blossfecthen) fencing. Despite this, these techniques are important part of the longsword tradition and are important to being a well rounded fencer. We’ll explore a variety of close distance scenarios were grappling is not only a good option but a necessity. These techniques will include striking with the pommel, general grappling manovers, half-swording and disarms. In this class we’ll just explore stand up grappling techniques and will not be throwing to the ground. Taught by Alexander   -12:30PM Lunch Break   -1PM Open/Coached Sparring   -3:30PM In-House Dussack tournament   -5PM Wrap up and head to BS Brew Works in Springfield, TN    

NSHF is excited to announce we will be hosting the first annual Mid-South Historical Fencing Open, a single day event with both Open Longsword and Open Rapier tournaments. This year we are aiming to keep the tournament limited in size, thus each event will be limited to 40 participants. The event will be held at the Russellville High School Gymnasium. Our goal is to host a fun and competitive tournament that is efficiently run and judged at a high standard. We are looking forward to unveiling our new ruleset, which aims for simplicity and streamlining the judging process. More information, including tournament rulesets, equipment requirements and updates will be posted to our website at: https://nashvillehistoricalfencing.com/mid-south-open-2022/ Registration will be a $50 flat fee for either one or both events.  

We are very pleased to announce that internationally renowned HEMAist Martin Fabian will be visiting NSHF for an intensive weekend of longsword and rapier seminars, April 2nd and 3rd!  For those of you who may not know who Martin Fabian is, he is one of the top HEMA fencers and instructors in the world. This is an incredible opportunity for our school, so  we highly encourage EVERYONE to attend. We've aimed to keep these workshops as affordable as possible and guarantee this will be a very unique and valuable experience for you in your HEMA journey. This will be a full weekend of classes, each day's classes will be approx. 7-8 hours of training. If you would like to attend these seminars but are hesitating for financial reasons, please let us know, and we'll see what we can do. Our priority is that as many students as possible attend these classes so NSHF will give out some scholarships. *This event is for Nashville School of Historical Fencing students only* Saturday April 2nd 9am-5pm "There is But One Thrust"  This workshop will center around the body mechanics, techniques and tactics of thrusting effectively and efficiently in longsword fencing. This class is open to all students from beginner to advanced. Sunday April 3rd 9am-12pm "Advanced Tactics in Longsword Sparring" This class will focus on advanced material specifically for intermediate and advanced students, focusing on bridging the gap between technique and tactical application in sparring. Beginner students are encouraged to watch/listen to this class but not participate, as full gear and intermediate/advanced experience is required. 1pm-5pm "Introduction to Italian Rapier Fencing'' This class is open to all students Beginner-Advanced and will be an excellent introduction to Italian rapier in a nutshell, specifically in the tradition of Fabris and Giganti. A rapier will be required, NSHF has a number of loaner rapiers, *please let us know if you'll need to borrow one.* Martin Fabian Bio Martin Fabian has been actively fencing since 2003. Starting in a stage combat/reenactment group, in 2006 he switched his interest solely to surviving original works dealing with historical European martial arts (HEMA). He is the author of multiple transcriptions, translations, articles and other notable works dealing with fencing and related matters. In 2018 he authored a book "Master's Lichtenauer's fencing", an anthology of a few medieval treatises in the tradition of Johannes Lichtenauer and in 2021 an original piece called "A Fencing Book" which is a collection of his own didactics and approaches.   Martin’s prime interest is longsword (mainly German tradition) and rapier (Fabris, Giganti), but he has also practiced other weapons - messer, sidesword, dagger, polearms, modern sabre, wrestling. Currently, he lives in Bratislava, Slovakia where he founded and leads Bratislavský šermiarsky spolok (Bratislava Fencing Society) with 60 active members. Long-term international instructor, active tournament participant and founder of SIGI Forge, one of the leading suppliers of HEMA arms.