Podcast Tag: starting a club

The Sword Guy Podcast

Listen in as Guy interviews a wide variety of interesting swordspeople and historians from around the world. Learn more about the practical, the tactical, the theoretical and the just plain awesome from a diverse group of voices.

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Podcast Tag: starting a club

Jenny Habry

Episode 213

Armoured Martial Arts, with Jenny Häbry

Jenny Häbry is an armoured martial arts competitor who has crowned UK’s best female fighter in both 2022 and 2024, and again in 2025. And since 2024 has served as the Women’s National captain. She has founded her own team, and her favourite discipline is pro fighting, where she remains undefeated. In 2025 she secured three World Championship gold medals, further cementing her place as one of the sport’s leading fighters. Jenny also travels […]
Vera Martocchia

Episode 208

Swords are where I can be me, with Vera Martocchia

Vera Martocchia is a professional sword fighting instructor with nearly a decade of experience in historical martial arts. She co-founded the historical martial arts club Swordpunch in London, and teaches a wide range of weapons, including sidesword, longsword, dagger, sickle and more. In addition to her historical martial arts practice, Vera holds a master’s degree in international business, works as a marketing professional in tech and is a certified fitness professional with over 16 […]
Jamie MacIver

Episode 198

Safety Testing Swords, with Jamie MacIver

Jamie MacIver is a historical martial arts instructor who co-founded the London Historical Fencing Club in 2016, which has grown to over 120 members and now has his own permanent training space. We start our conversation with Vadi, and why Jamie prefers Vadi to Fiore. We have a discussion about guards and whether Vadi is more defensive than Fiore. You can find updates on Jamie’s translation of Vadi’s The Art of Swordfighting on his […]
Romana Shemayev

Episode 197

Russian Dissidence with Romana Shemayev

Romana Shemayev is an American songwriter and performer, translator of contemporary Russian poetry,  and one of the founders of “Bent Blades”, a gathering of Historical Martial Arts enthusiasts, who study German longsword fencing according to the principles of Johannes Liechtenauer. The interview is a bit different to the usual. It starts out normally enough with background chat, and swords. But she is a translator and performer of dissident songs from the USSR, and she […]
The Principles and Practices of Solo Training and Ariel Anderssen

Episode 192

Solo Training and an interview with Guy

Hello Sword People, and welcome to episode 192 of the podcast! Training alone is an essential skill. You can train anywhere, any time, and practice things that would be unethical with a partner. Enjoy some sample chapters from my book, The Principles and Practices of Solo Training, followed by a reprise of episode 100, where I’m interviewed by Ariel Anderssen about a whole load of stuff, including how I got into swords in the […]
Bob Brooks

Episode 182

Messers and More, with Bob Brooks

Robert (Bob) Brooks is one of the original generation of historical fencers, who began training with me in the Dawn Duellists’ Society in the early 90s. He founded the Hotspur School of Defence in 2003. So it’s turning 20 this year. He has been teaching primarily German historical martial arts and he has taught in over 30 countries on five continents. Bob is the author of the new book At Your Mercy: The Foundational […]
Samantha West

Episode 177

Community and the Club with Samantha West

Sam West is an instructor at the Dueling Weapons Academy of Renaissance Fencing aka DWARF, a historical martial arts club in Barrie, Ontario, where she teaches Italian longsword, 1.33 sword and buckler, and rapier. We chat about running a non-profit club and creating an open and inclusive space for everyone to take part in HEMA. Sam is passionate about relating the club to the community, and she tells us about the different projects they […]
David Wagenfeld

Episode 174

Swords in South Africa, with David Wagenfeld

David Wagenfeld is a fencing coach, creator of the En Garde model for teaching fencing in schools, and the co-founder of Table Mountain Fencing and Historical European Martial Arts. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has been instrumental in creating the HEMA scene in the country. We talk about how he got into sport fencing, then coaching, then HEMA. He feels that coaching fencing is what he was born to do, but […]
David Ito

Episode 163

THC, tournaments and training, with David Ito

There is a slightly different intro to this episode as Guy is in Kansas being medievally wrestled by Jessica Finley. Hear the noises here! Onto the interview: David Ito is a fire eater, an epee coach and former kendo player who plays with longswords now, based in Toronto, Canada. Of course, his main claim to fame, top of the resume, is he appeared on episode 25 of this show, back in December 2020. With […]
Marie Meservy

Episode 160

HEMA for Life, with Dr Marie Meservy

Dr Marie Meservy is a neuro radiologist, a psychologist, historical martial artist, sword mom to the Noble Science Academy in Nevada and the organizer of Fraufecht, which is the only American women’s event west of New York. In our conversation, we talk about running a school and training students to create the best outcomes. We discuss how to get new people, especially women, to join your club and how to create a good curriculum […]