James Reilly - He/Him
James is a student of the KdF tradition and principal instructor at Goliath Historical Fencing Academy. His coaching focuses on targeted, student-by-student skill development grounded in a strong theoretical framework. He strives to cultivate knowledge and technical execution that build confidence. His goal is that each student leaves with a new, reliable capability.
Melissa Hainsworth - She/Her
Beginning in Medieval Re-enactment she later joined the Vikings Historical Re-enactment Society where she met her husband Jordan and they travelled and fought in re-enactment events all over Britain and Europe. When they moved to Italy, they joined the La Compagnia della Rosa e della Spada – a reenactment and HEMA school. Upon returning to Britain together they opened the Academy of Steel in 2018.
Melissa is an instructor within the Academy, the Academy’s archery captain and runs classes specifically for women and non-binary persons as well as workshops at UK events. She is part of the team that organizes and runs The Gathering of Wolves and Wolf Hunt events which run each year.
She has competed in many tournaments and taken many medals. Melissa is one of the highest rated female fencers in Britain and has held to 5 spots for URG sword and buckler, sabre, and rapier and dagger. At only 166cm tall she has no issues taking on larger and stronger opponents and does not shy from competing in open tournaments.
Jordan Mock - He/Him
Jordan Mock has fenced and taught across Europe and the USA. He has competed and medaled in tournaments all over the globe in several different weapon sets and is ranked amongst the top 10 for longsword fencers in Britain, as well as training up and leading teams to compete and win in melee tournaments.
He founded the Academy of Steel in 2018, which has since become the largest school in Wales and one of the largest in Britain. Author of Virtue and Steel, a guide to Italian longsword, Jordan’s passion for Fiore’s fencing system has given him a comprehensive understanding of body mechanics and grappling.
Scott Loescher - He/Him
Scott began studying at WSTR in 2017. He has always been interested in naval combat of the Napoleonic wars of the late 18th and early 19th century and wanted to learn to fight like Captain Jack Aubrey. To this aim, Scott has mostly focused his studies on military saber with forays into spadroon and smallsword. He is also studying cutlass, pistol, spear, musket and bayonet to round out his knowledge of all weapons used aboard ships.
Scott is also a passionate educator, and had over 10 years of experience teaching ballroom dancing and college biology before he began teaching swordsmanship. He loves to focus on the biomechanics of the techniques to find simple fixes that make large improvements in a student’s fencing.
Joshua Wiest - He/Him
Joshua is a head coach at Forge Fencing Academy in Durham, NC. He has been practicing northern Italian martial arts for a decade, focusing on the works of Achille Marozzo and Antonio Manciolino, but has started to venture into the Florentine Masters. He is also an ardent scholar of 15th to 17th century Italian history, and runs a research collective called the Art of Arms.
Edward Meyers - He/Him
I am a lawyer who gets to spend my free time practicing HEMA and judo. More fun than my job suggests. I have been involved with HEMA on and off since 2011.
Brian Chabot - He/Him
Brian has been playing with swords in some way or another since he was a toddler. He began his more serious sword studies with rapier in the SCA in the early 2000’s and currently is focused on harnischfechten and mounted combat in various forms. He is an SCA marshal in fencing (with C&T), and also the East Kingdom marshal and contact for the SCA’s new Harnischfechten experiment. He is the Coordinator and Marshal in Charge for Harnischfechten at Pennsic. He has studied at The Knights Hall since about 2012 and currently runs a bi-weekly workshop there called “By the Book” where he leads a discussion and practical experimentation to interpret historical fechtbooks and other historical resources. On the side he volunteers at the Worcester Art museum as an armored interpreter and works with various groups to demonstrate historical armored combat at regional renaissance faires.
Christopher Valli - Any
Chris began his martial arts training at the Shaolin Wushu Center in South Windsor, Connecticut under Grandmasters Hu Jianqiang and Zhong Jianmei. He trained in kung fu and tai chi for 10 years, earning a purple sash, assisting with children’s and beginner classes, and winning several medals.
In 2004, after attending a seminar on the German rondel dagger led by Christian Henry Tobler, he quickly developed a passion for historical fencing. Within months, he was training regularly, and in 2015 he earned the rank of Free Scholar through the Selohaar Fechtschule. He later founded Laurel City Historical Fencing in Winsted, CT to share his passion with others.
In addition to historical fencing, Chris enjoys archery, shooting, and other weapons-based sports.
Asante Lawla - He/Him
Student of Gurudev Nidar Singh and a practitioner of Shastar Vidiya, with over 12 years of experience in art. I’ve also explored various other forms of combat, boxing throughout teenage years, and later wing chun. With a background in engineering and a being qualified corrective exercise specialist, these days I’m most interested in fundamental biomechanics and the ways in which they support combat efficiency.
Christian Buettner - He/Him
Christian has been fencing for 9 years and dancing for almost 22 years. Since early lessons that showed overlap between these two sports he has been perusing this overlap and attempting to build the movement theory and pedagogy from various dance forms into fencing. At MKdF he now teaches longsword fundamentals, military saber, and monante which have all benefited from dance-related work. As a man who does not fit average size and physicality of HEMA fencers he is also dedicated to making his classes adaptable and useful to folks of all sizes and abilities.
Nathan Weston - He/Him
Nathan Weston is an instructor at Athena School of Arms in Boston, and the Curriculum Director for the HEMA Alliance. He practiced a variety of martial arts, as well as modern fencing, before taking up HEMA in 2012. He has studied the both early KDF longsword and Italian rapier in depth, and dabbles in saber and wrestling. He actively competes in longsword, rapier, and saber.
His current focus is on developing and promoting more effective teaching methods for HEMA, particularly the use of ecological approaches. He led the development of the HEMA Alliance instructor training program and has taught numerous instructor training workshops. He also writes articles about coaching for GD4H.org
Ernesto Maldonado - He/Him
Ernesto Maldonado has studied historic fencing for 35 years, especially 16th and 17th century Italian and Spanish Martial arts, including attending and studying at 25 workshops in the US, Canada, and Italy, as well as studying Classical Italian fencing with the Fencing Masters Program at Sonoma, and has taught WMA classes at regional and national workshops in the SCA and at The Texas Sword Retreat as well as classes in theatrical applications of historic traditions at the Brawl of America regional workshop.
In additional to his martial studies, he has trained in and choreographed historic dance in re-enactment and Renaissance Festival environments with a focus on Spanish Golden Age dance for the past three years.
Mariana Lopez - She/Her
Mariana Lopez is a founder and head coach of the Metropolitan Historical Fencing Academy (MHFA) and has 17 years of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) experience. A highly accomplished competitor with various gold medals amongst a number of weapons she’s also a tournament organizer and referee in both North America and Europe, and a former member of the Mexican National HEMA Championships committee. Having a strong passion for art she has also partaken in a multitude of art projects related to HEMA, creating reproductions, illustrations for books, fencing manuals restoration, and other visual resources. As an International Relations major Mariana founded Esfinges, an international organization with thousands of members dedicated to the support and promotion of woman’s participation in HEMA.
Collin Vredenburg - He/Him
Collin Vredenburg is an avid competitor and passionate scholar. He started fencing in 2018, diving into an intensive training program that included self-study and research, and building a comprehensive HEMA library.
Collin applies the same dedication he has as a student to his coaching and works with beginning and advanced students teaching the Bolognese tradition of one-handed sword, Sword & Buckler, and Two-handed Sword, Smallsword and Saber in the French Tradition, and specializes in Rapier. His primary source is Gerard Thibault d’Anvers’s Academie de l’Espée, making him one of the few instructors in the United States working with this tradition. Collin is currently adapting and re-translating l’Academie into English from its original 17th century French.
Kyle Marrotte - He/Him
Kyle began studying at HEMA at Western Swordsmanship Technique and Research in 2016, after getting far too obsessed with the Witcher franchise. After his wife caught him swinging a plastic sword around in the backyard, she decided that he should have some idea of what he’s doing and signed him up for classes as a gift. What started as a casual interest in sword choreography revitalized his childhood love of martial arts, and he has since become a well-known competitor and instructor around New England.
While he started his journey with the Longsword and Saber, he has primarily gained a reputation for his knowledge of Dagger and many various forms of Historical Grappling. He also has competitive experience in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai, and leverages his mixed martial arts experience to inform his teaching methodology and coaching strategies.