Instructors

We offer several instructors with various profiles, experimented and acknowledged by the international community. They come from many countries and continents to transmit their knowledge and share their passion with practitioners.

Franziska Müller (DE)

My fencing journey began in 2019 with the longsword. Since then, I have been training at Schwert & Bogen and I am teaching there for over three years. I began my studies with the sickle during the pandemic, the main work and ideas came from working with Andreas Fuchs. We worked together on the principles of movement and characteristics of the weapon and tried them out.

Also I was able to gain experience in kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu, which further developed my passion for fighting. Learning different movement patterns and engaging in physical activity gives me great joy, which I love to share with others.

Workshop:
The sickle of Paulus Hector Mair

Quentin Michel (FR)

Quentin started HEMA in 2010 by accident and has never looked back. Having trained with De Taille et d’Estoc (Dijon) and Lugdunenses (Lyon), he is now a deer of BRAMHE (Besançon). His favourite areas of study are cutting, sword and buckler (I.33), longsword, dagger (Fiore) and, increasingly, female self-defence at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, known as Suffrajitsu. He has an Instagram account where he occasionally talks about this: @suffrajitsu_portraits.

Workshop:
The Defeat of the Hooligan – A Lesson in the art of womanly self-defense by Miss Sanderson, 1906

Dominik Eaton (CH)

Dominik S. Eaton has been training MOF and Kendo before being blessed by the Youtube algorhythm in 2013 and discovered HEMA for himself. Ever since, he brought HEMA into his hometown Basel where he founded two clubs, introduced HEMA to the University sports program and established the Basilisk Challenge tournament. He has been doing HEMA fulltime since 2020.

His main interests are far too many for his lifetime, so he currently focuses on wrestling, dagger, messer and the longsword next to sword and buckler. Apart from being addicted to practicing and researching HEMA, Dominik has a 12 year old daughter, academic degrees in anthropology and philosophy and a passion for food, dance, love and play.

Workshop:
Lignitzer’s Sword and Buckler

Vina Zahnd (CH)

Since 2013, I’ve been active in historical fencing and was part of the founding of our club, HADU.
After about two years, I started attending events outside of Switzerland, although school and university studies often slowed me down.

In 2019, the year before COVID, I spent time traveling and visited various HEMA clubs in England, Scotland, Iceland, and one in Romania. Unfortunately, after returning home, training opportunities became limited again due to the pandemic.

Over the years, I’ve mainly focused on longsword, and only occasionally took part in rapier training. For quite some time now, I’ve been leading the warm-ups, interval training, and stretching sessions at our club practices.

In 2020, I picked up a new hobby: acrobatics (just university sports, not to be confused with sport acrobatics). As a form of balance, I think it’s fantastic and highly recommend it to everyone.

Workshop:
Body Workshop for HEMA Training

Hélène Leblanc & Benjamin Conan (FR)

Hélène and Benjamin practise and teach HEMA at CELACAMTHE in Annecy. Having obtained her PhD in the history of philosophy in 2015, Hélène publishes articles on martial and academic cultures of the early modern period. Affiliated with the Universities of Geneva and Lyon, she is currently researching the relationship between combat and philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Benjamin has been practising HME since 2007, focusing particularly on the corpus of Italian and German Renaissance sources. He is the author of several French translations of these sources. Both are active on the board of the French Federation of Historical Martial Arts (Fédération Française d’AMHE); they published a joint translation of Hans Medl von Salzburg’s treatise in 2022, and co-edit the Mars&Sol series for Éditions Solstices.

Workshop:
Preparation for a duel – the 16th-century Bolognese sword

Conference:
Mars&Sol: a collection for HEMA

Social Media:
Hélène Leblanc
Benjamin Conan / dokdoyle
Les éditions Solstices

Christophe Le Millier (CH)

Born in 1980, I started modern fencing at the age of 6. After a few tries at artistical fencing, I discovered proper HEMA in 2003 by joining the group Zornhau in Germany and started learning mainly longsword and dagger.

In 2011, I joined the Associació Catalana d’Esgrima Antiga (ACEA) in Barcelona, where I focused on the rapier and most importantly on learning Verdadera Destreza.

In 2014, I also joined the group GAGSchola in Geneva, practicing there longsword and wrestling. After a few back and forth between Barcelona and Geneva, I settled in 2020 in Switzerland and I am now the main instructor of GAGSchola.

While longsword and rapier are my main focus, I also enjoy sword and buckler or 18/19th centuries fencing with foil, sabre or canne.

Workshop:
Hugo Wittenwiler : Fechten Schweizer Art

Conference:
Hugo Wittenwiler

Fran Lacuata (UK)

Fran has been practicing HEMA with The School of the Sword since 2010. She has instructed at high-profile events in Britain, Europe and the US; and has placed in and won over thirty international competitions.

Since the International Rapier Seminar 2016 Fran has organised over 30 international events. She is a co-founder of multiple events and organisations including Waterloo Sparring Group, the Wessex League, The English Sidesword Open, the Albion Cup, Esfinges.

Fran is the founder of the event By The Sword – also the title of her podcast series where she interviews members of the global sword community.

Workshops:
Rapier & Cloak
Case of swords

Nitya Dal Pra (IT)

I began practicing historical fencing in 2006 at the age of 17 in the club Compagnia delle Lance Spezzate. I initially trained in the 16th century sidesword following Dall’Agocchie and Marozzo treaties. In 2010, within the club, I proposed expanding the disciplines covered by creating an experimental course on Italian rapier, based on the sources of 17thcentury masters.

From that point on, having developed a strong interest in the subject, I continued studying the treatises to build a comprehensive course, aiming to make the techniques handed down to us applicable in both a historical and sporting context. Right now, I am the president of the club and regularly teach rapier and sidesword classes every week at our fencing hall in Milan.

Workshop:
The use of the unarmed hand in Italian rapier

Marco Krüger (DE)

I am a fencer from Konstanz, Germany. My background is in Judo, which I practiced for over a decade. My HEMA journey started with Longsword, but after some years I turned to Messer fencing and studied the system of Johannes Lecküchner. I spent half a year training with Ulrik Neumann at the Freifechter Köln, where I refined my Messer fencing. During that time I also trained in Kali, which deepened my understanding of grappling and expanded my repertoire of techniques.

My biggest goal is to help fencers understand body mechanics and deal with stronger, heavier opponents. For the past six months I have been leading my own training group in Konstanz, focused on Messer fencing. Teaching a very diverse group of people, I aim to help each and every one grow a little more confident in themselves through varied approaches to instruction.

Workshop:
Body Mechanics of Messer fencing

Conference:
(H)EMA – How important are history and sources in our sport?

Rick Brandes (GB)

Rick has been practicing HEMA since 2016 when he joined The Academy of Historical Fencing in his home city of Bristol. During this time he studied a range of weapon systems including rapier, smallsword, sidesword, bayonet, staff weapons and sabre.

In April 2025 he officially became a full member of The School of the Sword after relocating to Godalming. He has taught historical fencing at the Ancient Technology Centre, Binni’s Bladez, and Kings College. He is also an honorary member of Espada Negra based in Seixial, Portugal.

Rick has a passion for Sidesword, Renaissance Polearms, and Napoleonic British Military Sabre.

Workshop:
Broadsword and Dagger

Anna Wiederänders (AT)

Anna Wiederänders is a physiotherapist and osteopath specialized in combat sports. She has a long history in kickboxing and MMA, not only in competitions but also as a trainer and a coach.

Anna started HEMA in 2024, where the Austrian HEMA community worked on a big project to establish a HEMA specialized instructor educational course. There she worked on two chapters focusing on healthy movement and training theory. Since then Anna is busy traveling around doing workshops on these topics to not only educate HEMA trainers but also HEMA trainees. 

Workshop:
Healthy Movement and Biomechanics in HEMA

Would you like to offer a workshop at Swiss Blades? Contact us using the form below. We look forward to hearing from you.

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