Columbus United Fencing Club, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching historical European martial arts (HEMA), marks nearly a full year of training students in various martial disciplines.
Founded June 2024, the club originated as a small student organization at the Ohio State University before going independent at its current location in Reynoldsburg.
“It’s just dynamic and interesting as a young sport,” said Nathan Wallace, one of the club’s board members.
HEMA communities such as Columbus United Fencing Club are generally focused on reconstructing the martial arts techniques of medieval Europe, particularly concerning the use of weapons like swords.
As the name suggests, HEMA largely relies on historical fencing manuals from late medieval Europe as the basis of its curriculum. Wallace specifically highlighted the manuscripts of German fencing masters Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig and Lew as forming the foundation for the club’s longsword classes, which he notes as being the club’s most popular discipline.
“People like longsword because it’s so much different [from the other disciplines],” said Wallace. Alongside longsword, the club also hosts both military saber classes and rapier and dagger classes. Training in other disciplines, such as sword and buckler, are occasionally offered as part of special sessions throughout the year.
Prospective students register at the club’s website and choose one of two HEMA introduction classes (longsword or saber) to sign up for. These introductory courses teach students HEMA fundamentals, including footwork, defensive and offensive techniques, tactical decision-making and basic safety guidelines.
These introductory courses run for a period of four weeks, after which students are considered sparring ready and eligible to enroll in the club’s more comprehensive intermediate-level classes.
Last month, the club hosted the Lynx Cup tournament, which saw the participation of at least 122 fencers in several categories, including three longsword divisions, saber, sword and buckler, and rapier and dagger. According to Wallace, the club also participates in at least three regional tournaments associated with the Ohio River Valley League, an organization that boasts the participation of fencing clubs from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
Despite the relative nicheness of HEMA, Wallace notes that the club has had success in maintaining a consistent number of students for its classes.
“Right now, in the actual club, I think we’ve got like 35-40 people that come decently consistently,” said Wallace. “But it’s adults doing a sport. They’ve got lives, they’ve got stuff to do Wednesday night.”
He adds that the club’s media strategy is a work-in-progress, with a key focus being on advertising.
Wallace remains optimistic that HEMA will continue to rise in popularity, though not to the level of established mainstream sports.
“I see it becoming popular but I don’t see it becoming like basketball, baseball and football,” said Wallace. “Maybe more like if we could get to the point where we could get to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu level of just doing sports stuff, that would be great.”
Wallace also notes that the club has plans to expand the disciplines it teaches.
“We’re slowly going to probably start adding new weapons,” said Wallace. “But it’s going to be a long time…. It’s going to be slow rolling, and we’re going to make sure that we can do this responsibly and give everybody a really great experience doing this.”
The club will host its next round of introductory classes on April 3 for rapier and May 17 for longsword.
