About the Club

Contents

• About the club
• Code of conduct
• Club uniform
• Data protection
• Equality and inclusivity
• Equipment
• Health and safety
• Instructing team
• Making a complaint
• Promotional videos
• Training and sparring
• Under-18s

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About the club

Established in 2017, Liverpool HEMA is a martial arts club that trains historical European martial arts according to written historical sources.

We focus on the 16th century German methods of fencing with the two-handed longsword. However, we often look at other disciplines such as the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword, Napoleonic-era British sabre fencing, medieval dagger and wrestling, and the use of the dussack.

Our lessons have a strong theme of body mechanics and we strive to help everyone in their self-development as competent and well-rounded martial artists.

We like to take our training seriously and in a disciplined fashion. That being said, we do enjoy a laugh while training, and we tend to have a laid-back and friendly atmosphere. You won’t find it difficult to make friends in the club!

For more information about our club policies and guidelines, please see the resources below. If you have any questions that are not answered by our website, please get in touch and we will do our best to help!

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Code of conduct

Our club adheres to the AHA Code of Conduct. We expect all participants to follow this code and our instructing team will endeavour to uphold the code of conduct at all times.

See: AHA Code of Conduct (opens in new tab)

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Club uniform

We have a club uniform of blue shirt and black trousers. We take pride in looking like a club as we do our training!

See: Liverpool HEMA club uniform

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Data protection

We take photos at almost every session, so please feel welcome to look at our policy about photographs and what we use them for.

See: Liverpool HEMA photographs policy

Our club adheres to the AHA Data Protection Policy and the AHA Digital Media Policy.

See: AHA Data Protection Policy (opens in new tab)

See: AHA Digital Media Policy (opens in new tab)

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Equality and inclusivity

We believe strongly in equality and inclusivity at the club, and welcome anyone from any background or nationality to come and train with us. Our club adheres to the AHA Equal Opportunities Policy.

See: Liverpool HEMA equality and inclusivity statement

See: AHA Equal Opportunities Policy (opens in new tab)

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Equipment

We have plenty of equipment for newcomers to borrow. You don’t need to purchase anything to attend your first session!

See: Liverpool HEMA equipment for borrowing

Although it is not not something to worry about at the beginning of your practice, we do have some guidelines for buying your own equipment to make sure that whatever you buy is of sufficient quality to be worthwhile and safe.

See: Liverpool HEMA guide for buying your own equipment

We also have some guidelines about how to carry your sword to and from training sessions to avoid breaking the law and suffering legal problems.

See: Liverpool HEMA guide for how to carry your sword

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Health and safety

Our club adheres to the AHA Health and Safety Policy for HEMA. We make great efforts to ensure that participation in our activities will be as safe as possible for each and every person – but we also acknowledge that each and every participant plays an important role in looking after their training partners during a session.

See: AHA Health and Safety Policy (HEMA) (opens in new tab)

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Instructing team

Our chief instructor is Keith Farrell, a professional and internationally-acclaimed instructor.

We also have several assistant instructors at the club, each of whom has undergone training in how to instructor and communicate effectively. Every team member brings important skills and life experiences to the club.

See: Liverpool HEMA instructing team

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Making a complaint

If you have any complaints or would like to make an issue known to the instructing team, please speak to the chief instructor or to any of the assistant instructors. We will treat each issue seriously and confidentially.

If you need to make a formal complaint and would rather not speak about it to anyone in person at the club, please follow the AHA Complaints Policy and send an email to the Academy of Historical Arts to be dealt with formally.

See: AHA Complaints Policy (opens in new tab)

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Promotional videos

Why not take a look at some of our promotional videos to see what sort of things we do in the club?

See: Liverpool HEMA promotional videos

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Training and sparring

Our regular week-night classes tend to be technical lessons that focus on developing skill and ability. We start with very simple exercises, so that you will not feel out of your depth even if it is your first session, and then we develop the exercises over the course of the lesson to improve our skills.

See: Liverpool HEMA regular weekly classes

We don’t tend to do much sparring practice during these regular weekly sessions, but we do organise weekend events every month or so, where we can practise sparring and make sure our technical skills work under duress.

See: Liverpool HEMA guide for sparring at the club

See: Liverpool HEMA upcoming weekend events

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Under-18s

Teenagers may be welcome to attend training sessions, but please see our page about under-18s training for more details. Our club adheres to the AHA Child Protection Policy.

See: Liverpool HEMA training for under-18s

See: AHA Child Protection Policy (opens in new tab)

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