At Liverpool HEMA, we are lucky to have a diverse team of instructors, coming from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life.
Each instructor on the team has undertaken a significant study of HEMA and has also spent time learning how to instruct effectively. The chief instructor has a significant interest in helping others to learn not only how to fence, but how to teach fencing effectively, and so all of our instructors have a well-developed ability to communicate relevant information in a helpful fashion. You are in good hands when you come along to the club to learn about HEMA!
We also have an assistant coaching team of up-and-coming instructors who are learning the ropes and turning their fencing skills into instructing skills. We generally run a new assistant coaching course every year so that the more technically-adept individuals in the club have an opportunity to become an instructor – and it means we have an ever-growing team of people able to help out and provide useful advice.
If you would like to find out more about any of the instructors at our club, please click on the names below.
Chief Instructor
Keith Farrell is the chief instructor at Liverpool HEMA. He teaches HEMA professionally, often at international events, and has an interest in coaching instructors to become better teachers. His main area of expertise is fencing with the two-handed longsword; however, he also enjoys fencing with the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword, with the sabre, and with a variety of different swords!
Keith has authored several books, including Scottish Broadsword and British Singlestick and the award-winning AHA German Longsword Study Guide. He maintains his own website at KeithFarrell.net, and has also published several articles and interviews in a variety of magazines and journals.
He has been involved with karate and various different martial arts since 1998. A decade later, he had his first involvement with HEMA in 2008. Since then, he has opened and run a variety of HEMA clubs, most recently having opened the Liverpool HEMA club in 2017.
Assistant Instructors
Daria Izdebska is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA. She has trained in a variety of martial arts, most prominently in Karate Kyokushin (her main discipline for about ten years), with occasional forays into kickboxing, judo and boxing. She helped with coaching at her karate classes, and has a significant teaching experience in other domains (she is an academic teacher and a language teacher by trade). She enjoys the practice of martial arts, the military history across the ages, as well as the representations of warfare in myth and legend.
She began her practice of HEMA in 2010, after arriving at the University of Glasgow to do her Ph.D. in English Language (Old English). She splits her focus between German longsword and Polish sabre, not only because of national sentiment, but also because of the inherent beauty of the weapon.
James Roberts is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA. He began training in HEMA in 2014, concentrating on German Longsword. He has worked with Lichtenauer sources, primarily Codex 44.A.8 (PsPVD) but has also worked with Joachim Meyer’s The Art Of Combat.
James has trained and competed at several FightCamp events, Kings Of The North and, most recently, ‘The Tournament’ in Conwy as well as several other smaller events. He has also assisted in demonstrations of Longsword fencing at schools and castles in North Wales.
He has a background in equestrianism and hopes in the future to begin the study of mounted combat and jousting. He also enjoys Medieval history, primarily mid 12th to mid 15th century, in particular the events of The Wars Of The Roses, and has a passion for castles, battlefields, arms and armour and all things concerning medieval warfare and history.
Ben Davies is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA. He began sport fencing with the foil in 2016 at Wirral fencing club and upon discovering that Liverpool HEMA was to open in 2017, joined and has been attending since.
Training so far has mainly focused upon the German Longsword and in particular the works of Liechtenauer and Joachim Meyer, with an emphasis on his The Art of Combat treatise and the AHA German Longsword Study Guide. Aside from the Longsword, Ben has begun studying the great sword, with a focus on the Iberian Montante and the treatise “Memorial of the Practice of the Montante” by Diogo Gomes de Figueiredo.
Ben hopes to further his knowledge of swordplay by experiencing as many different fencing systems as possible within HEMA.
Alex Roberts is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA. He has been studying HEMA since 2017, primarily studying German longsword from The Art of Sword Combat and The Art of Combat by Joachim Meyer. Alex’s interest in HEMA stems from his interest in medieval history, particularly 13th century England. He intends to study more systems in the future with a particular interest in messer.
Marc Smith is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA and the instructor and club leader at Warrington HEMA. He’s been practicing HEMA for around a decade and joined Liverpool HEMA when it first opened in 2017, completing the coaching course shortly afterwards. He opened his own club in 2022 and has taught as a guest instructor at other regional clubs.
His main focus, which he teaches, is on the Iberian system of La Verdadera Destreza and the 14th century text of I.33 (FECT 1).
He has also choreographed and preformed fight scenes for such media as a music video and documentaries as well as running demonstrations for local heritage organisations.
His goals are to help the HEMA community grow in the North West and one day to teach at a national level.
Jack Farthing is an assistant instructor at Liverpool HEMA.
Richard Dodd is an assistant instructor for Liverpool HEMA.
He also teaches more regularly now at the North Wales HEMA club.
Assistant Coaching Team
Matthew Brown, Tania Minns, Wojciech Kwasik, Derek Kwantreng
Your First Session!
If learning to fight with the longsword appeals to you, then visit the club and give it a go!
Read more about what to bring and expect for your first session.