As part of the Esfinges Give a Girl a Sword campaign, London Historical Fencing Club are running an introductory class for women. 

The session will run from 2-5 pm. We'll start with a welcome and introduction to HEMA, to give you information about the weapons we study and the history behind the systems we teach and how they came to be revived. Students will then have a short series of 45 minute introduction classes to the 3 different weapons we teach regularly (longsword, rapier and smallsword). Finally, there will be a demonstration of what you have learned, with some of our students and teachers sparring for your entertainment. All of this for the grand total of £3.

The classes will be suitable for anyone, whatever your fitness level or prior martial arts experience. All you need to bring with you is some loose clothing you can exercise in and a bottle of water.

Our goal with this event is to encourage more people to try out a martial art that we are passionate about. Our members are already very diverse, but we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to find out for themselves if this martial art is for them. 

Not a woman but interest in starting out?

The original Esfinges campaign is pitched primarily at cis and trans women, but we are committed to ensuring that people of all genders and none should feel welcome in our club. If you are non-binary or trans and would feel comfortable at this event please feel free to sign up. However if you feel, for any reason, that an event targeted primarily at women is not suitable for you, we have other options for you. We will be running a very similar introduction to longsword class at Trans Pride Brighton on July 20th. If you can’t make that, we will also be running a separate campaign offering several spaces for beginner students who are trans and/or non-binary in each of our regular classes. If you feel that’s more suited to you, please check our Facebook page for details or contact us on Facebook or email.

Page: https://www.facebook.com/londonhfc/

Email: londonhfc@gmail.com 

From the Esfinges campaign: 

"Esfinges's ideology is focused on getting more women into HEMA. It is estimated that only twenty percent of HEMA practitioners are female, and an even smaller number compete at events. Many women find themselves the sole female member of their school. If every person in HEMA were to encourage just one woman to try a class we would make a huge improvement."