The Society of Historical Fencing is hosting its second annual “Hot Sword Summer” Historical Fencing Tournament at the Hal Brady Recreation Center in Alachua on Saturday and Sunday, June 28-29.

A total of 76 competitors from all over the country will compete with such historical weapons as Rapier, Longsword, and Singlestick, including an event specifically designed for beginners.

Kenneth Parker, a coach at Society of Historical Fencing, said the group started in 2022 when a few of their early members and coaches came together “from a few similar styles of groups in the area.”

“They were seeking to create an environment that encouraged competitive fencing while still keeping a focus on history, but that was also a fun and safe group to spend time with,” Parker said. “Since then, we’ve grown a lot, and currently we are the largest group of our type in the Gainesville area. We have three practices a week and a team of dedicated and skilled coaches that run our lessons.”

This will be the second annual “Hot Sword Summer” after last year’s event was a major success.

While there are a lot of smaller events throughout the country, especially one-day events that tend to focus on a single weapon or style, multi-day tournaments like theirs, and especially ones that offer a variety of different categories to try competing in, are somewhat rarer.

“We have two other large draws for us as well – the first being that all our events are reported to the rating site Hemaratings.com, meaning that participating in our tournament gives you an opportunity to move up the internationally tracked rating for HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) competitors,” Parker said. “The second draw is related to one of our club’s coaches and the tournament director running this event is Mike Roth, who is rated in the top 1% internationally in several of the main tracked events on that rating site. He draws several other high-level competitors, which means that coming to our tournament and doing well gives historical fencers a great opportunity to increase their overall rating quite a bit.”

A total of 16 medals will be given out between four events, plus a coveted award for the “Iron Fencer,” which is given to the competitor with the best overall score in all events, and the Under Represented Genders (URG) award, which goes to the best overall female or trans competitor.

“For participants, we strive to create an environment that encourages safe and skillful fencing, strong competition that is fairly adjudicated, and a fun atmosphere,” Parker said. “Historical Fencing or ‘HEMA’ is a relatively small sport that is based on an incredibly deep and fascinating history, and this tournament is our way to encourage our community to grow in skill and knowledge.”

If anyone is interested in learning about the history of sword fighting or the modern practice of historical fencing, they do not charge a fee for spectators at the tournament and they offer their first month of classes free to new students as encouragement to come try it out for yourself.

For more on The Society of Historical Fencing, visit www.Sohfhema.com