Long Island Point Proves a Swordplay Success

Fencers from as far away as Vermont and Virginia descended on the Omni Fitness Center in Uniondale on Dec. 2 for Long Island’s first-ever HEMA tournament, Long Island Point, hosted by the Long Island Historical Fencing Society.

HEMA, which stands for Historical European Martial Arts, is a growing field of study worldwide and across the country, spawning numerous tournaments such as Longpoint, Swordfish, Purpleheart Open and Iron Gate Exhibition in which competitors from numerous clubs can test their knowledge and skills while learning more about the art. Its growing popularity has led to coverage in the “New York Times” as well as ESPN’s airing of the Longpoint South 2016 and 2017 tournaments held at the Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Long Island Point, a Longpoint Historical Fencing League event sponsored by Albion Swords, Destroyer Modz and Purpleheart Armoury, featured three different competitions: authentic fully armored combat, known historically as harness; paired technique, in which two participants work to interpret selected plays from the medieval source materials and perform them for judges; and the main event, longsword fighting, which featured 60 fencers battling it with equal parts fierceness and finesse in front of an enthralled audience.

Stephen Cheney of Pennsylvania’s Medieval European Martial Arts Guild won the longsword gold medal, beating out Eddy Louis of Boston’s Forte Swordplay. Toby Hall of New York Historical Fencing Society in NYC took bronze. The field of longsword winners was rounded out by Alex Kotarakos (New Hampshire KdF) in fourth, Jake Norwood (Capital Kunst des Fechtens in Alexandria, VA) in fifth, Kevin Willi (LIHFS) in sixth, Jay Tsulis (NYHFA) in seventh and Ryan Zukowski (LIHFS) in eighth.

On the knightly end of the spectrum, the harness winner in shining armor was university professor and acclaimed author Ken Mondschein of Worcester Historical Swordsmanship in Massachusetts. Ian Craig of the LIHFS took silver, and renowned local armorer Jeff Wasson finished third.

For paired technique, which focused on plays from 15th century fencing master Sigmund Ringeck, the gold medalists were Peter Concannon and Jay Tsulis of NYHFA, beating out second-place pair Scott Barb and Josh Parise of Pittsburgh’s Broken Plow Western Martial Arts and fellow NYHFA members Leanne Gonzalez-Singer and Katie Meade. Tsulis was also named overall tournament champion for most technical excellence points in longsword combined with his victory in paired technique.

The next morning, the participants reconvened for a day of a half-dozen intensive HEMA workshops on topics ranging from Viking shield combat, the Renaissance dussack and 14th century armor, to how to properly fall and roll while holding a sword. Michael Edelson, founder of NYHFA and author of several books including the recently published “Cutting with the Medieval Sword,” taught a course on body mechanics.

“Long Island Point 2017 was an incredible success,” said Bradley Rangell, the founder of the LIHFS. “We sold out longsword weeks before the event, and in spite of an ambitious schedule, with three tournaments running simultaneously, everything went according to plan and everyone had a great time. Most importantly, we made a lot of new friends and formed new club alliances, from which we will be initiating study groups and new projects. We look forward to an even more exciting Long Island Point in 2018.”

Visit http://www.longislandlongsword... for more information on the LIHFS.