The old ways: Pittsburgh Fighters Guild keeps medieval styles alive

Abby Hicks has wanted to fight with swords since she was eight years old. But when she was growing up in the early 1990s, it wasn’t necessarily something a lot of girls did.

Today the Brackenridge resident is three decades older, but she is also nearing her second full year as a member of the Pittsburgh Fighters Guild, a group dedicated to keeping historical European martial arts, or HEMA, alive.

At a small shopping center off Garden City Drive in Monroeville, Hicks and others are studying Liechtenauer long-sword fencing and a host of other medieval fighting disciplines. Some are dueling with foam-padded long swords. Some are practicing strikes on torso training dummies. Near the entrance to the training space, the unmistakable clang of metal-on-metal comes from two guild members training with blunted steel rapiers.

It all takes place under the watchful eyes of owner Malin Grant of Monroeville and his wife, instructor Heather Perez.

“We started the guild in 2021,” said Grant, 35. “A friend and I saw some people fighting with steel swords and wanted to learn how.”

The people they saw were from Broken Plow Martial Arts, another HEMA group based out of East Deer’s Creighton neighborhood. They got to know one another, and eventually Grant decided to strike out on his own and start the Pittsburgh Fighters Guild.

Both Grant and Hicks said part of their motivation was a desire to be active.

“A lot of us want to do something active, but I don’t have any interest in going to the gym and lifting weights,” Grant said.

Hicks agreed.

“I don’t like to exercise, and this was a form of exercise that didn’t bore me,” she said.

The guild runs weekly classes including a beginner’s course in long sword, an intermediate long sword class with open sparring, and a children’s class. Members also travel to local and regional competitions. Broken Plows hosts an annual competition called “Blood on the River,” which will take place Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 in Creighton.

There are several schools of swordsmanship available to HEMA practitioners. The German school of fencing was a system of combat taught during the Holy Roman Empire and described in the contemporary Fechtbücher, codified during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Italian school of swordsmanship dates back even further, to the early 1400s and the “Flos Duellatorum (The Flower of Battle)” written by Fiore de’i Liberi. It describes combat techniques using grappling, daggers, short swords, long swords, pole axes and spears.

Preston Repass, 16, of Belle Vernon has been coming to the Pittsburgh Fighters Guild since January, and said he doesn’t rely on any one particular style.

“I constantly change how I fight based on what my opponent is doing,” he said.

Grant has also dipped his toes into several different techniques.

“I’ve experimented with things, but I focus on the Liechtenauer long sword tradition,” he said. “What I like is that the sword is meant to be an equalizer.”

That philosophy is on display as instructor Mar Smith, 35, of Baldwin, spars with Max Karabin, 21, of Elizabeth. Smith is giving up a good 4 to 5 inches in height against Karabin, but can shift her position, parry and counter to make up for her reach disadvantage.

“I’ve been coming to the guild for about year,” Karabin said. “I got interested in HEMA through YouTube videos. I was initially drawn in by the historical aspect — reading old books about how to sword fight was really interesting.”

Grant agreed.

“When I was a little kid swinging wooden swords with my friends, I never thought it would end up someplace like this,” he said. “But it’s a really good way to get exercise, and fighting people with swords is just as much fun when you’re an adult.”

For more on the Pittsburgh Fighters Guild, see HEMApittsburgh.com.