Keith Farrell is one of the senior instructors for the Academy of Historical Arts. 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 according to the teachings of 15th century masters in the Liechtenauer tradition. 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 for Fallen Rook Publishing, including Scottish Broadsword and British Singlestick and the award-winning AHA German Longsword Study Guide. He maintains an active blog, posting at least once a week, and has also had several articles and interviews published in a variety of magazines and journals.
I teach regularly at Liverpool HEMA, and help behind the scenes with running HEMA in Glasgow at the Vanguard Centre.
He has been a member of HEMAC since 2011 and was awarded a HEMA Scholar Award for Best Instructor for research published in 2013. Although not a competitive person by nature, Keith has won several medals in historical fencing tournaments around the world, and has a strong rating in the HEMA Ratings initiative.
Read my recent articles
- Protective equipment vs. concussions in sword fighting
This is a guest article by Martin Höppner. Originally, Martin posted this as a YouTube video, and I asked if I could host the transcript on my website to help preserve the message for posterity and for more easy reference and access in the future. He kindly agreed, and gave … - Finding motivation to return to teaching HEMA this year
How many instructors are struggling to find motivation to return to running a HEMA club this year? 2020 was truly brutal, across the globe, in so many ways; many clubs in many countries have been forced to close during local and national lockdowns, and some people haven’t been able to … - Patience and martial arts
It is a well-known statement that patience is a virtue, and it is also quite commonly understood that there is a strong relationship between martial arts and patience. Of course, the practice of martial arts is supposed to help improve your tolerance for patience, but it also requires plenty of … - Some thoughts about rights and responsibilities
A few days ago, it was Bonfire Night in the UK, which means lots of people setting off fireworks. Where I live, it meant people setting off fireworks from mid-afternoon until late evening, making it really quite difficult for me to concentrate on anything for several hours, and leading to … - Curating an online community
When we create a Facebook group, or a subreddit on Reddit, or a channel on Discord, or whatever, we are creating an online community. Once we have an online community, we must curate it, by which I mean we need to maintain it and keep it healthy and welcoming. We … - How did people practise sparring before the invention of fencing masks?
How did people practise their fencing and sparring before fencing masks were invented? This was a question asked a couple of weeks ago in a thread on Reddit, and I think it’s an excellent question well worth considering. If we didn’t have modern safety equipment, how would we alter our … - An introduction to Indian clubs
I recently finished making a new video course about working with Indian clubs, because I want to share this activity with people. Mainly, I would like to be able to give my own students some resources that I think they would find useful – and since I have created these … - Why use original and foreign terminology when studying HEMA?
Why do we use the original and potentially foreign terminology when studying HEMA, instead of translating everything into English? This was a question asked through a video on YouTube a couple of weeks ago, and I would like to propose an answer. Why not translate everything? This is a good …