The Glasgow HEMA Open is no more. Long live Glasgow Fecht.

After many years of organising the Glasgow HEMA Open, growing it to the biggest HEMA tournament in Scotland at one point and staying among the biggest in the last few years, we have decided to retire the event. Why? Because we wanted to. As we have grown as a club, and as the tournament scene in HEMA has developed too we decided we wanted to do something different. There are now many great conventional tournaments in Scotland, and as time went by the Open was becoming less fulfilling to organise and run, and in the end we’d rather move on to things we are more passionate about. And so with that said…

What is Glasgow Fecht?

After many months of discussion and planning, this is what we’re doing for the new event. A minimum gear focused event, over two days there will be a trio of classes from guest instructors, followed by a (min’ gear) competition with 6 different Liechtenauer Tradition weapons, as well as a cutting competition.

Tickets and Price

Early Bird tickets, available until 30th November, will be £90, after which the price will increase to £110. Tickets will go on sale 13/11/26 at 18:00 GMT.

Social Activities

We are hoping to host a dinner/evening out on the Saturday, and possibly Sunday too - more information will follow.

Saturday

The day will feature 3 2-hour long classes from our guest instructors, as well as open sparring space. More information to follow.

Sunday

Sunday will feature our all new Heptatholon. You will have 18 fights, 3 each with: Longsword, Messer, Sword and Buckler, Dagger, Spear, and Duelling Shield, as well as scored cutting with both longsword and messer.

The day will start with registration and a chance to warm up, and a short 20-30 minute guide to the standard on minimum gear fencing we expect. Not every club practices min gear in the exact same way, so this will be to make sure everyone is on the same page about how things are going to work - EVERYONE will need to take part in this. See videos at the end of the page for demonstrations of the expectations of min’ gear fencing.

Once that’s out the way, we will proceed to an explanation of the rules and other proceedures of the day, before finally getting to the fencing…

All the fights will be minimum gear (that is, gloves, mask, and gorget), and all with the same ruleset (see below). Weapons are provided for every event - you will not be permitted to use your own.
There are no eliminations, you’ll never fight the same person twice, and your fights will be spaced out throughout the day. There’ll also be time at the end of the day for you to spar whoever you like in some free sparring, in case you hadn’t had enough fights, or maybe there’s someone you really wanted to cross swords with but didn’t happen to meet in the course of the tournament.

• Overall Format

  There is space for a total of 36 competitors this year, during registration you will be assigned a number, which you will use throughout the day.

  You will have a total of 18 fights, 3 with each weapon (longsword, messer, dagger, messer and buckler, spear, and duelling shield).
  The day will be split into 3 blocks, with you getting 1 fight with each weapon in each block, so all of your fights will be spread out (you won’t have all 3 longsword fights to start with for example).

  Now, the below isn’t necessary to know beforehand, and is mostly to sate the curiosity of the organisational nerds among you, but this is how things will go in more detail:
  In a block, every fighter will be called in, and the fights in that round will be announced in sets of 3, according to each weapon:
  “Longsword, 8 and 20, 3 and 16, 21 and 33…” and so on
  Once all the fights are announced (6 sets of fencers to 6 areas), those fights will then be fought in turn, and then everyone will be called back in to repeat all over again until everyone has had all the fights they are due.

• Fight Format

  Every fight of the day will follow the same proceedure.
  The central table will call the start of the fight, which will last 2 minutes 30 seconds, at which point the table will call hold.
  There will then be a minute break for the next pair to prepare and then their fight will proceed in the exact same way, or if we’re at the end of the set everyone will be called in for the next sets to be called (see above)

• Scoring

  One of the goals of this tournament is to foster a strong atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect. and as such hits are self called in every fight.

  During a match, if your opponent lands a hit you will call “Hit!”
  Your opponent then responds with “Point [their number]!” or “No Point!” if they think the strike would lack quality (tippy, glancing, flat etc.)
  When a fencer calls “Point #!” a scorer at the side will tally this and the fight continues.
  If not already clear, every location is scored the same - a single point.

  Doubles and Afterblows
  Afterblows are broadly timed as about 1 second. In the event of either, both fencers would call “Hit” and if both respond with “Point #”, then both have a point marked. If you believe your hit was out of time, call “No Point!” and your opponent will be the only one to score.

  Non Scoring Locations
  You should endeavour not to hit the following locations, and in the event that you do they are not scoring. If you do receive a hit in a non scoring location, do not call “Hit!” - instead call the location i.e. “Hand!” and you both continue fencing

  The following are non scoring locations:
  Hands (all parts of the hand in front of and including the wrist joint)
  Feet
  Back of Head
  Spine
  If you receive a hit and you are not sure if it was to an illegal target, call “Hit” and it will be for your opponent to disqualify it if they believe it was a non-scoring location.

  Only hits with the weapons count. No punches, kicks, headbutts etc.

  Pommel and crossguard strikes are not permitted.

  Grapples
  If you are grappled, you may call hit at any time you wish to conceed the point. Besides that, you should call “Hit!” in the following circumstances:
  - You no longer have control of your sword/sword arm and do not have control of the opponents.
  - You feel off balanced, and the opponent could throw you but is choosing not to.
  - You are in a joint lock.
  - You are on the floor.

  Weapon Specific Rules
  Longsword
  One handed stikes are not permitted.

  Dagger
  Cuts are non-scoring, only thrusts score.

  Sword and Buckler
  Strikes with the buckler are not permitted.

  Messer
  None

  Spear
  Strikes with the haft of the spear are permitted, but must follow normal rules for minimal gear (minimal contact etc.)
  One handed strikes are not permitted.
  Grapples do not score for controlling the opponents weapon and having yours free.

  Longshield and Sword
  Strikes with the shield are not permitted, only strikes with the weapon.

• Equipment

  All weapons are provided. You do not need nor will you be allowed to use your own.
  
  Protective gear is strictly limited to the following:
  Fencing Mask, free from major damge and deformation, including a back of head protector/overlay
  Gorget
  Gloves - A minimum of light padded gloves. Heavy gloves are permitted, though if possible avoid gloves with long cuffs as these can make it harder to recognise contact to the forearm.
  Cup (only mandatory for male fencers)
  
  No other protective gear is permitted.

  It is advised you wear long sleeves, as these will protect against any small burrs - though weapons will be checked throughout the day to manage this.

• Medals

  Rather than have a simple top three podium, four different medals will be awarded:
  Most Victorious - awarded to the fencer with the most victories.
  Most Lethal - awarded to the fencer who scored the most points.
  Most Alive - awarded to the fencer who conceded the fewest points.
  Most Balanced - awarded to the fencer with the greatest difference in points scored minus points against.

  It is of course possible to win in multiple of these categories, in which case you will recieve all the applicable medals.
  Points and victories are counted accross your performance with all the weapons.

• Cutting

  More information to follow

Our Standard for Minimal Gear Fencing

Below are some example videos of our standard for minimal gear fencing. Both are also using our hit calling rules as in the tournament (though we have made some tweaks since, they are still very close).
We follow the principle that both fencers should be going at the highest (same) speed where you can BOTH still stop the sword as close to immediate as possible. This will mean more experienced people will need to slow for those not as skilled/familiar with minimal gear sparring.

You should still make contact with the opponent, just a relatively minimal amount. On the day, everyone will have to take part in an orientation to minimal gear, as many clubs train differently/have different standards and we all need to be on the same page.

This first video as an example of the slowest speed we want people to be comfortable with at the event.

Our lowest speed

This second video as an example of the highest speed we want people to be going with at the event. Note that you do not need to be able to go this fast, it is simply the realistic upper limit of what any two people should be doing.