Johannes Liechtenauer:

"He who comports himself well, and breaks well, and finally breaks completely – and breaks apart [every technique] using the Three Wonders – he who uses Hängen and Winden well, and performs the eight Winden in the correct way – and by each Winden I mean the three Winden, which makes them four and twenty, counting them from both sides. "

Our Vice Chairman and Senior Instructor, Adrian Boyd, first became interested in the various disciplines of Martial Arts in the year 2000. As a dedicated kickboxing practitioner, he was awarded the Black Belt 1st Dan by the Professional Kickboxing Association (P.K.A.) in 2003, along with an instructor qualification from the same body. In the same year Adrian was awarded Sports Coach UK certificates in good practice and child protection as well as coaching studies.

In addition to kickboxing, Adrian spent five years under the tutelage of an assistant instructor to Terry Barnett, practising Kali-JKD and integrated arts. He has recently begun practising the Bruneian martial art of Silat Suffian Bela Diri and Rapid Arnis, a UK derivative of Filipino martial systems.

In 2008 Adrian joined our fencing classes to discover the footwork as described within Kali-JKD (which was derived from sports fencing) but found that the martial principles taught by SMEF, in our interpretation of Liechtenauer’s system of medieval fencing, were evident in almost all other disciplines he has studied. In the same year he joined us Adrian attained his BFHS IL1 and has continued to race through the SMEF grading levels. He achieved the level of Senior Instructor (Maister Grade 2) in 2013 and was appointed Vice-Chairman in 2015, continuing to be a considerable asset to SMEF and HEMA and keeping us honest within the spirit of a true martial art. His depth of knowledge across many martial disciplines has reinforced our belief that the SMEF’s understanding of the philosophy and martial principles behind Liechtenauer’s system is in line with many other styles of martial arts regardless of their place or period of origin, further legitimising our interpretation.