The New Jersey Historical Fencing Association is happy to announce that Springeck 2026 will be held at the Vernon PAL indoor gym in Vernon, NJ on Saturday, April 25th.
What Is Springeck?
In much of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), training and practice often stay within the boundaries of individual clubs. While this builds strong communities, it can also limit exposure to new perspectives and approaches. Springeck was created to change that.
A Gathering of Shared Skill and Knowledge
Springeck exists to bring together practitioners from across the HEMA community—so we can all benefit from what each of our member clubs does best: fighting, drilling, theorizing, and interpreting.
Our event centers around free play, giving participants the rare opportunity to fence with people they’ve never met or trained with before. Beyond sparring, we emphasize drill work, idea exchange, and open discussion, fostering a collaborative “martial arts lab” environment where theory and practice meet. It’s a place for peer review, critique, and growth—challenging and deeply rewarding in equal measure.
Collaboration Over Competition
Springeck offers a space dedicated to honest free play, cooperation, and collaboration—without the competitive edge of a tournament. While tournaments are invaluable for learning and testing skills, Springeck fills a different niche: a space for exploration rather than competition.
Here, we:
- Discuss historical sources
- Debate interpretations
- Compare notes across schools and systems
- Fence to test ideas, not to win
- Share drills and insights
- Engage in vigorous free play under realistic conditions
All of this happens with nothing on the line but learning.
Why Springeck?
Over time, it’s easy to grow comfortable sparring the same partners and hearing the same voices within our home clubs. Springeck breaks that pattern. It invites new perspectives, fresh interpretations, and unfamiliar fencing styles—reinvigorating our understanding of historical martial arts.
Springeck is where collaboration replaces competition, and every exchange is an opportunity to learn.
That’s Springeck.