* Private Training Program Workshops and full ARMA Seminars available: Contact us with requests and information on fee and travel schedule. Presentation and lecture requests are welcome.  Private lessons also available. Special arrangements possible for video, motion-capture, and CGI modeling.

Ask about the Renaissance Martial Arts Lecture Series.

Email the ARMA Director at: ARMAdirector@aol.com

Examining antique blades

Seminar presentations

Practicing at the Royal Armouries, UK

Symposium demonstration

Practice in Europe

Classroom training

Private lessons

Examining an antique rapier in Switzerland

Training with antique blades

Leading classroom drills

Consultation with noted authority Dr. S. Anglo

Meeting with famed sword expert Ewart Oakeshott

Consulting with sword expert Hank Reinhardt & swordmaker Paul Chen

Class instruction

Test-cutting with sharp swords

Workshop Demonstration

Examining an original 1536 fencing text by Achille Marozzo

Lecturing in Germany

Examining a great-sword of c. 1400 at the Royal Armouries, UK

Trying out an antique two-handed sword from c. 1550

Presentation at the Sarasota Medieval & Renaissance Studies Conference '02

Lecturing at Texas A&M Univ.

Examining a 1000-year-old viking sword.

Examining an original edition of Fiore dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum c.1410.

Demonstrating cuts and thrusts on raw meat with an actual antique 16th century swept-hilt rapier.

Lecturing at New York University

Researching an original 1553 edition of C. Agrippas famed fencing text.

Handling authentic 16th century swords in the Swedish Royal Arnory

Hefting a fine 16th century antique ring-hilted rapier of the Swedish Royal Armory.

Exploring the original 1410 Pierpont-Morgan edition of the "Flos Duellatorum" fighting manual by Fiore dei Liberi.

John Clements is a leading authority on historical fencing and one of the world’s foremost practitioners of Medieval and Renaissance fighting methods. He is a long-time Western martial-artist who has been studying historical fencing since 1980. He has practiced cut & thrust swordsmanship and rapier fighting for more than eighteen years, researched swords and arms in 8 countries and taught classes and seminars on the subject in 6 countries.  Since summer 1997 he has taught public and private lessons in Houston, Texas.

John lectures and writes on European swords and has authored numerous articles on swords and weapon fighting for several magazines including: Renaissance Magazine, Tactical Knives, Karate International, Histoire' Medievale, L’art de la Guerre, Master at Arms, The Sword, Hammerterz Forum, Hop-Lite, and Sword Forum International.  John was also major contributor on historical fencing as well as member of the editorial board to the new Martial Arts of the World encyclopedia from ABC-CLIO Press (October 2001).  John has presented historcial fencing seminars and workshops in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Orlando, Maryland, Atlanta, Los Alamos, Princeton, and New Orleans, as well as Calgary, Krakow, Stockholm, and Munich. He has also presented demonstrations of Medieval and Renaissance martial arts at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, and the Wallace Collection Museum in London, as well as exhibited at Oxford University.  

He also instructed cadets and officers in historical fencing at West Point and was a keynote presenter at the Sword 2000 event of the New England Bladesmiths Guild, the Schola St. George Medieval Swordsmanship Symposium 2001 in San Francisco, has been featured twice on The History Channel, and was the creator and a founding member of the original Swordplay Symposium International.  In 1982 he founded the Medieval Battling Club. He also presented at the 2001 Texas Medievalists Association annual conference in San Antonio, at the Thirteenth Biennial New College of South Florida conference on Medieval-Renaissance Studies 2002, and has lectured for the History, Anthropology, and Military Science departments at Texas A&A University.  John also lectured on historical combat at the Origins gaming convention '02 and has consulted for the industry. In May 2003 he performed several presentations on authentic Renaissance martial arts at Astroworld Houston. Mr. Clements is a patron member of the Oakeshott Institute, has consulted for the US Army's unarmed combative systems program, and has taught historical European martial arts to underprivileged kids at a college-prepatory academy in Houston. Previously, in 1993 John taught two semesters on swordsmanship at Western Nevada Community College, and in the state of Texas is a Court certified Expert Witness in the area of bladed combat.

John has personally consulted with leading experts and scholars in Europe, practiced with the Fight Interpreters at the Royal Armories, and privately toured several famous arms museums and sword collections. He is the author of the books Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods & Techniques (Paladin Press, Nov ’98) and Renaissance Swordsmanship: The Illustrated Use of Rapiers and Cut-and-Thrust Swords (Paladin Press, March '97).

John currently trains in long-sword, sword & shield, spear, sword & buckler, sword & dagger and rapier & dagger, and is an ardent promoter of contact-weapon sparring and test-cutting with sharp replicas. In the past 5 years, John has had the opportunity to practice with actual historical swords and has handled more than 200 antique European blades from the 12^th to 17^th centuries in private collections, auction houses, and museum storerooms across five countries.  John is a member of the British Arms & Armor Society and helped pioneer the realistic use of historical wooden training swords (wasters) and a true martial arts approach within the modern study of period fencing texts.  In September 1994 John took first place in the Advance Weapon-Sparring competition of the US National's Kung Fu tournament, in Orlando, Florida.

As a full-time writer-researcher & practitioner of historical fencing, Clements has committed his life to advancing and promoting the study of  Medieval and Renaissance martial arts.  He presently teaches and researches on historical fencing full time and is busy at work on several book, video, and consulting projects.

To quote ARMA instructor John Clements: "As a historical fencer and Renaissance martial artist, I can think of nothing more satisfying than to simply declare, 'Yes, I am a swordsman.'"

Demonstrating fundamental counter strikes

Read some of John Clements's Writing Here:

 The Sword & Buckler Tradition

Historical Fencing Study - The British Legacy

Martial Art or Combat Sport?

Pinder's Contest - 16th century rural English Prizing

Peachey the Shoomaker's Challenge

The Myth of Cutting vs. Thrusting Swords

What Makes an Effective Sword Cut

Wasters - the history of wooden swords

The Myth of Edge-on-Edge Parrying in Medieval Swordplay

How to Teach an Understanding of Parrying - Part III

Analysis - A 15th Century Fencing Poem

Intro to Historical European Martial Arts

Renaissance Martial Arts Literature

See a few video clips here:

An ad hoc demonstration of some long-sword
counter-strikes & half-swording techniques

John C. demonstrates an
intermediate greatsword
florysh. 1.5 mb .mpg

John C. performs two
displacements: one receiving the
blow on the flat in Hengen and one
striking on the other's flat with
the short edge. 1.3mb .mpv

Ely rapier "duel", July 2000
6mb .mpv

Sword & Buckler Florysh I
2mb

John performs a few well
placed edge blows on melons with
an antique arming sword, c.1999.
6MB

“John Clements is a very knowledgeable and insightful martial artist. His research and methods, particularly in the interface between fighting with weapons and grappling, have been very helpful to the development of our program.”

Matt Larsen
Director, U.S. Army Combatives [martial arts] Program
Author FM 3-25.150

“I have found John Clements' workshops on Medieval and Renaissance martial arts  in Houston and  on the Texas A&M campus to be both mentally and physically challenging.  I have been particularly impressed by his desire to keep the practice of these arts "real," while maintaining high safety standards.”

Tom Green
Associate Professor (Anthropology), Texas A&M University, Editor and contributor, Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia, Veteran of more than 30 years training, teaching, and research in the martial arts, including capoeira, freestyle wrestling,  and six styles of Chinese and Japanese martial arts.

"I thoroughly enjoyed and learned much from the ARMA seminar that I participated in. I found John Clements to be very knowledgeable and skilled in the use of realistic weaponry of medieval and renaissance Europe. I look forward to training with John again soon."

Rick Tucci
Founder of the world renowned Princeton Academy of Martial Arts in Princeton, New Jersey. Member of the Board of Directors for the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (WEKAF), Guro in Lameco Eskrima, Full instructor and third degree black belt in Doce Pares Escrima.

“The ARMA training curriculum is just about as solid as you can get.  It's progress from simple drills to full speed applications is the best I have seen. This is reality training at it's best. John projects an intensity in his instruction that is hard to not get caught up in. His energy and zeal are remarkable.”

Col. Dwight McLemoore, Ret.
Frontier Americana Martial Arts instructor & author

”I have found John Clements to be expert lecturer on subject of Western Martial Arts. John possesses understanding of both framework of martial arts in general, as well as minute details - and that combined with his passion makes for very enjoyable seminars.”

Milan Petracevic
Croatian national fencing team member, Alberta provincial fencing champion, International fencing competitor & multiple medal winner Western Canadian Fencing Championships.

"As a fight director determined to bring as much historical authenticity as possible to my work, I personally consider the ARMA organisation a major resource for anyone interested in the history of European martial arts…."I've no doubt that through his lifelong studies in the field of historical swordsmanship, both academic and practical, John Clements can lay claim to being a modern expert of Europe's Medieval and Renaissance martial arts."

Keith Ducklin
Combatant, Royal Armouries Interpretation Department, Leeds, UK, Teacher Member, British Academy of Dramatic Combat, Co-author of Sword Fighting: a Manual for Actors and Directors.

 “John Clements is a superb martial artist and exemplifies this in his use of the longsword…anyone who wants to explore Western martial skills should take any possible opportunity to train with John Clements.”

Dale Seago
Bujinkan martial arts instructor and Western martial arts researcher

 "John Clements is a pioneer, Western martial artist, eclectic reconstructionist, and accomplished author.
His unswerving dedication to uncovering the Western martial arts is unparalleled.  This renaissance has
given practitioners connection with their heritage." 

Prof. Ronald A. Harris, Ph.D.
Edged weapons expert: Master, Original Filipino Tapado (Stickfighting) Association, Bago City, Philippines; Master, Negros Occidental Arnis Federation, Bacolod City, Philippines; 10th Degree Red Belt, Eskrima, Doce Pares Club, Cebu City, Philippines; Lakan Guro, Pekiti Tirsia System of Kali, Albuquerque, NM; Instructor, Muay Thai School of Saint Louis, Missouri; 1st Degree Black Belt, Shotokan Karate, Vasquez Martial Arts Center, Philippines; 3rd Degree Black Belt, Combat Judo, Doce Pares Club, Cebu City, Philippines; 4th Degree Black Belt, Taekwondo Jidokwan, Seoul.