Alachua County went back in time last weekend.
One-hundred-twenty sword fighters from across Florida and Georgia competed at the Society of Historical Fencing’s third annual Hot Sword Summer. The tournament, held at the Alachua County Sports and Events Center for the first time, featured Historical European Martial Arts, where fighters use historical literature to understand how weapons were used and replicate those forms in their fights.
Hot Sword Summer featured five events: rapier, single stick, sword and buckler, beginner long sword and open long sword. The long sword divisions were the only events held on Sunday, drawing the largest number of participants, with 29 competing in the beginner and 87 in the open.
The tournament’s director, Mike Roth, who competed in the longsword open event, said the sport has grown significantly from when he first got into HEMA competitions about 20 years ago, where there were only about nine participants. This year’s event nearly doubled the 2025 turnout, with the club having to cap the number of registrations to 120.
“We have a good milieu, so people like it and they come back and bring more and more people,” Roth said. “This year it's really grown to be one of the biggest events. I think we're going to be [in] the top seven biggest ones in the country, which is huge for us because we're just in Alachua.”
Longsword coach at the Society of Historical Fencing, Glenn Best helped found the organization in 2021, and said the club is not only growing but becoming more successful with students medaling at almost every competition since 2022.
Best said fighters, using German techniques, maximize different areas of the body for points.
“You hit someone in the head, that's worth more points than getting a hit in the leg because theoretically if [you’re] hit in the leg, you can keep fighting [but if] you’re hit in the head, your odds are pretty low, especially with the big sharp sword,” Best said.
Jacob Pendergraf, 31, made the trip from Athens, Georgia, competing in rapier and the offhand events. He’s run the Athens School of Arms for the last six years and won gold in the rapier event Saturday.
While Pendergraf is proud of his win, he enjoys that the sport isn’t centered around winning. During matches, judges award hits, but he highlighted the difficulty of accurate judging. This weekend, many competitors admitted when they got hit, even though there's no requirement to do so.
“We try to kind of cultivate that sporting culture, and it's no expectation, but there's a lot of it today, which is nice,” Pendergraf said.
Alachua County Fire Rescue Fire Marshal John Adler, 48, joined the Society of Historical Fencing about a year and a half ago after meeting Best at Infinity Con in Gainesville. Adler said the club’s willingness to adapt to meet a person’s needs allows him to use the sport to stay active despite having foot limitations.
Adler enjoys getting the workout in, but finds the club’s inclusivity more meaningful.
“You're free to express yourself however you want to here,” Adler said. “No one judges. No one's going to laugh. All walks of life are welcome.”
The sport’s community stood out to Kim Tennille, 54, whose son, Nathanael Tennille, competed in the tournament. She attended last year’s Hot Sword Summer event and watched her son win gold as a newcomer in the sport.
“I'm so thankful that he's found his tribe and that he gets to do what he loves,” Tennille said.
Derek Quintana, 43, runs a sword-fighting school called Page and Blade Society. He released two books on sword fighting to make the sport more accessible because he said it's hard to understand the German literature even when translated into English. The school has 27 students and five competed at the Hot Sword Summer competition.
Quintana said the school grew from five people in a backyard to 27 full-time students at a rented indoor space.
“I love how much the sport's really growing,” Quintana said. “That's the main reason I did this [write book] to make it more accessible to people, so people can just pick this up and read it and not have to go through craziness to get through it."
Adler hopes to see the sport and club grow even more, but appreciates the community he found.
“The people that we meet, the people that are with our club, they become family,” Adler said. "We annoy each other, we fight each other, but at the end of the day, they're great people, and it's a great group to be associated with."