Crossing Fight School simulates tournament conditions before Revolution Rumble

Crossing Fight School turned its June 28 Sunday class into a dress rehearsal for Revolution Rumble, running judged matches instead of a routine drill night. The goal was to prepare fighters for the July 11 start of the two-day tournament at Elite Sports Factory in Philadelphia, a longsword event that includes three open tiers, a teams tournament and an underrepresented genders’ tournament, with pool rounds leading into a double-elimination bracket. In HEMA, that matters because tournament success depends on more than clean bladework. Fighters have to read initiative, choose the right tempo and understand how judges will score the action before the pressure starts.

The school let fencers use whatever weapon they chose for the judged bouts, a practical way to keep the lesson from narrowing around a single weapon while still forcing tournament habits into live fencing. Crossing Fight School is a branch of the Medieval European Martial Arts Guild in Southampton Township, New Jersey, and the guild says it was founded by Cory Winslow in 2006. Its focus is German longsword, but its FAQ says Kunst des Fechtens also includes dagger, messer, staff and grappling, with source material stretching from the beginning of the 14th century into the 17th. That background explains why the club would use a competition-format class to teach not just technique, but the decision-making that sits behind it.

The structure of the class already mirrors that transition from practice to pressure. Crossing Fight School holds classes every Sunday starting at 3 p.m. at 133 Eayrestown Rd in Southampton Township, with the first two hours devoted to warm-ups and lesson time and the last hour reserved for optional sparring. Tuition is $20 per class or $50 per month, and the first lesson is free.

That pipeline has already shown up on the Philadelphia side of the tournament circuit. At Revolution Rumble 2025, Matthew Sherman of Crossing Fight School finished second in Longsword Unrated and Dan Black placed fifth in the same division. In 2024, Rob Danser took fourth in Longsword Tier B and Robert Sherry finished fifth there, a run of results that gives the school a clear reason to train against the rules it will actually face. HEMA Ratings lists 12 fighters on the Crossing Fight School roster, and the June 28 format offered a straightforward lesson for other clubs: if the event will judge your timing, your initiative and your nerves, the training should do the same.