Oakland HEMA camp brings longsword training to teens

F3 Sword Academy put Oakland on the map for the next generation of HEMA fighters as Summer of Swords opened a three-day longsword camp for teens ages 11 to 17. The small-format program, capped at 16 spaces, runs June 10 through June 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 1905 San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland.

That size tells the story as much as the schedule does. At $300, this was never built like a casual recreation class or a wide-open demo day. It was set up as a hands-on boot camp, with the two-handed longsword as the main weapon and the kind of close instruction that lets young fencers work safely with partners instead of just swinging at the air.

The daily curriculum begins with fundamentals and footwork, then moves into the Meisterhau, the famous group of five master cuts from the German tradition. That detail matters because it ties the camp directly to Joachim Meyer, whose 1570 fencing treatise explicitly describes the five Meisterhauwen, or Mastercuts. For a youth program, that is a serious technical foundation, not a gimmick wrapped in medieval branding.

F3 Sword Academy has built its identity around that kind of structure. The Oakland-based club describes itself as a Historical Fencing Club and HEMA research and training group rooted in Meyer’s work, and its regular training spans longsword, wrestling, dussack, rapier, and staff weapons such as polearms and greatswords. That broader curriculum gives Summer of Swords extra credibility: the camp sits inside a real training system, not a one-off summer activity.

The emphasis on safe partner work is just as important as the swordplay. The camp is designed to teach students how to be effective training partners, which is where modern HEMA often separates itself from spectacle. Control, responsibility and coordination are the skills that keep young fencers progressing, and they are the same habits that help clubs produce stable adults, coaches and competitors down the line.

That is the bigger meaning of Summer of Swords. HEMA’s growth does not come only from adult tournament weekends; it comes from programs like this one, where clubs create a pipeline early and make the sport accessible to families looking for structured martial arts instruction. Community resources in HEMA have long noted that youth programs for children and teenagers are part of that expansion, and the HEMA Alliance stresses the value of training with other practitioners and experienced instructors. Oakland’s teen camp is a clean example of that model in action.