Since 2018 I: Jeroen van Wordragen practice Longsword and Saber fighting also known as Historical European Martial at the club: De Zwaardkring in North-Brabant, The Netherlands. My club has may members and locations it has grown significantly since the corona pandemic. From just under 100 in 2021 to over 150 in 2024, to over 240 in 2026 and keep growing like many other clubs in the Netherlands. I Jeroen van Wordragen became a HEMA longsword instructor by giving lessons since 2023 and started giving Saber lessons since the summer of 2025
Early and personal life
Zwaardkring Longsword HEMA instructor Jeroen Franciscus Adrianus van Wordragen was born on 28th of August 1997 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch North-Brabant, The Netherlands to Jos van Wordragen and Liezeth van Wordragen – van den Oord. I have a younger brother Luuk of whom I have only a 1,5 year age difference.
My primary and middle school where not that special and had not much influence on my inspiration for Historical fencing. It only started coming up going to collage and wanting to do something fun while also working out.
Earlier sports
For most young boys I started playing football/soccer and did it with great enjoyment until the age of 15/16 after that my enjoyment went away. I tried to skip many practices and went against my own choice. It is a good thing to stay active and fit, because after I quit I got allot more weight if not near to close to obese.
From around the age of 17 I tried doing some mountain biking. It was pretty neat for the first few times I went doing it, certainly with a friend, but after doing it alone for a while I touched the bike less and less to the point I sold my bike again within a year of buying it.
From the age of 18/19 I went with a good friend of mine to the fitness, we went two
I never had a sport/martial arts which gave me such motivation as this one.
Instructor and teaching
I started teaching Longsword in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) for the Zwaardkring in October 2023. Like most of my club I am specialized in German Longsword (Liechtenauer), but got a bit of experience in Italian Longsword (Fiore) in the early days of my fencing days. I do not teach in for the basics and the structure, but do use some techniques or stances if they are useful.
Events and tournaments
All the attending, fencing, coaching, judging, teaching or organizing HEMA events/tournaments I share my experience with. Big ones I come back to every year are: Zwaardkring (Club) tournaments/events like “Zwaardkring Winterkamp” which became very big over the years. And others like the Dutch Lions Cup (The Netherlands) and Battles in the North (Greece). Which all have promising instructors/fencers!
2019
In 2019 where my first events and tournaments. It was very new and exiting, I learned to know many people I still can call my friends. The HEMA community is a small and pleasant community that I can recommend to many people. Hopefully it stays like this for many years!
Winterkamp 2019
When I attended Winterkamp 2019 it was also my first HEMA event which was a big eye opening experience for me. The workshop event Winterkamp contains many aspects for a great event. Three days including: Sleeping, eating, fighting and learning from many great local, national and international HEMA instructors. Because of this event and this sport I went after this in a more inspiring journey to make the most of it.
Unfortualy on the event I injured myself and could not attent every workshop/ activity, but because of that I listen carefully and make the most of my day.