Knoxville Academy of the Blade:
A Passion for Excellence
in Sport and Historic Fencing
Knoxville Academy of the Blade:
A Passion for Excellence
in Sport and Historic Fencing
John Farmer is the Head Coach and owner, and is a USFencing Rated referee.
He has been a fencer since 2001, and has coached since 2004,
training many highly-rated fencers, including some who have
attended the Junior Olympics. He also has extensive knowledge of
theatrical fighting, historic swordplay, and melee unit tactics.
Recently, he also achieved the rank of Moniteur d'Escrime
Historique for the German Longsword. He is our head Sport Fencing
coach and one of the two co-instructors for the Longsword
officially.
Tom Farmer is the Assistant Head Coach.
He has been fencing since 2001 and doing stage combat since
2007. He has six choreography credits, including two Shakespeare
plays and two workshops. He has also been studying Historic Fencing
since 2005, starting with the rapier. He then moved to the dueling
saber and the longsword, but he has a basic knowledge of a wide
variety of other weapons--a knowledge that comes in handy when
choreographing a fight on stage! He is the assistant sport fencing
and rapier coach, the head dueling saber coach, and the co-head
instructor for the longsword. Like his father, he also holds the
USFCA rank of Moniteur d'Escrime Historique for
longsword.
Joel Davis is the Rapier Coach.
He has been studying and practicing Rapier Fencing since 2006.
His area of study is the Italian school of Renaissance swordplay as
practiced in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries by historical
masters such as Nicoletto Giganti and Salvator Fabris. He is an
acomplished swordsman by night, and a mild-mannered reporter by
day.
Stephanie Farmer is the KidFence! coach.
She has been fencing on and off since highschool, but took
several years off for college and work. She has an Associates of
Accounting from Pellissippi State and is planning on getting her
CPA later in life. She's great with children as well, which has
enabled us to include KidFence! in our roster.
Michael Petherick is the Assistant Epee Coach.
He has been fencing for nearly 9 years and focuses primarily on épée, though he does enjoy an occasional match of foil or saber. Michael is currently a junior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he studies history and pre-law.
Copyright 2013 Knoxville Academy of the Blade