Leanna is one of the founders of Ironwood Historical Swordsmanship. She has been practicing HEMA for over 6 years, with a focus and passion on German Longsword, Sickle, and knife combat. She enjoys reading manuals and attempting to apply them backwards in time to include Viking and Gladiatorial recreation combat. She also enjoys helping prepare fighters for tournament competitions, as she enjoys participating in them as well. She placed Second in Women’s Longsword at Mid-Continental HEMA Open in July 2019.
Meet our Instructors
Leanna Sadorf - Founder
Roman began HEMA in 2015 with Swordguild Portland. He also trains with his mentor, Greg Hinchcliff with the Loyal Order of the Sword, in Phoenix. Roman enjoys single-handed weapons; saber, sidesword, singlestick, and various knife combat systems. He also enjoys researching and learning about uncommon and unique weapon combat systems, for example Persian Swordsmanship. While not a traditional instructor, Roman enjoys teaching under a mentorship model, focusing on bringing out the natural fighter in his proteges. He placed Second in Singlestick at Krampus Krieg 2021.
Roman Sadorf - Founder
Kevin Davis - Founder
Kevin also began HEMA in 2015, and is our most avid longsword fighter specializing in Late German fighting. A technical and well read fencer, Kevin excels at longsword, in particular striking and closing measure to grappling. While not limited to longsword, he enjoys fighting with dussack and smallsword, and has a wealth of knowledge of many of the weapons and systems within HEMA. He enjoys teaching beginner and senior fighters alike the core skills of longsword. Kevin currently sits among the top 250 fencers at hemaratings.com, and he medaled Second in Gran Baton at Duels at High Noon in 2019.
Dr. Michael Konrad - Instructor
Dr. Michael Konrad comes with over 25 years of experience in the sword arts, starting off as a collegiate fencer and then engaging in historical swordsmanship with the Empire of Chivalry and Steel. In 2017 he was awarded instructor certification by the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance after the certifying panel approved his curriculum outline and qualification lessons on German Longsword from the Liechtenauer tradition. Dr. Konrad has been an instructor with both the Tucson Historical Fencing Academy and with Ironwood Historical Swordsmanship. In addition to his experience as an instructor, he is also a highly ranked competitor in the HEMA community, having medaled in several events including longsword, rapier, saber, and single stick. Currently, Dr. Konrad teaches weekly lessons for Ironwood in the 17 core skills of German Longsword. Dr.Konrad currently sits at top 100 in saber at hemarankings.com, top 500 in Longsword, and top 250 in many other weapon disciplines.
Robert Placencia - Instructor
Robert Placencia comes to us with over 10 years of combined martial arts experience. Robert started his journey into martial arts with the Swanson Kenpo Karate group in Southern California. During his time in the United States Air Force, Robert has studied with various martial arts studios in California, Alaska, and Tucson, Arizona. Although originally from California, Robert made his way to Tucson when he was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB where he performed combat search and rescue duties on the pavehawk helicopter. After separating from the Air Force and making Tucson his permanent home, Robert discovered HEMA in 2019 and quickly fell in love with this unique martial art. Robert has a passion for Longsword, rapier and dagger, sabre, sword and buckler, as well as small sword. Robert studies from various sources in the Kunst des Fechtens tradition, Fabris’ rapier, Angelo smallsword, Hutton Saber, and more. Robert placed Second in Beginner cutting at SoCal Swordfight 2022.