Ramirez
Ramirez began his journey studying Olympic fencing in 1990 with the St Paul’s fencing club and also briefly served as an assistant fencing coach for the Hun School of Princeton.
He expanded to rapier fencing soon after, finding historical combat more interesting. He also served as an armored stage combatant for the NJ Renaissance faire. From there, he continued his study of Rapier Combat and Armored combat through The Society for Creative Anachronism, and Markland Medieval Militia.
In 2020, he fully took up HEMA and has since participated in several HEMA and Harnischfecten events across the United States.
As an instructor at TRFA, he teaches German longsword and Meyer rapier. He also runs our Harnischfechten program (Armored HEMA). He also teaches several specific weapons/styles, such as Montante (Greatsword) and Destreza (Spanish Swordsmanship), and organizes and coaches our competitive students.
Steven Holmes
Steven lives in Portsmouth, VA and attends TRFA with his daughter, Maya. As a young man, Steven trained in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under Pedro Sauer for two years, attaining the rank of blue belt. While in graduate school he competed with the Texas A&M Judo club and earned the rank of brown belt (ikkyu). He joined TRFA and began studying Meyer in 2016 and has taught longsword, long staff, and dagger.
Maya
Maya has been studying Meyer for ten years. She can often be found leading classes, and she also heads up our sparring judges team with her keen eyes and no-nonsense approach to bad calls!
Timothy Ware
Tim got his start in HEMA in 2017 at Virginia Tech, where he helped to reorganize and expand the local historical fencing club, the Blacksburg Blades. After returning to Tidewater, he began training primarily with TRFA, and began participating in regional HEMA events across the central East Coast.
Most recently, he has been convinced to take up armored combat by fellow TRFA instructor Ramirez. Tim competed in his first harnischfecten event in the summer of 2025.
As an instructor and competitor, Tim primarily studies the German longsword and rapier traditions. A physics teacher by trade, he enjoys exploring how the concepts of angle and leverage appear throughout all aspects of fencing.