Ars Gladii maintains a 3200 sq. ft. facility in the Metro Detroit area suburb of Garden City, MI. Within, students will find an expansive space tailored specifically for all types of HEMA and Historical fencing training.
Current Class Schedule
The class schedule below is current as of October 2026.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday* | Saturday | Sunday* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Training at Intensity – 7-8:30p | Longsword ~ 7:00p – 8:30p Advanced Longsword ~ 8:30p – 9:30p | Training at Intensity ~ 7:00p – 8:15p Conditioning -SwordFit ~ 8:15p – 9:00p | Weapons of the Eras ~ 7:00p – 8:30p | No Classes | Under Represented Genders (URG) Only Class ~ 11:00a – 12:30p | Weapons of the Eras ~ 9:00a – 10:30a Open Sparring ~ 10:30a – 11:00a Longsword ~ 11:00a – 12:30p Wrestling & Dagger ~ 12:30p – 2:00p |
Our Instructors
Ars Gladii classes are taught by a group of experienced instructors with a wide-range of backgrounds and experiences in martial arts (both as HEMA-ists and more traditional fighting arts), sports, and fitness instruction.
Josh Little
Josh Little founded Ars Gladii sometime in 1999 (the exact origins are lost to space and time). He holds a degree in Philosophy and Medieval History from Western Michigan University. Josh has been around swords for almost his entire life, participating in numerous forms of practice including Olympic-style fencing, the SCA, and medieval reenactment. For the last 24 years, he has worked hard on reconstructing the medieval fencing arts of Central Europe from surviving manuals, specifically on the works related to the Zettel of Johannes Liechtenauer. Outside of the chivalric arts, Josh also enjoys boxing, both modern and historical, and marksmanship using 19th century firearms. Josh is Ars Gladii’s primary weapon instructor.
Kat Dunham
Kat Dunham is an instructor at Ars Gladii. She started her sword journey with modern sabre, then Kendo, and eventually transitioned to HEMA in 2016. Loving the diversity of weapons, people and the intellectual pursuit that HEMA provides, she expects to be a lifelong HEMA practitioner.
Tyler Dunham
Tyler Dunham joined Ars Gladii in 2016. He holds a degree in Philosophy and English from Central Michigan University. Tyler has been practicing martial arts and combative sports since he was 15 -most notably Wing Chun, Olympic Sabre Fencing, and Kendo, with others sprinkled in between. At Ars Gladii his interests lie primarily with the early traditions of Johannes Liechtenauer’s Bloßfechten with the longsword and Andre Lignitzer’s Sword and Buckler. He also engages in self-study of the British Military Sabre Systems of the Napoleonic Era. His interests outside of being cut, stabbed, sliced or thrown include drawing, cooking, the outdoors, and archery.
Sean Franklin
Sean Franklin began his HEMA career in 2011, and hit the ground running. Due to his prior experience in the Canadian High-Performance Sport System he was able to apply his physical conditioning and disciplined training focus to develop as a martial artist at a rapid rate, being able to outfight many club head instructors after only a few years’ experience.
Sean has experience in many weapons and traditions, having competitive medals in most tournament weapon sets. Sean’s experience in sports coaching has allowed him to rapidly develop as a martial arts instructor, working to develop high level martial artists by instruct at schools and events around the world. He served as a delegate and coach for the North American team at the 2019 European Summer Games (yes, you read ‘North American team at the European Games’ correctly.)
A passionate advocate of test cutting, Sean finds they practice useful for both preserving martial validity and as a tool to assist the development of quality body mechanics. Sean might be most known for his instructional YouTube videos, which is ironically the least impressive credential in terms of demonstrating actual competence.