John S. Lennox. Photo courtesy of Historical Maritime Combat Association.
The International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention
Biography Page for

John S. Lennox
Art of Combat, inc.





John "Doc" Lennox has trained in various forms of swordplay for over 25 years. Beginning with the katana, he later moved into the western weapon styles. Through his involvement in stage combat for theatre over the past 22 years he began to study a myriad of weapons. He is a Fight Director for Art of Combat, teaches stage combat at Lansing Community College, Jackson Community College, Centenary College and Wayne State University.

In 2000 his interest in western martial arts compelled him to create ISMAC with Jared Kirby. 

He is an instructor with the Historical Maritime Combat Association, specializing in Single vs. Double Weapons, Naval Smallsword and combat against multiple opponents.
He is also co-authoring a book on boarding tactics from the 17th through 19th centuries entitled By Sword and Tomahawk with Gareth Thomas and Steve Huff.

Over the past few years he has focused on unarmed combat theory as well as fighting with knife and tomahawk. His recent research includes German smallsword and Aztec/Mayan combat systems.

Since 2006 he has been teaching at workshops all over the world, including the Paddy Crean International Art of the Sword Workshop, The Shenandoah Project, Boarding Actions workshops in Scotland, England and Germany, and the Symposium on the Western Arts of Swordsmanship through History (S.W.A.S.H.).

He is routinely called in to colleges and universities for workshops on historical combat and stage combat.

John holds a PhD in Theatre with cognate studies in historical fencing from Wayne State University.