King of the Swing 3

The king is dead, long live the king (she/her)

Spoiler alert - I am the 2026 King of the Swing.

The event has been my prime focus and obsession for the previous 364 days and I unapologetically had my sights on that crown 👑

I was so inspired by the KOTS2 event back in 2025, where I came 5th overall and 1st placed woman, and knew that with focus and determination, I could do even better - maybe even make it through to the final 3. That’s what I had in my sights, top 3 but with a very strong drive to do the very best I could and maybe just seize that crown.

I started training straight away and my focus was mainly accumulating volume. This made sense because I had the Feb half marathon mace comp to prepare for as well. By November 2025 I had recruited a personal trainer (Emilio) with the goal of making me the best mace swinger, I could be.

I wrote myself a web app so that I could create interval sessions on the fly, as Emilio started increasing my work sets week on week and challenging with different intensities. The warriorfit workout timer also let me add a metronome to each session so I could control the pace as well as the duration.

What is King of the Swing

King of the Swing is the biggest and most epic mace competition in the UK. Organised by Lloyd and Beth at Valhalla Training Academy in Liverpool.

It is run as knockout rounds with the bottom few from each round being knocked out, so fewer and fewer go through each time and the gap between rounds gets shorter and shorter. It’s a pretty exciting competition because just as you are getting tired, the sprints start coming thick and fast.

Each round is 5 mins long and you perform the mace 10-2 movement continuously. You choose whether you want to go single arm or double arm or mix it up.

There are 3 mace weights to choose from: Light, Medium or Heavy and you get a point multiplier of 1, 2 or 3 respectively. If you want to be sure of going through you need to be swinging heavy, at least after the first couple of rounds. You are also going to need to be able to swing fast.

Women’s weight choices are 5kg, 7kg or 10kg Men’s weight choices are 7kg, 10kg or 16kg

This weight differential means the men and women compete together and vie for that same title. One heavy swing awards you 3 points whether you are a man or a woman.

This is such a great thing about KOTS. Mace swinging is still fairly niche and there certainly aren’t a lot of women in the sport yet and fewer that take it so seriously they want to challenge for the crown. This mixed competition meant that I got to challenge the very best men in the country, to push and be pushed.

Comp day notes

I had the absolute best time at the King of the Swing 2026.

There was fierce competition and absolutely amazing camaraderie from all competitors. Loads of new faces, all epic warriors and some rank outsiders challenging for the top spots.

There were some changes for KOTS3 but only because there were more competitors, 40 I believe, and that added an additional challenge and an additional round. I didn’t know it at the start but that meant, that this year, to get to the Boss Final you would be doing 7 lots of 5 minute rounds and I hadn’t trained for more than 6.

My metronomic style of training paid off well and I was able to maintain a very consistent performance, at least for the first 5 rounds. Elliot/@armouredmuscle squeezed 2 extra swings to beat me in the 4th round and I did expect that I would ultimately be going head to head with him as he kept engaging his terrifying warp speed super power.

The Big Final (6th round and final 4) was brutal though and served up some surprises. In the end the boss final (7th round and final 2) was between me and Sam/@heroicfitness who was this years replacement for @frankenlegs - swinging almost the entire event with 16kg using the single arm style 👏

Points by round for the top 5 competitors:

King of the Swing 3 Competitors (All photography by @sa.kim_photography)

I have huge gratitude for @wanderboylloyd and @lil_ms_chainsaw for putting on such an amazing, inspiring event, @sa.kim_photography for amazing event photography again, and @piemanjacks for making the best pies ever and for gifting me one at the end of the event.

Thanks also to all the judges but especially Hannah and George at spot 4.

To everyone who supported me so generously - big thumbs up and for all the women, I am delighted to claim the title of King for us all, at least for the next year.

King of the Swing Supporters - View from the platform

If you want even more King of the Swing content, I can recommend the They Lift podcast that Lloyd and Beth did after the event. There’s lots of discussion about whether the event will remain a combined M/F event. I love the motivation and rationale for wanting to keep it that way - rooted in their experience of Timber sports and the emergence of female competitors in that sport.