swordplay Archive

  • <p>I’ve posted before on the difference between sword fighting and swordplay. One is for the battlefield and the other is for more social situations. I find it amazing that there are historical fencers wthese not understand or fully appreciate the different contexts in which these wonderful weapons were used and how their use changed over time. This post is a quick and very general overview of the different situations in which swords were used.</p> Battlefield <p>This is the most obvious use of the sword as a weapon. It is also the one that is least understood by fencers. Contrary to […]</p>

    Swordplay: Context is Everything

    Posted on 30 January, 2012 | 1 Comment

    I’ve posted before on the difference between sword fighting and swordplay. One is for the battlefield and the other is for more social situations. I find it amazing that there are historical fencers wthese not understand or fully appreciate the different contexts in which these wonderful weapons were used and how their use changed over time. This post is a quick and very general overview of the different situations in which swords were used.

    Battlefield

    This is the most obvious use of the sword as a weapon. It is also the one that is least understood by fencers. Contrary to […]

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  • I've finally come to the end of my explorations of the rapier chapter of Joachim Meyer's Art of Combat (1570). I'm presenting here my notes on Meyer's rapier system (PDF) for public appraisal. Maybe I've learned something new about his rappers technique. Maybe I'm on the wrong track entirely. Thoughts, comments and criticism is, as always, greatly appreciated.

    Summary of Meyer’s Rapier System

    Posted on 18 November, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I've finally come to the end of my explorations of the rapier chapter of Joachim Meyer's Art of Combat (1570). I'm presenting here my notes on Meyer's rapier system (PDF) for public appraisal. Maybe I've learned something new about his rappers technique. Maybe I'm on the wrong track entirely. Thoughts, comments and criticism is, as always, greatly appreciated.

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>I’ve found a rather nifty set of rules for rapier tournaments by RedStar Fencing in Chicago. Of the many points of interest is that this rules set has come out of a modern fence club rather than an historical fencing school. Even more amazing is that all the cumbersome and artifical modern electronic scoring kit is not required.</p> <p>Before I get stuck in, here’s a copy of the rules: Lancet Fencing Modern Rapier Rules (PDF)</p> <p>The first thing I like about these rules is their simplicity. There are priority (head and sword arm) and non-priority (everywhere else) target areas. If […]</p>

    Lancet Fencing Modern Rapier Rules

    Posted on 28 October, 2011 | 1 Comment

    I’ve found a rather nifty set of rules for rapier tournaments by RedStar Fencing in Chicago. Of the many points of interest is that this rules set has come out of a modern fence club rather than an historical fencing school. Even more amazing is that all the cumbersome and artifical modern electronic scoring kit is not required.

    Before I get stuck in, here’s a copy of the rules: Lancet Fencing Modern Rapier Rules (PDF)

    The first thing I like about these rules is their simplicity. There are priority (head and sword arm) and non-priority (everywhere else) target areas. If […]

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  • <p>In his Art of Combat (1570), Joachim Meyer unifies feints, parries and strikes and thrusts into a schema inherited from his version of Leichtenauer’s longsword practice. He calls these actions either provokers (feints), takers (parries) and hitters (cuts and thrusts). This schema provides a very useful mental framework for thinking about how and why you act in a bout, regardless of the weapon being used.</p> <p>As we’ve all discovered, attacking someone standing in a solid guard position is a sure way to get hit. The best you can hope for is that you both hit each other. To the problem […]</p>

    Meyer’s Rapier: Provoker, Taker, Hitter

    Posted on 23 September, 2011 | No Comments

    In his Art of Combat (1570), Joachim Meyer unifies feints, parries and strikes and thrusts into a schema inherited from his version of Leichtenauer’s longsword practice. He calls these actions either provokers (feints), takers (parries) and hitters (cuts and thrusts). This schema provides a very useful mental framework for thinking about how and why you act in a bout, regardless of the weapon being used.

    As we’ve all discovered, attacking someone standing in a solid guard position is a sure way to get hit. The best you can hope for is that you both hit each other. To the problem […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>Swordplay is a three day gathering of schools of historical swordsmanship held each September in Brisbane, Australia and run by the Australian College of Arms (ACA). The idea behind the event is to bring together fencers from all corners of this wide brown land to meet, exchange ideas and cross blades is a friendly atmosphere. This year, we kidnapped Puck Curtis and refused to release him until he presented a workshop on one of his passions, La Verdadera Destreza, the Spanish rapier technique of the sixteenth and seventeen centuries.</p> <p>The format seems to have roughly fallen out as a day […]</p>

    I Survived Swordplay 11

    Posted on 16 September, 2011 | 1 Comment

    Swordplay is a three day gathering of schools of historical swordsmanship held each September in Brisbane, Australia and run by the Australian College of Arms (ACA). The idea behind the event is to bring together fencers from all corners of this wide brown land to meet, exchange ideas and cross blades is a friendly atmosphere. This year, we kidnapped Puck Curtis and refused to release him until he presented a workshop on one of his passions, La Verdadera Destreza, the Spanish rapier technique of the sixteenth and seventeen centuries.

    The format seems to have roughly fallen out as a day […]

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  • <p>It’s September and that means Swordplay 11 is just around the corner. In fact, it’s on in less than a week. Yay!</p> <p>Obviously, all historical fencers in Australia know about Swordplay but there’s bound to be a poor benighted few who haven’t heard of it. Swordplay is an annual event run by the Australian College of Arms which brings together schools of swordplay and historical fencing from all over the country in order to chat, compare notes and, of course, cross blades. It’s been going for a few years now and leaping from strength to strength. You won’t find three […]</p>

    Swordplay 11 Is On!

    Posted on 2 September, 2011 | No Comments

    It’s September and that means Swordplay 11 is just around the corner. In fact, it’s on in less than a week. Yay!

    Obviously, all historical fencers in Australia know about Swordplay but there’s bound to be a poor benighted few who haven’t heard of it. Swordplay is an annual event run by the Australian College of Arms which brings together schools of swordplay and historical fencing from all over the country in order to chat, compare notes and, of course, cross blades. It’s been going for a few years now and leaping from strength to strength. You won’t find three […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>One recent development has been playing on my mind of late: the height of pedestal on which we place the masters of the various historical fencing techniques we study. In our collective hero-worship no one seems to have considered that the masters’ techniques either just plain don’t work or work only in a limited set of circumstances. This type of hagiography does not to advance our understanding of historical swordplay nor does it provide a useful basis for the future of the sport.</p> <p>The context in which a particular master wrote is the key piece of information missing from the […]</p>

    On the Sanctity of the Masters

    Posted on 15 July, 2011 | 1 Comment

    One recent development has been playing on my mind of late: the height of pedestal on which we place the masters of the various historical fencing techniques we study. In our collective hero-worship no one seems to have considered that the masters’ techniques either just plain don’t work or work only in a limited set of circumstances. This type of hagiography does not to advance our understanding of historical swordplay nor does it provide a useful basis for the future of the sport.

    The context in which a particular master wrote is the key piece of information missing from the […]

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  • <p>What happens when you face an opponent who read my last post and is standing in front of you in Straight Parrying or, to a much lesser extent, Iron Gate? What do you do?</p> <p>Meyer is not particularly clear on this point but, as he says, he gives a range of examples from which the reader is supposed to deduce the principles at work, many of which will be familiar from the section on the longsword or from other schools of rapier play. He says in general that “ you should not go out more than a hand’s breadth to […]</p>

    Meyer’s Rapier: Attacking the Straight Parry

    Posted on 10 June, 2011 | No Comments

    What happens when you face an opponent who read my last post and is standing in front of you in Straight Parrying or, to a much lesser extent, Iron Gate? What do you do?

    Meyer is not particularly clear on this point but, as he says, he gives a range of examples from which the reader is supposed to deduce the principles at work, many of which will be familiar from the section on the longsword or from other schools of rapier play. He says in general that “ you should not go out more than a hand’s breadth to […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>What advice does Joachim Meyer give about how to come on guard and start laying into the other guy? More technically, how should one approach the Onset?</p> <p>While he doesn’t clearly spell this out for rapier, the sheer weight of text suggests Iron Gate or Straight Parrying. This idea is backed up in the section on the Dusack, to which he continually refers the reader of the rapier section. In the rapier section he explain the entire fight from Straight Parrying before going on to outline specific techniques from the other guards.</p> <p><em>“I consider this posture [Straight Parrying] the best </em> […]</p>

    Meyer’s Rapier: In the Onset

    Posted on 27 May, 2011 | 2 Comments

    What advice does Joachim Meyer give about how to come on guard and start laying into the other guy? More technically, how should one approach the Onset?

    While he doesn’t clearly spell this out for rapier, the sheer weight of text suggests Iron Gate or Straight Parrying. This idea is backed up in the section on the Dusack, to which he continually refers the reader of the rapier section. In the rapier section he explain the entire fight from Straight Parrying before going on to outline specific techniques from the other guards.

    “I consider this posture [Straight Parrying] the best […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>This is a puzzle that occupies more and more of my time. What sort of community should we build? What approach should we use? What does the future look like?</p> <p>To my mind, an historical fencing community must be able to handle every style of sword use from I.33 (written in 1295) to smallsword (ending roughly 1850). That’s more than 550 years of the evolution of personal armed combat. The basic problem is how can – and indeed should – one community represent this diverse a group of fencing techniques.</p> <p>There are three basic approaches that existing groups have come […]</p>

    Building an Historical Fencing Community

    Posted on 29 April, 2011 | No Comments

    This is a puzzle that occupies more and more of my time. What sort of community should we build? What approach should we use? What does the future look like?

    To my mind, an historical fencing community must be able to handle every style of sword use from I.33 (written in 1295) to smallsword (ending roughly 1850). That’s more than 550 years of the evolution of personal armed combat. The basic problem is how can – and indeed should – one community represent this diverse a group of fencing techniques.

    There are three basic approaches that existing groups have come […]

    Continue Reading...

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