Thibault comes home.

A longer report coming soon, but I wanted to say thank you to all the students who attended my seminar on the Dutch fencing master Girard Thibault in Delft at the weekend.

. Thank you also, to the School for Historical Fencing Arts (Netherlands) for their hospitality. Everybody involved worked extremely hard and well. A pleasure to come and teach.

More soon...

In an emergency apply the break... dagger days.

This week it's mainly sparring and dagger work, with some footwork and slip drills thrown in.
Please be aware the following is for research purposes, please do not try it without professional tuition.

Here's a few recap basics as we go through.

Firstly as the overhand thrust comes in, I slip back to bring myself out of distance, checking the blade with my own, and grasping Tim's wrist.

I return an over thrust of my own to Tim's belly or groin, of course at the check earlier I could have gone for a hand or limb destruction, or aimed the thrust elsewhere, however this is the set up for the following.

Tim checks my attack slapping the move in a down slightly to protect his body.

I hook in and up with my forearm, pushing his knife away and down with my left.

you must take care to push pull twist and step in one motion as to prevent a hand swap by the opponent.

The hook accomplished I pull his blade to the outside of my thigh securing it, but keeping it away from the more vulnerable inside. 

I then proceed to the floor to apply the break.

 If you have any questions, we can go over them in class. 

Approved

Recently I posted a review of the mark 1 messer synthetic from the Knight Shop. I said that overall I found it clunky (all though handling better with a steel pommel), rigid and unsuitable for sparring.

Today I received the mark 2 and had a chance to compare and spar with it. So, is it any better?

Appearance.
Outwardly it looks identical, as the moulds used are the same.

Weight.
Mark 1 720g
Mark 2 600g
If you add the steel pommel (needed to balance the mark 1 in my opinion) the difference is even greater.

Handling.
A vast improvement, every position, technique, cut and thrust is easy to perform, the tool moving well and lightly. Blade on blade was fine.
As far as winding is concerned, it is not steel, but it is a hell of a lot better than a dussack.

Sparring.
Again a great deal better, the mark 2 moves well and doesn't hit like a club, and as my student said after running bodily onto a thrust, in that respect also... "approved".

Overall.
This is a much better tool than the mark one in every way (with the possible exception of winding, but we are talking a minute loss here). I can't wait to train with it on the occasions when steel is not available or impractical. And will whole heartedly recommend it to my students. A massive improvement, Very much Rawlings approved.

Assessments, insurance and certificates

Happy new year all.

There is already much to look froward to, the longsword assessment is ready for those of you who feel you are, it has several revisions which I feel will help. Please not you are only expectged to know 3 of the master cuts for the basic test. You can view the PDF below, but if you need a hard copy please feel free to ask. 
Longsword basic assessment pdf

Insurance:
All insurance payments are expected to be made week commencing 8th of Feb. These will now be processed at the same time each year, so if you pay late you will get less than a year before you have to pay again.

Certificates:
as you may know I took an age to get the 2 Days of the Blade certificates done, thank you to all of you who took part and completed the weekend, you showed great patience in waiting for them. They are now ready.

I had hoped to be able to offer a session before the new year, sadly it seems that we will have to  wait... So we start back on Wednesday the 2nd, look forward to some hard work:).

Ok it’s a little late, I was having too much fun playing the half sword, but anyway. A most happy Yule to you all wherever, whoever, whatever you are, Dave

What's the Point, I.33 and long point.

One of the most common I.33 questions I get asked is why one persons interpretation of the cuts end up with each blow coming to a long point in front of the face, where as we show the cuts as passing through from ward to ward.

The answer is both simple and complex.

The potential.

At the beginning of Obsesseo I show the cuts passing from ward to ward, this is to show the potential of a full heft blow, a wide spaced blow that passes from ward to ward in an aggressive manner, the full potential of an aggressive strike, this is vital to understand if you are to use the counterwards effectively. It is also important in understanding how to move from ward to ward.

The art.

The manuscript states:

“Note, that the nucleus of all the art of fencing consists in this latter ward which is called langort. Also, all actions of the wards or of the sword are determined by it, i.e. they end in it and not in others. Therefore, do first consider well this above mentioned ward” (taken from the Freywild translation)

This is in no way at odds with what we show as our purpose in the beginning drill is not to illustrate this point. However the long point in this context requires further clarification.

What is long point.

The first long point is illustrated in several ways;

With the point towards the ground, almost in the manner of early plough/latter fool.

With the point forward straight out and in line with the shoulder.

With the point high, ending with the point higher than the opponent’s head (as if striking a blow from right to left rising slightly at the end of the blow)

These first three are all point forward but cover a line that passes from the floor to a point above the opponent’s head.

And finally the priests long point, lying across the right hip/thigh with the point aligned with the rear foot.

As you can see this gives you an a potential long-point arc of 180 degrees.

These definitions of long-point can be identified simply as the first point after the sword has left it’s area of effect. And the direct threat.

I identify the area of effect as where the cut would, if in distance, pass through the opponent, if this falls short, the blade is held at the point it left it’s effective cutting line to the left or right, above or below the opponent, but not passing fully back into ward.

In the case of the priest’s long-point, this arc is increased to account for his bind.

The direct thrust is the manner where the sword is held forward to threaten the face or breast.

How this relates to our teaching.

When cutting toward at the opponent in range, we should leave the point as far forward as possible after it leaves its area off effect, allowing the point to lie above, below to left or right of our opponent’s blade but narrow spaced, in an attitude of readiness.

This does not mean that the point will always end up in front on a direct line at the opponent as this will render attacks weaker and offer less, rather than more cover (part of the body lying uncovered to either side of the sword). But it does mean that the sword is forward and ready (in the case of priest’s special, ready). It is also important to show (and by showing understand) the potential for great ferocity and force within each blow from each ward, so as to be able to better counter them. I feel we made this point clear through the actions continuously throughout Obsesso, but wished to add clarity to this area.

 Obsesseo is available from our online store, and £10 from every sale in December will go to Shelter.