Five Questions...
Several times a year the ARMA asks a set of Five
Questions on the subject of Renaissance Martial Arts and Historical Fencing to a range of
practitioner-researchers from different backgrounds and experience levels.
1.
To what would you attribute your interest in
historical swords? What has been the primary inspiration or source for your own individual
study of historical swordplay?
2.
Is there a favorite type of sword or a preferred
style of historical fencing that you focus on? What
specifically makes these so appealing for you?
3.
In defending against an opponent in any type of
sword combat, what would you say is, in general, a good method to employ? In other words,
what basic overall defensive principle of fencing would you recommend?
4.
Do you have any particular training advice from
among your own experiences to offer fellow sword enthusiasts for their individual sword
practice?
5.
What major developments do you see coming in the
near future that will affect the current revival of historical fencing? Which do you think will be among the most
important?
Mark
Rector - Chicago Swordplay Guild.
Mark is a thespian, stage-combatant, fight-director,
historical fencer, instructor, and translator of Medieval
Combat (Greenhill Books) a recent edition of Talhoffers
15th century fighting manual and editor of the
new Highland Swordsmanship from Chivalry Bookshelf.
markrector@hotmail.com
1. To what would you attribute
your interest in historical swords? What has been the primary inspiration or source for
your own individual study of historical swordplay?
I came to fencing via the theatre. Since my early days as an actor, I have sought out
fighting roles, and have enjoyed playing some of the great fighters in Shakespeare. I have
been fortunate to work with some extremely talented and innovative fight-directors along
the way. In particular, Terry Doughman has had a huge impact on the way I think about
fencing and swordsmanship. A formidable martial artist in his own right, for years Terry
had been doing research into how the weapons he was using for the stage were actually used
in real life not only by reading the historical texts, but by picking up the weapons
themselves and fighting with them. His theatrical fights are always based on the
fundamental reality of the weapon. He is able to infuse the insights gained from his
practical experience and historical research into his stage combat, making all his fights
unique in their brutal reality and dazzling originality. Through Terry, I had my first
glimpse of the historical manuals and the long tradition of European swordsmanship. In my
own work in the theatre and in the salle, I have continued to focus on the real nature of
the weapons I use, based on historical documentation, practical experience and a
relentless concern for the question, what if they were sharp?
2. Is there a favorite type of
sword or a preferred style of historical fencing that you focus on? What specifically makes these so appealing for
you?
All edged weapons from all
periods intrigue me. The Chicago Swordplay Guild concentrates on the long-sword and the
rapier. The Long-sword is a beautiful, challenging and unforgiving weapon whose use
instructs and informs every other type of personal combat. The rapier is an elegant weapon
that is just so much fun to use, and is currently one of the only historical weapons that
can be fenced safely and with intent, with minimal protection.
3. In defending against an
opponent in any type of sword combat, what would you say is, in general, a good method to
employ? In other words, what basic overall defensive principle of fencing would you
recommend?
Be where his sword is not. Maintain a good guard. Worry
more about what youre going to do to him than what hes going to do to you
(good tactical advice from Robert E. Lee). Above all, have patience.
4. Do you have any particular
training advice from among your own experiences to offer fellow sword enthusiasts for
their individual sword practice?
Read the historical texts. Seek out expert instruction.
Question everything. Keep it simple. Do everything in your power to protect yourself and
your fencing partners from injury.
5. What major developments do
you see coming in the near future that will affect the current revival of historical
fencing? Which do you think will be among the
most important?
Two things are happening right now that are going to have
a profound effect on historical fencing in the future. The first is that more and more
historical fencing manuscripts are being translated into English and other languages,
making them accessible to historical fencers worldwide. As more and more historical
fencers become familiar with these texts, the discourse will naturally deepen and our
understanding of the historical teachings will become more complete. The second important
development is that more and more serious teachers with an informed understanding of
fencing, swordsmanship and personal combat are emerging to guide the growing number of
martial artists who are pursuing these skills. These teachers will help shepherd an
entirely new generation of historical fencers and will insure that this martial art and
its heritage will endure.
Hank Reinhardt Mr.
Reinhardt is a sword expert, knife expert, arms and armor expert, author, sword collector,
and founder of the original HACA. He has over 45 years of arms study behind him, was
president and founder of Museum Replicas Limited, and a consultant to CAS Iberia
sword-makers. He has written several articles on swords and combat and is the author of a
forthcoming book on swords and swordplay, was featured on the Discovery Channels Deadly
Duels program, and can be seen in his two new videos from Paladin Press, Viking
Swordplay and Myths of the Sword.
1. To what would you attribute
your interest in historical swords? What has been the primary inspiration or source for
your own individual study of historical swordplay?
I dont think I can answer this question. I cannot remember a time when I wasnt
interested in knights, arms and armor. I had learned to read before I started first grade,
and I remember reading about King Arthur, laboriously, and the Sunday comic section
featured Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon, and I devoured them every Sunday. My memory of this time is spotty, but my sisters
have told me that I was playing with a toy sword at 4-5 years old. This has stayed with me
my whole life. I have told about my brother-in-law bringing me two Japanese bayonets. He
was in the Marines in the South Pacific, and when he came home, in 1946, (I was 12) he
brought these as a present, knowing that I was into knives and swords. This led to me
fencing with a neighboring kid, and ruining the two blades. I was upset, because this
isnt what happened in the movies, and the quest got started.
2. Is there a favorite type of
sword or a preferred style of historical fencing that you focus on? What specifically makes these so appealing for
you?
If I were forced to say which I prefer, it would be sword and shield, and my particular
preference would be a round shield, what many call a Viking type, and a
slightly tapering one hand sword, either Viking or Knightly cruciform. Next would be
rapier and dagger. Ive played with just about everything, spears, axes, two hand
swords and pole arms. One style that I really liked was using small Eastern style round
shields and curved swords. This is really fun, but alas, age and smoking have torn up my
lungs, and at 67 it is just too aerobic for me now. But it is a very fast and tricky type
of sword play. Im rather competitive, and I like the one on one competition. But I
also like using both hands. I throw my axe with either hand, and shoot a bow right or left
handed (not very well with either hand, I just love to shoot) so I much prefer using both
hands. This is why I never cared much for sport fencing, as I felt that it did not allow
you to utilize your body fully.
3. In defending against an
opponent in any type of sword combat, what would you say is, in general, a good method to
employ? In other words, what basic overall defensive principle of fencing would you
recommend?
Rather than talk about defensive measures, consider fighting and combat in
general. Musashis book can be broken down into one sound statement. Your object is
to cut your enemy. In short, your objective is to win. One can be attacking even as one is
retreating or parrying or looking very confused and harmless. Indeed, if there is one
thing of paramount importance, it is deception! If you can make your opponent believe you
are attacking in one direction, and he defends in that place, he will leave another area
open. This is sound for warfare, and it is also sound for personal contest. Consider this.
Man is not a very big animal, he does not have huge powerful muscles, no massive fangs or
claws, does not spew venom, (well, some people do when one disagrees with them) or have a
built in sting. In short, he is not an impressive predator when you look at him. But he is
the greatest predator this planet has ever seen. If Tyrannosaurus were alive, his head
would grace a lot of trophy rooms! Why is Man this way? He has a brain, and he uses it
very well when it comes to killing. As long as you have a reasonable amount of physical
abilities, and you use your head, you can become very good at whatever weapon you chose.
There will be a lot of people trying, but very few that will use their brains.
4. Do you have any particular
training advice from among your own experiences to offer fellow sword enthusiasts for
their individual sword practice?
If there is any advice that anyone would care to take from an old man, it would be to not
limit yourself to one weapon, or one style, but rather to embrace all of them. Eventually
you will find that which really suits your taste and feelings, and in that you can excel.
But you will also have a good working knowledge of the many other weapons and styles out
there. You will find that you can adapt a form used for one weapon to that or another. You
will also learn to look at a weapon, and realize its potential, and how it can be used in
ways that it was not originally intended. I would give you an excellent example, but
Im saving it for my book.
5. What major developments do
you see coming in the near future that will affect the current revival of historical
fencing? Which do you think will be among the
most important?
I think the most important developments will
be in sparring equipment that will allow people to spar much more realistically, and yet
much safer. I do not think there will ever be a development that will allow accurate,
full-speed sparring that would wont be dangerous, but I do think that there are
improvements on the way, and I know of one or two. I think the interest will continue to
grow, and would not be surprised to see several organizations sponsoring tournaments on a
nationwide basis. I think the types of tournaments, or sparring will probably be rapier
and dagger, and sword and shield, and probably small sword. Rules for these can be easily
developed. Jousting on horseback is quite likely to develop from an act to a full-fledged
contest. But fighting on foot with a weapon in full plate will always be judged as a
sport, simply because there is no practical way to judge it as a martial art.
Marco Rubboli Associazione Sala
dArme Achille Marozzo, Italy. Marco is a historical-fencing
researcher-practitioner and translator of a new modern Italian version of Fillipo
Vadis 15th century text soon to be published in English.
1. To what would you attribute
your interest in historical swords? What has been the primary inspiration or source for
your own individual study of historical swordplay?
It is not easy to trace back the origin of my interest in swordfighting and knightly
feats. The first readings of my childhood
were Salgari's novels, full of duels and fighting, and easy translations of Homer's epic
poems. Later on I read Malory, Chretien de Troyes, etc., as well as many fantasy
novels. In the meanwhile I practised archery and bow-hunting, trekking, skiing and many
different sports, as I was unaware that there was a possibility of reconstructing old
western fencing. Then I began making shows about medieval sword fighting (stage combat),
and practising fencing: foil for a few months, then sabre. But I think that the art to
which I really wanted to dedicate myself, during all my life, was historical fencing. The first source I had in my hands was the
treatise of Fiore dei Liberi, then after a few months I found Filippo Vadi, Achille
Marozzo and Antonio Manciolino. There is a clear relationship among all those works,
showing an evolution going from Fiore dei Liberi to Vadi, to the Bolognese School
represented by Marozzo and Manciolino, even if we could identify some important
differences between the medieval authors and the Renaissance Bolognese school. At first I
was very attracted by the martial instructions of the medieval authors (which I still find
very interesting) only then I began to appreciate the more refined fighting style of the
Italian schools of the beginning of the XVI century.
2. Is there a favorite type of
sword or a preferred style of historical fencing that you focus on? What specifically makes these so appealing for
you?
Very soon I decided to concentrate my efforts on the spada da lato, i.e. the
cut and thrust sword of the beginning of the XVI century, used by authors like Marozzo,
Manciolino, and later in the same century by Dalle Agocchie or Viggiani. It is a kind of sword suitable for a military and
a civil use, for duels as well as for street fighting, and it can be used with a big
variety of shields, the dagger, the cloak, but also alone.
It has a light and quick blade, but with still much cutting power, and
indeed its use, as it appears from manuals, is 50% thrusting and 50% cutting. But there is also another reason, apart from the
very good characteristics of the weapon itself: if in the works of the medieval authors
there can be many doubts on interpretation, the Bolognese school treatises are a good deal
more clear, if one can compare some of them keeping in mind the eternal fencing principles
like parry ans risposte, etc. Moreover, as
for the play of the single sword (the first one that I examined) I could count on some
years of sport sabre lessons, that proved to be very useful. The doubts that one can still have reading the
first authors like Marozzo and Manciolino generally can be easily cleared if one refers to
Dalle Agocchie (sistematic analysis of all the offensive and defensive actions) and
Viggiani (on general principles of fencing).
3. In defending against an
opponent in any type of sword combat, what would you say is, in general, a good method to
employ? In other words, what basic overall defensive principle of fencing would you
recommend?
It is not easy to give such a general advice, valid for any kind of sword combat. But I
think I'd refer to the principles of my favourite cut and thrust play of the Bolognese
school, because I'm convinced that they may be generalized and adapted to include more or
less any kind of sword. The guards (always changing) should be more open
(invitation) if the weapon is heavy, more straight on the line of attack if the sword is a
light one, but they always should give the fencer an idea of which is the angle from where
the opponent can attack and which is the angle that he can't use because it is already
defended by your sword, i.e. the guards always have to make an invitation to the opponent,
discovering some target and covering some other one. One can see it in medieval treatises,
in Renaissance texts, and even in the guards used in modern fencing. As for the kind of actions to be used, generally
speaking an action that can be executed well with almost any kind of sword is a
mezzo tempo cut (or thrust if we're speaking of a sword that can only thrust, but
with a cut the action is more easily executed) to the raised hand or arm of the opponent,
followed by an evading motion. A mezzo
tempo blow followed by a parry, on the other hand, requires a light weapon and an
expert fencer. Another old but always valid
option is a classic parry and risposte, paying attention that if the weapon of the
opponent is heavy and his blow is strong and clear you should counter-cut more to sustain
the impact, while if the weapon is light and quick and the blow could still be a feint you
should make a more stable parry. In any case
you should not let your weapon go far from your body while parrying, like Master Filippo
Vadi recommends giving instructions for the use of the medieval 2-hands sword (!). If one has a secondary weapon another very good
kind of action is a tempo insieme counterattack, i.e. while you parry with
your secondary weapon you attack with your sword, at the very same time. Usually this action is executed with a side-step,
that on one hand is an evading motion that helps the parry, on the other hand it helps the
attack executed with the sword because it permits to the fencer to attack from the side of
the opponent, from an unusual angle.
4. Do you have any particular
training advice from among your own experiences to offer fellow sword enthusiasts for
their individual sword practice?
One thing that beginners certainly has to avoid is to train alone, without a qualified
instructor: bad habits are very difficult to dismiss.
Also, practising alone, without a sparring partner, is usually of limited
value, although it can help to memorize techniques and increase precision. On the
contrary, it is very important to practise techniques with the instructor, that can signal
and emend mistakes. It is also important to
try the techniques during full speed combat, both with beginners or with people unaware of
the techniques used, and with experts that those techniques them well and know how to
react. Free combat (that should be practised
very often) should always be seen as a change to train in techniques and good fencing
principles, not much as hard competition. Then
there are some individual exercises intended to develop individual skills, for example to
practise parrying the wall exercise is very good (you stand with a wall behind
you, without the possibility to go back, and you can only parry the multiple attacks
delivered by your sparring partner, without trying to hit him). For developing a good parry and risposte a good
exercise is to wait for the opponent attack, and practise parry and risposte without any
step, or even seated. Anyhow, the Bolognese
school's techniques, besides being valid techniques in a fight, are all very good
exercises to develop any skill required to a fencer.
5. What major developments do
you see coming in the near future that will affect the current revival of historical
fencing? Which do you think will be among the
most important?
A very important thing is the increasing connection among interested groups and
individuals, that leads to the sharing of information and texts, and to make comparison
between ideas, methods etc. A good deal of
that is due to the Internet, without any doubt. Another
important effect of the Internet is the possibility to publish articles and
original texts, making them available to all practitioners. Now if an average University student (for
example) looks for historical fencing he can find a lot of groups and material on the
Internet, while only ten years ago he couldn't find anything, searching in his hometown. All those changes are making clear that the
Western world has a huge and valid martial heritage (with important links to our cultural
identity and our old and high ethic values). There
is still a big deal of work to be done, to bring this heritage back to the people of the
Western world, but I think that there are many valid people working at it. I think that we could be near to the point where
the general public comes to know that we exist, and this is already a big victory. What will come next, it is difficult to say.
John Waller As leader
in the field, Mr. Waller is Director of Living-Interpretation at the Royal Armouries, in
Leeds, UK. He is a historical weapons expert, martial artist, jouster, fight-arranger, 30+
year veteran of historical fencing and stage combat, is founder of the new European Historical Combat Guild, and co-author of
a new book on historical combat for performance fighting. He was featured in the video
program Masters of Defence and in the History Channels Arms in Action
series. He was a theatrical fight instructor at leading London drama schools and is known
for the fights he arranged for the cult-film Hawk the Slayer.
1. To what would you attribute your interest in historical swords? What has been the
primary inspiration or source for your own individual study of historical swordplay?
I have been interested in history for so long now that it must be a mixture of so many
things. Films, arms and armour, books of course and the images contained in them, also a
love of all things connected with medieval life. I have been an archer since
boyhood, I am also a falconer and a horseman.
2. Is there a favorite type of
sword or a preferred style of historical fencing that you focus on? What specifically makes these so appealing for
you?
I do not have a favorite type of sword or a preferred style of historical swordfighting,
my interest ranges from the ancient world through to the modern combat techniques used by
the special forces of today. What makes the whole process so interesting is that I believe
that nothing is new and in reality the same principles have been used by the best masters
in all cultures and at all times.
3. In defending against an
opponent in any type of sword combat, what would you say is, in general, a good method to
employ? In other words, what basic overall defensive principle of fencing would you
recommend?
The best method of defence is not to be there. Always keep your weapons between you and
your opponent, he has to go past them to get at you. Next let your opponent attack and
when you see an opening get it over as quick as possible, or attack if you can continually
from the outset and do not give him a chance to attack you. The longer any encounter goes
on the more chance there is that you will suffer some injury, even if you win.
4. Do you have any particular
training advice from among your own experiences to offer fellow sword enthusiasts for
their individual sword practice?
I think the best way to answer this is to quote from the European Historical Combat
Guilds principles: Eye Contact, Balance, Intention, Control, Economy of Effort. These are what anyone should master in any sword
combat whether in reality or in practice
5. What major developments do
you see coming in the near future that will affect the current revival of historical
fencing? Which do you think will be among the
most important?
I believe that collaboration between such organisations as the HACA and our own new EHCG
(European Historical Combat Guild) will bring together those who wish to learn about
European historical combat in such a way that creates a beneficial atmosphere. There are many individuals and groups that have
lots to say, the more they get the chance, the more we should learn. There is now a close relationship between the
Royal Armouries and the Higgins, as there is between HACA and EHCG so we are on our way. |