I had a recent cross-training encounter that’s worth repeating. I think it can help illustrate differences between Renaissance and modern sport fencing practices.
I had the enjoyable opportunity to face off with a skilled sport fencer, something I have not done in about eight years or so. He was a young, very fit, experienced left-handed epee fencer. I just happened to be around when he was teaching an outdoor class to beginners and so sat nearby to do some editing work. He noticed my ARMA shirt and asked if I had fenced before. I said yes, and after the class he asked me if I would like to go a few bouts.
I told him, “Well, I do historical fencing and not the modern sporting variety.” To my surprise I realized he took my statement as meaning that I no longer fenced in the sport style as declining the offer and so went about his business teaching some more students. He had the sharp footwork, quick lunge, and excellent point control so associated with modern fencers. At the end of their session he went over to the equipment and again asked if anyone wanted to fence. So this time I went over. He was surprised and then I explained that if he was open to it, I would be happy to fence him but only using my Renaissance style. I then explained that by “historical” fencing I meant we use different tools (longer, stiffer, and heavier blades with compound hilts), very different guidelines for what actions are permissible, and approached bouts with a very different temperament.
He was curious, polite, not at all defensive, but also very skeptical, I could tell. He was confident in his skill, having recently ended collegiate competitions where he said he did very well. He was very knowledgeable on the latest sport fencing rules but as usual woefully uninformed about the actual history of his sport, its origins, and its changes over the years.
We talked briefly about real dueling and how dueling protocols changed from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and discussed how this affected the design and use of the weapons, their classroom instruction, and the wound results that occurred in such combats. As expected, most of his notions on this came from television and movies rather than any formal schooling he received while learning to fence. For example, he believed the use of the second hand was discarded because it did not work, but then acknowledged that even in modern rules there was a penalty for using it to cover targets –admitting that it obviously can hinder successful body hits. He also admitted that even if the weapons were sharp the infamous flicking hits so frequently used in the modern sport were unlikely to stop a serious man bent on killing. He also agreed it might be an exploitable deficiently in the modern style that when in close together the fencers had to engage in all manner of contortions to avoid touching one another’s bodies or weapons.
I told him a little of how I fenced, such as getting in close to push and pull, using the left hand to parry, to grab blades or seize arms, how we employed the legs and hips to push and trip, how I might hold my blade in half-sword or slap his point away with my hand, and how I would tap his mask with my pommel or guard to indicate a hilt strike, as well as how I would frequently palm slap his mask with my free hand to indicate an unarmed blow to the face. Finally, just before we fenced, he said good naturedly, “Okay then, show me. I need to see it really works.” Such opportunities with open minded sport fencers are rare, trust me.
Now, I’ve fenced countless former and present sport fencers in recent years, but they were all familiar with ARMA’s approach to rapier fencing. So, amusingly I was nervously excited since it had been some time since I’ve gotten to fence someone competent who was virtually ignorant of both my style of fencing as well as my ability, nor was in the least bit intimidated by facing a “Renaissance” fencer. I will also admit that in the 96+ degree California afternoon heat, having to wear a fencing jacket was most uncomfortable and it had been years since I had to use a flimsy epee rather than a historical replica sword.
The encounter stood out pretty clearly because I made five good actions in a row and because after years of fencing I’ve trained myself to have a good memory for this sort of thing. To make a long story short. I slaughtered him as I expected.
At the get go I detected he was a defensive fighter (in this instance, if not by nature) and immediately decided to charge, since my repertoire of moves was decidedly larger here than those available to a sport fencer. Additionally, the appropriate counter-moves on the whole were absent from his.
The challenge of a left-handed fencer in this particular case was that, unless I was able to deflect or redirect his blade over to my left, to use my left hand to parry or grab I had to first cross his weapon over to my left. Alternatively, I would need to engage so as to either bind or beat his weapon further to my right side as I brought my other hand into play in a classic rapier move.
At the first closure I rushed him, knocked his weapon aside, and held it there as I rapped him three or four times firmly in the front of the mask with my open left palm. At virtually the same time I directed my point toward his chest. As soon as all this happened my opponent exclaimed a laugh of astonishment and surprise. He was fairly shocked at how quickly and easily I closed and rendered him unable to defend or attack. Later he commented at how vulnerable he felt after awhile since it had such a different feel than what he was use to.
On the second pass I quickly closed again and seized and held his weapon, but managed to trap my own blade behind his in the process. As we stood still there, I had the leverage and paused for safety, but since he just froze and waited, I went ahead and threw a soft kick to his thigh above the knee to indicate I could have taken him down.
On the third pass he was a bit more aggressive (as I expected) since he now new how easily I could close. So, we exchanged a few thrusts and counter thrusts and then I shot out my left hand to slap away his point then stuck him in the mask, but as the hit wasn't entirely solid I followed it up immediately with a second firmer thrust to his throat. I explained that unlike sport fencing, where action ceases after a single hit, we will continue to make attacks until either we or our opponent is satisfied it was effective.
On the fourth pass he was even more aggressive and I responded in kind managing to make a wide sweeping parry (something inappropriate in the subtle finessed play of sport fencing) which allowed my second hand to seize his forearm tightly. I turned and brought his body right down against my sword point. At this he exclaimed, “Whoa…cool!” and we both laughed.
At the fifth exchange I held my blade in a half-sword, relaxed and inviting. He didn’t fall for it so I moved closer and just as he attempted to take advantage of my opening, I quickly lifted my weapon and pressed in against him. The superior leverage of two hands on the slender sword prevented any parry on his part and I easily swept his weapon to my left while driving the pommel onto his mask. While that might not have been decisive my follow up was to bring the point down into his belly. But we stopped to take a breather since it was way too hot and we talked about the half-swording move and I showed him others like it using the point.
We soon resumed and on the sixth pass I again charged him and this time bound his weapon to my left then quickly wrapped my free hand around his forearm. This kind of move allows you to throw or pull an opponent or just disarm him. But in this case, since he lunged at me I had to turn out of the way and as I started to catch his hand and hilt inside my arm his weapon ended up way down by his knee. So… naturally I lowered my hips and reached lower to also wrap my arm underneath and behind his knee as well as his arm. Then I turned and lifted from my hips to pull his leg off the ground. Instead of throwing him backward on the concrete though I just held him for a second or two until it was obvious he was helpless. My blade was pressed against his almost the whole time and my point remained directed at his torso.
The next exchanged we made a few feints and thrusts and disengages while I kept flashing my free hand out at him as a distraction (now that he was wary of it) until I parried his weapon with my own then caught it in my empty hand. He tried to jerk it free but I moved in with my point and stuck him once or twice.
During the short twenty minutes or so we were able to fence in the heat he managed only to tag me twice, but each of them were not only simultaneous exchanges, they would not have been lethal or disabling.
His first was with a high flicking hit that landed on my back bone at the same time that I came forward turning my attempted parry into a controlled hilt blow against the front of his mask followed by an almost simultaneous palm strike there with my left hand. We stopped the exchange right there, but I assured him that a flick on the back bone was unlikely to have punctured very deep given the complete lack of momentum and force behind his thrust (his arm was extended straight and high in the air with his wrist completely bent and his lunge already spent). Whereas my controlled hilt strike, if delivered with real intent and inertia, would have surely laid him open to my follow on thrust. To his credit, he readily concurred that his flick would not have been serious, and that he had left himself totally exposed.
Later, he hit lightly on a lunge with another angled thrust that poked my left triceps at the same time that I brought by right forearm up and across the side of his head in a controlled blow. We stopped the action right then, but again I assured him that a hole in my triceps was unlikely to have punctured any deeper than a half-inch given the lack of force behind his thrust (once more his arm was fully extended high up with his wrist fully bent again). Whereas my forearm blow, if delivered with serious intent and full force, would have surely put him to the ground followed immediately by my sword point. He actually agreed, saying that he had felt my arm pretty solidly even though I delivered it pretty gently.
Such high angled thrusts and flicking jabs as the two above are common in sport fencing and may have very well earned the simple drawn blood pink that invariably ended most 19th century duels. But they are almost entirely absent from the histories of Renaissance era combats. They certainly would be insufficient to produce the debilitating and incapacitating injury necessary to prevent an opponent from continuing to fight and deliver his own killing strikes. They are useless techniques for earnest combat and among historical fencers should rightly be ignored in free-play or bouting. Also, while epee fencing uses the whole body as a target, a simple poke in the thigh or foot, not to mention in the other arm, is hardly going to prevent a serious man from continuing to stab at you.
About at this time the heat was taking its toll so we stopped again to take another breather. We then agreed to one final pass. In this last exchange he made an aggressive and beautiful fleche’ (a sudden charging pass off to the side—and now illegal to perform in the sport) but as he did I passed back, deflected it with my left arm, and caught him solid under the sword arm with a stop thrust to his ribs.
While in epee fencing your opponent can also score just as you do by hitting within a third of a second of your hit, in real fighting, as we often say, you cannot afford to let your opponent hit you at anytime…within the next second or the next hour, let alone the next day or week. This illustrates one of the extreme differences between fencing bouts for set numbers of points as a contest, as opposed to fencing bouts to a presumably lethal strike as practice of a martial art. The former is conducted as a game and the latter as a fighting skill. There is a significant difference in the mindset and etiquette between the two.
Afterwards, I showed him a few more techniques while he kept expressing how much fun what I was doing seemed. He was keen on knowing more about how I learned to fence this way and why the modern sport didn’t anymore. As we discussed how modern fencing was essentially a 19th century gentleman’s version of the Baroque single-combat duel, I described to him how there were counters to several of my moves but that they would have lead to grappling and wrestling. At the end my opponent said he was very impressed and commented on how quick and well-coordinated the action was, with no wasted motions and nothing like depictions of Renaissance swordplay in movies (ironically, he also told me he was an aspiring actor).
Facing a skilled and experienced modern/classical fencer, with their technical ability and athleticism, can certainly be challenging to a historical fencer. But if you know what you are doing the techniques and concepts of Renaissance swordplay are superior—especially if you use an older style of weapon. It is equivalent to the difference between boxing with someone who is using one hand while you use two. In my experience it’s just no contest.
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