Fiore's guards

[Allen Johnson]

What is the general feeling on the guards featured in Fiore where you got the feet going one way and the head/ body going the other?
http://www.thearma.org/pdf/dlr3.jpg
Is he defending aginst where he is faced or where his feet are pointed?

[Risto Rautiainen]

Against where his face is looking at. To do something from there you just need to volta stabile. That is to turn on the balls of your feet.

[John_Clements]

We're not convinced the image is literal.
There are several reasons dealing with conventions of Italian figure art from the era.
It's something best dicussed live.

JC

[Casper Bradak]

In the diagram at the beginning of his longsword section, he shows what side and level each guard is at, approximately. Combine that with the pictures, and it helps figure out just what he's showing. I think Master Vadi shows some similar stances slightly more literally, though not entirely un-problematic either.

[Shane Smith]

Is he defending aginst where he is faced or where his feet are pointed?

You see that same half-turned stance in various forms throughout Fiore. I believe he is turned partly away and that he is defending where he is facing(Although the guard of the woman is one I don't feel comfortable doing or advising to be done in that manner in which it is drawn...There may be another instance that isn't coming to mind at the moment) . He will slip away or in with a leg-passing induced turn of his hips and deflect his opponents attack with a fendente or a rising cut(or a halfsword or polearm deflecion) which will give him the intiative and often incrossada. Failing incrossada, with the polearm especially, he feeds the guy his point. That is my own interpretation of whats happening and I can perform all of these things with speed. Others whom I highly respect will disagree and I can respect that.

[Risto Rautiainen]

What Shane said. With the exception that you should be able to do "posta di donna" even so that the tip of your sword is pointing right at your opponent. It just gives you a bit more twist to the move.

[I. Hartikainen]

The page linked are the first guards or positions Fiore shows with the sword in two hands. Practicing these in a sequence teaches you how to manipulate your sword very nicely. I don't know wether Fiore intended them to be that way or not, but it seems to make sense.

Turning on your feet, pushing your weight back is a core movement of Fiore's system. You can also have a similiar effect by simply looking back the other way. The rear weighted positions keep your target area further away, while covering distance by keeping feet closer to opponent. Keeping the weight back also serves to make a quic accressere with the forward leg off line, which is another key aspect of Fiore's system.

Yours
Ilkka

[Matt Easton]

It just depends which direction you're moving, or intending to move, and where your weight is at the time - Fiore shows guards in both varieties in some cases - weight forward and weight back - in Getty. If you watch videos of people sparring you'll often see these weigh-back positions transitioned through, even though people don't realise they're doing it.

Matt