Medieval Swordfighting - Part 1 Fiore

[Karen Rose]

Well, I must say that John's review of this video is pretty accurate. I did laugh in more than a few places. (All the edge on edge parrying was painful to watch.) Although, for someone as inexperiened as myself, there were a few things one could glean from the information demonstrated.
There was a point made about cuts that I found interesting and quite different than in the German school of thought.
The fendente is used exactly as the oberhau, but the blade is brought all the way behind the back, just about parallel with the back before the strike. The same with the traverse cuts, the blade was brought around left/right behind the body for maximum force.
My understanding is that Fiore was very skilled in winding and grappling at close range. I was a bit surprised to see such exaggerated movement in the cuts.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[Casper Bradak]

It's all in the interpretation. It's apparent from Master Fiore's manual that he used all 3 methods for his cuts, and some of his posta are very debated on how literally people like to take the pictures. But yeah, those guys really destroy some replicas in that video, and very blunt ones at that!
I even remember one scene where a chip flies off a one of their edges.