Class review: 12th of November

Things are progressing along very smoothly, now that we are two months into the new curriculum. Since UT students experiencing the first ever November reading break (a whole two days...), only three people showed up to class tonight, but that was perfect for what I wanted to do: run through all of the plates of the single sword in Capoferro (save two). Normally, this is not something I would in class, because it essentially means training the wrong thing, which is a bad thing to do, but it was useful in that it shows some excellent responses to someone doing the incorrect move (i.e. attacking out of tempo).

First, a few generalities:

1) If my opponent and I are point high (i.e. at the throat or face), and my opponent performs a cavazione to strike to the head, I respond by passing in either seconda (plate 9) or quarta (plate 18). In plate 9, a pass in prima is also possible, especially if the person doing so is shorter than his or her opponent.

2) If my opponent and I are point middle (i.e. at the chest), and my opponent performs a cavazione to strike to the chest, I respond by either striking with a firm footed lunge in either seconda (plate 7) or quarta (plate 16).

3) If my opponent and I are point low (i.e. at the flank), and my opponent performs a cavazione to strike the flank, I respond by either performing a scannatura di punta (plate 13) from the outside, or press down his sword from the inside (plate 12).

So, considering the inside and the outside, as well as the height of the point, we already have six contratempo actions to the opponent attacking out of tempo. How many other ways can the opponent strike? Not too many.

If for some reason my opponent attacks very low, in this case with a riverso to the leg, I simply void the threatened leg and thrust right to the face. (plate 8) Throwing a mandritto to the leg is just as, if not more crazy.

Finally, we have gli scansi, the voids. Although I love performing the scanso della vita (plate 19), I find the circumstance in which Capoferro describes very difficult to pull off. Granted, as I discussed with Aldo at the end of class, all of these are moments in time, typically four or five moves into the engagement, so "doing" the play should feel stilted. The two instances Capoferro shows are against a thrust to the inside, either to the chest (plate 17) or to the face (plate 19). More on this to follow, because I would actually like to post some video of this up.