Updates, updates, updates...

I haven't touched this blog in almost six months, and it's time to get back to adding more information here. We've been making steady progress at AEMMA in the last few months regarding rapier and spada da lato, and there are plenty of things to be posted in the coming weeks.

I have yet to decide where I will post the Anonymous Bolognese translation, and I'm thinking that once it is done, some of the more interesting parts may go here. But we shall see...

News

This is just a quick bit of news that won't affect anyone who is currently in either the Capoferro or Dall'Agocchie study groups, but it is important all the same. Until further notice, both study groups are invitation only: no maybes, no popping in and out, CLOSED. The reason for this is twofold: 1) I'd rather have a dozen really good and dedicated fencers than twenty average ones, and 2) I personally need to continue to enjoy what I'm doing, otherwise I get burned out and lose interest. My ultimate goal is to have a solid programme in both traditions running smoothly when I leave at the end of next year, which can only be accomplished if I focus on those who have already dedicated themselves to this.

Otherwise, nothing has changed: the schedule remains as it was before this announcement.

Drills: correction

In my haste to post the drills in anticipation of Monday's session (which went very well, I thought), I neglected to put in the interruption drill between the cavazione di tempo and the defenses done in place. So the drill list should read like this:

1. Lunges

2. Footwork

3. Tessitura

4. Approaching drills

5. Cavazione di tempo

6. Interrupting step

7. Opposition or cavazione counterattack in place

8. False attacks

9. Attacker vs. Defender

Tomorrow we'll have a camera (and some time) at our disposal, so photos and video of rapier and sidesword will be going up tomorrow night. Until then.

Back to the drawing board

We're well into the New Year, and nary a post from me to be seen. But no longer! I'm back into the groove, and the number of sessions I'm running per week at AEMMA (and at UofT again) has doubled since last year. I've been working on a lot of new drills for our Dall'Agocchie study group; our seminar with Jared Kirby has given us plenty of rapier drills to master, and sword and dagger is not too far off in the horizon...in short, there is plenty to look forward to.

As for this blog, it's become quite clear that rather than posting up long sections of text, it would be much more useful to regularly post shorter descriptions of the class with photos and video from each session. Considering how difficult it is to interpret the systems from the written version in the first place, it only seems to add more confusion when I paraphrase the masters' words here. So instead, I'll be making much better use of visual content in the coming weeks.

For those of you who haven't been around recently, here are some of the events that are going on right now, or in the very near future:

Classes

1. Monday 18h00-19h00: rapier drills
2. Wednesday 21h00-23h00: Dall'Agocchie study group
3. Thursday 16h30-18h00: rapier class @UofT
4. Sunday 13h00-15h00: rapier class

Events and seminars

1. Starting 22 January (this Saturday), I'll be teaching an introductory course in Italian rapier at FAC through the ROM, from 14h00-15h30.
2. On 30 January (next Sunday), FAC will be having its annual open house, where all the schools that make up the Collective show off their stuff to the public. Everyone is welcome! 14h00-16h00.
3. On the first or second weekend of May (to be confirmed), we will be hosting Maestro Ramon Martinez for another Destreza seminar. More details to follow in the coming weeks.

Dall'Agocchie review: 17 November

This last study group session was somewhat atypical, in that we divided into two pairs, each working on different drills. With the impending influx of new students on Sunday, this will be the norm:

1) We'll spend the first part of the session all working together on the basics (solo form, changing directions drills, basic defenses)

2) The next part will be split according to level (provocations only for the less experienced, provocations and their counters for those further along)

3) The final part will be dedicated to application, that is to say, practicing provocations against a semi-resisting partner (for non-scholars) - otherwise known as "slow work" - or loose-play (for scholars and above).

Regarding this weekend's workshop, we'll be covering the entire section on the use of the sword in one hand as described in Dall'Agocchie's 1572 treatise. Those wishing to join the study group will learn all they need in the four hours, and those already in the group will get a good re-introduction to the material. The cost is $30, and we'll be going from 1-5 this Sunday.

Back on track!

Now that my free scholler challenge is over and done with, I can get back to posting here regularly. The 31st of October marked the return of Capoferro to the curriculum, as I gave a four hour introduction to Italian rapier to a group of six students. We covered an enormous amount of material in that time, and I think that I can make some serious progress with this group. This time around, I really want to emphasize that we are fighting with rapiers, and not rapier fencing. I think this requires a bit of explanation...

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last two years about the rapier, and I strongly believe that the sum of the Art is not to be contained within the works of Capoferro, Fabris, Giganti, etc. Rather, these masters described a number of basic actions or plays that are the building blocks of fighting with a rapier, but not the sum. It's not as if the day Fabris published his treatise on fencing everyone forgot how to cut, grapple or fight "dirty", so to speak. My goal, then, is to train everyone to exploit the strengths of the weapon, and make use of everything we learn from Fiore's texts when things are less than ideal, i.e. when the tip and edge are no longer of use.

As for the Dall'Agocchie study group, we are still working hard on Wednesday nights. Over the course of the past few months, we've really made some serious progress in simplifying the system, so much so that a curriculum is not far off in the future. We've worked out all of the defenses, the provocations and their counters, as well as the stretto plays and their counters. All that remains is the paired form, and then the entire first section of his treatise is complete. This next Sunday, I'll be doing an introduction/recap of the system from 1-5, during which we'll be going over everything. With any luck, we can then bring in some new blood to the study group, and have multiple mini-groups working.

Finally, my plan for the new year is to start working on the sword and dagger section from Dall'Agocchie. As it stands, there are three of us who can really work through this right now, and I plan on doing the same thing I had done with single sword: breakdown and perform every defense, learn the provocations and their counters, and go through the paired form. That should take a few months, and then we'll move on to sword and cloak, and then two swords. Things should prove to be exciting in the next couple months. I'll be posting notes from both study groups on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The Dempsey Roll

While the subject line has absolutely nothing to do with this post, (or does it?) I have been obsessing a little bit about Hajime no Ippo, a terrific boxing manga that has reignited my zeal for practice. The fact that my big test is coming up in less than 30 days may also have something to do with that, but in any case, it's been a big inspiration for me to come up with better training methods. Over the course of the past few months, I feel like I've gradually refined the source material, which tends to be a bit scattered at times, to several excellent drills. First, let's talk about defenses.

The great thing about Dall'Agocchie's system is that there are only a handful of actions that repeat themselves over and over again, as provocations, attacks and defenses. In fact, there are really only six defenses, two of which can be used against any attack:

1) Left foot behind the right: Guardia di Testa against a mandritto. (Two tempi)

2) Right foot towards the attack: Guardia d'Entrare against a riverso, imbroccata or stoccata; Guardia di Faccia against a mandritto or stoccata. (One tempo)

3) Right foot to your right, left foot swings around: mezzo mandritto against a mandritto, stoccata or imbroccata. (Two tempi)

4) Left foot to your left: riverso sgualimbro against any attack. (Two tempi)

5) Right foot to your left, followed by a passing step with the left foot: falso manco and second cut against any attack. (Two tempi)

6) Either the footwork described in 5 (right foot to your left), or a withdrawal of the front foot: riverso ridoppio against a mandritto or an imbroccata. (One tempo*)

There are a few specialized defenses (using the offhand, voiding, throwing a cut to the sword hand while leaving, etc.), but these are the absolute essential defenses, and the ones that constantly repeat themselves.

The wonderful thing about Dall'Agocchie's system is that nearly all of his provocations are the same as his defenses. Last night we worked on the following ones in Coda Lunga e Stretta, and in some cases, their counters:

1) Falso dritto (left foot behind the right) followed by a dritto tramazzone (increase of the right foot). The counter is to parry the tramazzone in Guardia di Faccia.

2) Punta riversa (step to his right with either the left or right foot), followed by a mandritto tondo to the head (step to his left with the right foot). The counter is to parry the punta riversa with a falso manco (step to your left with the right foot), and the tondo in Guardia di Faccia.

3) Mezzo mandritto (step to your right with the right foot, left foot swings around) followed by a punta riversa to the chest. The counter is...well, there are a few!

All of the above actions can and will lead to a true on true stretto play, which I would like to expand on our options for next class.

Updates! There must be updates!

The events of the last six weeks have really kept me away from posting any new material in a while; preparing for the start of a new school term, going to ISMAC, and teaching a "graduate" course have all taken their toll, but I feel like I've got everything under wraps. I don't want to write too much here today, because I'll have a lot more to say on Sunday; we've done some very interesting (and productive!) drills in class, and they are paying off in a big way.

For those of you not in the know, as of the 31st of October, I am reinstating the Italian rapier programme at FAC, which will have been on hiatus for just over four months. The reasons for putting it on the shelf are numerous, and the reasons for bringing it back are just as many, so I won't delve into the details. The two main reasons I'm bringing it back are:

1. There is no better way to learn how to thrust properly. It also teaches the student how to maximize his or her efficiency.

2. The notions of gaining and constraining are very explicit, which facilitates a quicker (in my opinion) understanding of fencing theory, and how it can be played with.

I'd love to do more than one class per week, but the fact of the matter is that I'm a full-time PhD student, and I want to finish on time. I'll try to run longer classes on a regular basis, but that's all I can do about that.

Secondly, if rapier is coming back on, that means that something is going away: the Dall'Agocchie study group will only run on Wednesday evenings from 9h00-11h00 (ish). Participation is still by invitation only, as the group assumes a considerable familiarity with the sword in one hand. After three months (maybe longer?) of hard work, I'll finally be ready to bring in a new group of students starting October 17th, when I will be giving a short seminar on Dall'Agocchie's system. If you're new and you want to come out to the study group, this seminar is MANDATORY, no exceptions. More details to follow in the next week or so.

Quick update before ISMAC

I've been pretty terrible about updating this blog in the last month; a lot of things kept me pretty busy, and I just haven't had the time to put anything new and exciting up. I've also been really focused on my Fiore material for the free scholler test in seven weeks, so my mind has been elsewhere. Anyway, enough excuses! Here's what we've covered recently, and where we will be going when I return from Detroit next week:

1) Revising and refining the performance of the "stepping in the guards" drill, aka the solo form. Judging from last night's session, we're all pretty much on the same page, but there are a few details that need to be cleared up:

a) The first two steps (assuming a right-handed fencer) are to the right on a 45 degree angle, and then to the left on a 45 degree angle. We no longer do a full triangle step, as it is not mentioned in the text.

b) On the same note, there are only two directions: 45 to the right, and 45 to the left. I noticed that when people were throwing the first tramazzone, there was a tendency to center up; we should still be facing 45 to the left, both forward and backward.

c) In order to avoid confusion, the two ribbon cuts are now known as "dritto" and "riverso" ribbons; when changing to the left hand, the terms "left" and "right" were quite confusing.

d) All of Dall'Agocchie's guards (with the exception of Testa and Alicorno) are done with the point up, facing either the opponent's flank (the low guards) or his face or chest (the high guards); if the point is down, it should be all the way down, which makes it a larga (wide) guard. Having the sword at the level of stretta but with the point facing down is not the guard.

2) Simplification of all of the most important covers, which are:

a) a cover in Entrare or Faccia with a thrust to the face or chest; useful also against a low attack with a void of the lead foot.

b) a cover in Guardia di Testa moving to the right, a falso manco while moving to the left.

c) a mezzo mandritto moving to the right, a riverso sgualimbro moving to the left.

The footwork for the aforementioned actions is unique, and it is consistent: the only "major" change is when the left foot is forward instead, in which case all the same blade actions are possible, but with a slightly different movement of the feet and body. (We'll cover

a) Faccia and Entrare typically involve a mezza volta of the sword (this is the strongest action) in order to cover, and then a step towards the origin of the attack for the counter. If for some reason the attack turns out to be to the leg, a simple voiding will happen.

b) Guardia di Testa requires you to step behind your right foot with your left, which lines the body up (almost a rapier stance) and removes the target. If the attack is low, Testa just drops lower to intercept.

c) The falso manco is almost always done with a step of your right foot to your left (again, lining your feet up, but not crossing them), and the counter is done with a pass of the left foot on the traverse, i.e. to your left.

d) The mezzo mandritto, curiously, is done with a step to your right with the right foot; the following footwork for the cuts and thrusts is never mentioned in the text.

e) The riverso sgualimbro is always done by stepping to your left with the left foot; the counter is done with a volta stabile to your right (i.e. the riverso ridoppio), and the imbroccata is done with an increase of the right foot.

f) another possible case is the pass back of the lead foot with a tramazzone (dritto or riverso) to the sword arm. This is only done against an imbroccata or stoccata.

3) The changing directions drill, both directions. I had just written everything up for this, but I lost it, so I'll keep this short.

a) all attacks must be made in earnest, except when it's a provocation. You can't defend against a defense, or cheat by anticipating. Everything falls apart.

b) When beating the patient's sword with a ridoppio, thrust an imbroccata while passing to his right with your right foot. This is much safer, and more realistic.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: eighth and ninth sessions

I have learned an important thing this week about bringing any dead system back to life: I have to be very careful to not be over zealous in my interpretations, as I have done with the stepping in the guards drill. For the longest time - at least since I've been at AEMMA, so nearly two years - I have always practiced the first two actions (the left and right ribbons) with a triangle step to finish, reorienting myself to the left and the right, respectively. Upon looking at the language of the text, however, only a traversing step is mentioned; a much shorter action, and more efficient, to be sure.

1. Beginning with the sword at your left side, throw either a falso manco or riverso tondo followed by a riverso sgualimbro, stepping to your right side with the right foot. End in Coda Lunga e Stretta.
2. Throw a falso dritto followed by a mandritto sgualimbro, stepping to your left side with the left foot. End in Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.
3. Everything else is the same from here on out.

It was good to stumble a bit, because it helps me to tighten up the system even further, simplifying it. We spent a lot of time during Wednesday's session just moving our feet, not even bothering with the sword. From what we've seen so far, and from what has come out of our free play, knowing how to change direction quickly is of the utmost importance. Two of the ways we have experimented with are the following:

1. Throw a mandritto sgualimbro with an increase of the right foot, transition to Guardia di Faccia while stepping behind your right side with the left foot, and then throw a riverso ridoppio while stepping to your left with the right foot, followed by a riverso sgualimbro, stepping to your left with the left foot. To reverse, throw a ridoppio from here without committing the right foot yet, and then throw a mandritto sgualimbro.
2. Throw a mandritto sgualimbro with an increase of the right foot, transition to Guardia di Faccia while stepping behind your right side with the left foot, and then throw a riverso sgualimbro while stepping to your left side with the left foot, etc. and so on.

For today's session, I took us through the ringer. We went through all of the attacks and defenses that are done counter-clockwise (Testa and Faccia, with change of direction); for next time, I hope to do some loose play going clockwise. Then we went through the attacks and defenses going clockwise. We have some refining to do, but the basics are there.

We exceeded my expectations today by getting through the first three parts of the paired form, from both the attacker and defender's perspective. I stress again that we just have the basic motions down: we have much refinement to do. That being said, here are the actions in writing:

1. A begins in Coda Lunga e Stretta. B throws a mandritto sgualimbro to the head, and A parries in Guardia di Faccia and immediately thrusts to the face. End.
2. The play can continue if B binds in Guardia di Faccia. A then leaves by throwing a riverso sgualimbro while passing back with the right foot, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.
3. B throws a riverso ridoppio and immediately thrusts an imbroccata. A parries with a mezzo mandritto sgualimbro, stepping to his right with the right foot, and counters with a riverso tondo followed by a riverso sgualimbro, ending in Coda Lunga e Stretta.
4. The play can continue if B covers against the tondo in Guardia di Faccia, and the riverso sgualimbro in Guardia di Testa.
5. B immediately throws a mandritto sgualimbro A's right leg. A parries with a falso dritto, while drawing his left foot behind the right, and then counterattacks with two mandritti sgualimbri to the head, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: Quick edit

I nearly forgot to post one of the most important things we learned in yesterday's study group. Although it may seem very obvious - and really, it is - it bears mentioning all the same. When doing the provocation (riverso ridoppio-imbroccata back to Porta di Ferro Stretta), the attacker will make an attack that follows from his guard. If for example, A is in Guardia di Testa, it would make sense to throw a mandritto or riverso sgualimbro (and possibly even a stoccata), as a high guard naturally wants to go downward. Conversely, if A is in Porta di Ferro or another low guard, it would make sense to thrust an imbroccata or stoccata, which are both attacks that go from low to high.

The reason I bring this up is because we found (Aldo in particular) that throwing the wrong attack from X guardia means attacking out of tempo, which is something we never want to do. For example, starting in Porta di Ferro Stretta, it would make little sense for me to go up to Guardia di Testa, and then throw a mandritto sgualimbro. The most expedient attack would be a riverso ridoppio-imbroccata combination.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: seventh session

Another day of training, another post to review what we did today. I think we're on to something with the cutting in a circle drill: in groups of three, one person stands in the middle, and the others practice their cutting in the following way(s):

• Throw the mandritto sgualimbro-Testa combo going counter-clockwise.
• Throw the riverso ridoppio-riverso sgualimbro combo going clockwise.
• Change directions on command.

Next, we isolated the mechanics of changing directions using two drills: long and short version. I like starting with the long version personally because it gets you going a little bit, and then you change, but the short version is equally good because it really drives home how quick the change can be.

• Long version: Throw a mandritto sgualimbro with an increase of the right foot, "parry" in Guardia di Testa while stepping behind your right side with the left foot, and throw another mandritto sgualimbro. Now "parry" in Guardia di Faccia while withdrawing the right foot, and then immediately throw a riverso ridoppio while stepping to your left with the right foot. Parry with a riverso sgualimbro, withdraw the right foot and go to throw a riverso ridoppio, but then throw a mandritto sgualimbro while stepping to your right with the right foot. Rinse and repeat.
• Short version: Throw a mandritto sgualimbro with an increase of the right foot, "parry" in Guardia di Faccia while stepping behind your right side with the left foot, and then throw a riverso ridoppio while stepping to you left with the right foot. Parry with a riverso sgualimbro, go to throw a riverso ridoppio, and then throw a mandritto sgualimbro while stepping to your right with the right foot. Rinse and repeat.

Solo form: nothing new here. More refinement is needed, just like with everything else. However, we still need to figure out when the right ribbon combination comes in.

Finally, we went through the basic defenses from Porta di Ferro Stretta against all attacks: mandritto, riverso, riverso to the leg, imbroccata and stoccata. Not surprisingly, the defense is identical in all cases, with the "exception" of the riverso to the leg, but not really.

• Against the high line attacks, the foot and bladework is as thus: parry with a riverso sgualimbro while stepping to your left with the left foot, attack the arm with a riverso ridoppio (without stepping), and then thrust an imbroccata to the available target. In short, it's defense-attack-attack.
• Against the low line attack, we do exactly the same thing, except both the riverso sgualimbro (which immediately turns into a riverso ridoppio) are defenses, while only the imbroccata (which is to the face) is the attack. So, we have defe----nse, attack.

Curiously enough (or is it?), we do the exact same thing on the other side, where Guardia di Testa drops low to cover the attack to the leg, and then immediately becomes a mandritto to the head again. Let's keep working this next time.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: sixth session

Although we had a smaller group than usual on Wednesday night, we covered a lot of material, and I think we're finally ready to move on to bigger and better things, namely the paired form (what Dall'Agocchie calls variation of the guards) and the circle drill(s) in both directions. We also were lucky to have Gene film me going through all the guards, demonstrating all the cuts and the solo form for a video study guide, so things are moving along very nicely.

This is what we covered:

1. We started by going through all the guards, which went very quickly this time. We have two low guards with the hand in second (Coda Lunga) and two low guards with the hand in fourth (Porta di Ferro). If we raise the hand to about shoulder height, we have Guardia d'Entrare (second), Guardia di Faccia (fourth). When the arm is raised above the shoulder, we have Guardia d'Alicorno (first) with the point forward, and Guardia di Testa with the point across the the body.
2. Next we walked the circle in both directions; when walking counter-clockwise, we always through a mandritto followed by a parry in Guardia di Testa, and when walking clockwise, it's a riverso sgualimbro followed by an imbroccata. Changing directions is something we need to work on...
3. We finished the solo form! There are a number of refinements to be made, but everyone has it down. We'll keep doing this every class until it is second nature.
4. The counter-clockwise cutting and thrusting drill. We finished basically every part, so starting Saturday, we can actually "play" it. For those who haven't been paying attention, here it is:

• A throws a mandritto sgualimbro to the head, B parries in Guardia di Testa and counterattacks with a mandritto sgualimbro.
• A throws a mandritto sgualimbro to the head, B parries in Guardia di Faccia, and threatens a thrust to the face: either A does nothing and receives the thrust, or A binds, so B throws goes to the other side and throws a riverso sgualimbro to the face (first strait of the half sword, true to true).
• A throws a mandritto sgualimbro to the head, B parries in Guardia di Testa, and transitions to Guardia d'Alicorno. One of three things can happen: 1) A does nothing, and receives an imbroccata to the face. 2) A goes to parry in Guardia d'Entrare, and B throws a mandritto to the head or leg. 3) B performs a mezza volta of the sword and immediately thrusts a stoccata to the face.
• As a counter to either of the above thrusts, A throws a dritto tramazzone to the sword hand while passing back.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: fifth session

While I definitely appreciate having a dozen people on the floor, nothing beats a study group of three people; we get through a lot of material, all present get a lot of practice, and every goes home sore. Today's study group session went very well, and we actually covered a tremendous amount of material, and I was inspired to use different drills to run the group more efficiently.

Footwork

Since all of our drills thus far require that we move in a circle, our basic footwork drills ought to reflect that. Regardless of which direction we're walking in, we will always be moving our left foot along the circle first, followed by a step into the circle with the right foot. We're getting quite good and moving along the circle without thinking about it, now we have to learn to rapidly, correctly change directions. With sword in hand, it looks a little something like this:

1. From Guardia di Testa, throw a mandritto sgualimbro with an increase of the right foot.
2. "Parry" in Guardia di Testa while stepping behind with the left foot, followed by another cut with an increase of the right foot. This time, parry in Guardia di Faccia, and throw a riverso ridoppio while stepping to your left with the right foot.
3. Throw a riverso sgualimbro while stepping with your left foot to the left side, and throw a riverso ridoppio to Alicorno without stepping. Now throw a mandritto sgualimbro while stepping to your right with the right foot, and then immediately transition to Guardia di Testa while stepping behind your right side with the left foot. Rinse and repeat.

Wow, that's a whole lot of words to describe a very simple set of actions. With Gene's help, we can put this on video, so everyone can see what I'm talking about. We'll go over this on Wednesday night.

Testa drill

In a sense, we "finished" the Guardia di Testa drill today, as we have covered all of the five attacks that can come from parrying a blow in that guard. I didn't get a chance to put everything together at the end of class due to a lack of time, but that's my goal for next time. Briefly, here's what we did:

1. The classic: mandritto sgualimbro + Guardia di Testa until the rubber on our soles wears off.
2. Guardia di Faccia + punta riversa (thrust in fourth) to the face instead of Guardia di Testa. this can lead to either: an immediate thrust to the face if our partner does nothing, or a riverso to the outside if he or she decides to bind. Again, video evidence will be forthcoming!
3. Transitioning from Guardia di Testa to Alicorno. Again, here we have two options: if our partner does nothing, thrust an imbroccata to the face. If he or she decides to parry, throw a mandritto sgualimbro to the upper or lower body, and immediately recover to Guardia di Testa.
4. Stoccata from Guardia di Testa: perform a mezza volta of the wrist (first to third), which puts your true edge on your partner's flat, and immediately thrust to the face.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: fourth session

Last night's session went very well, and I learned quite a few things from it myself, particularly in regards to where I want this whole thing to go. Concerning my role as a teacher, I realized two very important things:

1) The 90/120 minutes we have twice a week is extremely valuable, and as such, must not be wasted. As much as I love chit-chatting about fencing during class, we all have better things to be doing, namely the drills that we're developing. If you can't focus on what you're doing for longer than 30 seconds, you should be doing something else.

2) Since this is my research project for my free scholar exam later this year, I am taking this time very seriously, and ask of everyone else to do the same: show up ready, train hard, ask questions later. I make myself available during all the breaks and after class, so please, ask away.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, we covered a few new things last night that I know people will need notes for, particularly the full solo form. In the following paragraphs, I will describe all the actions of the solo form, as well as the more advanced version of the Testa drill that some of us got to test out in the last half hour.

The solo form

1. Left ribbon (falso manco/falso riverso tondo + riverso sgualimbro) with a triangle step (tutta volta) with the right foot, facing 45 degrees to your left. Coda Lunga e Stretta.
2. Right ribbon (falso dritto + mandritto sgualimbro) with a triangle step with the left foot, facing 45 degrees to your right. Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.
3. Dritto tramazzone with a pass forward, going through Guardia di Testa, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
4. Left ribbon with a pass forward, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.
5. Riverso ridoppio (rising true edge cut from the left side) to Alicorno + imbroccata (descending thrust in First) with a pass forward, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
6. Left ribbon with a pass back, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.
7. Dritto tramazzone with a pass back, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
8. Dritto tramazzone with a pass back, ending in Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.
9. Left ribbon with a pass back, ending in Coda Lunga e Stretta.

New variations on the Testa drill

1. A throws a mandritto sgualimbro, B parries in Guardia di Testa and counters with a mandritto, A parries in Guardia di Testa and counters with a mandritto, etc.
2. Instead of parrying in Guardia di Testa, B parries the cut in Guardia di Faccia, and then thrusts to the face with an increase of the right foot.
3. After parrying in Guardia di Testa, B changes to Alicorno and threatens a thrust to the face. Now, A either: does nothing and gets an imbroccata to the face, or pushes the point aside and is struck with a mandritto to the leg, body or head.
4. As above, except B will press down (true edge on flat) on A's sword and thrust a stoccata to the face or chest.
5. In the case of either thrust, A will throw a mandritto tramazzone to the hand while passing back. (Didn't cover this in class, but we'll get to it on Saturday)

In other news, rapier fencing after was fun, though we could use more people next time.

Dall'Agocchie study group review: third session

For today's study group session, I wanted to refine what we have covered so far, without introducing too much new information. We had a pretty good group today, so I actually went a bit farther than I had planned on going, and that's just fine with me.

Basically, we reviewed all eight guards, the different cuts and thrusts, and the first six parts of the solo form. There must be a better way to teach it, because I'm just not seeing it yet! Although I think it is useful to practice with the partner holding a sword for each step, it also takes far too long to cover what is ultimately a simple (but not easy!) exercise. For next Wednesday's session, I think I'll link all the steps together first, having everyone follow me, and then we'll put it into practice.

Today's big leap forward was brought to us by the Guardia di Testa-Mandritto sgualimbro drill. I felt it appropriate to introduce another kind of defense - still using the same footwork - and counterattack, as well as a provocation of sorts, which leads to one of two attacks: an imbroccata to the face and a mandritto to the leg.

1. Begin the drill as normal, and when A goes to throw the mandritto, B will instead parry in Guardia di Faccia while stepping behind his right side with the left foot (i.e. identical footwork to the Testa defense), and immediately thrust to the face with an increase of the right foot.

2. After parrying the mandritto in Guardia di Testa, A will make a threat to B's face by changing to Alicorno. From here, there are two likely outcomes:

a) B goes to parry in Guardia d'Entrare, which allows A to throw a mandritto to the leg. This works because while B is busy defending up high, A is free to attack the entire inside line, either high or low.

b) B does not react, so A simply thrusts an imbroccata to the face.

Re-introduction to Dall'Agocchie

Once again, I find myself posting after a long absence. The pressures of school weighed heavily upon me throughout the month of May, and the two back-to-back vacations to the US and Vancouver made it somewhat difficult to put anything of worth up here. To be honest, I'm glad I didn't just post whatever came to mind, because I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks about fencing, and I've come to a rather unsurprising conclusion: although I love rapier immensely - it was my introduction to WMA, after all - I'm not up for teaching it. It'd be one thing if I was learning under someone whom I could see once a week and learn, but I've been going for nearly a year without receiving instruction of my own, and it's just not fun anymore; I'm not getting any better, and after my time spent in Vancouver, I'm not sure if rapier is really my calling. I still plan on fencing it as much as I can, but I've just lost the will, which is readily replaced by...

some good old-fashioned Bolognese swordsmanship. I just realized last night how many hundreds (or is it thousands?) of hours I have put into reading, translating and interpreting the various fencing treatises associated with the Bolognese tradition, that I can't picture myself dedicating myself to anything else. I love fencing sword in one hand, and I've been making tremendous progress since I arrived at AEMMA nearly two years ago. If I'm going to leave a mark at my school, I'd be extremely proud to share my knowledge of this, so it can be passed on to future students.

Anyway, enough sentimentality for one post. I taught my first class today as a sort of experiment: I need to present a research project for the rank of free scholar this year, and I want to use empirical data to back it up. What better way than to test my theories in the classroom? While not a rousing success because I forgot my very precise instructions for the schedule at home, I feel I made a lot of progress with the four students who showed up today, so much so that, with a few minor tweaks, I can train people quickly and efficiently.

We started with some basic footwork (increasing and decreasing steps, passing steps, and triangle steps), followed by an introduction to the low guards and the high guards. I may have been a bit pedantic today, but I really wanted to drive home the names of the guards, and how one ought to change among them. For the next twenty minutes or so, we went through the six basic cuts of the system (plus one!): the sgualimbri, the tondi, the falsi, and the tramazzone. Everyone caught on fairly quickly, and by the one-hour mark, only the occasional cut was thrown not under cover. Not too bad.

Next, we worked on the first three parts of the solo form, which is not only useful for teaching cuts in combination, but also how to move in all directions, and how to move from guard to guard. Once again, I was quite pleased with how everyone picked up the first part, so we'll review what we did this week next time, and then introduce the second set of actions.

After about fifteen minutes of the solo form, I thought it would be useful (and it definitely was!) to do the Guardia di Testa drill. (Yeah, I can't think of a better name...any suggestions?) For those of you who don't know what this entails, here it is:

1) Simplest version: A throws a mandritto to B, B parries in Guardia di Testa while stepping behind with the left foot.

2) Version 2.0: A throws a mandritto to B, B parries in Guardia di Testa while stepping behind with the left foot, and then counterattacks with a mandritto while stepping with the right foot.

3) Version 3.0: A throws a mandritto to B, B parries and counterattacks, A parries and counterattacks.

4) Version 4.0: Continuous.

Finally, I wanted to try out the duel in 30 days. First I had everyone practice doing the defense, which proved to be somewhat more difficult than I had imagined. Then, I had them defend against a mandritto, and counter with a riverso ridoppio-imbroccata combo. I didn't get to any of the other possibilities yet; with good planning, I can make it through all five defenses next class.

Dueling in thirty days: day seven

To bring the first week to a close, I thought it would be useful to summarize what we've discovered, and where we will need to be going next. In particular, I've read through the treatise again, and I've found a number of places (in the section on defenses, provocations and their counters, plays of the half sword) where the exact action - with or without footwork - is described. Unless the words of the text themselves change, I don't foresee this interpretation changing much, if at all.

The footwork

Dall'Agocchie is very clear concerning the movements of the feet in defending with a riverso sgualimbro, and striking with an imbroccata: against all five attacks (he does not include a mandritto to the leg or a riverso ridoppio, perhaps because they would be unlikely attacks against this guard), we parry with a riverso sgualimbro (a cut that goes from the right shoulder to the left hip) with a step to the enemy's right side with the left foot, do a mezza volta of the wrist (i.e. a riverso ridoppio), and thrust an imbroccata to the appropriate target (face, chest or flank) with an increase of the right foot towards the enemy. The only exception to this rule is not in the footwork, but in the parry: the riverso to the leg must be parried with a riverso ridoppio, as the sgualimbro does not cover low.

Why the riverso ridoppio?

I was initially skeptical of putting in a seemingly extra motion when there was no explicit mention of one in the final section of the third day of dialogues, but after reading and typing up an updated version of all of the defenses, provocations and their counters, I found a number of instances - no less than five - that describe this exact action: parry with a riverso sgualimbro, do a mezza volta of the wrist, which is another way of saying throw a riverso ridoppio, and thrust an imbroccata to the available target. Here are two additional reasons for this interpretation, which are drawn entirely from performing the action numerous times:

1) The person thrusting the imbroccata by way of the riverso ridoppio is completely covered throughout the entire action.

2) When done correctly, the action is very fluid, which is unlike the initial interpretation, which felt an awful lot like "flinging" the arm forward.

The simplest version of the drill

Finally, I'd like to put up the absolute simplest version of the drill, which in theory could last forever, provided neither fencer makes a mistake. We've found that we really only need to work on finding places to thrust the stoccata, and throw a mandritto or riverso to the leg; the riverso sgualimbro and imbroccata are automatic.

1) A thrusts an imbroccata with an increase of the right foot.

2) B parries with a riverso sgualimbro, stepping to A's right with the left foot, and then immediately throws a riverso ridoppio to Alicorno, and goes to thrust an imbroccata with an increase of the right foot towards A.

3) A parries with a riverso sgualimbro, stepping to B's right with the left foot, etc.

As I said earlier, our current plan is to flesh out this drill by adding in all of the attacks "at random" - kind of a misnomer, as there are specific instances where each attack is appropriate - and then eventually include different kinds of defenses, which involve different footwork: a falso manco, Guardia d'Entrare, cut to the hand while passing back, etc. Only twenty-three more days to go!

Dueling in thirty days: day six

Lo and behold, several hours later I come back with day six of the Bolognese experiment. The two of us were fencing sword and buckler (I.33) in Christie Pitts today down at Bloor and Christie, but we always begin with 10-20 minutes of going over the sidesword plays. I am now entirely convinced that the way we are currently doing it is correct, as we are completely covered - by distance and by blade placement - the entire time. Left to the side, right foot towards the opponent.

To change things up a little bit today, Dall'Agocchie mentions earlier in his book the various defenses (of which there are really only five; more on this later) from all of the guards against all likely attacks. I noticed while reading through the defenses yesterday that the same blows - mandritto, riverso, imbroccata and stoccata - can all be parried with a falso manco (a deflection) followed immediately by either a mandritto sgualimbro, or a riverso sgualimbro (i.e. a left ribbon). I've done the former numerous times in the normal AEMMA class during drills and free-fencing time, but only against attacks from the right side. So we tried it out, and a number of interesting things came out of it.

1) The footwork is very clearly the following: parry with the falso manco while stepping to his right side with your right foot, and then throw either a riverso or mandritto sgualimbro while stepping with the left foot. This is the only way to strike the targets (head or face) that Dall'Agocchie explicitly states on a number of occasions.

2) In some instances, he gives the option of either mandritto or sgualimbro, but in others, only one or the other is available. I initially believed this to be a simple omission on his part; of course you can do both, because I mentioned it ten pages ago! But when we tried doing both indiscriminately, we found that the mandritto sgualimbro is not always a reliable follow-on; this depends entirely on the nature of the attack the opponent is giving.

3) Curiously, this action does not correspond with the left ribbon described in the solo form in terms of feet; the solo form has the fencer either stepping to his right, forward or backward, but not to his left. The more I think about it, the more I question if there really is a higher purpose for the solo form, or if it is meant purely for teaching footwork.

Once we get really good at performing both kinds of defenses with the respective foot motions, we should be able to do the drill in a circle, alternating between parrying with the true edge and the false edge.

Tomorrow's post will be a synthesis of what I've talked about in the first six days; we've gone a few different places while interpreting the text, some more useful than others. Every seventh post, therefore, will present the most updated understanding of the defenses and counter-attacks that come from Porta di Ferro Stretta, as well as progress made in creating a drill that incorporates all the attacks at random.

Dueling in thirty days: day five

Due in no small part to my negligence yesterday, days five and six will both be posted today; thankfully, I actually have things to say about what we've been doing. Yesterday, I thought it would be useful for us to work our way through Dall'Agocchie's solo form (stepping in the guards) before we started going through the defenses from Porta di Ferro Stretta. The reason for this is two-fold:

1) After a very brief discussion (one sentence) of the first chief skill - knowing which edge is true and which is false - footwork is really the first topic to which Dall'Agocchie dedicates a large amount of ink. And as he says, all fencers must be equally comfortable moving in any direction, be it forward, backward, on the traverse, etc.

2) The action we have been playing with for the past few days - a riverso sgualimbro followed immediately by a riverso ridoppio to an imbroccata - is described as the last forward moving action in the sequence. From Coda Lunga e Alta, the fencer throws a riverso ridoppio to Alicorno, and passes with an imbroccata, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.

To make this sound a bit less nebulous, I've broken down the steps for the solo form below; since I've been doing this for the past several years, it all makes perfect sense to me, but if the language is somewhat unclear, please let me know and I'll do my best to clear up the language.

1) Beginning with the feet together, the right foot slightly ahead of the left, and with the sword in its sheath (real or imaginary), throw a falso manco or falso riverso tondo while stepping on the traverse with your right foot, followed by a riverso sgualimbro as the left foot lands, ending in Coda Lunga Stretta. I call this combination a left or reverse ribbon for short.

2) Now throw a falso dritto while stepping on the traverse with the left foot, followed by a mandritto sgualimbro as the right foot lands, ending in Cinghiale Porta di Ferro. I call this combination a right ribbon for short.

3) Throw a dritto tramazzone with a pass forward of the right foot, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.

4) Throw a left ribbon while passing forward with the left foot, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.

5) Throw a riverso ridoppio to Alicorno, and then pass forward and thrust an imbroccata, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta. (Alternately, throw the riverso ridoppio with the pass forward, and thrust the imbroccata without moving the feet. I personally find the first version more fluid.)

6) Throw a left ribbon while passing back with the right foot, ending in Coda Lunga e Alta.

7) Throw a dritto tramazzone while passing back with the left foot, ending in Porta di Ferro Stretta.

8) Throw another dritto tramazzone while passing back with the right foot, ending in Cinghiale Porta di Ferro.

9) Finally, throw a left ribbon while passing back with the left foot, ending in Coda Lunga Stretta.

A video of this will be up on Saturday when I have access to the salle again.