every drill, every exercise, online

Take a look!

Cutting:

- Loose one-handed cuts. Add second hand. Add stepping. Add guards.

- Hips pulled by a string.

- “Lazy and stupid feet”. Fix: practice stepping, taking care to connect pelvis to the ball of the foot properly. Should be able to move the unweighted foot back and forward without shoulders moving.

- Back alignment: when I lift my chin, my lower back pops. Fix: work on moving pelvis and head independently. Check back alignment against a pole or similar.

- Fingers. Writing your name with the point. Correct grip! Grip changes in cuts. Correct finger positioning in guards.

- Building the guards by cutting into them. Generates the correct muscle dynamics for an efficient cut. Work on making the cut smaller while retaining the correct dynamics.

Crossings:

- Throw the point into frontale.

- Distinguish stretto and largo. Distinguish point present in largo. Distinguish if you can overbind or not in stretto.

- Create the crossing you want. (As attacker, if you don’t want to be constrained, make sure you stay in largo.)

- Outside-and-under parries are bound on the false edge by reversing the direction of the cut.

Entering:

- On the outside, prefer push.

- On the inside, prefer pull or wrap.

- Do what’s sensible in the distance. When entering on the inside, the distance tends to be larger when cross-handed.

Drills:

1st drill cross-handed. Mandritto fendente from donna, parry from tutta porta di ferro. Ie. the crossing is more akin to the normal 2nd drill.

2nd drill cross-handed. Mandritto fendente from donna, parry from cinghiaro. Ie. the crossing is more akin to the normal 1st drill.

No training today, but I think I just had a lightbulb moment.

My thought was: if a fendente cut is parried on the false edge side (eg. a mandritto cut met by an ascending parry from cinghiaro), it is virtually impossible to bind there — so if the parry succeeds, the cross almost invariably ends up as zogho largo. (Using the definition of zogho stretto cross as “mezza spada, points present, pressure on blades”.)

Hence, whenever the guards are such that both have swords on the same side of the centerline, there cross tends to zogho largo.

Hm,

The extravaganza tournament! Jan won clearly and deservedly.

It’s been … 5 years? since my last freeplay with longsword. I had 7 fights in my pool: won 2 of them, lost 5 — 3 of which were double-kills. (The rules of the day were: first double kill is 10 pushups each, 2nd is a lost fight for both.)

Available weapons were spear, longsword, dagger, and wrestling. I only had longsword and dagger fights.

Most of the double kills were — I think — due to me not closing the line properly in either the cover or the strike. Sometimes my frontale wasn’t where it should have been, and when I went on to cut I got cut myself. Sometimes my attacks left the line to my hands open. It also seems I have a terrible tendency to lead with the hands.

Managed to make posta di donna, extend into bicorno, deceive the parry, continue with the thrust to work. First time I tried it against Mike it ended up as the least embarrassing double-kill of the day: he covered it, but could not set the bicorno aside (that guard is bleeding strong sideways) and ended up cutting me while I thrust him. After the tournament proper I fought again with Joni (our earlier fight had been a complete fuckup on both sides), and managed to make it work as I remembered to deceive the parry. Still plenty of double-kills, but not so many totally useless ones.

I also fought another fight after the tournament against Philip, and learned that that poor old man from Furlan really knew what he was speaking about. His instructions for Chingiale are golden: I managed to mess up Philips play several times that way, so we spent a while working on that attack and breaking it, before continuing.

In dagger, when both players are armed, I really need to make sure to neutralize the other dagger before committing to an attack.

Had a blast! :)

Later it was time for the school summer party, and good time was had.

Day started with a recap of zogho stretto longsword.

Then we covered the “in between” material: sword vs spear, staff and dagger vs spear, and branches vs spear.

Master vs the three companions: Dente di Cinghiaro, Posta di Donna on left, and Posta di Finestra on left all work here. (Ie. all roverso side guards work here?) In all cases the play is essentially breaking of the thrust.

Master with stafff and dagger: key is planting the staff to gain an achor for the parry.

Master with tree branches: perhaps the key lesson here is that you can use whatever you have handy according to the principles of the art. (And throwing an object as a distraction / secondary attack to create an opening?)

Discussion on the segno. Memory device, not mystical. There is no canonical set of mnemonic associations — make up your own. Eg. four animals, four guards of the abrazare, four things in the art. Five figures, five guards of dagger, five things against a dagger (disarm, break, bind, strike, throw). Etc. Make it your own. Virtues significant, though — but again, not mystical, but relatively straightforward.

Then a quick look at the guards of sword in armour.

Note on hand positions in half-sword: the hands appear both ways in different places. It is equally correct to grasp the blade with palm up or palm down.

We didn’t spend very much time on sword in armour — it is really best practised when actually in armour. Much of the sword in armour is focused in exploiting openings in the armour, or creating them. (Opening a visor in order to thrust to the face, etc.)

Then we looked at spear. Fiore’s spear appears to be used ambidextrously. Finestra is taken with crossed hands on both sides — when thrusting the spear crosses the body (covering incoming attack) and ends up on the opposite side. Fiore also shows Finestra taken with uncrossed hands, but that is perhaps for thrusting without stepping?)

The was time for poleaxe. Poleaxe is purely an armoured weapon: if you’re out of harness a sword is superior because it is lighter and faster. Only with the added protection of armour does poleaxe really come into its own.

I won’t even try to summarize the spear and poleaxe plays we did, information overloaded pretty much happened by that point — and while I can look at the treatise and remember things from the class… I need to spend more time on them physically before trying to recap them.

Spear was FUN, though. I want one. :)

Yesterday was a break from the SESH Fiore Extravaganza. Enjoyed a picknick at Suomenlinna with some friends. Cider and good time was had.

Today it was back to the salle from 1100 to 1700, with a lunch break in between.

After recapping sword in two hands zogho largo plays, it was time to get into zogho stretto.

Important note re. zogho largo: Fiore explicitly says that plays are linked, and have remedies and counters on both sides, etc. “It’s not rocket science, you figure it out.” :)

Oh boy. I don’t really know how to summarize this — which really tells me that I haven’t internalized most of it at all. Let me see.

Zogho large vs zogho stretto is about the quality of the crossing. Most of the time both are in zogho stretto or in zogho largo, but it is possible to build situations where the crossing is zogho largo for one player and stretto for the other.

You are in zogho stretto when:

1. You are crossed mezza spada.

2. Points are present. (Or rather, the opponents point is present.)

3. There is some pressure on the swords.

Zogho stretto crossings are mostly equal. Whoever identifies and correctly responds to the crossing wins, pretty much — most of the zogho stretto plays work for the attacker as well as the defender.

Being in a zogho stretto crossing means you must control the opponents point somehow, and enter. “It’s stretto because you are constrained to enter.”

Zogho stretto pretty much means you end up in abrazzare, but you can enter abrazzare from zogho largo as well.

Part of my confusion with the individual plays resulted from me being a lefty. …but towards the end a part of it clicked: the question is not “does the defender cover from left” but if you are crossed outside or inside.

Outside/indide, open line, amount of pressure blades, distance, and height of hands seem to be the main variables which govern which play is approriate. Ie. first master of zogho stretto governs crosses where the bind is on the inside, and the second master of zogho stretto (Pisano-Dossi) governs crosses on the outside.

(The cross is on the inside if the opponent’s blade opposes your mandritto, and on the outside if it opposes your riverso — obviously regardless of how you’ve arrived at the cross.)

If both are same-handed, then if one is crossed on the inside, so is the other one.

On the other hand, with cross-handed players, if one is crossed on the inside, the other one is crossed on the outside. So even if in cross-handed play the cross is still an equal opportunity, the correct options for both sides are not the same as with same-handed players.

That sorted out, let’s have a look at some of the plays.

Crossed on the inside, able to open the line: 1st master, 2nd play.

Crossed on the inside, unable to open the line: 1st master, 3rd or 4th play.

Crossed on the outside, closed line: 2nd master, 2nd play.

Crossed on the inside, open line: 2nd master, 3rd play.

Unless I’m confusing myself terribly, the Getty manuscript has only the first master of zogho stretto? So maybe the side the cross is on isn’t all that important — except most plays obviously require it to be on one or the other.

Hm.

Apropos nothing: I don’t actually write these completely from memory, but rather from memory supplemented by the Leoni translation.

Today was a full day again — 5h. Fitness-wise I was able to keep going without notable trouble, but the tendons behind my right knee put up a notice during the lunch break, but careful stretching and long slow walking warmup made them happier.

First was recap of sword vs dagger: defences of dagger vs sword (cut and trust, beaten wide or not), and defences of sheathed sword vs dagger (point up or point down, with a pass or without.)

Then a short study of the 6 unnamed (with the exception of posta di donna) “special” guards. Guard for throwing a sword, one handed dente di chengiero, guard for throwing a long, half sword, posta di donna, posta di donna by the blade. Note: these can really be considered ways of holding the sword as opposed to guards, sort of.

Then a study of the blows of the sword. Named guards are created by the blows. Note on mezzani: riverso mezzani is always with the false edge. Fiore does strike vertically witth the true edge from the riverso side as well, but that is called a riverso tondo.

Then a study of the 12 guards of the sword in two hands.

Tutta Porta di Ferro. Exchanges and breaks thrusts and delivers thrusts. Parries, passes, and comes to close.

vs

Posta di Donna Destra. (Rear-weighted, point low.) Makes and covers all seven blows. Breaks other guards with great blows. Exhanges thrust. Pass first moving the other foot off the line. Uncertain if instruction re. exchange of thrust of posta di donna destra in general.

Posta di Finestra. (Arms crossed.) Breaks and exchanges thrust and delivers its own. Can oppose all guards.

vs

Posta di Donna SInistra. (Rear-weighted, point horizontal) Breaks thrusts, delivers great strikes. Enters close play.

Posta di Longa. Hands high, point high. Probes guards and deceives them. Thrusts, avoids cuts and delivers them. Full of deception.

vs

Porta di Ferro Mezzana. Delivers thrusts, beats away attacks then comes back with a fendente.

Posta Breve. Better in armor. Probes for opportunity to thrust and pass forward. Remains in motion. Deceptive.

vs

Dente di Cinghiaro. Delivers strong underhand thrusts without stepping, comes back with a fendente to arms.

Posta di Coda Lunga. Can thrust forward, parry, and strike. Passes forward with a fendente into close play. Good for waiting.

vs

Posta di Bicorno. Keeps the point in line by supporting the flat.

Posta Frontale. Good for making the cross.

vs

Dente di Cinghiaro Mezzana. Akin to normal dente di cinghiaro.

Whew.

Then came the plays of zogho largo.

1st Master, 1st play. Master makes the cross at the point of the swords, opponent’s point remains on line, strikes on the other side with a fendente to head and arms.

1st Master, 2nd play. Scholar show alternative continuation from the cross at points, when opponents point is beaten wide: thrusting to the face.

2nd Master, 1st play. Cross is mezza spada.

2nd Master, 2nd play. If the point is beaten wide, slide blade over opponents hands and thrust the chest while passing out of line.

2nd Master, 3rd play. If the point remains in line, step forward and grab the blade, then strike with a cut or thrust.

2nd Master, 4th play. As 3rd, but also kicks under the player’s knee.

2nd Master, 5th play. (Colpi villano, aka peasant’s strike.) Cross an overly committed downward blow at mezza spada without opposing it as such — step and pass offline, using power of his blow to power your own fendente to his head.

2nd Master, 6th play. Alternative cont. to previous. If the player has withdrawn out of range and tries to counter with a riverso under the arm, step forward and place your sword on his.

2nd Master, 7th play. Slipping the leg.

2nd Master, 8th play. If the crossing ends up tutta spada, kick to the balls. Countered by grabbing the leg.

2nd Master, 9th play. Exchange of thrust. Hands low. Exchange of thrust requires swords to start on the opposite sides of the line.

2nd Master, 10th play. In the even of a miss, continue exchange of thrust by passing and grabbing players sword.

2nd Master, 11th play. Breaking of thrust.

2nd Master, 12th play. After breaking of thrust stomp the sword down, riverso mezzani under the beard, coming back with a fendente to arms or hands.

2nd Master, 13th play. After breaking of thrust stomp the sword down, cut to the head.

2nd Master, 14th play. If player tries to parry after breaking of thrust, hook his arm with the pommel and grab your own blade to strike him in the head.

2nd Master, 15th play. Alternatively, elbow push.

2nd Master, 16th play. After elbow push, follow with a pass and strike.

2nd Master, 17th play. Punta falsa.

2nd Master, 18th play. Counter to punta falsa. (Doesn’t work right cross-handed.)

Whew.

Today was only half a day of “official training”, but stayed behind with some folks and worked stuff afterwards for maybe an hour or two.

First was revision of the first 6 plays of abrazare. (1. cover, 2. armbar, 3. throw, 4. alternative cover w/ player right leg forward — twist, 5. alternative cover w/ player left leg forward — twist, 6. counter remedy to 4 and 5 w/ elbow-push), the 9 masters of dagger (1. mandritto, 2. center crossed, 3. roverso, 4. both hands center, 5. players unarmed hand is forward, 6. dagger in both hands high lines, 7. dagger crossed, 8. low lines with dagger in both hands, hands doubled or hands crossed, 9. low lines with both hands). and the first 8 plays of the first master of dagger (1. cover and disarm, 2. counter to previous by turning the arm, 3. ligadura mezzana, 4. counter to previous, 5. cover and grab elbow from beneath, 6. counter to previous, 7. takedown, 8. cover on the other side).

Then, dagger defences vs sword. These plays are tricky beasts. They seem simple, but seem to me to be fiendishly hard to do with good confidence. Key lesson: need to be able to tell thrusts from cuts, since they demand very different responses.

Then sheathed sword defences vs dagger. Very cool beans. Key lesson: step back when going the long way around to gain time. Question: these are done with the sword in sheath, but unattached. In what kind of social context was that likely to occur? (These are part of the same dagger vs. sword segment of the manual as the previous ones.)

Then sword in one hand. Very similar to defending against a sword with a dagger. Key lesson: need to differentiate between cut and thrust again. Need to also differentiate between ending up inside or outside: second play is the inside line, and third play the outside line.

After lunch worked on the cutting drill: the “under the beard cut” after breaking of the thrust is done with hands, not shoulders. Frontale and mezzana are done without stepping, half-sword thrust with an acressere.

The covered first and second drills and exchange of thrust and breaking of thrust with Jaakko.

First drill: the cut to the hands is mandritto, the thrust follows in the same line. The attackers response to the rebattare prevents the cut to the hands from happening — it isn’t countered separately. The final counter is the “horse move”.

Second drill: rebattare with accressere from chengiero. Final counter is with both hands — like 4th play of the 1st master of dagger.

Exchange of thrust: hands remain low.

Breaking of thrust: distance should be such that you could step on players sword.

In the morning we finished the first master of dagger, and in the afternoon the other 8 masters were covered.

Notes on the treatise.

Scholars follow remedy masters, not counter remedies. Counter remedies counter either the cover of the remedy master (and hence all his scholars), or specific plays of his scholars. Counter remedy masters have no scholars.

So, when describing a play, there is only one player and the other is either a remedy master, a scholar, or a counter remedy master.

Getty (incl. Malipiero’s republication) has pagination wrong. folio 38 (or thereabouts) has plays of the fourth master of dagger and the fifth remedy master of dagger — and belongs between folios 14 and 15 (or thereabouts — didn’t doublecheck the numbers just now). When building an interpretation of a play, while it it important to remain faithful the the pictures, some things cannot really be controlled — like the exact way the player responds to a technique.

The first 8 plays of the first master of dagger form a synosis of the entire system. (Or can be read as a synopsis, at least.)

When Fiore says that something has no counter, it means that “when things have progressed this far, he’s done for” — not that it cannot be countered at an earlier point in time.

Several plays refer to other plays: second master of dagger states that he can do all the plays of the first master — in addition to four of his own. Etc. So the further the book progresses, the more compressed it becomes. (There are also some forward references, sort of.)

Ordering of the masters of dagger is sort-of logical.

1st master on the left (or rather, against mandritto.) 2nd master in the middle with arms crossed. 3rd master on the right (against riverso.) 4th master in the middle with arms straight. 5th master in the middle against a leading unarmed hand. 6th master with dagger in both hands covering high lines. 7th master with dagger in crossed hands covering high lines. 8th master covering the low line with dagger or with hands doubled or crossed. 9th master covering the low lines without dagger with both arms straight.

Notes on specific plays

1st master, 16h play: scholar does accressere and volta stabile — not tutta volta.

1st master, 18th play: if the initial cover didn’t have enough strength to bend the player’s arm, this play follows.

1st master, 20th play: scholar needs to be off the line to avoid getting the foot being lifted in his nuts.

2nd master, all plays: in armor only. Note relatively wide measure.

3rd master: differences between the Pisano Dossi and Getty versions. Use Getty numbering and mention Pisano Dossi when referring to a play specific to it (school convention.)

5th master, all plays: plays of the 5th master apply when the non-weapon hand is the primary threat. If the dagger hand comes into play, it dictates the response — pretty much all the plays work even if the other hand is grabbing the collar.

Kazoink! 5 hours of abrazare and dagger.

Let me see how much I can manage to unpack.

Abrazare

First play of abrazare: just the cover. It is also the only remedy master of abrazare. (?) Question is, how do we arrive in that cover? Fiore doesn’t really tell us. One option: attacker enters with posta longa, intending to throw us or take our weapon with his right hand.

Second play: turn over his arm, hands together, stepping with the right foot either throws him on his face or dislocates his shoulder.

Third play: he has countered by pulling his arm off from our shoulder, intending to perhaps strike our groin or going for a takedown via our left hip. Counter by pushing his throat in the direction of the missing leg, and lifting his left leg. (Throw.)

Fourth play: the initial cover has left his arm under ours, and both have their right legs forward. Right hand pushes his throat and left controls his back/hips. This should result destroying his balance and turning him clockwise into a takedown … but I didn’t really get this to work realiably or properly, so maybe there’s a misunderstanding here?

Fifth play: almost the same, but his left leg is forward. In this case I got the balance-destruction to work.

Sixth play: counter to fourth and fifth. “Push the elbow of the hand that offends your face.”

Dagger

Major change (?) to way things have been done. Instead of the unarmed player waiting passively, he initiates by attacking the player with the dagger — as Fiore says! “As you become suspicious of someone’s dangerous knife, immediately go against him with your arms, hands and elbows.” (9 Verso) This changes the feel of the plays of the dagger drastically.

1st Master, First play: as the unarmed player goes for the armed player’s dagger (plus high line?), the other player moves to an open line and strikes fendente. The unarmed player defends with his left hand and disarms.

Second play: the armed player turns his hand after the defence, striking the unarmed player in the side.

Third play: the unarmed player enters deeper, and make the middle bind. (Chiave mezzane?)

Fourth play: the armed player counters by joining his hands and turning.

Fifth play: unarmed player does a takedown by using the right forearm of the armed player as a lever (grabbing it from underneath), optionally also pulling his left leg up.

Sixth play: counter to previous. Join hands, force the dagger down.

Seventh play: unarmed player continues the cover with a takedown / hip throw.

Eigth play: variation on the initial cover: the dagger ends up on the inside, unarmed player turns it down to strike the armed player.

Ninth play: armed player intercepts the initial cover with his left hand, allowing him to strike the unarmed player’s back.

 10th and 11th play. Not sure if we actually did these.

12th play: after cover unarmed attacker binds the arm with both hands.

13th play: counter to previous. Armed player joins hands and forces the dagger down.

14th play: initial cover done with hands joined.

15th play: counter to previous. Armed player pushes on the right elbow.

…not so clear on the rest, or if we actually did them. Well, I know we did some other plays as well, but I can’t really place them into context.

A nice start for a week of immersion in Fiore.