Art of the Sword

"The tall man has the vantage, he can maintain his fight, both by nature and by art, with more ease than can the man of mean stature, because the man of mean stature has thereby a further course with his feet to pass to the Place, wherein he may strike or thrust home, and in winning of that place, is driven by art to come guarded under his wards to defend himself, because in the time of his coming, the tall man may have both naturally or artificially strike or thrust home, in which time, if the man of mean stature should fail in the least iota of his art, he should be in great danger of death or hurt." George Silver, Paradoxes of Defence 1599 A little follow on to this post.

"In the HEMA community critics are rarely remembered. A great many of them act out of self-interest, or out of the perverse pleasure of seeing others torn down, or because they find strength in it because they lack strength of their own."  Richard Marsden

"The new 2016 entry level longsword. The crossguard is new, 2mm thicker to be more durable and a new improved design. Also the grip has a new waisted design. The blade is hollow ground and flexes enough to fence safely and the tip is large and round (about 15x6mm) and now the edges are thick (2.5mm c.) to withstand the sparring duties." Website here This is the "basic" sword produced by Danelli Armouries. I've been keen to try these guys after reading a few positive reviews from friends. Prior to this I had no experience of Danelli Armouries. I can say firstly that Giulia has been an absolute pleasure to deal with, a rapid and thorough responder to emails! I've over 40 emails in my trail which is exceptional and a testament to their patience, with me, and their communication skills. Their postage and packaging was excellent, the shipping time was extraordinary (4 days to New Zealand). There was a little problem with one of the swords I ordered

"Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack"   ―  Sun Tzu, The Art of War Just to clarify my understanding of terms, as I see it, being offensive or defensive is about who takes that first step from out of range to into range, whomever takes that step is being offensive and whomever waits to receive that step is being defensive. I then agree with Meyer that broadly people fall into four types based on who steps into range and then the type of action they do in range. So this means either acting Before or After in the first action and then acting Before or After on the second action.  This breaks down into four behavior types: 1. Acts Before, then acts Before 2. Acts Before, then acts After 3. Acts After, then acts Before 4. Acts After, then acts After Sounds weird but I think it is shorthand for: 1. This person steps into measure behind an action that blocks their opponent & takes center, they then act immediately to s