Art of the Sword

"It is not possible for me to make a better gift than to offer you the opportunity of understanding in the shortest time all that I have learnt in so many years, and with so many troubles and dangers; which work I have not embellished with swelling or magnificent words, not stuffed with rounded periods, not with any extrinsic allurements or adornments whatever, with which so many are accustomed to embellish their works; for I have wished either that no honour should be given it, or else that the truth of the matter and the weightiness of the theme shall make it acceptable." - The Prince, Machiavelli

I was chatting with one of my club the other night and she said she couldn't find any information about this on the internet so I thought I'd put something up here in case it wasn't an observation that was well known. A distinct part of the "German" branch of longsword fighting, to my mind, is the use of the three ways of cutting with a longsword. These are true edge cuts and the two types of false edge cuts. If you haven't already made this observation, then on each cut line you can do the cut three ways. Looking at the High Line then firstly, obviously, there's with the true edge. Secondly you can push the pommel under your arm turning the blade anti-clockwise for the Crooked (or "hooking" as I think of it) false edge cut, and finally you can Squint (or "twisting" as I think of it) the blade clockwise to bring around the false edge for the Twisting cut. On your right side the hooking type cut ends with your palm facing out, while ...

Just a few thoughts about the above video. It's a nice idea that skill "vastly outmatches" size and strength. Unfortunately this idea that there is a spectrum with "physiology" on one end and "skill" at the other end isn't really true and it can be detrimental to your training to operate under this assumption. Generally speaking they go hand in hand. In all sports there's a "software" element and a "hardware" element, this means a element that is skill based and learnt (like Software on a computer) and there is an element that is physiological (like the hardware on a computer). Having better software can make a computer with bad hardware operate better but I doubt it would vastly overcompensate against a computer with better hardware. Likewise in fencing if I had the choice I'd definitely trade off for physical advantages. Why? Because those with physical advantages can achieve disproportionately greater outcomes ...

Check out the sequence of pictures. The sword starts in a point backwards cutting position, like Meyer high guard, ends in a wide position. No step but the torso has twisted though and this is quite obviously a strong blow. These photos bring it home to me about how fast swords move, something that I'm not really conscious of when I'm training. In this sequence each frame is a tenth of a second, so this heavy blow took 0.3 seconds to execute from start to finish. The blow to the bottle probably less than 0.1 seconds (see how the sword is already through the bottle in the middle picture). This is a good illustration of Silvers idea of Place, that if your opponent is in a position where they can attack an opening without having to step then there is pretty much nothing you can do about it. It highlights the importance of reading your opponents intentions and setting corresponding body mechanics in place before someone is in this position. Thanks to Ian Nelson for the ph...

" these devices are not so set in stone that they cannot be changed in practice - they are merely examples from which everyone may seek, derive, and learn devices according to his opportunity, and may arrange and change them as suits him.  For as we are not all of a single nature, so we also cannot all have a single style in combat; yet all must nonetheless arise and be derived from a single basis"  - Meyer, 2.19r

"You should here learn firstly how to recognize an opening quickly, secondly how to act against it." -  Meyer, 2.15r How do we improve both the speed and quality of our reactions? 1. Simplify the stimulus to only the relevant 2. Limit our reactions to only the optimal While also making it difficult for our opponent to do this to us, simple huh? No. "Cognition is the art of focusing on the relevant and deliberately ignoring the rest" -  Gerd Gigerenzer & Peter M. Todd The Principles tell us what information is relevant and then neatly packages this into simplified concepts: "Mechanics" recognizes that force generation and body language is highly important information. This is packaged into Guard postures and Openings.  "Place" highlights that the space between you and your opponent is highly important information. This is packaged into Measure and Line of Fight.  "Time" highlights the speed is highly important informat...

The club I hang around with has just had it's annual open invite tournament . It's the first time I've been in a "proper" tournament, i.e. formal and interclub, in a very long time. I was competing in Longsword, Singlesword and Spear and line judging in Rapier. These are just some thoughts on it: It's the first "proper" tournament I've done that followed a Franco-Belgian ruleset which was interesting. Surprisingly given that the main argument I hear in favor of the ruleset was that everyone does more fighting, I actually felt like I was standing around more and fighting less than at a "normal" tournament. This could have been down to the number of people, 25+. Each bout was over very quickly and if you didn't spend much time as the King then you didn't do much fighting at all. At least with a "hierarchical" type ruleset you are either progressing up the ranks or you are knocked out and can toddle off to free play. ...