Rapier Dagger Treatise

By Baron Don Joseph Blayde

Black Tiger Rapier Acadamie

DRAFT1A

Introduction:

If youre ready for your rapier/dagger game to rise to the next level, the following techniques and

strategy will help you get there. The best advice I can give you is practice more. Unfortunately, practice

alone will not make your game better if youre using bad techniques. Due to this reality, Ive gone ahead

and given you a few more tools to work with.

Some of what you are about to read is not what you are probably used to doing. First, Ive reworked the

typical historical stance. The new stance gives up a bit of profile posture to provide two very important

advantages. If you recall, fencing is an art form. Thats why there are so many varying opinions on

how you should do it. The first change that comes from the stance is a huge emphasis on parrying with

the dagger including the mostly underused cross parry that will be the backbone of your defense. The

next change this new stance will provide is the ability to lunge further than you once could. Not only will

this surprise you, but it will surprise your opponent. These two changes will, without doubt, give you

both a better defense and a more potent offense.

Beyond these two changes, you will learn how to use measure and tempo to defeat your opponents.

Once these two concepts are mastered, Ive provided you with some very effective techniques to

manipulate your adversary which will make striking him easier. And also, Ive included some drills that

if practiced will hone your techniques and philosophy.

This treatise is not a comprehensive beginning fencing manual, but one focused on the use of rapier and

dagger. The concepts and techniques are proven and are based on historical principles. The changes

Ive made come from years of practice and teaching. These concepts are my art and differentiate the

Black Tiger Academie from other schools of fence. So with that being said, let us begin.

Stance:

Your stance is a key component of this style. If you look at Fabris and Capo Ferro, you will see two

distinct stances that are very different yet each author has his own reasoning for having fighters stand a

certain way. Fabris believed that denying the body was a very important key to success while Capo

Ferro believed that denying the head was the way to go. Both stances were very profile and similar in

that they showed a smaller target than the square stance. Who was right? Unfortunately, there isnt

enough historical data weighing the success of either of these authors students, so the answer is

nobody really knows. What is most important is to understand how youre standing and why.

The advantage of the stance you are about to learn is you will be able to utilize the cross-parry

effectively. The advantage of the cross parry is in its simplicity and brevity. The cross parry is part of an

overall high/low defensive strategy. By using what I call the square stance, you will be able to use

your dagger to guard your entire upper torso and most of your legs as well. Your primary weapon will

then be free to counter attack in tempo and will only be responsible for guarding your body below the

waist. What you give up in the square stance is an amount of surface area in your chest and belly that is

now facing and closer to your opponent. As in any stance whether it be Fabris or Capo Ferro, to gain an

advantage in one area is more than likely to lose an advantage in another. By squaring the stance, there

are huge advantages, but they come with a price. You will learn how to take advantage of the stance

and minimize its downfalls.

The key ingredients of the square stance are as follows:

1. Body your body should be pretty close to straight up and down.

2. Shoulders your shoulders should be square to your opponent.

3. Hands your dagger hand should be comfortable in front of you with the dagger pointing

forward at your opponents shoulder (on the same side as the dagger hand)at a 30 degree angle

up and closing off one side of your body. The forearm should be horizontal to the ground with

the elbow just to the outside of your torso but no more than three inches in front of you.

4. Sword your sword should be in the Terza guard but refused

to not allow your opponent easy hand shots.

5. Feet your primary weapon foot should be the forward foot

in the stance. It should be pointed straight forward and your

off hand weapon foot should be slightly turned out, but no

more than 30 degrees unlike many stances where your back

foot is sideways or nearly so The back foot can be nearly

straight forward as well. The feet placement allows for ease

in squaring your shoulders and it also allows you to push off

the ball of your foot for a longer lunge.

6. Legs- your knees should be slightly bent out of measure. The

closer you get to measure, the more your knees should bend

to allow for quick movement. Do not stay in the deeper knee

bend in measure for too long because your legs will tire the

lower your stance. If youre tiring, move to a safe distance to rest.

The square stance has advantages in sword and dagger as well as single sword. As stated above, the

squaring of the shoulders allows the dagger to pick up shots from the outside and close that line. This is

very important when facing someone who fights with the opposite primary hand as you. But, when

Blayde in action Antir/West War 2009.

fighting a same handed opponent, it also allows you to pickup shots to your sword arm and hand

without twisting your torso. Why is this important? Because twisting takes tempo and tempo is money!

The next advantage of the square stance is the high low defense concept. What Im talking about is

compartmentalization of defensive responsibilities. This is not a new concept and has been around in

warfare for centuries. The dagger is responsible for guarding the head and face, the sword arm, the

torso, the back leg. The sword is responsible for guarding the front leg and foot. On offense, the sword

is responsible for binding, beating, controlling and hitting the opponent. The dagger may also be called

upon to hit the opponent. But, the primary goal of using dagger in the high low defense is to free up the

sword to riposte in single tempo.

Movement

Introduction to Movement

One of the key ingredients in this style is the reliance on movement. If you look at many aspects of

Fabris or Capo Ferro style defense, they both relied heavily upon closing the line of engagement and

riposting in single time. One of the reasons for the high low defense in rapier/dagger is to sever that

reliance on closing lines with the primary sword and utilizing the dagger parry to improve the

opportunity to riposte in single time. So, to effectively do this, the best and first line of defense is a

backward movement when your opponent attempts to close measure.

The number one thing that most fencers fail to do when their opponent takes a step towards them is to

immediately retreat. The slower the response time between your opponents step and your retreat is

the difference between getting touched a lot and hardly getting touched. There is no time to think

when your opponent takes a step into his measure. When you recognize the step you should do one of

two things immediately. You should strike or you should retreat. What you should never do is wait.

When your opponent takes a step towards you as soon as you recognize it you should retreat. What this

will do for you is put you in a position to make a small movement backwards instead of a large

movement backwards. Because you are only making a small backwards adjustment or no adjustment at

all, your opportunity to keep your balance and also sink in your stance to load your legs gives allows you

to strike back quickly. Striking back quickly is your best opportunity to defeat your opponent on his

attack. So, movement is your best defense.

Movement and the Square Stance

Moving in the square stance is much more like regular walking than attempting to move with your back

foot sideways or at a very big angle. By adjusting your back foot to nearly forward, your ability to move

forward and backward will seem easier. Yes, it will seem awkward at first because if youve learned

from other teachers, nearly everyone one of them would have taught you to stand profile with your

back foot either completely sideways or nearly so.

The key to moving in the square stance is that you will now be pushing off the ball of your back foot.

You will still lift your front toe so as not to trip over terrain. Your front foot will still lead, followed by

your back foot as youve been taught. The big difference in this new movement technique over

historical or classical techniques is your ability to push completely off the back foot during a lunge and

gain an extra number of inches of striking distance without overextending your knee. This technique

will be covered later in the treatise but is one if not the biggest advantage of the square stance.

Lunging in the Square Stance

As I just stated, probably the biggest advantage of the square stance is the ability to gain more distance

from your lunge by pushing off the ball of your foot. But, there are several different ways to use this in a

duel. First, we will discuss the mechanics of the lunge and then elaborate on how to setup your

opponent with your ability to change lunge distance without an obvious tell.

At shorter distances and for sniping hands/arms, there is no need to come off the ball of your foot. You

should merely make a normal lunge without lifting your heel off the ground. This does several things for

you and more importantly for your opponent. It establishes in your opponents mind how far you are

able to lunge.

When you want to get more distance from the lunge, you step further coming off your heel and

increasing your lunge the distance of the length of your foot. Your heel doesnt cross in front of your

front toe. This lunge will surprise your opponent if youve already lunged without coming off your heel.

When you really need to increase your distance, you may push off until your front toe is facing

backward. This lunge will get you nearly twice your shoe length of extra distance. When setting up your

opponent, dont show this lunge until the right moment.

Lastly, because you are pushing off the ball of your foot, you can use it to propel yourself even further.

By getting really low, you will be able to store kinetic energy in your back foot. When you lunge, push

very hard off the back foot and take a large step in the process. You will be able to leap forward into

your lunge. This type of lunge should be used very carefully as it is much less easy to control than all

other lunges.

Movement as your Primary Defense

Your first line of defense is your feet. Whenever your opponent attacks, you retreat unless your

opponent attacks at a time and place where a retreat is not necessary. What makes a retreat

unnecessary is when your opponent misreads the measure or when you have retreated on the

preparatory step and adjusted the distance between you so that your opponent would have hit you

even if you had not parried. This is a very difficult task to accomplish as your opponent may not always

lunge the same distance as I described above.

The key to causing your opponent to lunge when still at an ineffective range or at a marginally effective

range is to quickly move back whenever your opponent moves forward. The longer it takes you to move

back, the more effective your opponents advance/preparatory step will be.

One of the first things you learn in basic fencing is to move back when your opponent moves forward.

The key is to not hesitate for one moment. In fact, not only should you not hesitate but you should

anticipate and react to any little twitch or inkling that you opponent is moving forward. If youre wrong,

youre still good and you can move back into measure when ready. But, if you wait to be sure your

opponent is moving forward and youre late, the consequences are severe. Its better to move back and

be wrong than to hesitate and be wrong.

When moving back you should gage how far your opponent will lunge. To do this, you need to look at

what you know of your opponents stature, arm length, leg length, technique, knee bend and energy

used to lunge. When you retreat, you want to retreat just out of measure of the lunge. When done

right, youre in the perfect position for a riposte. Just out of measure means within a couple of inches of

where your opponents sword stops.

A crucial aspect of your retreat is how you perform it. Following are the key aspects:

1. Do not lean backwards thus requiring tempo to return to upright.

2. Do not rise up. One of the biggest beginner mistakes is to rise as you retreat. Dont do it.

3. Parry to move the blade out of line. Parry if you misjudged your opponents lunge.

4. Void as a last resort.

Drills:

The following drills really help students get very comfortable with moving back against attacks.

Drill 1: (single sword)

Your partner takes one preparatory step towards you and lunges at your body or head then

retreats back to the original position prior to the lunge. Upon the preparatory step, you counter

it with a retreat. When your partner lunges, you adjust the distance required to cause the

attack to fall just short of you (ideally 1 to 3 inches). As your partner recovers, you attack him

on the recovery. You do not parry. You repeat this 5 times each.

Drill 2: (single sword)

Your partner takes one preparatory step towards you and lunges at your body or head then

retreats back to the original position prior to the lunge. Upon the preparatory step, you counter

it with a retreat. When your partner lunges, you adjust the distance required to cause the

attack to fall just short of you (ideally 1 to 3 inches). On the attack, you parry it with your off

hand. As your partner recovers, you attack him on the recovery. You make sure you have

parried the blade out of the way sufficiently or you dont attack, but recover forward as your

partner retreats. You repeat this 5 times each.

Drill 3: (sword dagger)

Your partner takes one preparatory step towards you and lunges at your body or head then

retreats back to the original position prior to the lunge. Upon the preparatory step, you counter

it with a retreat. When your partner lunges, you adjust the distance required to cause the

attack to fall just short of you (ideally 1 to 3 inches). On the attack, you parry it with your

dagger. You may parry across or down and depending on the placement of the shot. As your

partner recovers, you attack him on the recovery. You make sure you have parried the blade

out of the way sufficiently or you dont attack, but recover forward as your partner retreats.

You maintain domination with the dagger on the riposte. You repeat this 5 times each.

The Guards and Parrying

Capo Ferro preferred terza guard for defense and others for offense and I am in agreement. For your

primary sword arm, ignore all guards but Terza (third) in this style. Prima (first) is nice for showing you

can draw your sword. Seconda (second) is unnecessarily wide. Quarta (fourth) is also not necessary as

you will move into that position when gaining the blade. As Capo Ferro espoused, the seconda and

quarta are positions you move into to close lines when attacking. There are other positions that

different period masters espouse as options and those should be ignored as well. There are also

different ways to hold the dagger (as outlined in stance) and those should also be ignored with this

system. One of the keys to this system of sword and dagger is brevity of motion. Knowing where you

sword and dagger are and getting them back to the basic defensive position as soon as possible

simplifies your next action. It also decreases the time it will take you to perform your next action.

Once you are in a basic terza guard, you should move it into a refused position. The next thing you

should do is allow your arm to relax, especially at the elbow. Many fencers try to keep their arm higher

than it would naturally hang, but this causes fatigue. Your sword should be pointing forward and

downward when well out of measure. The reason for this is to conserve energy. As you move forward

you should raise the tip of the sword but still keep it lower than horizontal. The sword should be in line

with your opponents shoulder. Basically, your sword should be pointing straight forward with the tip

down. It should be held low with the hand barely in front of the hip.

(Many would argue that you should point your sword at your opponents face or belly. This is a good

argument. The further your tip is away from your opponent, the longer it will take you to strike. If your

blade is pointing at the ground and the tip is near the ground, you have a long way to go. However, you

have to weigh the ease in which your opponent may take your blade because it is in reach against the

extra distance you have to travel to strike. So, heres the compromise. The refused guard with the blade

low will take longer to strike the body than a blade outstretched. But as you move closer to measure and

gaining the blade, the tip should come up to nearly or horizontal, but only for brief moments. You do not

want to give you opponent much time to gain your blade easily. In doing so, you recover much of the

time lost while giving your opponent few opportunities to easily gain your blade)

The dagger arm is held outward away from the body (as described in Stance) to intercept the

opponents blade in plenty of time to parry. Morozzo was very clear on this principle in his buckler

technique. The purpose of holding the dagger away from your body does two things for you. The

further away it is, the more room you have for mistakes. Secondly, the further away it is, the smaller

the movement you need to make to deflect your opponents blade.

Dagger Parries

You will be using two parries if your technique is good. The first parry is the cross-parry. The second

parry is the downward parry (two parry). To carry out a good cross parry, simply keep your wrist in the

same position as you move your arm across your body until the incoming blade misses you. Dont twist

your wrist. Dont parry downward. Dont change the angle of the blade. Let it happen naturally. If the

attack is high, raise the arm at the appropriate angle towards the shot keeping in mind you want to

parry with the forte of the dagger. If the attack is low, lower the arm at the appropriate angle as well.

As the arm crosses your body, there will be a natural circular movement back towards your body. This is

acceptable. Dont try to push the parry artificially outwards as you parry to keep it away from your

body. This will cause your dagger shoulder to come forward moving your sword arm shoulder

backwards thus causing a delay in any riposte you could have made.

Against same handed opponents, you will be intercepting the blade early and moving it towards your

sword arm side. Against opposite handed opponents, shots coming from the outside are hard to keep

from hitting you unless you parry properly. However, if you follow the above technique, you should be

able to handle them without much problem.

The next step is critical in dealing with low attacks to the sword arm and it also will allow you to quickly

riposte. Whenever your sword arm is attacked, you need to drop your sword arm so your arm is vertical

but cock your wrist to keep your tip from dropping too much. This will allow your dagger to cover the

arm and fend off the shot. The following riposte is done by extending your arm and letting the dagger

stay in the position where it gained the blade as you step forward into the lunge.

The downward parry should only be used to ward off low attacks to the middle or dagger side. It should

never be used to ward off attacks to the sword arm side or anything past the middle of the torso. The

sword arm should be used to parry most attacks that are low or are inside. Use a quarta or seconda

parry depending upon the placement of the shot. Always use the cross parry for anything above the

sword hand. When you do, you have your opponents blade, and you can ride it all the way home.

The third parry is an upwards parry when your dagger is out of position. If you look at some fighters and

one of Capo Ferros en guarde positions, you will notice the dagger is already pointed inward. There will

be situations when you find yourself either with your dagger down or your dagger across. In this

instance, you need to parry up and outside. The quickest way to accomplish this is with the false edge

of your dagger. It becomes merely a flick. When you wouldnt do this is when you are receiving a

cutting blow from your opponent. Never use the false edge of a sword or dagger to parry a cut. But, it

is completely acceptable and quicker to do so when you are parrying a thrust. What you must keep in

mind when choosing this technique is how well your opponent will be able to change positions on the

blade and push you.

One setup with the upward parry is to reach out with your dagger several times attempting to take your

opponents sword. Your opponent may see this as an opportunity. When the blade disengages your

attempt, you are ready and reverse your motion then lunge in single time. Usually when this happens, it

is followed by a lunge without a step and it is easy to see coming.

Mixing Up your Parries

Your primary sword should parry to allow you to fool your opponent into believing that you will be

riposting in dui tempo (double time). Even though your dagger is your primary defensive weapon for

your torso, it is ok to mix it up at times. If your opponent is aware that you always cross parry, he may

attack with a hesitation and wait for your dagger to come across. That is why it is critical for you to

judge your distance properly on the retreat.

One way to set up your opponent is to make several sword parries either with or without ripostes.

Then, on the next one you cross dagger parry and riposte in single tempo. Most of the time, it is

acceptable to merely dagger parry and not riposte if the timing isnt right. It is more important to parry

and not get hit than to riposte when your measure or balance isnt positive.

The Cross Parry and Clearing your Sword

When using the cross parry, the biggest challenge is keeping the dagger and sword from interfering with

each other. The second biggest challenge is clearing the attacking sword out of the way when

recovering from an attack. To keep the dagger from hitting the arm on the cross parry, you should do

the following:

1. When you cross parry, drop the sword arm below the dagger parry.

2. Keep the sword nearly vertical by cocking the hand.

3. When riposting, keep the cross parry in place as the sword extends and attacks.

To clear the sword on the recovery from a lunge/attack, you should do the following:

1. First on the attack, you should keep the sword low until the latest possible moment. The reason

for this is to keep your dagger able to parry in case of a stop thrust.

2. When you recover, the sword hand should immediately drop instead of pull back. The process

of dropping the arm will bring it back into position for the low terza guard. By dropping the

hand, you will be clearing the high line for the dagger to parry any riposte.

3. Lastly, the dagger needs to return to the en guarde position after each parry as quickly as

possible to avoid having to parry up and out. What you dont want to do is give up closing a line

with the dagger prior to it being necessary.

Dictating the Tempo

There are numerous ways of dictating the tempo and an understanding of this concept is crucial to your

success. The idea is that you want to constantly be doing something when you are in measure so your

opponent is more concerned with what you are going to do next instead of causing you to guess what

your opponent will do. When your opponent has you guessing, he is dictating the tempo. When you are

causing your opponent to do that, you are the one in control. Below are several techniques for dictating

tempo. To do this you should do the following:

1. When your opponent attempts to close distance, you quickly retreat to maintain the distance

you want to keep. By controlling your opponents measure, you are controlling the tempo. If

you have a longer reach, constantly moving into a range where you may attack and your

opponent may not is an example of controlling the measure and dictating tempo.

2. When you want to move into measure, you move and any attempts by your opponent to control

the measure are defeated by quick movements out of his favorable distance. If your opponent

has a longer reach than you, it is best to stay outside of your opponents measure and make him

force his way into measure. By using this tactic, your opponent may make a mistake by

assuming you will continue retreating. In that instant, you may surprise your opponent and get

to the inside quickly or have a favorable distance where you can attack.

3. When your opponents blade is within your reach you should make every opportunity to either

beat the blade, bind the blade or gain the blade. To do this, you stay out of measure until you

are ready to move in. Once you do, you should immediately do something. You should either

strike where you can with the least amount of danger to yourself. Moving into measure quickly

and taking an arm shot is a way of dictating the tempo. If you do that a couple of times and

then move back out, you may set up your opponent into believing thats all you will do. Once

that thought is planted, your opportunity to strike home is greatly increased.

Hand sniping, foot sniping and beating are all good techniques for controlling the tempo. The key is to

use them as setups. The other key is moving back out of measure whenever your opponent attempts to

do those things to you. By controlling the measure your opportunity for setups and surprise greatly

increase. The amount you let your opponent do those things to you greatly decreases your opportunity

for surprise and greatly increases his.

Attacking Techniques

Attacking techniques are critical to success, but the most important aspect of a good attack is a solid

defense. When you attack, you need to have created a tempo or have gained a tempo by causing your

opponent to attack into your defense. You also need to have yourself covered on the attack. Because

you also have a dagger, it is not difficult to attack with cover. What you dont want to ever do is attack

without your defensive lines covered. Attacking down the middle into a solid defense is the last thing

you want to do. If youve gone through Capo Ferros plates, it becomes fairly obvious that the fool who

takes the bate always gets stuck. The wise man is always the one who gains the blade and waits for the

fool to disengage within measure. Dont be the fool.

1. Moving into measure

a. When moving into measure you should always act immediately and act decisively.

b. If you gain your opponents blade and you are able to move close enough, you can and will get

away with a straight thrust to either the belly or the head. A straight thrust usually wont work

if you are not close enough. You must use your own judgment to determine whether you have

closed enough to make a straight thrust.

c. When your opponent moves into measure you have two choices. First, you may immediately

attack. Use this option when your opponent hastily moves forward or when youve set him up.

Option two is to immediately retreat. You use this to keep your opponent from taking the

tempo from you.

d. Use CFs technique of maintaining domination of the blade throughout the attack. I.e., once you

have the sword bound out, keep it there. Dont allow the blade to come back into line.

2. Bind attacks

a. One of the safest ways to attack is to move quickly into measure while binding your opponents blade.

The bind provides you a tempo in which to attack.

b. To make the bind attack work with rapier and dagger, once you have the sword, you need to place

your dagger in a position to keep your opponent from disengaging over the top of or underneath the

bind. If your opponent attacks, your dagger will parry the blade in the tempo you attack.

3. There are two primary attacks from the bind. The first is to bind and then attack over or next to the

blade. The second is to bind then attack under the blade.

a. When you bind and attack over or parallel to the bound out blade, the primary weapon keeps the

opponents sword from being able to hit you as you attack. The dagger should also move into the parry

position to control your opponents blade as you attack. The bind is designed to provide the tempo in

which to attack. The dagger is there for extra protection. If your attack is high, the dagger will be below

the blade. If your attack is low, the dagger will cover above the blade. The dagger is there in case your

opponent deceives your blade on the bind and attacks in contratempo.

b. When you bind and attack under the blade, your dagger keeps the opponents blade from attacking

over the top. To accomplish this, after the bind as you slip your sword under your opponents blade,

you replace contact by your sword with your dagger. Once you know you have the blade, you can move

your dagger most of the way over, so as you change from bind to attack with your sword, you may easily

pick up the blade.

c. When binding with the sword, you should always place your dagger in a cross parry position where

the opponent can disengage over the bind. This is done on both same and opposite handed opponents.

In fact, one of the best setups is binding and expecting them to disengage over the top. When they do,

the dagger closes the line and you should immediately attack under the arm.

d. The purpose of a bind attack is to provide a tempo to strike your opponent. This concept goes back

to and before Capo Ferro. Everything is done in tempo. With a free tempo, you have time to attack

without being offended (stop thrust). And, with a dagger closing out the line, you not only have a free

tempo, your opponent may give you another tempo if he doesnt realize your dagger is already in

position to defend his next attack.

e. Dagger binds are tricky. Dont take huge steps into measure with an attempt to bind your opponents

sword with your dagger. It is a risky gambit. It is much better to let your opponent give you his sword

than to attempt to take it. However, once youve bound your opponents sword with yours, handing it

off to the dagger is a great way to free your sword for the attack.

3. Beat Attacks

a. Beating your opponents blade is not as solid as binding it. For one, if you miss the blade or hit it

wrong, your beat attack ends. When done right, it is a beautiful thing. What you need to remember is

to quickly move into measure and beat with the true edge of your sword (in most cases) and attack in

the tempo you create with the beat. There will be opportunities to beat with the false edge, but they

need to be done judiciously. Dont take chances if you dont need to.

b. Against same handed opponents, beat them down and away. As you attack, lower your dagger arm

(keeping the tip up) between your opponents sword and your body. Dont drop the tip just because the

sword is low. The reason I suggest this is because it is much easier to come over a lowered dagger than

to do any damage under it. Your arm will be naturally lower as you lunge and your dagger will be

creating a closed outside line.

c. Against opposite handed opponents, the beat is similar to the bind and what I described above. Beat

the blade down and away and then move your dagger over to close the outside line in a cross parry.

Attack with your sword hand low and come up from underneath. This will allow you to cover the line as

your recover from the attack if your opponent decides to come up and over on the outside. As you

recover from the attack, your sword arm will defend the legs.

4. Setup Techniques

a. Following I will explain various setup techniques you may use to draw your opponent into a position

where you have his sword bound and may easily attack him. The most important thing to remember

about a setup is to not put yourself in danger during the process. If you do them properly, they will give

you great advantage.

b. Insincere Attack: Hand sniping is a great way to gain an advantage in a duel. Hand sniping is also a

great way to setup your opponent. Many fighters will respond to a hand snipe by voiding the hand and

riposting. Because this technique is taught throughout the known world, it is expected. There are

different methods to riposte from a hand snipe, so you need to be aware of them.

i. Your opponent may make a quick return strike to your arm after your attempt.

ii. Your opponent may make a quick return strike to your head or body after your attempt.

iii. Your opponent may void the arm with an outward roll that places his tip on your

forearm as you attack.

To setup your opponent, you need to begin the hand snipe process by moving into measure where you

can hit the arm with a step. You should then move, take the initial shot and retreat quickly. By

retreating quickly with your dagger at the ready, you are ready for any riposte. The quick step with the

retreat is the key to the setup. Do NOT move very much weight forward because you need to get it

back. Do not over commit to the attack because you really arent trying to take the hand or arm, you

are merely trying to elicit a response. The more you commit the slower your will recover.

After you make the attack, you lower your sword arm on the way out to allow your dagger to pick up

any shots to it. When the shot comes to either the arm, head or body, the dagger comes across and you

riposte under the opponents sword arm.

If your opponent chooses option (iii), because you lowered your arm on the attack and brought it back

quickly, the overturned sword will be in seconda, and his feet will be in an awkward position. In that

tempo, you should immediately go for a bind attack.

Again, the key to a successful setup is the insincerity of your attack. By not committing fully to the

attack and by quickly moving backwards, your opponent believes you are closer than you really are. This

judgment error in measure and tempo that youve caused by your illusion of a true attack will create an

opportunity for you to riposte after a weak attack. It may also allow you a tempo to bind and attack due

to a tricky move that many fencers due despite the poor mechanics. If you recognize the counter hand

snipe technique, you should immediately capitalize on it.

c. Posture: One of the best ways to setup an opponent is with your posture. By posture, I mean how

you move prior to engagement, how your control your opponents measure as he attempts to come into

yours. How you respond to your opponents initial attacks. Even prior to the beginning of the duel, your

opponent may be watching you or may have watched you before. All these ingredients add up to the

psychology of the fight. One of the first things I teach my students regarding fighting duels is this.

Never show your opponent how much speed you really have. If they dont know you, and they dont

know how fast you are, why would you advertise? So, dont. Never let them know how far you can

lunge. Never let them know that you love to end fights with a quick shot. Keep your game to yourself.

Even as a tournament progresses, dont use what you dont need until you need it. That doesnt mean

you shouldnt be careful not to lose a fight because you didnt bring your best. But, if you have an easy

draw, dont bring out a case of swords if you may only use it once.

A great way to setup an opponent who doesnt understand your speed or your intentions because

youve been careful not to show them is to be patient in the beginning and make them come to you. I

wont use the Dons name, but I have a classic example of this tactic to share with you. I was in a

tournament quite a few years ago, and I wasnt unknown, but I was unknown to the Don I met in the

semi-finals. He hadnt been there the day before when I had won the previous tournament. As we

started the fight, I gave him the impression that I was timid and not ready to engage. I kept my measure

and he attacked at wide measure. My response to this was to quickly retreat three steps. On his second

attack, I was also very quick to adjust distance to cause him another wide measure attack. Again, I

broke engagement taking three steps back. By now, he had me figured out. So, instead of moving

cautiously into measure, he took a big step into measure to counter the quick steps I had been taking to

quickly regain my just distance. On that step, I attacked in contratempo (in the same tempo as his step)

into his chest and ended the fight.

So, posture and deceiving your opponent on what type of fighter you are can be very helpful. Even

fighters you know may be setup if normally you are the aggressor and you go into a fight and do not.

Eventually, if your patience lasts, your opponent will become the aggressor giving you opportunities to

attack in contratempo if he gets too aggressive or to parry riposte.

d. Gaining the blade: If youve read Capo Ferro, you understand that gaining your opponents blade is

a great way to cause a fool to disengage and attack in measure. If you havent read Capo Ferro, let me

explain the concept.

From out of measure, you take a step into measure and place your debole (the part of the blade from

point to the middle of the blade) over your opponents debole. The more of the debole you can gain,

the more powerful your position. Unlike Capo Ferro, you dont always do it in a straight line. The

reason you do so at an angle is to make it very difficult to disengage. If you present an angle, it takes

longer to get around it. If your hand is lower than your opponents point, it takes longer to get under it.

The idea is you force your opponent to disengage underneath your blade and in the direction you want

him to go. Also, by placing your blade over the top of his in this manner, youre preventing him from a

direct thrust to your upper body or head. This severely limits your opponents options. Additionally,

because you now have gained the blade, youre in a superior position somewhere between wide and

narrow measure so he has to make an immediate decision because no decision will allow you a direct

attack. Once your forte (the part of the blade from the middle to the guard) acquires his debole, you

can easily attack and close the line with sword and/or dagger.

If your opponent chooses to attack by disengaging into the area where you expect, the dagger is then

used to easily close the line and dominate the sword of your opponent while your sword arm strikes.

So, by moving into measure and closing off your opponents blade, you may cause your opponent to

make a hasty decision. Even though many schools teach you not to attack by disengagement, many

schools do. It is a great test of an opponent. Also, it is done with little danger to you because as you

move in to gain the blade, if your opponent sees it, the response should be to disengage with a ceding of

the body (a retreat). I also teach my students when someone moves in and attempts to gain the blade

is to withdraw the arm and body slightly and step back with your sword over the top of your opponents

blade. If your opponent doesnt react in a foolish manner, move back out of measure and look for other

opportunities. But, you should make this maneuver enough times to give your opponent an opportunity

to both see you do it and decide on a plan. After the second time in a row you move into measure with

your blade at an angle over your opponents, he should see the disengagement attack in tempo. If he

takes it, your dagger is ready to close the line. If he doesnt take it, he has probably studied his Capo

Ferro.

e. Change Shot Locations: This is a very simple practice used in foil, epee, classical and historical

fencing. Take two shots to the arm and on the third one, go somewhere else. It doesnt have to be the

third one. It could be the second one or the fourth one. It is the change of location that is the setup.

The key elements of the success of this go back to the key elements of defensive fencing. When you

change locations, your shot cant be a down the middle shot at wide measure. You never want to use a

technique that will beat inexperienced or foolish fighters. Your technique should always be designed to

beat the best or to cause an opponent to make a mistake. Even the best make mistakes. You just have

to stay alive long enough for them to make one.

A good example of a complex setup is as follows:

Scenario A.

Attack one opponents sword forearm

Attack two opponents sword forearm

Attack three Insincere attack to opponents body, on the riposte from your opponent, cross

parry and attack underneath the sword arm

Scenario B.

Attack one opponents sword forearm

Attack two opponents sword forearm

Attack three bind attack with sword, replace sword with dagger, attack underneath

opponents sword arm

Scenario C.

Attack one opponents sword forearm

Attack two opponents sword forearm

Attack three Attack opponents chest by gaining the blade using the dagger to reinforce the

attack. (The tempo could be created by the expectation of the attack to the arm. If the tempo

does not happen, retreat).

Do not merely change locations without the proper defense on the attack expecting trickery to

win the day.

f. Changing Parrying Device: A safe way to setup your opponent by changing tempo is to use your

sword to parry several times in a row. Even though I fully believe your dagger should take care of your

parrying most of the time, by not showing this is the case, your opponent may not be ready when you

change tempo. Heres how it works:

Scenario A.

Attack one - your opponent attacks, you parry to quarta with your sword arm, throw an

insincere riposte and recover.

Attack two - your opponent attacks, you parry to seconda with your sword arm, throw an

insincere riposte and recover.

Attack three your opponent attacks, you cross parry with your dagger and riposte underneath

your opponents sword arm.

This is not a major setup, but it is a change in tempo from a two tempo riposte to a one and a

half tempo riposte. The reason I call it a one and half tempo riposte is because you should never

riposte until you know you have the sword in control of the dagger. This costs about a half

tempo. Never assume you have the sword and riposte in single time. Its a much lower

percentage play that you do not need to do.

g. The Attack with Hesitation: This attack is just like a normal attack, but instead of going straight in,

on the way you pause for just a moment allowing your opponent to parry exposing the other line. I

normally use this when my opponent is armed or on the ground. When my opponent is down to one

arm, there is no reason for me to risk a body shot. By using this technique, you can safely take the

second arm without great risk to you. When your opponent is on the ground and has one sword, the

technique is also very effective.

Scenario A.

Attack one make an insincere attack to your opponents inside line.

Attack two make an insincere attack to your opponents inside line.

Attack three make the hesitation attack to your opponents sword arm as he parries.

Scenario B.

Attack one make an insincere attack to your opponents head.

Attack two make an insincere attack to your opponents head.

Attack three make the hesitation attack to your opponents head, wait for the parry, thrust

home.

h. Attack against a buckler: When fighting a buckler, the biggest advantage of it is also its biggest

weakness and that is its size. What I like to do against a buckler is cause the fighter to impede his sight

by moving it in front of his eyes. Heres the setup:

Scenario A.

Attack one make an insincere attack to your opponents head.

Attack two make an insincere attack to your opponents head.

Attack three fein attack to the head, attack underneath the buckler.

So, we are breaking the dont use fein attacks rule on this one. But, remember, a fein attack with

single sword is a lot more dangerous than a fein attack with rapier/dagger. The primary reason you

dont fein attack with single sword is because you may receive a riposte in contratempo on your fein.

With your dagger in position to parry, the principle doesnt really hold up as well.

The other best way to defeat a buckler is what I also prefer to do against rapier dagger and that is to

attack underneath the sword arm. This attack is effective because it is awkward to move the buckler

underneath the sword arm. To make this work, you need to either bind or beat your opponents blade

and attack in tempo or you need to counter attack while the arm is outstretched.

i. Attack against a Case of Rapiers (CoR): This is not the easiest thing to accomplish, but I will give you

a few options to consider. First, not every rapier fighter is skilled at CoR. Now, we are training to beat

the best, not the unskilled, but even the best have their own particular style. What you have to figure

out is what your opponent does with his off-hand rapier while attacking with the primary hand. My rule

is to always keep it in a defensive position to cross parry, therefore I always have one sword on offense

and one on defense at all times. That is not the case with most fighters.

Your best chance to beat CoR is to counter attack. Use measure, tempo and technique to cause your

opponent to attack. When the attack comes, riposte underneath the sword arm or just to the inside line

where the long rapier cant make a downward parry. The length of the blade will prevent it from

defending in that area.

The danger of any technique against CoR is that even though you have the primary blade bound, the

secondary blade is still free to attack. So, once you parry the primary blade and attack, as the primary

blade is parried with your dagger you must look for the second blade with your dagger and parry it as

you attack. This will cause you to come off the primary with the dagger, and it is a very short window of

tempo. This will require practice but is certainly effective.

Conclusion

As I said from the start, if you want to get better, practice. Now that you have read the above concepts

and techniques, Im confident that you will have some good tools to practice with. Rapier/Dagger is my

favorite form because I am able to parry and riposte while dominating my opponents blade. It is a very

safe form to use when dueling because there are so many ways to get your opponents blade bound out

or parried and dominated that it provides numerous opportunities to successfully attack.

If you have questions regarding the manuscript, please dont hesitate to contact me at

blayde99@yahoo.com