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by David S. Hoornstraknown in the

Society for Creative Anachronismas

Daibhid “ruadh” MacLachlan

TheEccentric Fighter

Tactics for Single Combat

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This is a printout in reader spreads of the first 60 or sopages of this book, begun in CE 2000.

If it is never finished, that will be because the advances intoperiod, researched combat methods will make this obsolete.

Maybe not. I hope so.

Daibhid

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TheEccentric Fighter

Tactics for Single Combat

by David S. Hoornstra

known in the SCA asDaibhid Ruadh MacLachlan

Founding member, CynnabarBaron of Court

Sergeant of the Order of the Red Company

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About the authorDavid S. Hoornstra is a graphic designer in Ann Arbor, Michigan,

known in the SCA as Daibhid Ruadh MacLachlan. He began fencingin 1962 at the age of 15, and taught the sport at several Ann Arborclubs during the 1970s while pursuing competitive ranking in foiland epee.

He joined the SCA in 1974, but disdained to enter SCA combatuntil 1978, the year he helped found the group now known as theBarony of Cynnabar. His first SCA combat teacher was Sir Aldric ofthe Northmark, although he had already received valuable guidancein that direction from his old fencing-master, John D. Bailey. WhenDaibhid returned from overseas (U.S. Coast Guard), Bailey was al-ready an experienced SCA fighter known as Svea Wartooth, and co-founder of the Great Dark Horde. David’s 1999 manual, Some Com-mentaries on Tactics and Strategy for use in the SCA, was dedi-cated to him.

“Baron Daibhid” fought in over ten Pennsic Wars, several in theCynnabar Shield Wall. He was teaching combat in his second term asCynnabar’s Knights-Marshal when Straum von Bairzog began theSecond Era of Cynnabar’s martial power.

Daibhid was involved when fencing came into use in Midrealm,but due to modern issues was unable to keep the rules we use favor-able to period swordplay. Still, Daibhid’s Ann Arbor Sword Club stu-dents have made Cynnabar a fencing force to be reckoned with.

To Stephen TuckKnown to his friends of the S.C.A. as

Count Thorvald the Golden

ON THE COVERThe author, in the foreground, demonstrates one of the

techniques discussed in the text. His casual block of a not-so-casual attack provided by Dave Ross (Baron Straum –long before he won that title) is a simple parry from

modern fencing.

© 2008 by David S. HoornstraAnn Arbor, Michigan

DisclaimerThe opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone. This is

not a publication of the Society for CreativeAnachronism, Inc., nor does it state SCA policy or law.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

I t’s been said that “tactics winthe fight; strategy wins the war.” It’s more than a matter of scale.

The differences between decidinghow to move troops and knowinghow to move your sword are pro-found. My previous booklet Strat-egies for Use in the SCA lays themout in simple form.

This book is aresult of peopleasking about thetactics I use. Ihave a differentstyle with a lot ofvariety, and I amtold I’m fun tofight and towatch.Many of the tech-

niques I use every week come fromten years of training with dukesEliahu ben Itzhak and DagThorgrimmson. But this book isabout the new ones that came after1992, when everything changed.

I was a “good enough” fighter,but I wasn’t gaining as muchground as I wanted to. Nor was myfighting as much fun as either myfencing or theatrical swordplay.

When I stopped to reflect on tenyears of SCA fighting, it came outthat, for me, the most fun of all hadhappened in demos, where win-ning didn’t matter, but being big-ger than life did.

So one day I decided to forgetabout trying so hard. I chucked my“typical SCA” stance and went intomy “old fencing-master” persona.This was an arrogant manner I had

picked up from Maestro IstvanDanosi, whose fencing squads hadwon six straight NCAA champi-onships. Danosi’s foil teachingstance looked deceptively casual,but against an advanced fencer,that point-to-the-left guard enabledhim to make devastating parry-ripostes to any attack. The wholepackage of wiry strength, speed,and deep knowledge made Danosia formidible person to face.

I had imitated the technique asan instructor in the eighties, butwhen in the nineties I took up thatold familiar stance in armor witha rattan sword, it was as if I werethe master and whoever faced mejust a student.

Contrary to all expectation, itworked –really well. Suddenly, Iwas playing at modern competi-tion foil speed among fighters inslow motion.

I added my 30 years of fencingexperience to my 15 years of fight-ing without getting a minute older.Adding my Tuesday-night movesto my Sunday-afternoon movesopened a whole toolkit of tactics,and I began the enjoyable processof adapting them to the SCA.

Now, after ten years of that, Iam ready to share what I havelearned. Unfortunately, there’smore to it than the basket of newmoves. There are underpinningbasics to learn.

While my previous booklet wasborn of annoyance, this one wasborn of enjoyance.

Plenty of fighters win more thanI do. But nobody has more fun.

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This book emphasizes Swordand Shield because it is the firstauthorization in Midrealm, becauseit is capable of a nice display forthe gallery, and because, the wayI do it, it is great fun.

There is no need forme to replicate the re-ally good, useful,available period manu-als for longsword andpole weapons.

If I were attempting aperiod combat re-creationmanual, I’d do this differently.But an SCA combat form is notmerely a martial art. It is part andparcel of the Society, and how wedo it becomes part of the atmo-sphere, whether visual or social.What I promote here is dictated notsimply by what will win, but by myvision of the SCA.

Sword and Shield in the SCA isopen to much variation. My choiceof a tourney-size heater fits myviews on re-creation, game theoryand the providing of good enter-tainment to spectators.

I favor period re-creation wherefeasible. While sword and shieldon foot is well documented on thebattlefield, it is historically “iffy”as a tournament form. I have seenno report of any tourney in whichit was the prescribed weapon form.

But as an icon of the MiddleAges, the S & S combo is sanctifiedby illuminations of tourneys andequestrian seals from William theMarshal’s time to Henry VIII. Pe-

riod tournament rules include theseweapons on horseback in the lists.In lance play, the heater shield ofwar is replaced by 1400 by thespecialized concave jousting shield.

Given the SCA’s present limita-tions, I consider sword and shield–tourney-size shield– a reason-

able substitute for jousting asa list-field spectator sport. Plus, coats of arms are de-signed to fit short heaters. War heaters are different.With the SCA limited targetand no grappling, individual

combat with them is defectiveas a game, ugly to watch and

boring to do. It’s essentially siege-craft. The best tactics for the tour-ney heater are useless with warshields. They cover too much targetto allow a good invitation.

My curved heater is just shortenough so I can reach all my fin-gers around the point while the topis against my collarbone.

These tactics are designed forsimilar opposing weapons. This isnot only for tactical predictability.The history of tournaments andduels carry equality of armour andarmament between combatants toextremes. Only by eliminating anypossible advantage of one weaponover another could one determinewhich combatant was superior (orwhom God or Fortune favored thatday).

“Equal weapons” is not abouthistorical accuracy. It is the rule-book foundation of every competi-tive sport. It is the principle whichdetermines that when we win, wedo so because of personal ability,not hardware advantage.

Choice ofweapons

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We owe to our audience theprivilege of doing SCA combatat “medieval” events. The daythe only spectators are the fight-ers themselves, we will have toadmit that ours has become anordinary modern minority sport.To put off that day, I encourage,in place of the period re-creationwe cannot do, cultivating asmuch elegance and grace as isconsonant with sound combattechnique. From what I am con-stantly told, the two can indeedbe combined.

Elegance, after all, is an en-gineering term for efficiency ofform and function. And after400 years of getting the bugsout of it, fencing is known forits grace by those who knowneither its physical demands norits efficiency.

It is also for spectators thatI prefer heater shields for theirheraldry and imprese capability,and suggestion of the medieval.

weapons of choice

Elegance is anengineering term

SwordMy tactics let the sword, not the

arm or wrist, do the hard work.Therefore my single sword is a bitmore massive than most.

Along the same lines, I carvemy grip down so I can hold thesword loosely between thumb andforefinger-knuckle. When I wantmore snap in a blow, I squeeze thefirst two fingers, which pull aleather loop called a combat strap(a borrowing from modern sabre).

This loop is sometimes all thatkeeps the weapon from falling onthe ground, so loosely do I some-times hold it.

Some find it amusing that themain sword of one who uses somany techniques from fencing hasno thrusting tip.

There are many reasons thrust-ing in armored combat is a lowpriority for me.

• I know how easy it is to deflectmost thrusts; I’ll show how to throwthe ones that are difficult to stop.

• Thrusting with a heavy swordunders SCA conditions is risky.When a body thrust doesn’t suc-ceed, you are often left wide open.

• The thrusting tip softens “tipshots” which, with my massivesword, are often acknowledged asgood. The presence of a thrustingtip can render the first three to sixinches of the blade useless in termsof blow acceptance.

• The thrusting tip renders myalready-massive sword tip-heavy.

ShieldI use a curved plywood heater

with heater-hose edging and a solidgrip as close to the upper left corneras the steel hand-guard allows.The grip stands off enough so I canshift my hand around on it. Heater-hose edging renders my aggres-sive-shield technique safer for myopponent. The weight (actuallymass) provides stopping-power.

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I am not the only one introduc-ing “new” combat methods. Thereis so much research and study goingon right now that I expect that inless than ten years, SCA fightingwill look completely different.

And while ten years ago I wasnear the cutting edge of thismovement, I am now on the pe-riphery, keeping only one smallcandle burning at the Ann ArborSword Club.

Midrealm fighters got a whiff ofthis in 1998, when Dr. JeffreySingman (now Forgeng) gave alecture/slide show surveying theknown medieval combat manuals.Since then, ambitious SCA mem-bers have tackled the two largetasks of translating and interpret-ing these manuals to make thetechniques usable to us.

For seven years, I had beenJeffrey’s fencing partner as hepracticed di Grassi’s technique us-ing period swords here in AnnArbor. He was also translating andinterpreting the fourteenth-centuryGerman “Tower of LondonFechtbuch” Ms. I.33 (Latin), nowin print from Chivalry Publishing.

About 1999, one of the otherAnn Arbor fencing instructorshanded me a beautifully-producedvideo called the The Blow by BlowGuide to Swordfighting in theRenaissance Style. It’s a 96-minutefight choreographer's guide byMike Loades, combat master atseven London drama schools.Absolutely top-drawer.

In 2000, Mark Rector’s trans-lation of Hans Talhoffer’sFechtbuch was published with anintroduction by John Clements.

Also in 2000 came SidneyAnglo’s The Martial Arts of Re-naissance Europe. This 300-page,densely-packed work surveysmuch of the material of interesthere and offers much materialunavailable elsewhere, especiallyfrom the enormous, previouslyuntouched R.L. Scott collection inGlasgow.

In 2002, Bob Charron (DukeConn MacNeil), who had seenJeffrey’s work, gave a paper onFiori’s 14th-c. fencing manual atthe International Congress inMedieval Studies at Kalamazoo,followed by a clear demonstrationof many moves from the book. Histranslation is soon to be publishedby The Chivalry Bookshelf.

The Chivalry Bookshelf is a pub-lishing company started by BrianPrice (Sir Brion Thornbird), longknown as the publisher ofChronique, The Journal of Chiv-alry. Brian is the prime mover ofthe Company of St. George, an SCAsubgroup in the Bay Area of Cali-fornia devoted to period armor andpas d’armes. He is also the authorof Techniques of Medieval ArmorReproduction, the most lavishlypublished work on armoring ever.

At Pennsic War about 1997, Icame upon a circle of knights pay-ing rapt attention to an instructorand his partner, neither of whomwas “belted” in the SCA sense,

Coming to a list field near you: a

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In a martial arts dojo, yousee lines of students repeatingan instructor’s moves. What youare seeing there is not a masterteaching pupils. Once teachersget past the myth-making urgesof their own egos, they realizethat they do not really causelearning. We make the infor-mation available, and studentsteach their own bodies to do themoves.

That line of students reflectsthe fact that it’s more efficientto make information availableto groups, and that for mostpeople, it’s easier to do the hard,repetitive, physical work alongwith fellow-sufferers.

Because this is on paper in-stead of in a gym, you’ll haveto work harder, but take heart:your brain is a marvellous com-puter, and given the tools, itwill devise wondrous actionsyou will come to use withoutconscious thought.

Some martial arts books lookas though the author hadtrouble communicating with theartist. No such problem here.The artist … c’est moi!

new martial arts Renaissance.demonstrating German longswordwith “wasters”(hardwood practiceswords). Not being a knight, I hungback until Sir Brion Thornbird wel-comed me in, offering his ownwaster so I could follow the moves.

The instructor was ChristianTobler, whose Secrets of GermanSwordplay was later published byBrian’s Chivalry Bookshelf. It’s atranslation, with action-photo in-terpretation, of Sigmund Ringeck’sCommentaries on the verses of a14th-century German masternamed Leichtenauer, which addsup to a combat manual unheard ofin the SCA a few short years ago.

Tobler teaches wherever invited(for a fee), for instance at theHiggins Armory Museum inWorcester, Massachussetts, whereJeffrey Forgeng, as a chaired cu-rator, has been hosting and teach-ing period fencing workshops.

We at the Ann Arbor SwordClub, like many clubs across thecountry, now do GermanLongsword as well as SCA Rapierand modern fencing.

In September 2002, all three ofthe above-mentioned luminarieswere joined by Engish and Italianmasters as well as participants fromaround the world at the WMAW(Western Martial Arts Workshop)near Chicago. Martial arts classesfrom Savate to English walking-stick were taught. This year it’s inArgyle, Texas. (www.wmaw.us)

Another one takes place in Au-gust in Lansing, Michigan.(artofcombat.org)

Learningfrom abookain’t easy!

We in the SCA have much tolook forward to.

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Tactical PrinciplesIn his SCA tactics workshops in

the late 1990s, Sir Saeric Scireham(MKA Steve Traylor) emphasizedthe use of local superiority todemolish the opposition in groupcombat.

My tactics for individual com-bat use the same principle. By ap-plying leverage, timing, and explo-sive speed, these tactics allow youto apply overwhelming force at keypoints in space and time to paveyour warpath.

Many of my tactics are analo-gous to those of the field.

While you may be able to getgood results by simply followingthe directions in the Tactics sec-tion, you will do much better if yougo through the Basics section first.

More principles1. Fight to win, not to avoidlosing. The latter process tends tofulfill the fears on which it is based.

2. Complex thought – simpleactions. My tactics mostly live upto this principle, but to use themyou must have the actions downcold; for instance the numberedparries in the section on Defendingwith the Sword.

3. Territory doesn’t matter asmuch as tactical objectives.

There are two ways to defend;territorial and tactical. The territo-rial theory is: if he can’t get hissword into my near zone, he can’tkill me. But perimeter defense tiesup your resources. Tactical defense, by contrast, usesyour resources to limit and annul

your opponent’s specific threat.For instance, tactical defense

may choose to prevent your oppo-nent from even throwing a blowby trapping it with your swordwhile it’s still on his shoulder.

Or, you can intercept a blowearly in its path, before it canchange targets.

Tactical defense uses activefootwork because it is more effi-cient to make your opponent missthan to tie up your weapon in ablocking action.

4. Use each weapon to itsbest advantage.

The sword is quicker and moremobile than any shield, and it canreach twice as far. Further, in ourrules, the sword is privileged to goplaces and strike things the shieldmay not. So in these tactics thesword usually gets the cavalry orcommando assignments.

But the shield gets its share ofvictories too. Its mass allows it totake out both sword and shield if,as mentioned above, force is con-centrated behind it.

5. Put yourself in command.Eliminate any chance for youropponent to control you or dictatechoices. E.G.: your defense doesnot depend on his choice of attack.

6. Initiative does not alwaysmean moving first. It meansmaking moves which compelresponses you can influence andgain advantage from.

For more principles, see my1999 Strategies booklet.

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There are many nuggets of“accepted wisdom” in the SCA. Itmay take you a while to tell whatis wisdom and what is merelyaccepted. Anyone can read thisand learn the moves herein, Butif you want to become an excep-tional fighter, there are two thingsyou must do.

First, you must overcome thenatural urge to fit the “normal SCA”mold. It is ironic how strong arethe forces for conformity in a groupof misfits like ours. Many willhesitate to jeopardize the feelingof belonging that leads to confor-mity.

Fighters get brainwashed notonly about “correct” methods butabout what is and is not possible.A few years ago, when I showeda new fighter how to score usingonly his forearm, he told me “Ican’t score a kill from there.” Thisguy had just acknowledged thatvery blow from a weaker opponent– me. (A few years later, he wonthe crown of Drachenwald.)

This fellow had believed whathe was told, but fortunately, thedamage wasn’t permanent. Withina very few minutes, he was usingmy “incorrect” blow so well I hadto call “hold.”

Second, you must learn that,while most of the theories andmethods accepted in your grouphave value, there are many excep-tions. It is by learning to use theexceptions instead of being abusedby them that you will become anexceptional fighter.

The fighter I just described hadexceptional arm strength which hadbeen completely overlooked by hisinstructor. That is typical: SCA in-structors assume you are not inshape; fencing instructors look forstrengths you got from other sports.

It’s understandable: instructorsprefer a solid body of establishedtechnique, an authority to refer-ence, so they don’t have to proveevery point personally. Fencing hassuch a basis, but SCA combat isn’tthere yet. No established techniqueis coming any time soon (not eventhis one).

You will have to make a con-scious effort to step beyond. It willset you apart. Loneliness may forceyou to find consolation in makingimpossible blocks and landing un-expected blows. By questioning ev-erything, and getting answers, youwill help build the SCA Method.

This book is designed in bite-sized chunks that come in threevarieties. Most of them are thenuts-and-bolt techniques you camefor. The second variety – many ofthe early pages – offer perspectiveon fighting you won’t find else-where.

The third kind is a sprinklingof one-page features that show-case and credit those who showedme most of the marvels I havegathered here. I offer these inhopes that, when, not if, SCAcombat moves beyond thesetechniques, their contributions tochivalry, excellence and fun willnot be forgotten.

You can manage that without reading this.Want to be ordinary?

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Age &TreacheryI got nowhere in modern fencingcompetition until I got somestrength from SCA combat.• Theatre people distrust competi-tive fencers, fearing their reflexeswill somehow override the pur-pose at hand. Fact: skill is skill.Desire is desire. Both apply towhatever the present purpose is,whether it’s hitting the opponentor keeping him safe. We at the AnnArbor Sword Club have 25 years’success doing both.

Treacherous influencesJohn Bailey, my first fencing

master, was a devotee of ancientswordplay who taught me bits fromother martial arts.

In college, I caught the fight-choreography bug, but didn’t re-ally develop it until later, when myfencing students and I became in-volved with the Ann Arbor Medi-eval Festival. After seeing the 1974Three (and Four) Musketeersmovies, we tried to imitate fightarranger Bill Hobbs’ very physical,free style with blades wider thanpreviously seen in rapier sword-fight movies.

By 1978 we were using extraswords made for those sameMusketeer movies. We also usedcheap 5-lb. wall-hanger “bastard”swords, striking sparks a lot.

While traditional fight choreog-raphy tried to make out-of-rangemoves look dangerous, we were“in the round.” Further, we were

will beat youthand skillevery time.

I t’s been said in our group thatthe techniques I teach won’t

work for others; that they work forme only because I have specialabilities. Bosh.

I was born in 1946 and am notin shape. It’s 25 years since I rana mile. Agile? I can’t imagine doinga back flip. There was a time Ifenced 5 days a week and com-peted intensely, but that ended 18years ago. For the past decade, Ihave gotten no more than twoexercise periods per week.

There is nothing I do, physi-cally, that you can’t learn to do,given a sound body and mind.

My old fencing master told me“Never take any one person’s wordas gospel –not even mine. Go outand ask other teachers. Somebodyelse may know a better way.”

Obvious truth? Not in the SCA.Our sport has long suffered fromoverdone respect for authority.

Some old-time fighters are un-comfortable with the idea that“their” sport could learn anythingfrom fencing because of the imagethey have of “Wire weenies.” Don’tjump to conclusions. While mod-ern Olympic fencing looks like it’sall speed and leverage, I found outlate, to my cost, that strength re-ally matters in it.

The wider world of fencing,which includes the research groups,benefits from 1000 years of devel-opment, most of that with heavyweapons.

Everybody cherishes myths.• Until proved otherwise (1980),I thought SCA rattan play wouldtrash my fine fencing skills. Fact:

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from Swetnam’s manual, trying toknock each other off a log.Bringing it together

During the past few years, mythree swordfighting “worlds” havebeen coming together in a method-ology that satisfies my desires forperiod fantasy, fun, and victory.

Not to say it’s complete. I try tolearn more every day and improvemy technique at every opportu-nity. I feel I can afford to let youlearn my tricks, because, like Wil-liam the Marshal, “I still have thehammer and anvils to make more.”A different philosophy

Most SCA fighter developmentphilosophies focus on imperfec-tion, expecting to score only whensomebody makes an error.

If you wait around for errors,the waiters will beat you. This isnot a manual about honing offimperfections, but for building asolid structure. My fight does notstruggle to be 1% less imperfecttoday than yesterday. (My struggleis to actually quit when I’m ex-hausted, even now, at 60.)

This is intended to show youhow to score elegant, “slam-dunk”unopposed blows on your oppo-nent; to achieve checkmate beforethe telling blow is even launched.

It is intended to share some ofthe joy of combat beyond goodphysical exercise with friends, be-yond the excitement of sharp blowsgiven and received, and beyondthe fantasy provided by “normal”SCA combat … but never beyondthe rule of courtesy.

Above all, it is intended to sharethe magic that puts a grin on myface every time I don the helm.

unwilling to trust estimated dis-tance and someone’s memory ofwhat they were supposed to do.The result: our performances gottheir realism from real defensivetechniques at close quarters. Wehad to learn to parry well enoughto save our skins and the swords.

When we started the Ann ArborSCA chapter in 1987, I took up SCAcombat. Sir Aldric of the North-mark, the second knight of North-woods and a legend in Michiganfor his heavy blows, was my firstSCA fighting instructor.

In 1980, I was a participant ina U of Michigan Professional The-atre Program workshop co-spon-sored by the Society of AmericanFight Directors. “Rapier Week” wastaught by the late “Paddy” Crean,one of Errol Flynn’s former fightdirectors. More about him later.

Starting in 1980, Eliahu benItzhak brought Duke Laurelyn’sinfluence to Cynnabar. We all prettymuch followed his lead throughthe 80s. While Eli and Dag domi-nated the Crown Tourneys, I wasinto demos and period events. Oursteel swords gathered dust.

In the late 80s, I used theatricalcombat tricks to add excitement toSCA demos at the Michigan Re-naissance Festival. I discovered thatmy “period-esque” moves couldactually be pretty effective. Moreimportant, I found I was most ef-fective when I was having fun.

In 1992, Dr. Jeffrey Singman(now Forgeng) introduced me toserious period fencing with c. 1575fencing-sword replicas. With coin-shod cork safety tips, about 3.5 lb.each. Armor? A pair of gloves.

We also studied quarterstaff

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Fight basics

You and I may have differentnotions about what to call Basics.

• Basic does not mean “begin-ner.” It means skill common to andprerequisites of what follows; thetricks, techniques and tactics youcame here for.

• Basic includes very specificfootwork moves most SCA teach-ers do not show you.

•␣ Basic includes how to applyto SCA combat the six standardparries every first-year sabre stu-dent can do in his sleep. Mostexperienced SCA fighters still usethe most rudimentary “blocking”techniques with the sword, andcannot tell you the difference be-tween a block and a parry.

•␣ Basic includes subtleties ofbalance, handwork and more.

Most SCA fight instructors teachthe reversed fencing advance/re-treat, but it comes out slow andclumsy– not good enough for manyof the tactics in this book. You willneed to learn to carry your bodyprecisely on two springs we calllegs, and learn to advance andretreat, like other martial arts,without losing your guard posi-tion.

SCA coaches refer to baseballwhen they teach the hip-turn forsword-blows, but they forget thatthe batter is in a static, usuallywide stance. Baseball is the onlymajor sport that doesn’t require

specialized footwork.Most SCA combat instructors

don’t teach detailed footwork be-cause they have never learned itthemselves. All fencers do foot-work drills. SCA instructors don’trequire it. But to be exceptional,you must master footwork.

When coaches say “footwork,”what most people hear is “work.”But think what a glory footworkis to the other sports.

• In football, the sudden change-steps and stutter-steps that allowBarry Sanders to evade tackles aremore than just running.

• Hockey “footwork” is ice-skating. Defensemen must playskating backwards. Most playerscan leap over a down player with-out falling. Ever try a “hockey stop”on skates? (I’m still trying.)

•␣ Basketball: the running fin-ger-roll layup (your last contactwith the floor is at the free-throwline) requires exact footwork pre-cisely co-ordinated with difficultball-handling.

All these, and many more with-out even counting soccer or theAsian martial arts, require difficultfootwork to be perfect while muchof the player’s attention is on otherthings, like the ball, six to elevenopposing players, or difficult stickmoves.

So, the SCA fighter who takesbasics, especially footwork, seri-ously, will be in good company.

Don’t even think ofskipping this section.Because…

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A competent fighter must un-derstand time and motion in detail.You need to know the differencebetween quickness and speed,between moving fast and hurry-ing, and between what looks orfeels fast and what is fast. It paysto be aware of how speed affectsyour ability to change the sword’sdirection and target.

These are all discussed later.This one’s about seeing when

your opponent is going to move –and when he can see your inten-tion. Most people make littlemuscle-tensing actions beforelaunching serious effort. When theyare detectable to the opponent, theyare called “telegraphing.” Often,they betray not only the immi-nence of a move, but specificallywhich move is coming.

Good athletes, including SCAfighters, learn to eliminate or sup-press these signals. Advancedfighters learn to fake them to dupetheir opponents.

Other people can see thingsclearly too. You must not give awayyour fight to such. Learning toavoid telegraphing your movesrequires seeing your own patternsvery clearly. Ask your friends toadvise you of bad habits, but you’llhave to do the hard work of replac-ing them. Fortunately, the secretof that is on this page.

Seeing clearly requires a calmframe of mind, a good view, andfreedom from distractions like painor armor problems.

Do do allow yourself to sufferany kind of fear. Add as mucharmor as necessary to eliminatethe fear of impact pain. That won’tbe enough. You will continue tofeel nervous in practice until youfeel you have experienced everypossible impact. You must get toa point of comfort with your armorand blow force where you can wel-come any impact you might rea-sonably get. Only then will you becool enough to evaluate everyincoming blow solely on its tacti-cal, not physical, threat.

Your ego will still be unwillingto be scored on. You can eliminatemost of that concern by setting updefenses that are almost impos-sible for a sword-and-shield manto score on. Yes, you can. Thatcomes a little later. We have to puta few more basics in place first.

Your best ally in cutting off theflow of secrets to your opponentis good form, especially balance.

Trying not to flinch and tele-graph is an oxymoron. It impos-sible to practice NOT doing some-thing. Flinching is eliminatedby comfort. Telegraphing issqueezed out of your repertoireby maintaining constant, activecontrol of all parts of your body.The ability to keep things in theright place, and the definition ofwhat that right place is, is what wecall “form.”

In every effective martial art,form deserves an entire section toitself.

time, motion, andbeing in earnest

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Guys in their twenties used toask me where I (mid-fifties) gotthe energy to outlast them in prac-tice… and then the guy after them.Good form is part of the answer.

Most people think of “form” –you know, straight spine and head-up position– as superficial. Noth-ing could be farther from the truth.

Good form is not a slavishconformity to someone’s idea ofgood posture. Good form is amasterful insistence on alwaysbeing in a position of strength.

Grace and poise are side-ef-fects of the process of gaining fullcontrol of your body.

That includes building subtlestrengths here and there whereneeded to do the sport in question.In fencing, the strength gain isseldom obvious to the casual ob-server, but it’s not trivial.

Good form in horsemanshipkeeps you on the horse. In SCAfighting, form brings many ben-efits:

Form is being in the right placeat the right time and being physi-cally able to make the shot.

Form is outlasting your oppo-nent because you are breathingbetter and carrying your armorwithout effort.

Form is never turning your anklebecause your feet are alwaysaligned even when off the ground.

Form is having the leisure toblock a bit later because you knowexactly where every part of your

body is.Form is being 15% quicker

jumping into the hole and 15%quicker making the shot from there.

Good form is precision. It’s howyou develop the ability to movelike a cat. Some of the most dra-matic tournament results I evergot resulted directly from slow-motion practice to optimize eachlittle sub-movement.

Good form means a more pro-ductive workout and lasting longerbefore fatigue sets in.

Half of form is simply goodbody management. Holding thespine erect and shoulders back (abit, don’t overdo it) actually re-duces fatigue; conversely, a slump-ing torso restricts not only breath-ing but other organ functions. Add

Standing tallon bent legs.

Goodform:

17

armor and it doubles the problem.But good form does not include

rigidity. Rigid muscles and fixedpositions will tire you out fasterthan repeated movement.

Teaching your shoulders to relaxand drop down and back gives youincreased arm reach and frees upall your arm actions. Forwardshoulders restrict breathing.

Form is maintaining each leg inits own plane. When you set yourfeet at a 90° angle, the knees mustmatch it. Compromising to avoidopening up at the hips stressesyour knees. The hip is the placeto set that angle.

The entire hip/pelvis/spine/shoulder/neck group operates in-terdependently. The back must benot too curved if the shoulders areto get the freedom they need. Thespine sits like a stack of bricks ontop of the pelvic girdle. If thatstructure is tilted forward, yourlower back muscles will workovertime to hold the rest of yourspine in place. When people saythey have “put their back out” theyare trying to describe the pain thatresults when those muscles, al-ready overworked, are given anextra stress by an attempt to dosomething that would have beennormal if the back were beingoperated properly. Good form is alevel pelvis and well-rested spinalmuscles.

All this is a lot easier said thandone, but do it you must if youwish to be more than the ordinaryfighter. The effort will hit you inthree places:

1. Moving on bent legs. Thisis the area where my old fencingmaster used to use the terms “hurt,pain, agony.” He wanted me toknow which was which so that Icould stop my legwork betweenthe pain and agony stages. Youcan get good legs with a lot ofworkouts that get you to the wobblystage, but I don’t think you can getmy legs without working throughserious “burn.”

You do knee-bends until it burnsand stop. Rest. Then do fencingadvances and retreats until it burnsagain. Rest. Then do passes – walk-ing around while staying in yourlow stance until it burns, whichwill be quicker than the other two.All while keeping your pelvis level.

2. Hip joint flexibility. Youmust open up the knees to obtainreal mobility on bent legs (withoutbent- leg capability you really can’tfight seriously). For me this wasreally difficult; not to say it has tobe for you. When you set your feetat 90° and bend your knees 30°,you should be able to look downfrom the top of a straight spine andsee both feet between your knees.

Fencers are often seen at warm-ups sitting and pressing their openknees down into the floor withtheir hands or elbows to stretch thehip joints, or more correctly, themuscles that limit outward mobility.

3. Pelvic leveling. It can bedisconcerting to be told that yourbutt needs to be tucked under a bit,and difficult to control withoutmirrors, another tool fencers useto advantage. Every move you

GOOD FORM . . . It only hurtsfor a while.

18

make, especially bent-legged foot-work, pulls the pelvis in differentdirections. Your lower backmuscles may complain as youlearn to control this, but that’s thenormal result of training musclesnomally left slack. Once they aretrained, your pelvis will stay inposition without noticeable effort,and the rest of your spine willwork better and with less pain.

Those three things add up tobuilding yourself a “steadi-cam”fighting platform that will carry yourupper body to the scene of carnageand enable it to do mighty deeds.

Agility in armor is a lot easierto achieve withgood form. Unlessyou obsess toomuch about it. Pol-ishing form is hardwork and has totake energy away from other learn-ing processes. Put a little workinto it when you can.

I worked at form early in myfencing career, but it really improvedunder competition pressure. Whenyou’re pushed in a fight, one of theways you can gain an edge is bytightening up your form. With theadrenaline of competition, you canafford the extra energy, and thepayback can be dramatic.

Caveat: it is difficult to interpretgood form instructions becauseeveryone’s starting point is differ-ent. A couple inches of ”shouldersback” might be totally wrong foryou. That’s one reason why thesports that stress “good form” are

You can’tswashbucklefrom a cringe.

also the ones with individual les-sons and instructors. You can geta lot of good form work, however,out of one eight-week fencing classat a typical Y or rec department.

Failing that, we will try to giveyou a recipe. Nearly all martial artsstances can be boiled down to this:

Stand tall on bent legs.Heads up

Head up is number one.Holdingthe head up frees the breathingpassages and improves your out-ward view.

Hockey players dramaticallyshow the rersults of head-up vs.

head-down play. Gretzkywas a head-up player, han-dling the puck on the ice bytouch while using his eyesto see the entire rink. Healmost never got hit. But

some of the worst hockey injurieshave resulted from players gettinghit while looking down.

There’s a lot more to it. As youlearn to duck and dodge, theimportance of your starting pointwill become more acute. You can-not duck at all if your head isalready bowed down. You can’tswashbuckle from a cringe.

No matter how bent your legsare, your torso must be straight tostart with. Then when you need tobend your entire body 90 degrees,you’ll be able to reap the rewardsand execute the tactics.

Good form is the operating sys-tem upon which tactics are played.

GOOD FORM is having aVICTORIOUS ATTITUDE.

19

desire to do likewise.At age 10, I cut

swords out of splinterylaths and lived danger-ously with my friends.A few close calls so-bered me up, however,and I set it aside untilI could learn it moresafely.

In the 60s and 70scame the first movieswordfights using au-thentic-size weapons.The Mercutio/Tybalt

fight scene in Zeffirelli’s 1968movie Romeo and Juliet (NiccoloParno, fight arranger) and manyfights in The Three Musketeers(David Lean, 1974, Bill Hobbs,fight arranger) made it clear thatsomebody was getting a lot closerto the real thing than I was.

These movie swordfightsopened a door to period swordplaythat neither modern fencing norSCA combat offered.

The point of this page is thatswordplay is not a sport to bemodernized. It should be anchoredto your own rich fantasy life.

Similarly, this book is not in-tended to help you win mundanehonor. It is intended to help toenrich your medieval experience.

The Role of

Fantasy

I first became interested inswordplay at age 7, specifically bythe illustration above. In that draw-ing, I saw sword-fighting not asa brutal process but as a form ofplay requiring both skill andstrength. Both qualities seem to beat work as Little John and thesheriff’s cook have a go at broad-swords in the kitchen.

Even though neither one is out-wardly smiling, one can see thezest with which they play. Neitherone of those guys really wants tokill the other.

Then came movies. Seeing clas-sic swordfight movies like ErrolFlynn as Robin Hood and TheVikings with Kirk Douglas andTony Curtis only enhanced my

PERSPECTIVE I

20

I t’s unusual for a player to be declared “the great one” in any sport before his career is

half done. When the sport isNHL hockey, you expect it to be a tough guy like GordieHowe, who played pro longenough to co-star with his ownsons, and owned outright everyscoring record by a mile … fordecades.

That’s why it’s so amazing thathis “untouchable” scoring recordswere so thoroughly trashed –inhalf the time– by the slim, civilizedWayne Gretzky, who threw hardlyany body checks and avoided thou-sands of them, with neither a reallyhard shot nor special skating speed.

Ability to see clearly is commonto all the world’s “great ones,”from Musashi to Joe Montana. Youare not born with it. You learn it.

1. See the future by putting your-self in the other guy’s place. Seethrough his eyes and you’ll knowwhat he’s going to do. If you knowwhat he knows.

2. You’ll know what he knowsif you have studied the game, andeveryone in it, in great detail. If wewere machines, the fastest fighterwould always win. We aren’t.

3. Learn to visualize the end-ing-point; the blow landing on thetarget, and work your way back-ward from there. This is how youcreate tactics.

Chess players still study Mod-ern Chess Openings to learn toreverse-engineer great tactics andstrategies. Most generals study thehistory of war to avoid mistakes.Better ones apply strategies fromone battle to a situation that lookscompletely different. But great gen-erals create new strategies, tacticsand even weapons. (See also Stra-tegic Thinking for use in the SCA.)

In addition to wide vision anddeep knowledge, the greats havetwo things I cannot teach: obses-sive desire to win and obsessivewill to work.

A player from tabletophockey, a game used

by Gretzky to sharpenhis tactical skills.

Wayne appeared inads with animated

versions of suchplayers.

See yourway to

victory.The experts agree that his spe-

cial ability was seeing the gameclearly. He seemed to know whatwas going to happen long beforeanyone else. He analyzed playsand actions as they developed, andwould unexpectedly turn up in theperfect position to deflect a puckinto the net or pass it to an unseenteammate, knowing exactly wherethat person would be. He neverskated after the puck. Instead, heskated to where it was going to be.

His devastating tactics led theNHL to pass the “Gretsky Rule,”ending “four on a side” play dur-ing double penalties. That rule wasfinally retired just before he did.

21

Footwork“Footwork” does NOT just

mean how you move your feet. It’sreally how you move your entirebody with the possible exceptionof blocks, parries, and cuts – andif you study German Longsword,you’ll find it can do those thingstoo.

A fighter must make his or herlegs, hips and lower torso into a“mobile fighting platform” onwhich the upper body, arms andhead can twist and turn, hurlingblows as if from horseback.

But you can’t control a horse aswell as you need to control yourfighting platform. To be an ad-equate fighter, you need to controlyour position in space to withinone or two inches.

When you “slip” a blow, as littleas two inches of position makesthe difference between a good blowto your helm and an obvious glance.(This is a nice move, but not one

you rely on constantly. It’s a split-second decision after you knowexactly where the incoming blowis going to come down.

To have this kind of positionalcontrol requires more than justbalance. Balance is affected by allthose “form” elements, but theforces of armor-wearing and care-less movement will undermine it.

You need a forceful connectionto the ground. Your feet grip theground and thrust you powerfullyin any direction you need to go bypushing the ground the other way.It’s as if you were trying to slidea carpet out from under you usingonly your feet.

Pointing your feet at right anglesto each other maximizes the widthof your base regardless of the dis-tance between them. Centering yourweight between the feet allows youto accelerate equally forward orback. Usually, I put it forward abit because most of my action isforward.

Keeping the leading foot aimedright at the opponent is more im-portant than the precise angle ofthe trailing foot. And keeping eachknee lined up with its foot is stillmore important.

The desire to feel stable (or look

This incoming blow would have been

good . . .

...exceptfor thislittle move!

Slippinga blow Place your ankles about

shoulder width apart

xCenter of gravity

IS A VERYDECEPTIVE TERM.

IT’S AN EVEN MORE DECEPTIVE TECHNIQUE.

22

cool) leads many beginners to adopta wide stance. A wide stance isokay so long as it doesn’t end upstraightening your legs, which cutsinto your mobility. Straight legshave no pushing potential; youhave to bend them before you canuse them. That bending action tele-graphs every move.

Your legs should be bentenough to pro-pel you forwardabout 12" at atime. That’s notmuch. Placingyour feet aboutshoulder-widthapart will dothat without ex-cessive bendingof the legs. Ex-cessive bendingof the legs willcost you mobil-ity because itmakes it harderto pick up yourfeet.

The figure atthe right side of the diagram onthis page gives a rough guide tohow much bend you should try tomaintain.

Those who think a short per-son needs less knee-bend shouldfight Calum Creachadir. Last I sawhim he was still 5 foot 3 soakingwet, and bends low enough –rou-tinely– to disappear below youraverage shield top…␣ only to reap-pear and smack you. (Did I men-tion he’s a really good fighter?)

Learn to sense the amount ofweight on each foot, and keep themappoximately equal. Shading yourweight towards the front foot givesa more aggressive stance andmakes it easier to advance; tougherto retreat. It also brings your weap-ons farther in front of your legs,reducing their exposure to attack.

The diagram shows how a little

change in forward lean makes abig change in what your opponenthas to do to get at your leg. It’snot just that he has to reach furtherdown. To do that, he brings hishead closer to your one-shot, andhis wrist has to bend outrageously,which weakens his grip and theforce of his blow.

ConditioningThe stance shown above is one

of those ways I promised you thatyou could apply strength. Holding

Footwork is actuallyleg-work.

23

that shield out there is the easypart. (It’s straight out of Agrippa.)If your legs are not in shape to startwith, fighting on bent legs is reallydifficult. Beginning fencers find itthe hardest thing about the sport.The legs will cramp and ache untilthey get into shape. Adding theweight of armor makes it twice ashard. But go through it when you’reyoung and you’ll have great legsfor life.

Don’t make it harder by startingout in armor. Do the leg workoutdescribed under “Good Form… itonly hurts for a while” beforesuiting up. Remember, we said highreps, so loading on weight earlywill defeat the purpose.

This is important no matterwhose fighting technique you use.There isn’t a viable method outthere that stands on straight legs.And weak legs are out of the ques-tion. It’s important to get reallycomfortable with this.

This is the doorway to goodfighting. If you turn aside here,barring amazing compensatinggifts, all the hand-work in the worldwill not raise your fighting abovethe mediocre.

MobilityIn one-on-one combat at close

distance, footwork mostly consistsof constant small adjustments infoot and body position to accom-modate tactical needs. Generally itis better to make many small stepsthan save up to make big steps.The big steps cost balance and

commit you to too much.

Advance/RetreatLike most fencing and fighting

coaches, I recommend the “shuffle”advance and retreat. This simplymeans moving first whatever footis closest to where you’re going,then quickly bringing the otherone the same distance in the samedirection.

Some experts tell you to makethat back-foot move really quick.The idea is to minimize the timewhen your body is in transit. Thesooner the “advance” is completed,the sooner you will be able to dosomething else. But don’t get sozealous that you end up hopping.You want a smooth-moving,“steadi-cam” sort of platform underyou.

To avoid tripping over your ownfeet, which really does happen andis really embarrassing, not tomention making you helpless, pickup the toe of your front foot first.The heel can almost slide forwardif the ground is smooth.

When it isn’t, you will need topick up your feet a good inch onevery step.

BalestraThis maneuvre is a “flat jump”

forward or back. The word “flat”describes what is supposed to beyour trajectory. It is done by push-ing the ground sharply in the direc-tion opposite to that in which youwant to go with both feet at thesame time, picking up both feet atthe same time so they won’t drag

…and a LOt more.

24

as you fly, and landing with bothfeet at the same time to a dead stopwithout any change in your upperbody position.

Combat runWhen you need to cover a lot

of ground quickly, medium-length,decisive strides are in order. If youcan do that without straighteningyour legs completely, you’ll havea better chance of stopping sud-denly if you need to. If you can doit while keeping your feet at rightangles, better still. A good me-dium-distance combat run is dem-onstrated well by Toshiro Mifunein The Samurai Trilogy. Be warned:it’s a tremendous energy drain anda terrific workout.

The PassThis is taking the back foot and

swinging it past the other to putit in front, done with both legsremaining bent and the torso re-maining the same height off theground. Bobbing up and down withyour footwork will cost you. Keepto a level glide. A pass or a doublepass (two long steps, one witheach foot) are often used in periodmanuals on the attack.

I use it to advance and pivot atthe same time (or retreat/pivot).From the left-foot-forward start-ing stance, I bring the back footpast the front foot and around infront of it by pivoting the whole

body. This maneuver, lookingmore like a plastic action figurethan anything else in my reper-toire, turns faces me to the left. Theadvancing version puts my swordin the opponent’s face. This in turnfacilitates various projects you willdiscover as we go along.

Broken-field maneuversWatch a good football running

back. Notice how they pick up theirfeet to avoid tripping over things.Also, notice how they get lower tothe ground and they shorten theirsteps as they approach corneringsituations. They corner by makinga short leap, landing with both feetwith knees very bent, right on theturn-point itself, then springingaway off the outside foot the sameway a fencer lunges. (To this day,I practice that move at supermar-ket aisle corners.)

A more conventional footballfootwork drill is to run through afield full of truck tires, spaced closeenough so you have to step in andout of each one.

My college fencing team used todo this: holding your sword hori-zontally in front of your waist, runin place, batting the sword with aknee at each step.

These exercises, as well as acompulsion to run everywhere, arethe source of the leg conditioningthat empowers my tactics.

welcome to the foot-cavalry.

25

the moulinet and sabre parry sept-ime …the “master’s parry.”

He tried to teach me life lessonsin manhood and courage. He toldme “do not go to the killing ground”and “never fight for real unlessyou have exhausted every meansof avoiding it.” He wove self-de-fense skills into his teaching andtaught me how to leverage my punystrength to best advantage.

He was an educator with a strongsense of drama. One night I re-ceived an impromptu epee lessonwith neither masks nor jackets –just a pair of sharp duelling swordswith a bloody history.

In spite of a red-blooded Ameri-can background with little college,he was fluent in Spanish and handywith Latin quotes. He exposed meto a sophisticated, quality-orientedworld-view… e.g. fine dining.

For many years, much of theadvice he gave me lay quietly, wait-ing its time. In recent years, it hascome to mind and borne much fruit.

MasterJohn D. Bailey

hen I was 15, the fencinginstructor came to town.

John D. Bailey, to whom I dedi-cated my Strategy booklet, remainsthe largest single influence on mylife.

He was (is) well-versed in avariety of combat techniques. RatedExpert in pistol, with a caseful oftrophies. A brown belt in karate,with a specialization in Sai (dag-gers). Sought out by law enforce-ment agencies for his workshopsin the use of night-stick. TheMarines had been insufficientlydisciplined for him. He also had –still has– a heart of gold.

He took me on as his assistantinstructor and infected me with theteaching bug. At 17, I was helpinghim give two-man fencing demosall over the area, giving beginninglessons to people twice my age,running class drills, and repairingequipment.

He taught me to drive and hitch-hike and showed me –unforgetta-bly– how to buy a car.

He was a medievalist who joinedthe SCA before I did. He collectedswords, studied period swordplay,and taught traditional moves like

W

Arms of the Baileys(Scotland). The authorresearched this for himyears before the SCAwas founded. He calledhis SCA household theCastle of the Nine Stars.

John D. Bailey.Oil on canvas, 1965, by the author.

SHOWCASE I

26

It is a tenet of modern fencing,as well as some other sports, thatwe move far too rapidly for theconscious mind to deal with in anormal analysis-and-decision ba-sis. Only conditioning and repeti-tive drills can provide a body withthe skills and preparedness to re-spond at high speed to changesand opportunities that may onlylast a half-second.

The Relaxation techniqueWhat coaches call “explosive”speed is simply a sudden accelera-tion. Athletes train to “explode”from a relaxed state, mentally andphysically. One “explodes” withone’s entire body or with selectedmuscle groups. In the SCA, the“one-shot” to the helm is the clas-sic example.

Relaxation is not the same asslumping. It really is possible toselectively relax muscle groupswhile maintaining good body po-sition.

Paradoxically, relaxation is partof every good athlete’s tools. Tensemuscles and an obsessed mind aretoo tight to react quickly: they haveto unclench first. Relaxation is thekey to explosively quick action.

Maestro Danosi’s Wayne Statevarsity fencers used a slap-hands

Explosive action,

game to practice combining con-trolled relaxation with explosiveaction. Fencer A holds his handspalm up in front of his waist, elbowsclose to the body. Fencer B placeshis hands palm down lightly touch-ing them and waits. Withoutwarning, Fencer A tries to pull hishands off and around quicklyenough to slap the backs of FencerB’s hands before he can pull themout of the way. The slightest tens-ing in advance will telegraph themove and cause failure.

Fencer A keeps trying until hescores; then it’s B’s turn.

Mental and emotionalThoughout the Stanley Cup

Playoffs, you hear the commenta-tors repeat that hockey –an obvi-ous physical sport– is 80% mental.Get used to the idea. All competi-tive sports are —once the physicalrequirements are met.

But that term “mental” alsoincludes the emotional. If this isn’tfun, you have already lost. Keep-ing the sport fun is part of winningat it. You could even say that funis what you win. Fun is the sourceof the energy you need to do drillsand condition your body and keepgoing when you’re tired.

RELAXATION &

27

Weights and measuresYou can lift weights all you want.Preferably, free weights well withinyour limits. (If in doubt – anydoubt– consult an expert.) But don’tgo for bulk. Go for high reps andmedium speed. Unnecessary bulkis a disadvantage: the thicker yourlimbs, the harder it is to carry thearmor. Ask Sir Gerhard vonGoldenherz (formerly Eisenherz,MKA Sean O’Dea), who won thecrown of Caid in late 2002. He hadvery impressive bulk when he builthis first suit of plate in the mid-late 1980s. The closer to the boneyour armor is, the less it willweigh, but more important, theless it will drag on your move-ments.

The history of Midrealm kingsis a parade of more slim than largemen, tending more to the wiry thanthe bulky in musculature. DukesAndrew and Comar are exceptions.By the way, it is my belief that thefamous “ducal profile” is not afailure of conditioning but the directresult of the home-run-hitter tech-nique of sword handling. Look atBabe Ruth.

When I was 49, I replaced thesole leather in my armor (it hada clear majority) with steel. Theweight was reduced slightly butthe balance was much better, and

CONDITIONINGfatigue was reduced noticeably. Ibecame a much more agile fighterthan I had been at 45. The armor’sweight was closer to the bones.

No technique in this book re-quires you to lift your opponent,but there are moves designed tobring strength into play withoutviolating our conventions or thetenets of courtesy. So I do encour-age building strength.

On the other hand, I don’t useexercise machines. You and I, inthe lists, need to exert force inunpredictable directions.

Power cuttingVery specific directions. You can

learn a lot about throwing effectiveblows while building very specificmuscles by cutting hardwood withan axe. Not just on a choppingblock. I have way too much stand-ing dead wood where I live, so Ihave the luxury of lopping branchesat a wide variety of angles. Likea pell, only you see how well you’redoing. Again, be very careful.

As you build muscle stength, becareful of your joints. When I gotstrong enough to yank my armorchest off the ground with one hand,I stretched the tendons in my rightwrist, and had to fence left-handedfor two years while it recovered.

28

the door to realswordplay

There’s another level to seeingthings clearly. Ducking blows re-quires some agility, but mostly itrequires seeing blows clearly. Youmust discard the myth that blowsarrive at light-speed and learn tosee exactly when they begin andwhen they arrive. When you mea-sure that time against the thingsyou can do in that span, you canchoose moves intelligently.

Most people don’t really LOOKat incoming blows. There is a physi-cal, reflexive tendency to blink(mentally, even if the eyes don’t)when a blunt instrument is swungat your face. Maybe it’s a mentalform of shock, which is a protec-tive reflex. The blow appears to bevery rapid if not instantaneous.

Consequently, the typical per-son blocks every blow as if it wereinstantaneous, with as sudden ajerk of the shield as possible. Weassume that the shield alwaysweighs more than the sword andtherefore it is always at a disad-vantage time-wise.

Assume nothing. In baseball,an outfielder would never treat abaseball the way we treat incom-ing rattan. He keeps his eye on itthe whole flight, even if it meansrunning into the outfield wall.

Know thine enemy.Take the trouble to let someone

hit you several times without try-ing to block. Look at the weaponthroughout its path, see its veloc-ity at difference parts of its trajec-tory. Then think of it as a baseball,

and catch it on your shield. Not justany part of your shield, but aspecific part. (Not always the samepart –␣ distribute the damage, andkeep your opponent guessing.)

Most SCA fighters, when a blowis coming towards their head, thinknot in terms of intercepting thesword but in covering their targetas if against rain. Rain is random;your opponent’s blows are spe-cific, and your tactics can makethem downright limited.

For centuries, fencers havefaced point thrusts with defensiveweapons that cannot protect bywalling off target areas but mustcatch the attack like a ball andusher it to the side. While fencersuse global vision well, they don’tlearn to catch the sword withoutgoing through a period of lookingright at it.

Don’t block your head; insteadcatch the sword.

This simple principle is the firststep on the path to real swordplay.

Another one is to demand thesame precision of your blows. Thereis a common false assumption thatprecision isn’t really possible. It is.Good fighters routinely scorethrough a slot scarcely bigger thanthe width of their blade.

Look carefully at the target, andbe specific about what you wantto hit. An inch off, and your blowlands on a curve and glances off.

Conversely, you can make anopponent’s blow glance off if youknow exactly where it is going.

29

Revolutionize your repertoire.Any similarity between a

“parry” and a “block” ends whenthe two blades come together. Ablock merely gets in the way of anattacking weapon, often helping itcomplete a combination by bounc-ing it off, while a parry controls it,by either catching it or deflectingit, and often controlling its subse-quent course.

Two fencing-based conceptswill completely revolutionize yourSCA combat repertoire.

First, you can choose every parryin advance. You can do this be-cause you have already limited hisoptions, and maybe even given outan irrestistible temptation to makethe blow you want him to make,so you can make the parry youwant to make – as a setup for theriposte you had in mind in the firstplace. That’s just thinking aheadand acting accordingly… perfectlynormal sports strategy.

Second, that each attack is donein such a way as to prepare thedefense in case it fails. That’smerely prudent, but it underliesthe insistence in the other martialarts on remaining centered behinda firm blow and being precise aboutthe angle of the sword.

These are very different fromthe battleship mentality that in-fects SCA traditional styles: shootfrom a distance, defend with plate.This tends to separate the attackhand from the defense hand. Peopleare taught to block close to their

Defending with thesword

own target at the end of the attack-ing sword’s trajectory, when theblow has built up maximum speedand force.

This is a sound principle in foilfencing, where the weapons are solight that the attacker can changethe point’s flight path in a quarterof a second – but not with massiveweapons, where speed, not thechange, is what defeats the last-millisecond block.

This is great in demos, whereyou want noise and simplicity.

An efficient defense suffers lessshock to the sword, shield andarms. Instead of battleships, thinkaircraft carriers. Intercept incom-ing airplanes in midflight or –better– on their own flight deck.

A parry or a block can happenanywhere in the space around thefighters. Right next to your headis not necessarily the optimal spot.Before he changes the flight pathmight be more advantageous. Fromthis concept, as well as from goodparrying technique, comes a wealthof tactics.

How to parryI developed my parrying method

using heavy swords for exhibitionfights at the Ann Arbor MedievalFestival. Our cheap “wall-hanger”bastard swords weighed 3.5 lbs.each (my SCA 2-hand “claymore”weighs only 2.7). Having one breakon a too-solid block was not some-thing we were willing to risk. Sowe developed parrying techniquesdesigned to offer maximum con-trol to the defender and minimum

30

stress to both blades on impact. Webeing slim modern fencers, it wasalso important to minimize shockto our hands and wrists. In theprocess, I believe, we re-inventedancient techniques.

Although tape-covered rattan istoo sticky to slide the way steelslides on steel, the principles thatfollow apply to SCA combat. Andalthough they were worked outand are most easily understoodusing two-hand swords, they areeven more important when you areparrying with a single-handweapon.

1. Angle and slopeFor this section, I am the at-

tacker. Refer to Fig. 1. As my bladeapproaches, position yourweapon directly be-tween you andthe part ofm y

blade thatwould strikeyou(A), and aim theedge of your blade di-rectly towards myweapon (as at B) so thatthe impact will be close to90° as seen from above. Thatall adds up to “angle.” If you allowany serious variation, either in theangle of the edge or the positionof the sword in space, you will feelyour sword twist in your hand and

find the cross-guard changing fromdefender to chopping-block. Fur-ther, the more deviation the edgemakes from 90°, the more stresson the blade.

To reduce the shock when mysword arrives, you slope your pointso my edge strikes your edge thew a y a ski jumper hits the

downslope (Fig.2). (Slope is

A.) Myb l a d e

slides

down your blade to the guard, or,if you set the slope the other way,it slides up towards the point. Stop-ping dead or bouncing straight backat the point of impact is less de-sirable.

Slope is relative to the angle atwhich the blowis thrown, and tonothing else. Fig.3 shows the ex-act same slopebeing applied toan overhead at-tack. Rotating

this relationshipin space creates the

different parriesused against cuts.

The less slope youhave relative to the line of

the attacking force, the closerto a right-angle the impact will be,and thus the greater the stress toboth blades.

Defending with the sword, continued

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

31

Protect your hand and wrist!No matter what forces are being

thrown at you, they will wind upputting stress on your hand andparticularly the wrist. The firstconcern is the wrist. Taking a hardshot on a poorly positioned swordcan disable your wrist for the day.

The best precaution is to keepit as straight as possible at alltimes. As your wrist bends youcan feel your grip weaken, but moreimportant, whichever direction thewrist is bent the ligaments andtendons on the outside of the bendexperience a shock on your weaponas sudden, high-leverage stretch-ing forces. Your muscles are notmade to soak up this kind of suddenstretch.

The need to keep the wriststraight forces a certain kind ofgrip on you, a grip that playsperfectly with the slope-blade parry.To understand a good sword-griprequires understanding that thevalley through your hand runs atan angle to your forearm about thesame as that I suggest for the slope.In Fig. 4, the hand is shown withno thumb so you can see where thesword-grip should lie and the padsthat will take incoming shock.

Defending withthe sword, continued

Fig. 4

Fig. 5 blade

tilts back

under impact

To complete the grip, the thumbgoes on and the fingers wrap gentlyaround the sword. I agree withmany SCA authorities in havingthe grip pivot between the knucklebone of the first finger and thenearest large bone of the thumb.The sword-grip essentially restson a pad over some small bonesover the ends of your arm-bones,so there’s not a lot of shock-ab-sorption there. That’s up to the theblade and the elbow, which shouldalways be bent during a parry.

Hard and soft parriesThe parry can be either a soft

“opposition parry” where the at-tacking blade slides either down toyour guard or up and off yoursword-tip; or it can be a hard “beatparry” where it bounces off,whether up or down.

The “Opposition” ParryTo “capture” my attacking blade,

you keep your hand “soft” andallow the impact to push your swordback toward you just a bit, main-taining enough slope so my bladeslides down to your guard (Fig. 5)where it is trapped for as long asI keep pressing it forward. Thatneed not be very long.

The spring action of the blade

32

comes from the fingers, which allowthe grip to pivot as described in theprevious section. The question always arises: whycatch the attack on the blade ratherthan in the fork of the guard in thefirst place? The most importantreason is to cover for variations inyour opponent’s aim and avoidhits to your hand or body. Thesecond is that the blade’s massabsorbs most of the attackingshock. This shock absorption al-lows you to capture the bladeinstead of having it bounce away.

Once captured, you can chooseto push my blade away from you,dump it or sweep it downward, orup and over your head and throwit in a new direction for as long asI leave it in your control. Or youcan convert your parry into a bind,pushing my blade aside as youattack me.

Now you’re in the real fun partof swordplay. Several variations ofthis process are well-establishedmedieval techniques described inChristian Tobler’s Secrets of Ger-man Swordplay (see page 2).

You will find more in the Bas-tard/Two-Hand section (with myexplanations).

3. The Beat Parry“Beat Parry” is a modern fenc-

ing term for a percussive, blade-bouncing, non-capturing parry. Tosave the blade, it is sloped thesame way as in a soft parry, whichmeans it is not going to bouncestraight back but at some hard-to-control angle. If you’ve ever thrown

Defending with the sword, continued

a blow that glanced into open space,you’ll know what I mean.

The square-on “block” manySCA fighters consider ideal actu-ally benefits the attacker by givinga predictable rebound.

Without armor, you don’t wantthe blade to bounce downward offa parry into the leg, but an armoredSCA fighter expects the force re-maining in the blow to be harm-less. The unarmored swordspersonrestricts bouncing parries to up-ward deflections that will send theattacking blade past the head, orto firm strikes that send it away.

Parries 1 through 6 forcutting attacksThe numbered parries shown onthe following pages can all be doneeither “soft” or “hard.” The figureshows the six standard positions,each named for the parry that endsin it. I have illustrated the differentparries as if you are not botheringwith the shield.

While they are all “modern”parries/positions, they date fromthe era of heavy cavalry sabres andbackswords used with one handand no shield.

Some future edition of this workwill no doubt use some othernumbering or naming system as Iabandon the nineteenth-centuryparry designations and begin us-ing terms closer to our period. Inthe meantime, this system workswell for SCA work and is easy toremember, something not alwaystrue of period manuals.

33

Prime (“first,” pronounced“preem”) is the postition a single-sword might reach when first pulledfrom a scabbard. It can be high(you look below the guard) or low(you look over the guard).

PRIMEThe high version, done as a

hard block, sets up a beautiful ri-poste to the helm behind theopponent’s shield.

You can use the position HighPrime as a guard position, espe-cially with a shield held low, tocover the entire left side of yourtarget, while providing for suddenoffensive moves.

Front – opponent’s view Side – opponent is to right

34

Seconde will forever be associ-ated with Scotland, even though itis pronounced in the French man-ner, “seh-cone’d.”

Whilk some call it the “cowardguard,” late-17th-century Scottishsword-master Sir William Hope’s“hanging guard” method relies onwhat approximates modernSeconde (Second) and keeping asecure crossing with the opponent’ssword. Hope’s book is included inMark Rector’s excellent book High-land Swordsmanship: Techniquesof the Scottish Sword-Masters(which has little to do with the

SecondeHighlands but is good marketing).

In the nineteenth century, JamesMacIan did a popular series of re-creative paintings representing thelost culture and presumed tartansof Scottish Highland clans. I foundthe one of MacLachlan especiallymeaningful. The clansman is hold-ing the targe in a position Hopewould approve of.

Although he is shown withshield, seconde is really a single-sword parry or position. You startin Prime and sweep your swordacross your front to the positionshown. It is also elegant to getthere from Quinte (fifth), whichonly requires moving the sword-point through a 90° arc with thehand as pivot.

Front – opponent’s view – shieldopened for clarity only

Side view – opponent is to leftThis is R.R. MacIan’s Victorian

illustration of a warrior from ClanMacLachlan. As you can see, I carry

the weapon higher because it isheavier and I don't want to have toraise it quickly for head protection.

35

Pronounced “teerce” (third),this is the standard guard in mod-ern sabre. It became so only in the20th century, after sabre movedfrom cavalry weapon to duellingweapon to Olympic sport.

It is a good guard position forsingle-sword, but it’s not too dif-ferent from what Earl Sir Brannosuses with his shield as a primaryguard (although he angles it morelike a roof). While Seconde offersgood attack opportunities, thosewho prefer to lie in wait might

Tierce prefer Tierce’s invitation to a fore-hand attack with its terrific back-hand-riposte opportunity.

To parry Tierce, start fromQuarte or Seconde. From Quarte,go straight across. From Seconde,cut an arc with the tip whilst thehand drops.

But be warned: as a parry, Tierceis weak against SCA swords be-cause it is your backhand and itfinishes at an extreme position interms of muscle tension. Amongother things, your wrist is bent.

None of this is a problem usingTierce as a static guard. Just sittingthere, it will stop or discourageyour opponent’s backhand.

Front – opponent’s view Side – opponent is to right

This “open” position is atrap for the unwary.

36

QuartE This is the main parry at SCA

single sword, modern sabre andfoil. It is your strong forehand fromTierce.

If you learned nothing from thisbook beyond “guard Tierce, parry

Quarte, riposte helm,” – a simple,powerful sequence– you wouldhave your money’s worth. Youcould, like some world-class fenc-ers, simplify your single-swordgame to just that much and besuccessful.

Tierce is the ideal starting-pointfor Quarte. The sword sweepsstraight across, straightening yourwrist from the uncomfortable Tierceas you go.

Do Quarte as a beat when youwant to go direct to the helm insingle-sword.

You can also get there fromQuinte, with the precaution thatyou start by curling the wristdownward to put the blade quicklybetween the attack and your fore-arm.

And you can get there, profit-ably, from the guard Musashi callsthe “Sword of No Sword,” whichhas a page to itself.

Viewed from opponent’s eyes.

Fourth,pronounced “kaht”

37

QuinteQuinte as a “ready” position is

a great example of why the term“guard” is insufficient. This is avery threatening, aggressive atti-tude because the sword is readyto drop just about anywhere onyour opponent.

Quinte as a parry is easiest toget to from Quarte or from an attackyou just made high on youropponent’s right (your left).

With shield, you must be watch-

Front – opponent’s view Front view – single sword

Fifth, pronounced“kweente”

ful against attacks to your swordarm. Thus there are point-high andpoint-low variations.

From Quinte, the easiest riposteis low right (the opponent’s leftleg). With extra effort, this can beconverted to a helm shot.

With enough arm-strength, youcan score a very direct backhandto the helm from Quinte, curlingthe wrist downward as you go topresent the edge. (The shot mystrong young friend claimed hecouldn’t possibly do.)

38

SIXTESixth, pronounced “seexte,” is

the graceful and fun head-parrythat sets up a devastating back-hand. In actual practice, it’s not aseasy as it looks, and you may blockyour vision more than incomingswords with it at first.

It is mostly a single-sword parrybecause even with unorthodoxpositions it is hard to get the shieldout of the way of your elbow whendoing this parry. Still, there will betimes when you make the perfectinvitation and your opponentobliges with the perfect attack forthis parry: a rare downward head-shot from a little to your right.

When it comes from your left,his sword traps yours and will bein the way of your beautiful back-hand unless you shed it aggres-sively left or right, or he lets itbounce upward.

Footwork can gain you rewardshere. If you are passing to the left,your backhand has a free shot atthe back of his helm. If you parryand step to your right, your bladewill come out of the trap and you’llhave a good chance at the head orbody shot.

Viewed from opponent’s eyes.

39

Fantasy

II The Joyof Combat

hile masters like John Baileyteach, other professionals

work to bring period swordplay tolife for us fantasy role-players…theatrically. Some do it in a deadly-serious manner, leading some tothe rule that a sword must not bedrawn without itself drawing ...blood.

The irony is that while I wassuch a serious little boy and teen-ager, and that I was brought intothe SCA among the “sword broth-ers” of the “Great Dark Horde,” Inever stopped looking more for theplay than the killing aspects ofswordplay. What I found was in-spiring.

When Zeffirelli’s Romeo andJuliet came out in the late sixties,it caused a sensation because ofthe partial nudity of the teen whoplayed Juliet. What aroused myattention (she wasn’t my type) wasthe difference between the waysthe two big swordfights wereplayed. I had read the play butnever grasped that the Mercutio-Tybalt fight was all in fun up tothe point where Mercutio died ofit. When I caught on, I realizedwhat Nicolo Parno, the fight ar-ranger, had recognized all along:swordplay is supremely, gloriously,fun, even with sharps. Even yourworst enemy becomes less so whenthe spirit of play takes over.

The moment that sticks in mymind is not the slapstick with pitch-fork, but the subtler moment afterwords are crossed and Tybalt turnsto find a sword’s point next to hisear. He smiles and with thumb andforefinger gently moves Mercutio’sblade away with the supreme graceevery fencing instructor, for cen-

turies, has used.(Okay… she was hot.)My own understanding of the

magic came when doing semi-choreographed combat for theMedieval Festival. When you areengaged, with even blunted steel,at speed, and nothing but yoursword, your footwork and your witto save you from ugly, painful andembarrassing wounds, the dangeradds a small spice to the action.But, and I cannot emphasize thistoo much, but that spice is veryslight compared to the zest of theswordplay itself.

Your first priority is, as it is inSCA combat, to avoid hurting youropponent. But the powerful mix ofadrenaline, fantasy and friendshipmake it even more important.

But you value your opponenteven more because, while the spec-tator can see flashing swords, heis the only one who can trulyappreciate the art you are weaving.As you appreciate his.

The Man in Black expresses itbest in the movie The PrincessBride. After his opponent begs himto “kill me quickly,” he replies “Iwould sooner break a stained-glasswindow.”

This is ALL fantasy, of course.… isn’t it?

W PERSPECTIVE II

40

Haste is never desirable. Do notconfuse hurry with moving quickly.Hurrying means you are late,something you cannot afford incombat. Hurrying is sacrificingsomething for the sake of speed,whether accuracy, judgment, orgood body position. If you throwyour guns overboard, you limityour options. The sacrifice will costyou one way or another. In sports,hurry often costs the point youwere trying to score, plus an injurythrough loss of balance.

Getting your opponent to hurry,whether they rush their block,blow, or retreat, can lead to deci-sive victory. It’s much of the valueof seizing initiative.

The lessons of military historyand modern sports are both quitedevastating on the subject of hurryvs. patience. In 1513 at Flodden,Scotland’s fighting-age nobilitywas wiped out right up to the kingafter losing patience and leavingthe high ground. At Stirling Bridgeand Bannockburn in earlier cen-turies, patience crushed impetu-ous enemies. And, of course,there’s Hastings.

In hockey, both top goal-scor-ers and top goal-tenders are re-nowned for the patience each canshow, getting the other to committo a shot or a big move. And inmodern fencing, the same thingapplies. Whoever commits firstusually loses.

This is absolutely sound theory,but it’s not theory that gives you

hurrying is awaste of time

control over time. That little stut-ter-step that causes tackles to missBarry Sanders; the ability to stopa heavy sword in mid-swing whileyour opponent’s shield hurries pastthe point of no return; the will toput your body through movesdifficult both physically and by theirdemands for coodination –theseare the hard-won tools that allowyour mind to make the difficultlook easy.

You get those tools by routinelypracticing things that are any-thing but routine. Like blows withlittle hesitations in them.

Still, on the big day, you maybe surprised at being unable toexecute if your energy is not up.You may have noticed that mentalproblems become noticeably harderwhen you are physically tired. Toapply them you must have extraenergy for your brain.

Accept two facts: 1. The fightis mental. 2. Your brain is physi-cal. Look at the size of your carotidarteries: 20% of the blood pumpedby your heart goes to the brain fora very good reason.

Automatic moves, no matterhow strenuous, are easier thanthose that require step-by-stepmental supervision and split-sec-ond reaction to anticipated movesfrom your opponent.

But when you succeed at oneof these mentally-intense actionsets, you are very well repaid.

The compleat fighter needs bothkinds at ready command.

MOVE FAST –JUST DON’TRUSH IT.

41

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Denial

Deny him the chance to seizethe initiative. This doesn’t meanyou have to force every move, onlythat you refuse to respond toanything the way he wants, hopes,or expects. To control the encoun-ter, control first your own move-ments, down to the last twitch.

Deny him a target. Instead, offerhim terrible obstructions and goodreasons not to act. Close him offand shut him down until you’regood and ready to strike him.

Deny him the luxury of time tothink. Keep him busy. He can dohis thinking elsewhere; this is yourtime and you’re going to run theprogram. If he disagrees, hit him.

Deny him the advantage of roomto develop sword speed and thechance to switch targets on the fly.Bomb that airplane (his sword)before it can take off. Extend yourshield into his zone of dexterity,leaving him only crumbs of hismaneuvering room.

IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN AFRICA○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Deny him choices. Don’t let himget ideas. You decide what targethe can swing at. You decide whenit will be open, and for how long.And you decide which weeds todump his blade into when you’redone parrying it.

Deny him information. Showno pattern. Conceal your naturaltendencies. Tell him nothing.

Deny him air space. Control thearea over his helm with a constantthreat. Do as Musashi says: strivefor height. If he puts his sword upthere, knock it away, leaving onlyhis shield to defend the heights –which leaves his left leg open.

Whenever he moves to adjust thedistance to his liking, change it.

Deny him hope. Open up aninviting target and let him start tothrow one nice blow. Then crushhis hopes with a resounding block.Then laugh, as he realizes that...

A classic war strategy is to deny the enemy the means tofight, e. g. fuel, ammo or even food and water. Our game

is a little different, but you can use the principle.

THIS IS FROM MYSTRATEGY BOOK. ITDEALS WITH THE KINDSOF TACTICS YOU NEEDTO BE IN CONTROL OFTHE FIGHT. ENJOY.

42

ong before you could rent thevideo, long before I seriously

considered SCA combat as a worth-while thing totry, Bob Asprinrented theMichigan The-atre to show TheSamurai Trilogy to Ann Arbor’smartial arts community. It becameespecially memorable when Bobhad the projectionist slow down acouple of fight sequences. Theywere even more impressive instop-frame than they were atfull speed.

It was a real eye-opener for someonewho had been to Ja-pan but neverbothered to learnanything aboutAsian martialarts. The threefeature-lengthmovies star ToshiroMifune as ShinmenMiyamoto Musashi,known as the “swordsaint” of Japan.

I was so impressed that I wentright out and read Musashi’s book.At the time, I knew ofno European f i g h tmanual written by a certifi-ably successful fighter himself.

The Book of Five Rings, writtenin 1645, is best known in Japanas a businessman’s source on stra-tegic thinking, but it was originallythe Samurai’s sword-fight bible.

For the first few years of SCAcombat, my great-sword techniquewas largely based on Mifune’s work.

Musashi was the first Samuraito fight with two full-length

Musashi

L katanas. By the time he was 30,he had killed over 60 men in duels.At that point, he switched to

wooden swords andcontinued to defeatanyone who dared,trying to save the livesof, and teach, those

he defeated.Finally, he retired to a cave to

write his masterwork. By this time,he was a true Japanese Renais-sance man. He wrote in the style

traditional for a classi-cal Japanese treatise,

reflected in the “FiveRings” of his book. Musashi also be-came an accom-plished calligra-pher, painter andmetalsmith. Some

of his survivingpaintings stand high

among Japan’s art trea-sures –among themthis ink-sketch of Hoteiwatching two birds. This fact has

s p e c i a lmeaning forme: two of themost accomplished SCA fighters Iknow –Dukes Dag and Eliahu–make their livings in art, albeitcommercial. So does Will McLean.And I.

Duke Eliahu ben Itzhak used toquote this passage from Musashi,one worth repeating. “See far thingsas if near; near things as if seenfrom afar.”

Good perspective is as impor-tant to the warrior as it is to otherkinds of artist.

PERSPECTIVE III

43

PADDYWe in Ann Arbor are uniquely

fortunate in visitations by personsabsolutely unique, often at the top,in their fields. The world’s topsensei in one martial art used tocome only to SanFrancisco, NewYork and Ann Ar-bor. Leonard Bernsteinbrought the Vienna Philhar-monic only to the same three cities.But the Royal Shakespeare Com-pany came only to Ann Arbor.

In 1980, when Erik Fredricksenwas on the theatre faculty at U-Michigan, he was also president ofthe fledgling Society of AmericanFight Directors. As one of his sabrepartners at the Ann Arbor SwordClub and an amateur fight chore-ographer, I was invited to join inwhen the SAFD held its first-ever

Supply in San Francisco. My va-cation time being reserved forPennsic and Scotland, I could onlyattend a few afternoons.

I saved up my hours for Rapierweek, taught by Patrick Crean, thenwith the Stratford Festival Theatrebut who decades before had cho-reographed movie swordfights fea-turing Errol Flynn. He had alsodoubled for Flynn in several on-film fight sequences. At seventy,

Left: me ’n Paddy.We all got ourpictures takenusing a sword ☛Errol Flynnhad used.

Theatrical Combat Workshop here.It was a three-week, all-day

affair accredited by U-M’s Profes-sional Theatre Program featuringunarmed combat, quarterstaff, andrapier weeks. 20 people from acrossthe country were enrolled, includ-ing a fencing master I recognizedfrom the USFA circuit and anemployee of American Fencers

you could still see how that worked.It might have been the fine

sword I was carrying or maybeErik’s prompting (I had helped himprepare swords for the event), butPaddy chose me to partner him ina demonstration of combat improv.I can see his face now, muggingto the other students as I began myroll out from under his descendingsword, which landed with a re-sounding whack on the table I hadjust vacated.

SHOWCASEIII

44

Be humble(but don’t wear out your knees)

I used to religiously act out los-ing a leg in practicing with DukeDag. The good news: my “down”fight techniques were well-honed.The bad news: the better I got atdefending “down,” the longer ittook to kill me, so, against thebetter fighters, I ended up gettingmore practice down than up.

Finally it dawned on me that ifI didn’t get some practice prevent-ing the leg blows thrown by themasters, I could abandon all hopeof joining their ranks.

Because being down reducesyour target, one can often lastlonger down than up. That createsfalse hopes. Be not deceived: “put-ting up a good fight” from downa leg is a long way short of winningfrom down. Poor crumbs to live on.

My first real improvement as afighter began the day I startedsaying “good leg”␣ and remainingon my feet.

There is some value in practic-ing “down” or, say, balanced ona log or with your back to a wall.They help you learn reach, balanceand general scrappiness. But over-doing it will damage your knees.

In tournaments, where we agreeto act out a chivalry fantasy, thiskind of play doesn’t seem right tome. Think: can you stand the ideaof a period knight in the lists at-tacking a person so badly woundedhe couldn’t stand up? Such behav-ior would have gotten short shriftat Numemberg. One can under-stand how early SCA people got theidea. It fits right in with figuring

out what will hurt someone wear-ing mail. (It also fits in with pick-ing legs off insects).

On the surface, winning fromdown a leg seems like a wonderfulunderdog fantasy. It’s a fantasy allright, one reinforced every time abeginner sees a knight beating anovice from down a leg. Legs andheight are such an advantage that,apart from such serious mis-matches, nobody should ever losefighting up vs. down, even giventhe SCA customs designed to re-duce the advantages.

Therefore, when you win one,it’s either because he made a hugemistake or because you were farmore advanced than he was, inwhich case you should not havebeen down in the first place! Sucha cheap victory is not a worthyobjective.

Military history tells us that aman down is doomed; firewoodwaiting to be chopped into kin-dling. Our rules and customs maskthis reality, but not enough to makeof it a good fight. Chivalrous fantasy aside, it ug-lifies and slows the pace of everybout in which it occurs becausepeople take their time slaughteringthe wounded. That in turn limitsthe number of bouts in every tour-ney, which means only the topfighters get more than two or threecombats per tourney.

Popular myth holds that it’sgood preparation for tourneys. Itmight be ––if you expected to winmore than a tiny fraction of your

45

fights that way. Perhaps you thinkthat when you’re a duke, you’llwin more of them. –When you’rea duke, you’ll lose your leg less.When, as a duke, you do win a fewfrom down, some of it will be theducal intimidation factor.

In the mean time, you may findyourself practicing “down” for fearthat people will think you lackingin humility. That’s a social, not atactical problem. Socially, you needto be even-handed. If you do notpractice on your knees,you can’t expect others tolet you practice poundingthem into the ground.

Nor, by the same to-ken, should you let themguilt-trip you into join-ing the herd. Whenyou’ve had enough“down” practice to meet social andtactical needs, refuse politely butfirmly to further damage knees –yours or your opponent’s.

Down-vs.-down is a differentmatter. Right now, it’s a commonfight because many people areunable to bring themselves toslaughter the wounded withoutgiving back some of their advan-tage. But the skills you need to windown-vs.-down are the same onesyou use standing up at close quar-ters. And close quarters is a spe-cialty of this book.

When, at a tourney, someonewho has taken a leg goes to hisown knees, the ignorant call thisa “Point of honor!” Usually, honorhas nothing to do with it.* It maybe courtesy or generosity; it mayalso be vainglory; but usually it issimply unwillingness to be seenslaughtering the crippled. This at-tempt to make the best of a bad

situation usually prolongs the badsituation. To me the only improve-ment would be to shorten it. It’sa tough choice.

My choice is to suggest the downfighter yield, and if he won’t, defeathim as quickly and painlessly aspossible, in order to help peoplerealize that any chance thewounded seems to have is artificaland encourage abandoning it.

One could say more, but ourconcern here is your strategy for

developing as a fighter,choosing which skillsshould get the benefit oflimited practice time.

Developing youruse of the legs bringsmany advantages. Oneexample: when you side-step an opponent’s blow,

you suddenly have an extraweapon– the one an ordinaryfighter would have used to block.Fighters who discover this tacticaltreasury will not be so quick to dowithout their legs. Every minute fighting on theknees takes two away from devel-oping footwork skills –and hurtsthe legs you need in prime shape.

If you want to practice “down”something, try down an arm. Fight-ing single-sword requires neithera wound fantasy nor damagingyour body, but practicing it willreap much bigger benefits.

Not because of all the down-an-arm fights you’ll have, but becauseblocking, parrying, controlling theopponent’s sword with yours isperhaps the most important skillyou can have. Fighting with a singlesword is a viable sub-sport thatneeds no “maiming” fantasy. It isindeed sword-fighting.

Put the effortinto plugging

holes, andyou won’t

have to wasteso much time

bailing.

46

How to avoid fightingdown a leg.

It is a central thesis in this bookthat you can always put choice onyour side. For the exceptionalfighter, the power of that thesis isnowhere more clearly demon-strated than in choosing defensivetactics.

The typical SCA fighter doesn’tmake choices; he merely makesstandard responses to standardattacks. He also expects standardresponses, like a shield block fora head blow (whatever that is). Athis most imaginative, the typicalfighter may block that same blowwith his sword if his shield armis tired (terrific reason!).

You, the exceptional fighter,recognize that you have at leastfour ways to prevent his blow fromfinding its target. Further, you oftenchoose what method you will usebefore his sword leaves his shoul-der (which is a dumb place to storeit). He knows nothing of yourchoices until his sword is in leftfield where your parry dumped it,or in right field where it flew whenyou ducked.

Your choices are not simplyblocking with sword or shield. Youcan block with both! You can alsoduck (not for a leg blow), sidestep,step in or out to make the blowmiss, or you can attack his bladeas he attacks or even before heattacks. The extra choices are onlyavailable to you because youchoose them in advance, not as areaction. (No, you’re not guessing.)

These techniques are discussedin detail in the articles on Parrying,Distance, Pinning the Sword, At-tacks on the Blade, and others.

Even before you get to thosechapters, you can try an experi-ment: during your next S & S prac-tice, focus all your effort on pre-venting every attack from hittingyou anywhere for just two min-utes. Throw no blows. Make upyour mind that losing a leg is asbad as a helm shot, because it willcost you the bout, and you will bemuch more fatigued into the bar-gain.

Yes, you can do it if you reallywant to. See the chapter “AbsoluteDefense.”

One year I decided to learn tojuggle. Once I got three balls in theair, the question was how long Icould keep them going. Like mostbeginning jugglers, I began to counthow many catches I could makebefore one dropped. There was atime when 20 in a row was amiracle, but in six months I got so100 was expected.

Same goes for defense. Afteryou go two minutes, try for three.And so on.

Soon you will discover that mostpeople get hit because they give updefense in order to throw ill-con-sidered blows. You will also dis-cover that many defense techniquescreate scoring opportunities foryou. Keep on defending and watch-ing these openings develop.

Plan A: don’t get hit there.

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As part of my campaign againstfighting down a leg (it’s so ugly!)I try to discourage the practice.

First, I try to set an example. Forme, the leg is now such a targetof last resort that I often apologizeif I hit it, even though it helpspeople remember to defend it.

Second, if a person insists onfighting me from down I resist thecheap glory of getting down myselfin favor of doing my best to dispelany notion that the down fighterhas a snowball’s chance. (If youput as much into hitting his headas you succeeded with in hittinghis leg, he has no chance.)

Third, I go to extremes to dem-onstrate that one can completelyclose off the legs from attack andstill have a more than competentdefense for the rest of one’s tar-gets. For instance, one of my“guards” hangs the shield downover my left knee. Another onedisplays the sword ready to blockbelow the shield on my left.

Finally, should someone be sorude as to strike my leg,I have good plans tomake them pay. As aresult, I often land ahelm shot before myknees hit the ground.That considerably dullsmy anguish and elimi-nates the down-a-legfight before it starts.

To avoid questions,you must collapse theleg struck quicklyand obviously. The

Raise the cost of a low blow.technique involves your total com-bat setup. It recognizes that to getmy leg, the opponent’s sword mustvacate the high ground where itcan defend his head. It also re-quires the ability to outmaneuvrehis shield with your sword in asingle movement including a feintand a head-strike while you arefalling onto your knees.

That can be a very difficultproposition, but good positioning,advance planning and the disci-pline to follow your plan ratherthan reacting to his can make iteasier. For instance:

Often, my sword dangles abovehis helm, just waiting for him toreduce his upper defenses. Shouldhe be so tasteless as to go for myleg, which just might happen to betemptingly wide open, my swordstrikes his helm through the veryair space his sword just left. Should he take the precaution ofusing his shield as an umbrella, Iam forced to maneuvre the sword

around it, landing a bodyblow about the same timeas my knees touch down. The drawing showsa sneaky variation. Youfall far to your left, land-ing on your left kneeand your shield edgewhile your sword cutsthe side of his helm.Just for insurance, his

sword is under yourarm – not trappedbut certainly

made awkward.

(Plan B: Okay, so you got hit there.)

prettyugly,eh?

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JeffreyForgeng

Used to think I knew a thing ortwo about period swordplay. I hadread Schools and Masters of Fence.Twice. When the Man in Black inThe Princess Bride said “I see youhave been practicing your Agrippa”I would smirk knowingly.

When I read Soper and Turner’sThree Elizabethan Fencing Manu-als, I got downright smug. But thefact is, I wasn’t doing the moves.Then, Jeffry Singman, Ph.D., ar-rived in Ann Arbor.

A veteran of the Toronto SCAchapter, a founder of two periodre-enactment groups, and co-au-thor of their manuals, he was hereto help finish up the Middle En-glish Dictionary.

From the Ann Arbor SCA grouphe recruited armourer Guichart deChadenac (John Vernier) to equiphim for re-creating the teachingsof a 14th-century sword and buck-ler manual. From the Ann ArborSword Club, he recruited me tospar with in his study of di Grassi’smanual of fence.

We spent seven years chasingeach other around the lawn withheavy rapiers and crude quarter-

staves. We learned a lot, but wereboth humbled by how quickly aphysically-competent non-fencercould come up to our speed.

Full of energy and learnedenough to be overwhelming, Jef-frey still manages to be consider-ate to those less knowledgeable.

I had put years into trying to sellpersona play to the SCA, withworkshops and a 36-page PersonaPilgrimage that never actually wentanywhere. Jeffrey had done thistoo, but his work is in hardcover.With their example and direct ad-vice –“just do it”– he put an endto my dabbling.

Now, with a surname change,he is hugely enjoying his dreamjob as Adjunct Professor/chairedCurator at the John WoodmanHiggins Armoury Museum inMassachussetts. There, he hostsmore advanced research andteaches period fence (Higgins.org).

At Cynnabar’s Twentieth Anniversary event, Jeffrey, in his di Grassi outfit andstance, used techniques straight from the book to completely stymie my 30 years’experience of swordplay. His translation of Tower MS I.33, a 14th-century Germansword-and-buckler manual in Latin is available through Chivalry Bookshelf.

SHOWCASE IV

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LIVESTEEL!(ooh, ahh.)

Long beforeJeffrey Singman (nowForgeng) brought heavy fenc-ing-rapier replicas to my backyard, I was considered by someSCA members as a bit of a “live-steel bad boy.” Dukes and mar-shals seemed forever on guardafter I tried to introduce fencingin the late seventies and lateroffered steel-sword demos.

To me, they just seemed para-noid. How could people who pro-fessed a love of swordplay avoidexperiencing the feel of steel?

And, please. It’s not live steel.It will not explode. This paranoidterm was born, with the SCA, inthe Viet Nam era, when a “clay-more” was the best-known anti-personnel mine.

The festival steel-sword demoswe did in the seventies were notcompetitive. But Jeffrey’s heavy-rapier fencing was. Just as I thoughtI was beginning to live down mybad-boy image, here comes com-petitive heavy steel.

Jeffrey wanted to practice thetechniques of di Grassi, whosebook, of all the sixteenth-centuryfencing manuals, made the mostsense. For the first time in twentyyears, I was pupil, not teacher.

Jeffrey had done the study andhad had a pair of fencing-rapierreplicas made to period size andweight. I was astonished at the

heft of them, easily as heavy andclumsy as my massive SCAsingle sword. Especially whenyou add the traditional safetytip, a ha’penny piece tied onwith cloth around a wine-

cask stopper. They wereas stiff as a

rattan sword.And we were

going to be mostlythrusting.The parrying daggers were

the size of butcher knivesand the weight of cleavers,with simple four-inchcross-guards. Since safetytips would have made themtoo clumsy, we refrainedfrom thrusting with them.We tried swinging edge-

cuts, but found that thosemoves offered the best op-portunities for the opponent’sthrust.What I missed most was the

modern system of parries. DiGrassi’s primary defense was stepaside and counterattack. Heseems to have thought parriestoo obvious to require explana-tion.The upshot was that the weap-

ons, the ground and the lack ofany armor mattered more than diGrassi’s teaching. It was a run-ning game using all manner ofcombat footwork and switchinghands every twenty minutes tosave our exhausted arms.

For all our effort we might scoreonce or twice in half an hour, andthat just barely. We might planta solid shot once in an hour’sfencing, but just as often not.

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ABSOLUTE DEFENSEYes, you can stop just about

anybody from scoring on you, atleast in sword and shield. And youdon’t need an oversized shield todo it.

There are very good reasons toinclude Absolute Defense in yourplan to become a winning fighter.

In SCA combat, people aren’t hitbecause good defense is impos-sible or even difficult, but becausethey make a deliberate choiceto ignore or discount the enemythreat at a given moment. Theyattack without knowing all thethings the opponent can do withtheir attack. They waltz into en-emy range without covering theirown counterattack targets. Theyattack without thinking aboutanything except what they aregoing to do.

Worst of all, they decide thatlosing an arm or a leg is not so bad.For the quality of thinking thatrepresents, they may as well losetheir heads.

If you followed the earlier dis-cussion about fighting down a leg,you know that defending your legsis just as important as any otherpart of you.

We in the SCA are misled by ourown scoring system which sug-gests that some targets are moredispensible than others; that wecan still win after losing an armor leg. Do not let silly-game rulesdistort your common sense. Inperiod, the poor soul who killed hisopponent while having his own leg

slashed to the bone was not calledthe victor: he was merely the onewho took longer to die, in muchmore pain than his opponent.

The reason period masters tellyou not to go after the legs incombat on foot is not because theyaren’t a valuable target but be-cause of the risks to yourself.

So… the point is, you must learnto defend all targets equally andabsolutely. Trading your leg foryour opponent’s head is a gaming-type decision, not something tomake a habit of. When I do it, itis not a choice to give up the legbut a reflex to take the head whenit’s open. However sound thatchoice may be in its own context,it has no part in Absolute Defense.

Why pursue Absolute D?The first reason to do this is to

prove to yourself that you CAN doit. Once you settle this question foryourself, valuable new possibili-ties open up to you.

First, you dispel forever thenotion that you had better kill youropponent before he kills you; thatsooner or later he will get you,given enough time. This errone-ous notion defines the game as arace, and defines defense as aprocess of trying not to lose. Wealready know that trying not tolose is not the same as trying towin; that it hands all initiative tothe opponent and often causes thething it is trying to prevent.

So… what is Absolute Defenseif it isn’t focused on not losing?

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1. When you know that, if youare determined, you can stop justabout any attack thrown at you,you can relax from the standpointof anxiety and concentrate onwinning. You are now free to fight.

2. You have an achievementvery close to making yourselfunbeatable (even if you can’t scoreon your opponent). And being very,very hard to score on puts stresson your opponent –especially if hebelieves (however improbably) thatsooner or later you will get him.

3. Your solid defense is a verygood place to build a solid coun-terattack, and then a powerfulattack whose movements do notopen you up to counterattack.

Against sword and shield, youcan achieve Absolute Defense quitesoon (only in the SCA where shieldsare indestructible). You have over-powering advantages: two weap-ons of defense against one of attack,plus the ability to use bodymovenment to make him miss.There are two kinds of defense:territorial and tactical.

Territorial Defense only con-cerns itself with offensive weap-ons entering your target areas. Itblocks, parries, dodges, ducks orretreats out of the way.

Tactical Defense uses any trickavailable to keep the attack fromlanding, but specializes in pro-active means. In warfare, cuttingenemy supply lines is the classicexample. You can do things likekeeping your target moving andthe defensive weapons changing

The Three Rules ofAbsolute DefenseAbsolute Defense wastes notime or decision-making efforton choosing between optionsof questionable value. Here arethe rules:

1. Every real attack must bestopped or completely avoided.Blows that glance because ofopponent error are notacceptable; only those youcontrol to the point of glancingcount as successful defense.

2. Every false attack must berecognized and ignored. Beingdrawn out is more than halfwayto getting hit.3. No attack must be startedfrom a state of defense uncer-tainty. Your opponent’s attackand counterattack potentialitiesmust be fully understood be-fore you start anything.

The “fourth” rule: Every at-tack on your defenses –as dis-tinguished from attacks on yourtarget areas– must be rejectedin favor of stopping the attackon your target(s). That means,for just one example, if the op-ponent pushes your shield asideor ties up your sword, your firstconcern is to cover theopponent’s sword pathways orto move out of range, not towrestle with whatever distrac-tions he throws.

kick the habit of defeattheir positions to make targetingdifficult (standard boxing tactics).

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TERRITORIALDEFENSE

In our discussion of AbsoluteDefense, we included Territorial asa type of defense. There are alsonon-absolute defense methods thatare include the Territorial concept.This discussion applies both ways.

Territorial Defense uses all theparries described earlier, plus de-fensive shield work, i.e. blocks andparries, plus footwork and bodymoves of avoidance. Yes– parrieswith the shield. Remember that ablock is a stop while a parry is adeflection, a change of direction.

1. Distance ControlIn modern fencing –easily the

most refined western martial art–control of distance is the first andmost basic defense tool. Mastersrequire you to remain just outsidedirect-attack distance – that is, thedistance at which your opponentcan hit you with a simple lunge.The principal drill you get –hoursof it– is maintaining that distanceby constant little advances and re-treats. The result is that a majorcomponent of your defense ismaking your opponent work hardjust to launch a “standard” attack!

The SCA sword-and-shieldequivalent would be a distance thatrequires some kind of step forwardfor your opponent to reach yourhead with his sword. In fact, wefind the best fighters in Midrealm

setting and maintaining just sucha distance. You could call thistactical defense, but it’s so basicthat we’ll include it here too.

2. Target ControlYou cannot control all the in-

telligence your opponent gets onyou, but you can control what hesees of you when the two of youare in the lists. You choose whereand how to deploy your weapons,how your torso, head and limbsare arranged.

Some people crouch low andbow their heads, peeking frombehind the edge of their shields.They may feel like a coiled springor a tiger, but I have already statedthe advantages of an upright bodyon bent legs, and I’m sticking tothat.

Tyical SCAS & SGuard

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It is one thing to look defensive,another to look defended, and stillanother to BE defended. You canput the last two to use.

Unless you use an oversizeshield, you cannot obstruct everypath to all of your valid targetareas. You must choose what toleave open and what to cover.

The typical-SCA S&S guard(peeking over your shield) looksdefended, but as a total system, it’scostly. It requires you to block leg-blows with a downward movementof the heaviest weapon you have,which renders it an uphill battle todefend the much more valuableupper target areas. It is this faultin the system that makes the risingsnap a household word in the SCA,not the latter’s qualities. Fortu-

nately, there are two viable alter-natives, one from the period mas-ters and one from me.

The period one is from Giacomodi Grassi, writing in 1575. He (andMarozzo, let’s not forget) extendthe shield arm towards the oppo-nent, shaded to the side the shieldis on so that your view of theopponent is not obstructed. It’s justlike the goalie advancing to ob-struct more of the angles to thegoal. It works really well. The downside is that it takes a lot of armstamina to maintain it, dependingon the weight and balance of yourshield.

Well… period guys have reallystrong arms. But seriously, hold-ing a shield at arm’s length is noworse than having to stop its down-ward sweep and whip it upward tocatch that damn rising snap…repeatedly. And a lot more effec-tive.

Face it… the “standard” methodinvolving whipping your shieldaround reacting to far easier andfaster sword moves is just plainsilly. Even in modern foil, only abeginner or a fool chases after theattacking blade. What good fenc-ers do with their defensive equip-ment is lie in wait in a good place.

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE, continued

Extendedshield was at

one timestandard. This

one is from1575, di Grassi

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The illustration from me I callthe “tired man” because that’s whatit looks like … and it is efficient,if you can execute the rest of themoves. The shield arm hangs down,holding the shield, or resting it,against the left leg, which is slightlyadvanced, such that it covers downto the knee. That tells your oppo-nent to not even bother with theleg. That road’s closed. Because itlooks so relaxed –which it is– youropponent won’t look for any bigmoves out of that shield, any ofwhich would be uphill. Neither willyou. It’s closing off a part of yourtarget that is a pain in the neck todefend any other way, and youwon’t have to make any decisionsabout using the shield for the firstfew moves against you. All yourfocus can go into the rest of thedefense, with footwork, bodyworkand swordwork.

That’s made simple because now

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE, continuedyou only have to defend your upperhalf. The swordwork can be assimple as using guard of tierce andparrying whatever is appropriatefrom the sabre repertoire, or youcan use my Tired Man guard.

I place the pommel of my swordon the front of my shield with thepoint aiming at my opponent’s rightshoulder. Hardly anyone I’ve metknows what to do against this. Butwhatever they do, there is a simpleanswer.

For straight-in head cuts andthrusts at my torso, I simply raisemy hand and sword straight up themiddle in front of me, catching theincoming on the false edge angledsuch that it dumps their sword offto my right as my weapon contin-ues what is now the backswing fora downward blow at whatever theyleave open. No other body partshave to move at all.

Tired man’s simple parry

My “Tired Man”Guard

Images to come.... but by now, I’d g

55

While this riposte is not strictlydefensive in nature, it has the effectof chasing their sword back to helpdefend against the unexpectedthreat. It also expresses a certainsense of nonchalant mastery, whichopponents always find demoraliz-ing. That, too, is outside the ter-ritorial-defense scheme, having adefinitely tactical effect.

This just clarifies how hard itis to have clear categories in an artlike defense.

A variation is to step into theincoming attack while parrying itit with Prime. This step is madewith the right foot, which makesthe parry easier and brings youfacing the sword you just parried,while advancing your sword armdeep into enemy territory. Youshould fire off a lazy riposte justto keep him from following upsmoothly.

This is a perfect example of theefficiency you get when footworkand weapon-work are combined.

It is related to German Longswordtechnique in keeping the sword infront of you most of the time, whereit is easy to control and betweenyou and your opponent’s weapon.

For backhands coming to myright, I simply pivot on my heelsso the sword is like a bowspritfacing the incoming, which arethereby parried down into myshield. I then pivot back to mynormal, if you can call it that,position. If I feel a lttle aggressive,I extend my sword arm as I pivotback so that the blade whacks theopponent’s helm.

For opponents who do nothingagainst Tired Man, I advance onemethodical step at a time untilsomething happens.

Target Control, continuedThe subject was control of the

picture you present to the oppo-nent. A variation on Tired Man isa more aggressive-looking stancewith the shield somewhat advancedbut my sword raised as if I had just

Tired man’s bowsprit parry

Tired man’s parry Prime

Sword of Damocles Guard

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE, continued

guess you have a pretty good idea of what they’ll look like!

56

done one of those vertical parriesand stopped. This is the Sword ofDamocles.

It looks offensive, but once youare onto the idea of active sworddefense, it will make more sense.If you can hit any target from thehilltop, you can also demolish anyincoming attack when you havethe upper hand. But more to thepoint defensively, that threateningsword makes them think twicebefore attacking any old way.

When they do attack, you haveall the choices. If they go for thearm, you advance the shield whiledropping the sword on their head.

If they get tricky, you drop thesword on their sword or sword armand then on their head.

The Extended ShieldThe extended shield position is

a good place because it does threegood things for your defense. First,it reduces the viable targets youropponent can see his way to.Second, it reduces the distance and

difficulty of defensive moves.Third, it gets the rest of the bodyinvolved in its maneuvers insteadof putting the entire burden onyour poor left arm.

It does something else for youroverall fight quality. It gets yourleft arm involved in the fight, almostthe way the left sword is in two-sword. (When we get to TacticalDefense, this will be even moreimportant.)

Extended Shield doesn’t haveto wear out your arm. Any fencercan tell you that holding an exten-sion for long is a mistake. You putit out there at key moments, likejust before your opponent attacks.And, to reduce muscle fatigue, younever keep absolutely motionless.You can hang it in front of yourleading leg in the meantime, or setthe point on your knee.

This is not much more work, ifany, than holding your arm bentto a difficult curve in front. Re-member how tough that was whenyou were a beginner? Funny… Idon’t remember seing it in any ofthe period manuals. But the Ex-tended Shield is in every manualthat shows one.

The Extended Shield is rightthere when you want to mess withthe opponent’s shield or secondsword. Since it’s already out there,you don’t have to worry abouttelegraphing the shield snatch, buthe has to worry about it all thetime. And you’ll have much morepractice dealing with opponents’shield snatch attempts because it’sa natural response to ES.

TERRITORIAL DEFENSE, continued

Extended shield fromuser’s point of view

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TRAPS FOR THE WARYAND THEN THE FUN BEGAN…

More to come....