Sep
23
2011
Notes on plate 10 from Capoferro
Summary of the plate:
Action 1:
| D gains in fourth | |
| C turns a cut to the right cheek | |
| D lunges in fourth with their hand high, hitting in the chest and stopping C’s cut |
Action 2:
| D gains in fourth | |
| C pulls back as if to make a cut | |
| D lunges in fourth with their hand high | |
| C parries to the inside and ripostes with either a cut to the face or a thrust to the chest. |
Technical actions of note:
- Cut to the face (in this case the right cheek)
- Thrust in high fourth
- parry of fourth (mezzo mandritto)
- Riposte with a cut to the face (again the right cheek)
- Riposte with a thrust to the chest
Concepts:
- attacking in time
- provoking an attack in time
Drills for building technical skills
- From the opponent’s engagement in fourth, cut cheek
- From the student’s invitation to the inside line, parry fourth riposte with a thrust to the chest
- From the student’s invitation to the inside line, parry fourth riposte with a cut to the cheek
- From the student’s engagement in fourth, opponent cuts cheek, student counterattacks with thrust to the chest with their hand high
Putting it all together in a tactical lesson
- From the instructor’s invitation in fourth, straight thrust
- From the instructor’s attempted engagement in fourth, disengagement
- From the student’s engagement in fourth, glide
- From the student’s engagement in fourth, cut cheek
- From the instructor’s attempted engagement in fourth, circular cut cheek
- Student attempts to engage on the outside, instructor attacks with a disengagement, student parries fourth and ripostes with a thrust to the chest
- Same thing, but the student ripostes with a cut to the cheek
- Again, same thing, but the student choose which riposte to make
- Student attempts to engage in fourth, instructor makes a cut to the cheek, student counterattacks with a thrust to the chest
- Starting from out of distance, student steps forward while engaging in fourth – opponent does nothing. Attack with a glide
- Same thing, but the instructor makes a cut to the cheek – counterattack in fourth
- Same thing, but the instructor attacks with a disengagement to the chest – counterattack in second
- Same thing, but the instructor chooses what to do: nothing, cut cheek, or disengagement to chest. Student responds appropriately
- Same thing, but adding movement and maintaining distance until the student initiates the actions (usually based on some cue from the instructor)
- Starting from out of distance, instructor steps forward with an engagement in fourth – student attacks with a cut to the cheek
- Same thing, but the students starts the movement of the cut, prompting the instructor’s attack and parries in fourth. ripostes with cut to the cheek
- Same thing, but the students chooses whether to riposte with a cut or a thrust
- Same thing, but the instructor decides whether or not to counterattack or not, so the student either has to finish their initial attack or try to parry the opponent’s attack
- Same thing, but with mobility
- From the instructor’s invitation in fourth, three straight thrusts end of lesson
Jun
7
2011
Now that my master’s exam is finished I’ve had a little more time to go back to working on rapier. This is a lesson that we did last night. The goal was to go a little bit more in depth with some of the specific plates and techniques in Capoferro.
- From the invitation in fourth, Straight thrust
- From the engagement in fourth, Glide
- From the engagement in fourth, Disengagement
- From the engagement in fourth Cut to the cheek (plates 8 and 10)
- From the engagement in fourth Cut to the cheek, second cut to the head (plate 8 )
- From the engagement in fourth, counterattack to the outside high line (plate 7)
- From the engagement in fourth, counterattack with a pass to the outside high line (plate 9)
- From the engagement in fourth, counterattack in second under the blade (lunging forward) (plate 14)
- From the engagement in fourth, simple parry of third with a gaining step, riposte with an imbrocotta with a lunge (plate 7)
- From the engagement in fourth, simple parry of third (false edge) with a gaining step, riposte by mandritto to the cheek with a lunge (plate 7)
- Blade seizure in fourth and glide
- Blade seizure in fourth, counterattack to the outside high line (plate 7)
- Against a blade seizure in fourth, feint by disengagement, master counterattacks to the outside high line, parry third and riposte with an imbrocotta (plate 7)
- Against a blade seizure in fourth, feint by disengagement, master counterattacks to the outside high line, parry third (false edge) and riposte with a cut to the cheek (plate 7)
- Blade seizure in fourth, counterattack with a pass to the outside high line (plate 9)
- Against a blade seizure in fourth, feint by disengagement, master counterattacks with a pass, executes an inquartata (plate 9)
Mar
20
2011
One of the reasons that I haven’t posted many lessons up here lately is that I’ve been focusing a lot lately on my classical fencing. One of the others is that most of the rapier lessons that I’ve been giving have been fairly simple – at least in terms of the number of actions. Lately, I’ve been working more on perfecting speed, timing and timing during the lessons, throwing in tactical actions as they seem appropriate. I think that the results are good, but it does leave me with less to write about.
I did give a rapier lesson the other day that I thought was pretty fun, so I decided to share it. I did this with my wife Dori, who was preparing to participate in an upcoming rapier tournament.
- From the instructor’s invitation in third, straight thrust
- In time, as the instructor invites in third, straight thrust
- In time as the instructor attempts to engage in fourth, disengagement
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in fourth, feint by disengagement and disengagement
- Same thing, but with an advance
- Same thing, but the instructor may attempt to counterattack
- In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in fourth, disengagement in time
- Either 5 or 7, based on whether the instructor just attempts to engage the weapon, or to a blade seizure
- Same as 8, but with the option of counterattacking against the student’s feint
- With mobility
- From the instructor’s engagement in third, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.
Mar
18
2011
I’ve been doing a lot of research regarding feints in fencing – both historical and classical lately. Here’s a section that I wrote on the feints described by Capoferro. This is still a work in progress – please excuse the use of modern terminology in my interpretations of the text.
Capoferro writes that feints are “those deceitful gestures of the sword” that “strike directly at the opposite of that which they gesture. He writes that feints can be made with the cut, the thrust, to the outside, or inside of the sword, high, low, forward and back, circularly as well as in direct or indirect lines. He includes covering the sword as a kind of feint, which is done by “covering the point of the adversary’s sword with the debole of your sword, when one happens to be in low quarta, and needs to be done in a straight line.”
Given his earlier words on the vulnerability of the feint to the counterattack, it comes as no surprise that the majority of feints in his book are intended to draw, and defeat the opponent’s counterattack. In plate 7, Capoferro describes what would now be referred to as the first form of countertime. Plates 9, 18, and 17 demonstrate the second form of countertime with an inquartata in countertime, and a scannatura in countertime. Only in plate 11, does he describe the opponent parrying rather than counterattacking, and he directs the final thrust to the flank with a pass. Each of the feints that Capoferro describes is initiated with a disengagement, and like Giganti, Capoferro recommends that the feint be executed while keeping the body somewhat held back.
Plate 11
| Figure marked C | Figured Marked D |
| Engages on the inside or outside | |
| Feint by disengagement (hand in 4th) to the face | |
| Attempts to parry | |
| disengages to the low line, while passing forward and lowing the body |
Plate 7
| Figure Marked C | Figured Marked D |
| Engages on the inside | |
| Feints a disengagement to the chest | |
| Attempts to strike with a thrust to the left eye | |
| Parries to the outside with the false edge and ripostes with a mandritto to the face or Parries to the outside with the true edge ad ripostes with an imbroccata# to the chest |
|
| Recovers to a low 4th. |
Plate 9
| Figure Marked C | Figure Marked D |
| Engages on the inside | |
| Feints a disengagement to the face | |
| Attempts to counterattack with a thrust to the face (hand in 2nd) with a pass forward | |
| Disengages underneath the opponent’s sword and executes an inquartata, hitting in the chest |
Plate 18
| Figure Marked B | Figure Marked C |
| Engages on the outside | |
| feints a disengagement to the face | |
| attempts to pass with a thrust (hand in 4th) to the face or throat | |
| executes an inquartata and strikes the chest |
Plate 17
| Figure Marked B | Figure Marked C |
| Engages on the outside | |
| feints a disengagement | |
| Attempts to counterattack by stepping with the right foot to the outside and voiding the body | |
| Parries to the outside with the off hand, lowers the sword to second, and passes forward hitting the flank, while gripping the opponent’s sword hand |
Aug
24
2010
From practice tonight. I didn’t really have a plan for this lesson, so it just kind of happened. After the first couple of actions I decided I wanted to work on attacks with advances and counter-disengagements.
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd, straight thrust
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd and retreats, straight thrust (advance lunge)
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd and retreats, feint direct and disengagement with an advance
- Same thing, instructor parries stops the final attack with a parry of 3rd, riposte by flanconade in 3rd, students defeats that with an imbrocatta (the counterattack, not the downward thrust)*
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd and retreats, blade seizure in 4th and glide
- Same thing but the instructor attempts to engage in 4th with a second retreat, students executes a counter-disengagement with a lunge
- Same thing, but the student does the counter-disengagement with a passing step continuing past the instructor
- Same thing, but now the student has a dagger and makes a second touch as they pass by the instructor
*4 There were actually a couple of variations on this theme, this ended up being the most common and was chosen by the student, not called by the instructor.
Aug
18
2010
Cut and Thrust lesson from practice last night:
- In time, straight thrust. Instructor’s choice as to what line to invite in
- In time, disengagment. Instructor’s choice as to what line to attempt to engage in
- In time, glide. Instructor’s choice as to what line to glide in
- In time, blade seizure in 3rd, cut to cheek
- (Instructor switches to right hand) blade seizure in 4th, cut cheek
- Blade seizure in 4th, instructor gives counter-pressure, circular cut to the cheek
- Instructor’s choice between 5 and 6
- (Instructor switches back to left hand) blade seizure in third, cut cheek
- Blade seizure in third, instructor disengages, blade seizure in 4th, cut cheek
- Instructor’s choice between 8 and 9
- In time, three straight thrusts
Aug
18
2010
This is a lesson that I did a practice last week. The goal for the lesson, rather than to work on techniques was to focus more on timing and speed, which is why the lesson itself is so short. For the actions that are on the student’s initiative, the instructor has the option to try to parry them – if the timing or the distance is not correct for the student, they will have a hard time making the hit.
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd, straight thrust
- On the student’s initiative, straight thrust.
- In time, blade seizure in 4th and glide
- In time, blade seizure in 4th, disengage
- Instructor’s choice between 2 and 3.
- On the student’s initiative, three straight thrusts
Jun
20
2010
- In time, as the instructor invites in 3rd, straight thrust
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, straight thrust
- In time, glide in 3rd
- From the student’s engagement in 3rd, time thrust in 4th.
- Same thing, instructor makes a parry of 3rd in counter–time and ripostes by flanconande in 3rd. Student parries 7th and ripostes with a pass. (There were a couple of variations on this. All of which were fun and amusing)*
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, feint by disengagement and disengagement
- Same thing, students adds an advance with the feint, starting from out of distance
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, double feint by disengagement and disengagement
- Same thing, but with a coordinated step
- In time blade seizure in 3rd
- In time, blade seizure in 3rd, instructor executes a disengagement in time, student does a parry of 4th in counter-time, transports to 2nd and ripostes by glide with a passing step
- Same thing, however the student make a parry of 2nd instead of the parry of 4th and transport
- Similar thing, but done as a counter attack. The action now turns into something along the lines of a time thrust in 2nd with a passing step.
- From the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.
*In case anyone is wondering, this lesson is for an opposite handed pair,this action would work differently for a same handed pair.
Jun
17
2010
This is from practice last week.
- From the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, straight thrust to the body
- In time, as the instructor changes to the invitation in 3rd, straight thrust to the body
- In time, as the instructor changes to the invitation in 3rd, straight thrust to the crook of the arm
- In time, as the instructor changes to the invitation in 3rd, straight thrust to the crook of the wrist
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, disengagement to the body
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, disengagement to the crook of the arm
- In time, as the instructor places blade in line, engage in 3rd and glide to the body
- In time, as the instructor places blade in line, engage in 3rd and glide to the crook of the arm
- On command, angulation to the bottom of the arm.
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 3rd, disengagement to the crook of the arm, second touch by angulation to the bottom of the arm
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 4th, disengagement to the crook of the arm, second touch by angulation to the bottom of the arm*
- In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 4th, disengagement to the crook of the arm, second touch by angulation to the bottom of the arm. Student recovers to guard, 3rd touch by arrest with reassemblement to the crook of the arm.
- Same thing with mobility.
- From the invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts end of lesson
*I switched lines here because I was having a hard time clearing my student’s weapon in order to set up his angulation to the bottom of the arm.