The Coblog

Lesson 5

This is the other lesson we did on today.  There were 4 of us there, two right handers and two left handers.
(since we’d done a lesson earlier, and it was really hot, we skipped some of the simple attacks)

From the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, straight thrust
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, time thrust in 4th to the face.
From the instructor’s engagement in 3rd, feint by disengagement an disengagement to the low line.  (For the feint, the hand is turned to 4th position, in the final attack, the hand should be in second, and the body should be leaned forward, so that they pass under the instructor’s blade)
From the student’s engagement in third, parry 4th, parry second, riposte by glide with a passing step. (this is a counter to the previous action.)
From the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.

Although, we didn’t cover it in the lesson, we also discussed Capoferro’s counter to the time thrust in 4th.  Basically, if the opponent’s instinct is to start a counterattack as soon as you disengage, you can change your action to a circular beat in 4th.  What should happen is that you will hit their blade just as the reach extension, making for a nice, solid beat.  Then, you can either finish with a thrust to the face, or a cut to the cheek.

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Lesson 4 – Left handed again

This is a lesson we did today with a left handed student who normally does Italian foil and saber with us.  It’s pretty similar to the earlier one I posted earlier, but has some added stuff thrown in as well.  This was his second time doing rapier, and possibly only his first real lesson.  The goal for the lesson was to introduce a couple of the actions that tend to be more prominent in rapier.

From the Instructor’s invitation in 3rd, straight thrust.
From the Instructor’s engagement in 3rd, disengagement
From the students engagement in 3rd, glide.
Same action, in time.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, simple parry of 4th, riposte by glide.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, simple parry of 4th, riposte with a passing step.
From the student’s engagement in 3rd, time thrust in 4th.
From the students engagement in 4th, parry low third, with the tip high, and riposte to the throat with a passing step.
This didn’t seem to work as well with opposite handers, especially if the instructors arm was stiff, so we modified it to the following:
From the student’s engagment in 4th, parry third, riposte by flanconnade (drop the tip and hit in the flank) with a passing step – not in capoferro, but still pretty cool for opposite handed opponents.

Next, we added started doing the actions in time, and with a little bit of mobility.

In time, from the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th and glide.
In time, from the instructor’s invitation in 3rd (but more aggressively, as suggested by Maestro Sahm in class on Saturday) blade seizure in 4th, starting from lunging distance.  Instructor retreats and gives counter pressure, student lunges with a disengagment.
Same action, but instead the instructor does not retreat and holds ground.  Student hits with a glide, no lunge.
Same action, this time the instructor either retreats, giving counter pressure, or holds ground.  Student either lunges with a disengagment, or glides with no lunge.

No back to a regular blade seizure…
Blade seizure in 4th, glide
Blade seizure in 4th, instructor does a disengagment in time, time thrust in countertime in 3rd (hand in 2nd) to the face.
From the invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.

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Lesson 3

 Lesson from last Sunday (edited the ordering a bit to clean things up):

From the invitation in 3rd, straight thrust
From the engagement in 3rd, glide
From the engagement in 3rd, disengagement
From the engagement in 4th, parry 3rd, riposte by glide (yes, I did start off in the wrong line and had to change things up to get what I wanted)
From the engagement in 4th, parry 3rd, riposte by glide with a passing step
From the engagement in 4th, parry low 3rd, with the tip high and riposte with a passing step to the throat.  Use the offhand to press down on the opposing guard.
From the engagement in 4th, time thrust in 3rd
From the engagement in 4th, as the instructor attempts a disengagment, arrest
In time, from the invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th and glide
As the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, disengagement in time
In time, from the invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th, instructor attempts a disengagement in time, time thrust in countertime, hand in second.
From the invitation in 3rd, three straight thrusts, end of lesson

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Lesson 2 – Left handed Capoferro

 These are some interpretations of a couple of the plates done with a perspective of a left hander.  This is all conjecture, but I think it makes a reasonable amount of sense.  The main plates I’m looking at are the first parts of plates 7 and 9.  The actions would probably need to change even further to account for the counters to these actions.

Right handed:
Student engages in 4th, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student executes a time thrust to the body, hand in 2nd.

Left handed:
Student engages in 3rd, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student executes a time thrust to the body, hand in 4th. 
OR
Student engages in 4th, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student executes a time thrust to the body, hand in 2nd.

For me, the choice of which one I will use depends on what my focus for the lesson is.  Both are doable, but the first option will generally be considerably stronger for a left handed opponent.  The choice of which one to do will also depend on what actions you plan on following it with.

EDIT: On further experimentation, I think both of these actions should work well regardless of the handedness of the fencers if the attacks are directed to the face, even if the opponent keeps a fairly stiff arm.

Right handed:
Student engages in 4th, instructor executes a disengagmenet to the body, student parries 3rd and ripostes with a passing step, hand in second (a defensive action)
OR
Student engages in 4th, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student exectus a thrust to the face, hand in second with a passing step (a counter-offensive action)

Again, it’s possible to execute this action with an opposite handed opponent, but whereas in the previous action was a little weaker for the left handed fencer, this one is downright suicidal.  The pass will be to the opponents inside line, and you will pretty much be running into them.  If you miss, you are screwed.  If the opponent has anything in their off hand you are even more screwed.  

Here’s my suggestion:
Left handed:
Student engages in 3rd, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student parries 4th and ripostes with a passing step, hand in 4th.
OR
Student engages in 3rd, instructor executes a disengagement to the body, student executes a thrust to the face, hand in 4th with a passing step.

The action will still be a little awkward, but this time when you pass towards your opponent, their sword trapped underneath your blade, and in between you and your opponent, putting them in a more awkward situation.  If they do manage to stop the attack you should be in a much safer than you would have been the other way

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Lesson 1

This is a lesson I did a few weeks ago.  The goal was to cover the techniques covered in the basic plays of the first half of the single sword plates in Capoferro.  (I’m writing this from memory, so there may be some inaccuracies)

From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, straight thrust

From the student’s engagement in 4th, glide

From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, disengagement to the body

From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, disengagement to the head

From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, circular cut to the leg (riverso)

From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, cicular cut to outside cheek

From the student’s engagment in 4th, instructor attacks with a disengagement to the body, time thrust in to the body, hand in second position,opposition to the outside.  No lunge, instructor closes distance

From the student’s engagment in 4th, instructor attacks with a disengagement to the head, thrust to the face, hand in second, opposition to the outside, with a passing step.  Use the offhand to check the opponents guard.

From the student’s engagment in 4th, instructor attacks circular cut to the leg.  Student withdraws the right foot to behind the left foot, while leaning the upper body forward slightly (Reassemblement) and making a cut to the wrist

From the student’s engagment in 4th, instructor attacks circular cut to the leg.  Student executes a reassemblement, with a thrust gto the face, hand in 4th. (Same action as above, different target)

From the student’s engagment in 4th, instructor attacks with a thrust to the toe.  Student executes a reassemblement with either a cut to the hand, a thrust to the hand, or a thrust to the face.  (Different initial attack to reflect an action commonly seen in bouting)

From the student’s engagement in 4th, instructor attacks with a circular cut to the outside cheek.  Student lunges in the turning of the cut to the armpit, hand in 4th and raised above the head.

From the intructor’s invitation in 4th, student exectutes a feint direct to the inside high line, hand in 4th.  Instructor parries 4th, student eludes the parry with a disengagement to the low line, hand in second, with a passing step.  Think Fleche to the low line.  The torso should be bent over pretty low as well.  After the step, the recovery should be done by continuing forwards and passing the opponent.

From the student’s invitation in a high transverse 4th.  (Hand to the inside, hand in 4th, but with the wrist broken and the tip pointed to the the outside)  As the instructor attempts to engage in 4th, the students rotates the hand to second, and executes a thrust to the low line with a lunge, lowever the torso as before so that the instructors blade is avoided.

From the student’s engagement in low 4th, instructor executes a disengagment to the body.  Student parries in a low 3rd, with the tip held high, and ripostes with a passing step to the throat, using the off hand to press down on the opponent’s guard.

From the student’s engagement in 3rd, instructor executes a disengagement to the body.  Student parries 2nd, and ripostes to the flank with a bassing step using the off hand to press down on the opponent’s guard.

From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, three straight thrusts, end of lesson.

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Posting fencing lesons.

So I’ve been thinking about using livejournal to post some of the lessons I’ve been working on for rapier.
The majority of the lesson I’ll be posting are based on Capoferro, and generally follow the rough structure and organization of a Classical Italian lesson.

The lessons represent the interpretive work that my friends and I are currently doing with Capoferro.  I try pretty hard to stick to techniques that are explicitly covered in Capoferro, but occasionally either add some different actions, modify actions, or simply actions in order to focus on the execution of a specific technique.

the terminology I use comes from my Classical Italian training, however there are usually some differences in how I would interpret a term when using it for rapier.  For instance, there are some pretty subtle differences between how the guard and lunge is done in rapier as compared to Italian foil, however to simplify what I’m doing, I will leave this out for now.

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