The Coblog

Lesson 25

This is a lesson that I did with a friend today in practice.  The goal of the lesson was to give him a brief (well sort of)  overview of some of the rapier and dagger work that Dori and I have been working on lately.  In general I’m fairly happy with the terminology that we are using for the daggers, but I have yet to settle on a concise way to describe the starting position for some of the guards.

Towards the end of the lesson things started to get a little crazier as we both started experimenting with different counters to the movements.  Again, I did this left handed.  The basic principals would work with same handed opponents but some of the details might come out a little different.

1. From the instructor’s invitation in 3rd, straight thrust.  Closure with the dagger in low 4th (under the arm).
2. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, straight thrust.  Closure with the dagger in 3rd.
3. From the instructor’s invitation in 2nd, straight thrust, hand in 3rd.  Closure with the dagger in 4th (over the arm).
4. From the instructor’s invitation in low 4th, straight thrust.  Closure with the dagger in 3rd.
5. From the student’s invitation to the inside low line, dagger parry of low 4th, riposte (in the same tempo as the parry) with the hand in 2nd.
6. From the student’s invitation to the inside line (dagger high and extended), dagger parry of 2nd, riposte with the hand in 2nd.
7. From the student’s invitation to the inside high line, dagger parry of 3rd, riposte low with the hand in 3rd.
8. From the student’s invitation to the high line (sword in second, point low) parry 4th, riposte low with the hand in 3rd.
9. Same as 5, riposte with a passing step.
10. Same as 6, riposte with a passing step.
11. Same as 7, riposte with a passing step.
12. Same as 8, riposte with a passing step.
13. Blade seizure with the dagger in low 4th, finish with a pass to the high line.
14. Blade seizure with the dagger in 2nd, finish with a pass to the high line.
15. Blade seizure with the dagger in 3rd, finish with a pass to the low line.
16. Start a blade seizure in low 4th, as the instructor attempts to disengage and counterattack, change to a blade seizure in 3rd and pass to the flank.
17. Blade seizure with the dagger in 4th, finish with a pass to the low line.

There were some other interesting variations with the blade seizures but I don’t remember all of them.

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Lesson 24

At practice today, I taught a lesson based roughly off of plate 8 of Capoferro.  I did this left handed, so there are a couple of differences from the actual text.  Here’s what we did.

1. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, straight thrust.
2. From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, disengagement.
3. From the student’s engagement in 4th, glide.
4. From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, cut to the thigh.*
5. From the student’s engagement in 4th, simple parry of 3rd, riposte by glide (no lunge).
6. From the student’s engagement in 4th, time thrust in 3rd.
7. From the student’s engagement in 4th, reassemblement (ie plate with a thrust to the face.
8. From the student’s engagement in 4th, reassemblement with a cut to the wrist.
9. Instructor’s choice, from the student’s engagement in 4th, reassemblement with a thrust to the face or time thrust in 3rd.
10. Blade seizure in 4th and glide.
11. Blade seizure in 4th, as the instructor attempts a disengagement in time, reassemblement in countertime with a thrust to the face.
12. Instructor’s choice to have the student either get the blade seizure or execute the reassemblement in countertime.
13. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, three straight thrusts.

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*In the lesson I actually did this just before doing the blade seizure.  If I’d thought about it, this would have been a better place to do it.

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Capoferro lesson video

In yesterday’s lesson, my goal was to cover as many of the variations of the actions described in plate 7 of Capoferro as I could.  We took some video of the lesson so that we could post it and show our interpretations of this material and talk a little bit about how we understand the plate.  For a full description of the lesson, see Lesson 23.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the actual plate:

The present and subsequent figures demonstrate diverse manners of striking on the outside, always presupposing a stringering on the inside and a disengage of the point by your adversary in order to strike.

By way of clarification of the following figures, I say that D having the figure marked C stringered on the inside, the same C disengages in order to give a thrust to the chest of figure D. D strikes him with a thrust in the left eye with a fixed foot or an increase of pace as the figure shows. But yet I say that if C had been a shrewd person, when he disengaged he would have disengaged by way of a feint, with his body somewhat held back, and D approaching confidently in order to attack C, C would have parried the enemy’s sword to the outside with the false or the true edge, giving him a mandritto to the face or an imbroccata to the chest, and in such a conclusion would retire into a low quarta. -- translated by Wilson and Swanger

Here’s part 1 of the lesson:

Since the actions in the plate can get pretty complicated, the lesson starts with several actions designed to give the student a chance to warm up and also practice the actions in isolation before adding the extra footwork and timing differences.

In actions 1-4, the student has a chance to practice the simple attacks and warm up.

In 5-10, we work on the parries and riposts described in the text in isolation, building on them by adding a lunge with the riposte and then a gaining step with the parry.  When these are executed again later in the lesson, the student will have already practiced them a few times.

In action 12, we have finally gotten to one of the actions described in the text of the plate.  Here, the student is representing the vulgar fencer and disengaging in order to thrust to the chest of the instructor.  When I set this up, I had the student start with her blade in line instead of the guard position.  This makes the disengagement in time a little faster but it would probably have been more appropriate to start with a more relaxed arm.

Actions 13 and 14 show the clever fencer’s response to the disengagement.  13 shows the thrust done with a fixed foot, and 14 shows it done with an increase of pace.  The primary difference between which of these you would use is a question of timing.  For the fixed foot response you should wait as long as possible before making the attack and for the lunge, the fencer should lunge as soon as they realize their opponent has disengaged.  We were doing this from memory and forgot the thrust was supposed to go to the eye instead of the chest.

Actions 16 and 18 show two different options that a clever opponent could use for defeating action 14.  The first is a parry to the outside with the true edge and a riposte with an imbroccata to the chest.  The second is a parry to the outside with the false edge and a riposte to the face with a mandritto.

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Lesson 23

This is a lesson that I did with Dori at practice today.  The goal was to build a lesson based on plate 7 that encompassed all of the variations that are described in the plate.  I taught this lesson right handed.

1. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, straight thrust.
2. In time, as the instructor changes to the invitation in 4th, straight thrust.
3. In time, as the instructor attempts to engage in 4th, disengagement.
4. In time, gain in 4th and glide.
5. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd, riposte by glide (no lunge)
6. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd, riposte by glide with a lunge
7. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd with a gaining step, riposte by glide with a lunge
8. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd with the false edge (hand in 4th), riposte with a cut to the inside cheek.  (no lunge)
9. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd with the false edge (hand in 4th), riposte with a cut to the inside cheek with a lunge.
10. From the student’s gain in 4th, parry 3rd with the false edge (hand in 4th) with a gaining step, riposte with a cut to the inside cheek with a lunge.
11. In time, blade seizure in 4th and glide (no blade contact)
12. In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, disengagement in time.
13. In time, blade seizure in 4th.  As the instructor attempts a disengagement in time, time thrust in 3rd in counter time.
14. In time, blade seizure in 4th.  As the instructor attempts a disengagement in time, arrest in counter time.
15. In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, feint by disengagement in time, parry 3rd, riposte by glide with a lunge.
16. In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, feint by disengagement in time, parry 3rd with a gaining step, riposte by glide with a lunge.
17. In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, feint by disengagement in time, parry 3rd with the false edge, riposte with a cut to the inside cheek with a lunge.
18. In time, as the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, feint by disengagement in time, parry 3rd with the false edge with a gaining step, riposte with a cut to the inside cheek with a lunge.
19. From the invitation in 4th, three straight thrusts. End of lesson.

Note:  The distinction I am making between actions 13 and 14 is that the first is done with a fixed foot lunge and the arrest is done with a lunge.  This gives a subtle difference in timing between the actions. To execute the action properly without a lunge you should wait as long as you can before starting the counter.  If you start too soon and are not prepared to lunge the opponent will have plenty of time to defeat your counterattack.  To do the arrest you should lunge the instant you realize that the opponent has disengaged against your blade seizure.  Because the opponent is closing distance with the blade seizure and you are lunging with the arrest, there is a good chance that the hit will be pretty hard.  The arrest should be fast enough that it lands just as the opponent is starting their lunge – preventing them from actually completing it.  I am not entirely certain that the term ‘arrest’ is appropriate for this action as the usage here is significantly different than what Gaugler describes in Science.  To my mind at least, this makes sense.

Also, it is not explicitly stated in the lesson, but the later actions build off of the instructor attempting the arrest in counter time rather than the time thrust in counter time.  This makes managing the timing and distance considerably easier.

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Lesson 22

This is a lesson that I gave today to a new fencer who has been coming to our practice.  This was his second rapier lesson.  I taught the lesson right handed.  The lesson was kind of a condensed version of the one I did with Dori today based off of Capoferro plate 7.

1. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, straight thrust.
2. From the instructor’s engagement in 4th, disengagement.
3. From the student’s engagement in 4th, glide.
4. From the student’s engagement in 4th, simple parry of 3rd, riposte by glide.
5. From the student’s engagement in 4th, time thrust in 3rd.
6. From the student’s invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th.
7. As the instructor attempts a blade seizure in 4th, disengagement in time.
8. From the student’s invitation in 3rd, blade seizure in 4th, instructor attempts a blade seizure in time, student responds with a time thrust in counter time.
9. Same action, but in time.
10. From the instructor’s invitation in 4th, three straight thrusts end of lesson.

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