Capitale Escrime Historical Fencing

Historical Fencing Coaches Clinic–Post-Event Thoughts

I had the great pleasure to visit old friends and make new ones a few weekends ago in Winnipeg, Canada, at the Historical Fencing Coaches Clinic sponsored by Storica Defensa. I’ve been to a fair number of coaching clinics, many Olympic, far fewer historical, but this one stood out, and no, not just because I am a Storica Defensa coach. This two-day event showed what is possible, and, perhaps a better path than typical in historical fencing.

In part, it was the mix of coaches, both in terms of experience and position, and in terms of background and focus. We had two masters from the excellent Sonoma Military Masters’ Program, David Coblentz and Eric Myers; we had Prevot Tim Guerinot from Texas; and we had two of our SD coaches, Xian Niles and myself, representing our organization. If I had any complaint it was that time demanded we have two classes run at once–I really wanted to take each one, start to finish. Even recovering from RSV and nursing a damaged Achilles’ tendon, which meant I wasn’t fencing, didn’t allow me enough time to devote to each class as they were running.

It’s all in the Details

Granularity. This was the leitmotif of the event. With many attempts in historical circles to improve fencing, from judging to technique, what’s missing is granularity, the specifics, all the step-by-step movement and thought behind all that we do. Much as it pains me to say it, this is often due to the fact that those teaching possess only a surface understanding of what it is they’re trying to teach. To the untrained eye, for example, a cut-1 in broadsword or a disengage in smallsword look simple enough, but to make either well and with consistent effectiveness demands deeper understanding, at least if one is facing an opponent better than oneself who will take one apart for the slightest mistake.

Despite the triumph of ignorance now prevailing in my nation (what sensible nation keen for equality dismantles the very agency designed to oversee that?), education and learning are difficult. The moronic maxim “those who can’t, teach,” underscores just how poorly people understand how difficult teaching is.

A lot of people can: but few can teach.

There is also great merit in incorporating different teaching and learning styles. Not everyone learns the same way, not everyone teaches a topic the same way. To have classically trained masters as well as people more on the coaching side only strengthens the approach, especially if well-organized.

The Classes

Space and reader patience doesn’t allow for a full description of the classes, but here are the topics:

SAT
9am
Maestro Eric Myers: “Better Fencing through using and Exploiting Fundamental Concepts of Fencing, Part 1.”

Coach Xian Niles: Strategos

11am
Maestro David Coblentz, “Setting up Students for Success”

Prevot Tim Guerinot, “Intention, Provocation, and Second Intention”

2pm
Coach Jim Emmons, “Text & Technique–From Description to Practice”

SUN
9am
Maestro Eric Myers: “Better Fencing through using and Exploiting Fundamental Concepts of Fencing, Part 2”

Prevot Tim Guerinot, “Intention, Provocation, and Second Intention, Part 2”

11am
Maestro David Coblentz, “Helping Students make Good Decisions”

Coach Xian Niles, “Am I still Doing the Thing?”

2pm
Coach Jim Emmons, “Concluding Remarks” [1]

The success of this year’s event has encouraged us to make this happen again, and if possible, often. We haven’t settled on a yearly or biannual schedule, but one way or another, the value of this type of meet-up was obvious in the marked-improvement in the attendees even over two days.

Maestro Myers Prevot Guerinot Maestro Coblentz

Why this Matters

Historical fencing is not so much a community as it is a collection of micro-communities, and so when it comes to any future forecasting there must be some qualification. I cannot speak to 99% of the community–I work with a small fraction of it. This said, for that sliver of the pie, I have some ideas for where it looks like we are headed.

SD, because it doesn’t seek ownership or control, will continue to reach out to recognized authorities for help in improving coaching and fencing. Many of these people may hold a master of arms, many will not. Expertise comes in different forms, and the ability to recognize that, and harness it, is what makes an organization like Storica Defensa both flexible and strong. Moreover, some fencers respond better to certain teaching styles, and since our goal is student and coach success, this means including any skilled fencer with sufficient depth and knowledge to assist us.

Not everyone cares about qualifications. Worse, many ascribe the wrong set of rubrics to what they call qualifications. Again, this is not just my sorrow and frustration over the anti-expert and anti-intellectualism so pervasive in the United States–it is painful and terrifying watching how this anti-expertise idiocy is helping destroy the nation we were and might yet have been to create a plutocrat’s playground.

It is also a known fact within “HEMA” that many favor things like “HEMA Ratings” or the over-confidence of play-acting scholars. They can do whatever they like, but few such people will get an invite to help us, because failure to understand the relative nature of tourney success and aping actual scholars only takes one so far, and, not as far as we wish to go.

This said, there is a LOT of talent in the wider community, but few truly effective means of harnessing it. Different foci, geographical distance, jealousy, arrogance, and even the innocent failure to understand that there is more to all this than one sees do much to prevent not only better unity, but also the sort of improvement we see in better developed branches of fencing, Olympic most of all. THIS is why my comrades to the north created Storica Defensa–we need it.

As a final word, but an important one, it is vital to note that SD is not a vanity project, certificate factory, or attempt to overthrow any other viable and worthy program. Over time, as people see the events we put on, as they see how we run tournaments, how we approach teaching; as they see how their coaching improves, how their students improve; as they see the caliber of fencer we ask for help, as they see the maestri and other experts we have asked to oversee and guide SD; all of these things will be the proof of that. [2]

There has been, sadly, considerable suspicion around what we are trying to do, and I’m happy to say none of it has any foundation. We’re literally doing what we say we are doing. It says a lot, and little of it positive, that such suspicion so naturally arose around an honest effort to make things better. In some cases, personal beef with one or more organizers, fear, and concern for turf explains these concerns, but I suspect a lot of it too is just curiosity poorly expressed.

I know I speak for all of SD’s organizers and coaches when I say this, but let me assure you that

we are not trying to overturn your program or replace it
we are not granting ourselves titles, authority, or certification
we will not tell you how to run your club, curriculum, or what events to attend

We are, though, doing the following:

working to improve coaching in historical fencing
working to improve fencing in historical fencing
working to create a viable, varied, and robust program to train coaches irrespective of any other program with which they may be involved
working to build bridges internationally and within North America

NOTES:

[1] I had a class prepared for the afternoon slot on Sunday, but one part of teaching is reading a room. People were fried. At least one person, no kidding, was on a knee, head on their hand, looking like they needed a nap. There was also nothing in what I had planned to do that had not already been covered in depth by the other coaches.

So, I opted to scrap my class and sum up–this included a very brief reminder of how we can approach a given technique, in this case a beat attack, and build not only possibilities from it technique-wise, but also tactically. I could tell from peoples’ faces that they were a little confused that I had scrapped my class, but I lack sufficient vanity to put tired, mentally exhausted people through another in-depth class when what they really want to do is relax, free bout, or hit up our guest coaches for lessons. And, it turned out, that Javier, one of our attendees from Calgary, was celebrating his birthday that Sunday and wanted birthday bouts.

I never really know how well or poorly a class goes–few people offer a lot of feedback–but I stand by the decision.

[2] SD has approached and enlisted the help of several well-respected, certified experts to assist us as we grow. We have the honor to have the experience, knowledge, and guidance of:

Maestro Michael Knazko, Ars Dimicatoria/Barbasetti Military Sabre since 1895, Prague, Czechia, EU [Chief Advisor to SD]

Maestro Francesco Loda, PhD (x2), Cinecittà-RFA-UniTeramo, Rome, Italy, EU [Advisor]

Maitre Steve Symons, former President and CEO of the Canadian Fencing Federation (2004-2012), Winnipeg, Canada [Advisor]

Review: Alessando Senese, _The True Use of the Sword_ 1660

[21 Feb. 2025]

Senese, Alessando. The True Use of the Sword. Bologna, IT: Herede di Vittorio Benacci, 1660. Translated by Christoper A. Holzman, 2025, Lulu Press.

Though a fencing text long-dismissed as poorer than most (Iacopo Gelli referred to it as “a work of limited fencing value”), Senese’s True Use of the Sword, despite its flaws, nonetheless contains considerable value. Not only does it contain some useful insights into the Art, but it also contains contemporary concerns that resonate today within the historical fencing community. Beyond this, while the True Use of the Sword will frustrate readers keen for detailed explanations of individual techniques or actions, it is surprisingly insightful with regard to combat psychology and preparedness, as well as some of the deeper truths that arise after long study of the Art.

I had the pleasure to assist Christopher Holzman with the Latin portions of this translation, and came to understand his doubts about it in the process. [n] Most of the works that Chris has translated into English, to date, have been stand-out treatments in one way or another. Marcelli, Rosaroll & Grisetti, and Del Frate are major works within the Italian fencing tradition; even less significant works, such as Terracusa e Ventua’s True Neapolitan Fencing is important for what it reveals about the survival of the Neapolitan system, and, as one of the only Italian works on fencing from the 18^th century.

Senese’s text, in contrast, is a curious book. As with his previous work, Chris does his best to stay as close as one can to the original phrasing and vocabulary, a particularly daunting task when the original author was not, to put it mildly, a great writer. If anything, Chris has improved the readability of the original, an impressive feat given the sometimes-convoluted modes of expression Senese favored. Footnotes, courtesy of Chris, will help explain some of the terms and clarify some of the denser explanations the author offered.

Organization

The book is organized around Senese’s chief tenets for fencing. There is considerable front-matter, mostly dedicatory, and much of it in Latin. Senese informs the reader in a short epilogue that a friend provided the florid Latin encomia to Charles Ferdinand, Archduke of Further Austria (d. 1662) and the Latin summary in the last part of the book. The initial dedication appears in Latin and Italian, but is followed by an ode, an epigram, and a distichon, all in Latin.

For students of history and early modern literature, the inclusion of the seven liberal arts to frame the ode will be unsurprising, but the ways in which Senese (or his friend) link each one to aspects of fencing is perhaps novel. The epigram is rich in classical imagery and in a way echoes the use of the liberal arts in the ode, though here the author enumerates his specific concepts of fencing and their value.

A note to the reader follows and in it Senese explains his position:

The art of using the sword for the defense of one’s body is the true art; not that which is commonly practiced in the schools and taught by the professors, let alone those particular blows that I read from the writers; but for that which the most famous swords of my country already practiced, and for those precepts that I offer to you to read in this present work.

The true art is that which offers a determined end to be infallibly obtained with the exact observance of its precepts.

The letter to the reader informs what follows in his rules; it is the why to his how, as it were, and beyond that gives at least one master’s view of his contemporaries. Fencing treatises were often resumes of a sort, and naturally Senese ‘s poor opinion of the efforts of all other masters was meant to push himself forward, but at the same time some of what he says was also true. This is not to say that one could make oneself unbeatable or invincible, nice as that would be, but that there were issues within many schools that led their students to losses, even death, when it mattered. Senese was hardly alone in such complaints.

The first few chapters define terms and provide key explanations of his ideas. Chapter 2, for example, explores what Senese calls “the long game,” what we would today call working from critical distance versus fighting in distance. The next chapter takes up “weight,” what we would call “guard” or the guard position today. Like many 17^th, even 18^th century works, Senese wanted the weight on the rear leg (cf. Besnard, Marcelli, Girard, etc.). Measure and its navigation, motion and movement, line, perspective, finding the sword, and what he calls “the indivisible tempo” follow.

His chapters on the “true wound” and “true parries” reveal a far more conservative approach to defense than that of many of his contemporaries. It is not that other masters failed to take this perspective, but that they less consciously call out the issues and problems around them. This perspective is one of the chief attractions to The True Use of the Sword: it is less a book on fencing than it is a book on how to approach actual fighting with a sword.

Chapter 11, on the feints, is likely to excite the simple-minded and kindle useless debate and discussion in some circles of historical fencing, but nothing he says there is untoward. Readers who stop at the first line, however, will miss the point. The feint, to be effective, must appear to be a credible threat and not, as he remarks, motions that are basically probing actions. A proper feint forces the opponent to parry. Cuts, the subject of Chapter 12, will read a bit differently from some masters, too. In Senese’s view, cuts are used in two instances: as a riposte or as an attack. An obvious point, but one he makes as a way to attack those who use cuts poorly. The example he gives, a feint to the face to draw the parry, and then a cut to the torso or leg, illustrates his meaning. Here, as in most places, Senese reminds us that measure, timing, etc. must be correct as well.

Of particular interest is his chapter (Chapter 13) on the use of the sword alone against someone using sword and dagger. Much of what Senese says here provides a window into the thinking that typifies “transitional rapier” and ultimately, smallsword. For Senese, if one relies on a dagger for defense, one is handicapped. In this he is not wrong, but he was not alone in stating this either. Marcelli, among others, covered the sword alone first for a reason. In Senese what we see is a 17^th century master attacking common problems of the day—this is important, because we have a tendency to think fencers were “better” in the past, that masters were as effective at fighting as they were in teaching, and in putting forth their own views it can be easy to miss the reality. Then as now some were better teachers, more effective fighters, than others.

Chapter 14 provides a brief summary of his key tenets; chapter 15 the key faults in poor fencers.

The remaining portions of the book, the first on “the necessary and infallible rules of the proper handling of the sword” and the second on “a figure explaining the theory of a would to the opponent’s left,” were written in Latin. The rules, via fourteen individual sections, repeat, again, the principles by which Senese teaches the Art. The explanation of the figure is rough reading, but will prove useful for the patient reader who takes the time to explore it in space.

Significance

Unlike most works of the time, Senese does not include detailed descriptions of technique or list a multitude of various actions. He states, then repeats, a set of guidelines that should inform how one uses the repertoire of fencing. By analogy, Senese is more akin to Zbigniew Czajkowski’s Understanding Fencing than he is Gaugler’s Science of Fencing. For example, Senese states that anyone who wishes to teach the sword professionally must be able to “operate respectively in four cases:” in courteous bouts for amusement and as exhibition; effectively in bouts where they demonstrate their superior skill against strangers; in actual fights where harm or death are possible; and in those cases where the teacher is out in the world in difficult terrain. The reason is that

In each of these four cases, the person must have meditated and prepared what he must do, because he has to operate differently in each of the aforementioned ways, since it takes more than knowing how to put oneself in beautiful perspective on guard and performing a pretty thrust to the target, however, the perceived opinion of the common people against the professors is now wonder.

The True Use of the Sword contains many such asides that highlight different cultural attitudes. For another example, Senese is quick to call out those untutored but nonetheless teaching, a problem that resonates all the more now:

they remain blind and learn all that can be learned in six months, which has nothing to do with the perfect science that is learned with effort and not in months but in years. So, sparing the effort, they also spare the science…

Therefore, take it as the most certain vanity every time that someone will be persuaded to want to teach this profession in a short time, or rather, some particular blows, because he will really teach being killed by some hasty, bestial ignoramus.

In like vein, Senese laments the common incidence of the incontro, or double, in bouts and duels of his time. Today’s historical fencers—for sometimes different reasons—wrestle with the same problem. One explanation as valid then as now is that

many fencers with a singular and artful game who, having arrived so that they are at a certain mark, stop themselves there as if no more remains for them to learn and in the occasions they remain either confused or doubtful and they always have questions to ask according to the diversity of encounters, a sign that they lack the true rule that resolves all the questions and hinders all the vanity.

Tourney-“HEMA,” for example, is rife with fencers rushing to measure and doubling; some even game doubling just as their Olympic cousins do. All of this is to say that Senese demonstrates that nothing is new and that the problems we see now are merely the same issues in different costume.

This text, however, is not without practical advice for given situations. Sense, wisely, recommends that the “most secure” wound is one that follows a parry. He reminds us that in seeking another’s blade we should only do so when it is out straight before us. Read together with other fencing treatises of the time is perhaps the best way to read Senese. At the very least, having read him, a fencer will read Giganti, Pallavicini, and Marcelli with a better grasp of the larger picture informing their respective approaches.

Do not read Senese for technique—this will be a disappointment. Read Senese first for the view it gives one of 17^th century fencing culture. Second, read Senese for the sound tactical advice he shares, advice that in this reviewer’s opinion would do much to improve historical fencing today. His defensive mindset, his abhorrence of the double, and his wisdom in advocating that one does best who fences as if the swords where “white” (i.e. sharp) rather than “black” (practice weapons) is as sound now as it was in 1660.

[n] My close friend and colleague, Dr. Antone Minard (Simon Fraser University & UBC), and I had the pleasure to manage the Latin portions.

In Memoriam

Maitre Edwin Hurst, portrait by Stephanie Goldman

I learned today that the first master with whom I worked, Edwin “Buzz Hurst, passed away last month at the age of 84. My good friend Patrick Bratton (Sala della Spada, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA) shared the USFA’s fb page about it:

https://www.facebook.com/USAFencing/posts/pfbid02NHb3eZD8oEUny3E7ijUBdCAggDn5en3fztnPMmsWCyh2EZUEsVAs8qHUfKU3LW75l

Before working with Buzz, I had studied foil with a gentleman in the DC area, one who split time between Olympic Fencing, SCA, and work. Working with Maestro Hurst was far more regimented, and true to his navy roots, more like working with a drill sergeant than a coach. He was somewhat notorious for berating fencers he didn’t think were trying hard enough, smacking them across the mask, and often expressing his opinions about one’s ability and/or ancestry. Having grown up in a military family, I didn’t take any of it to heart, so was better able to focus on the lesson, but I will say it was often as funny as it was mean. Some favorites:

“You move like a bovine.”

“Look, grow a pair, and hit that guy. My grandmother could hit him.”

“What’s your major?” [Buzz would often try to use our study track for analogies]
“Archaeology.”
“Damn. Uh… do you know boxing?”
“Yes sir.”
“Okay, we’ll go with that.”

I learned a lot from Buzz–he provided me a solid foundation upon which Al Couturier and his assistants, and later Delmar Calvert, constructed more of a building (one still very much in the process of being built).

Buzz had some fantastic stories. One of my favorites was about a collegiate bout he was in while at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. One of his opponents, no kidding, was Neil Diamond, the pop star. In this particular tournament Buzz lost to Neil and it still bothered him. I heard this story in 1991 or 1992, and if I recall correctly he concluded with “Can’t believe I lost to the Jazz Singer.” Funny chap.

Rest in Peace Buzz, and thanks

*Being a club team, we couldn’t easily afford a coach of Buzz’s caliber, and so I think by 1994 he was in San Diego. He didn’t say much about it, least not that I have heard or read, but he was the first coach to get our team to first place, something a club team had not been able to do in at least 25 years.

UC Santa Barbara Fencing Team, 1992, All Conference Champions, SoCal Division

Challenge, Growth, & the Line Drawn in the Sand

It’s not a lack of fencing-related topics that has prevented me from writing more on this page, but the sorrow, anger, and consequent insecurity of watching one’s country take a bad turn that has occupied me. I’ve never been one to say “it can’t happen here,” because having taught history for so long I knew that tyranny can happen anywhere. Yes, even here. One might think that narcissists greedy for power and attention might give more thought to their legacy, but if the Nuremberg trials proved anything it’s that many such people go to the gallows still convinced their choices were correct. Evidence, reason, decency, these have no effect on such people.

Montesquieu wrote

“In our days we receive three different or contrary educations; namely, of our parents, of our masters, and of the world. What we learn in the latter effaces all the ideas of the former,”

and I have found this to be, in many ways, true. [n] Experience, especially disappointment, failure, and hardship work effectively against false positions, assumptions, and prejudice, at least if one is open enough to admit when one is wrong. My own partnership with these challenges has made me a different person than I was when I was younger. Contrary to form, as I’ve aged, I’ve grown more tolerant, less quick to judge, and more open-minded because having lived in the world, and having seen a bit of it, I know few things are as black and white or easy as we might wish to think. This is an approach to thing I take to everything and that includes my work as a fencing coach.

For the patient, what follows explains why my club values what it does today, and, why I think I think it’s important. If you don’t feel like a “long” read, then stop here, go to the “About Us” page, and scroll down to the various icons at the very bottom of the page and you will see where what follows leads.

Moments of Intense Clarity

Many of the people we meet in our lives become teachers in one fashion or another. One of the more important such people in my life was a female friend I first met at church in high school. One winter evening, between college semesters, we had a conversation about tolerance, equality, and Christian notions of morality. This friend, I should say, is extremely intelligent, but more than that she had a deep sense of justice and compassion. Though we have not stayed in touch much, I know her career as an academic took off, as it should have, and that she is doing good in the world.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, at that time, in my early 20s, I had a traditional view of certain things. With homosexuality, for example, the bible had some lines that it was a no-no, and I didn’t think about it beyond that. However, because I did my best to embrace the Second Great Commandment of the NT, I did not persecute, avoid, or mistreat anyone. “Tolerance,” to me then, was just that–I might find something “wrong,” but it wasn’t my place to judge it. My friend, however, pointed out that I was, in fact, judging them, and worse, I had not examined why. “It’s in the bible” is not an argument. Thanks to her I grew a little that night.

We debated back and forth a bit, but even then I knew she was right. IF the deity we believe in is all good, all knowing, all powerful, then it’s beyond our ability to comprehend save through metaphor. It’s a thing we can understand poetically, not scientifically. Does it make sense that this being would be so concerned with sexual preference? This idea of god as a middle-aged white male golf club president is not only simple, but insulting to that being.

Moreover, the admonitions against homosexuality are in OT law books, the same books that say we shouldn’t eat shellfish or be near mensurating women. The NT had two main commands, ones importantly upon which all the others hang, namely to love god and treat other people the way we wish to be treated. In truth, I can’t think of anything Jesus could have ordered people to do that is harder than these two things, the first because we cannot sense it or experience it in the way we do literally everything else, and the second, because people are sometimes complete bastards.

My friend, let’s call her JK, opened my eyes to hypocrisy I wasn’t even aware I suffered. The initial discomfort of being wrong was brief, and then the real work began: how do I interact with others in a way that abides the Golden Rule, really abides it? Love. Compassion. Empathy. These are the things that allow us to see others as fellow travelers, our fellow humans, each of us bumbling along just trying to make it all work. It means finding the common thing we all share and honoring it. We are all fragile, imperfect, and deeply flawed, and, we’re beautiful because of it.

I have been fortunate to travel, to live outside my own culture, and to spend sufficient time with others to know, without a doubt, that I do not know everything, and, that my way isn’t the only way or necessarily the best. It is hard to hate people once you know them, and this is one reason it is vital to leave a place of comfort and do the hard work. I have mixed so often with people who are a different color from me, who worship differently than me, who think in languages different than mine, who love differently than I do, that the differences–while there and a part of who they are–are less important than one, single, all important fact: they’re people too. We are, in the end, the same, bags of water that turn to dust.

More than once on this page I have talked about inclusion, equality, and doing our part to do right by others. Now, perhaps more than before, this is important–it is certainly more important than teaching them how best to make a counter-beat or 1-2 feint. Many of my students will fence for a while, then go on to other things, but if I’ve done my work well, the real work, they will remember the environment in which they learned how to lunge or use contre-temps.

Unfortunately, my nation stands at a line in the sand, a point of definition. Will we be complicit in evil, or, will we fight it? The efforts to remove DEI measures, for example, are not about focusing on merit, but erasing certain people in symbolic, official ways–it is the first step to removing them… permanently. The parallels between the USA in 2025 and Germany in the late 1930s are many, and some are worth a close look: fascists then and fascists now both targeted people they deemed “undesirables” at first to exclude them, then to eradicate them. It was not just Jews, but queer folk, gypsies, the mentally and physically challenged, and, intellectuals and teachers. Fascists are enemies of humanity–the only acceptable people in their eyes are themselves, regardless of how unscientific, ahistorical, and nonsensical that is. It is fantasy and really really bad fantasy at that.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This nation began as a democratic experiment, and there is a lot we got wrong, but representative democracy wasn’t one of those mistakes. Likewise, as a nation of immigrants–if you are not First Nations then sorry Skippy, you’re either an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants–the old notion of a a melting pot, a pluralist state where people regardless of background, faith, color, etc. could live their lives, where equality, the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the freedom to speak, think, and worship as they like allowed disparate people to unite around these common values was a noble ambition. We achieved it at times, and utterly failed at others, something our current plight places in high relief.

My club will remain open to people of good heart. I don’t care what color you are, what language you first spoke or speak at home; I don’t care what your sex or gender is; I don’t care how you love or who; I don’t care what religion you practice or if you practice none at all; I don’t care if you’re first generation or if you’re the fifth. You’re a person, a fellow human, my brothers and sisters, my sword family. The only people I do not welcome, and will actively repel, are bigots. But even they, should they examine their prejudice honestly, should they compare what they think they know against what has been demonstrated over and over again by science and history, should they find that they are just a person like everyone else, they’d be welcome too.

Notes:

[n] Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.. Bk 4, Ch. 4.

Wait, I thought you were a Sabreur?

Social media may herald in the end of the world as effectively as it has poisoned politics, but it’s fantastic where fencing is concerned. A recent post on smallsword garnered questions about what it is, exactly, that I do–am I a foilist? A sabreur? Both? Something else?

The simple answer is “yes,” all of the above, but we focus on different things at different times. There can be many reasons for this. To the person’s first question, yes, I am still a sabre fencer, though more coach than anything else at this point. My main source is Luigi Barbasetti’s _The Art of the Sabre and Epee_ (1899/1936), not only because it is the text I’ve come back to time and again since the 1990s, but also and especially because his work formed the foundation for the school in which I am a student, Barbasetti Military Sabre since 1985, headquartered in Prague, Czechia.

Between some injury maintenance and a brutal schedule in my day job, Barbasetti’s approach has, as ever, proved solid and rewarding. Nearly all my students use s2000 Olympic blades, though several use historical trainers (two have Swordsmithy’s, two those by other makes, but all hovering around 650-700g). The system is such I could use sticks.

I am not taking new students for sabre, that is true, but mostly due to time constraints–I am unable to teach as often as I was and the larger the class, the less effective the instruction. I make exceptions for visitors and for the few people who seek me out from out of town, but otherwise my focus has been on related projects, teaching, and working on some international efforts to improve both coaching and fencing.

As ever, I’m happy to answer questions, so please feel free to do so–as I did here, I’ll do my best to answer promptly and succinctly.

Early & Later Smallsword Treatises: A Note

[originally posted 30 July 2023 on the old CEHF site]

It’s customary to discuss particular weapons in somewhat monolithic terms. We speak of “foil,” “smallsword,” “sabre,” or “longsword,” to name a few, as if these constitute a tidy, discrete facet of sword-types. In some ways, this is true: sabre is different from spear, longsword from smallsword. However, as convenient as compartmentalization is, despite how necessary it is to organize a topic as gigantic as swordplay, we can easily forget that within each division there exists both variety and change over time.

For smallsword, a cursory glance at earlier and later texts will reveal some critical differences. There is overlap to be sure, but the differences are important. Even among texts of the same general time one should compare them. De La Touche’s seminal work from 1670, Les vrays principes de l’espée/The True Principles of the Sword, for example, reads differently from de Liancour’s Le Maistre d’armes/The Fencing Master (1686), but both read very differently from Sir William Hope’s The Scots Fencing Master (1687) and A New Short and Easy Method of Fencing (1707).

The works of Sir William Hope, Zachary Wylde, and Donald McBane tend to read as primitive, unsophisticated works to many fencers with more traditional training. It’s easy to see why. These works contain fewer actions, seemingly odd things like weapon-seizures and guards other than tierce/sixth, and are often less well-written. Compared to the succinct descriptions in Le Sieur P.J.F. Girard’s Traité des armes (1740) or Domenico Angelo’s L’École des armes/The School of Fencing (1763/1787) one might conclude–erroneously–that these later works are “better” than those which preceded them.

The answer is context. The earlier works reflect a different set of concerns. These are largely works of self-defense first and foremost. While Girard and Angelo also offer solid advice for the duelist, they also reflect a different culture, one in which smallsword was already transforming into the game of foil (originally a training tool for smallsword), that is, a polite game where beautiful execution and grace were often as or more important than actual combat effectiveness.

It behooves any student to study earlier and later works, because together they provide a far more complete examination of how smallswords were used. This is easier to do without bias: to apply the filter of late 19th/early 20th foil to 17th and 18th century foil jaundices our view and can lead us to the wrong conclusions.

The En Garde Position & Weight Distribution

[Originally posted 2 March 2023 on the now-defunct CEHF site] One of the most important positions we employ in fencing is the guard position. It’s the starting place from which pretty much everything happens, and thus it pays to work on it, practice it, and perfect it as much as possible. This means not only standing in guard and checking the position of everything head to toe, but also moving from that position, forward, backward, and side to side.

Like many works on rapier, a good number of those on small sword recommend a rear-weighted stance. For example, di Liancour offers little explanation apart from his belief that a rear-weighted stance makes it easier to recover to guard. One suspects the stance may also help remove one from target that much more:

His body, as we see [fig. 3], is held back, resting on the left leg which is slightly bent, the knee more outward than inward, with the toes of the left foot on a traversing line. The right leg is fully extended and bears no weight, the right foot is crosswise such that the laces of the left shoe face the right heel directly, with the distance between them being two and a half shoe lengths or so. [1]

Domenico Angelo appears to prefer weight on the rear leg as well. Though one can never be completely certain with images, the plates Angelo provides do, throughout the work, suggest a rear-weighted stance. He writes

you must observe that the bend on the left side should not in the least take off from that ease with which the body ought to be supported; and, to render yourself firm, bend the right knee a little, but not too much, for, if it is too much bent, the body may fall forward, and if not bent at all, neither the thigh, nor the leg, would be flexible, and you would, consequently, not have sufficient elasticity nor strength to longe [lunge], nor agility to advance or retire [retreat]. [2]

Other masters advocate more equal distribution of weight. L’ Abbat, for example, says

The Body must be upright, which gives it a better Air, greater Strength, and more Liberty to advance and retire, being supported almost equally by the two Feet. Some Masters teach to keep the Body back in Favour of Measure, which cannot be broke by the Body when ’tis already drawn back, tho’ it is often necessary, not only to avoid a Surprise, but also to deceive a Man of superior Swiftness who pushes [lunges] a just Length [3]

In similar language, a master active a century after L’ Abbat, James Underwood, argued for a more equally weighted stance.

I am of the opinion, that the distribution of the duty laid upon each leg ought to be equal, and the more equally they share in the weight, I will venture to say the body will so much more supported… If too great a stress lie upon the left leg, your retreat must be obviously the more unsteady, and weaker; if upon the right, you are crimped and checked in your advancing. [4]

Underwood adds that the shift in weight to advance or retreat costs one time, and that everything depends on time. He was certainly correct–any additional, unnecessary movement that impedes an action only gives one’s opponent tempo to strike or change the field of action to their advantage.

SO, what should one do? Which is correct or better?

Yes. This is to say that both approaches are worth trying as they were both in use at the time. Ultimately, we tend to fare best with what works for us. I teach both, but prefer to be more equi-weighted. My suggestion, once I show someone the critical parts of the guard, is to have them adjust for their own bodies–we’re all built a little differently so it makes sense to adjust things to accommodate that.

So long as the critical aspects of the guard position are present, so long as one is balanced and can react and move efficiently, so long as one is well-protected, it will be fine. The critical aspects are

to have the lead foot pointing forward–it can help to picture the imaginary line, the line of direction, that connects the lead foot of each opponent and along which both parties move
to have the weapon arm, assuming an outside guard, in line and just outside the body to close off the lead arm’s side/outside line (those adopting a middle guard should have the arm and weapon mid-body)
to have about two of one’s own shoe lengths between the feet (the goal is a stable, easy to move in starting position)
to have the torso upright, head up, and as much as possible the body relaxed
to have some bend in the legs; these are the springs and need to be coiled, as it were, so one can move or lunge
to have the rear arm held back behind the head or at the chin, palm out (the latter is used to check a blade after making parries to the inside line, i.e. in quarte, prime, or seventh/half circle)

NOTES:

[1] Sieur di Liancour, The Master of Arms, 1686, Ch. 3, p. 18 in Lynch’s translation.

[2] Domenico Angelo, The School of Fencing, 1763/1787, 6.

[3] L’ Abbat, trans. by Mahon, 1734, The Art of Fencing, (Lector House edition), 4-5.

[4] James Underwood, The Art of Fencing or the Use of the Small Sword, Dublin, 1798, 4-5.

New Year, New Approach

For some time now I’ve tried to “go with the flow” rather than attempt to establish some ideal approach to the club. This tends to help me to help those who want or need it, and, introduces me to a wide variety of opportunities I might not have had otherwise as well new people I might not have met.

A new day-job has forced me to make some significant changes, and has restricted my availability far more than I anticipated. I’m not happy about that, but rather than whine about it the more useful thing to do is adapt, so, I’m adapting.

What Changes?

First, the name–henceforth I’ll be using the name an affiliate program has used to date, Capital Escrime Historical Fencing, because my adult program will be shifting more toward this group in Salem than the meets-sometimes-group in Newberg. For the Newberg folks, you are not only welcome, but encouraged to join us in Salem (it’s a 30min. drive).

Second, while I will continue to teach sabre, I will not be taking any new sabre students at this time. Instead, I will focus on smallsword and “transitional” rapier as presented by Charles Besnard (1653). To my friends in the Italian tradition, please do not take this as a snub, because my love for Marcelli, Radaelli, and others is still strong, but for sabre in particular I need a break so a few injuries will heal.

Third, the Newberg group will meet, but every other week; I will meet the Salem group in the weeks between. See “For Current Students” for more details.

Salem Location
An old friend and fellow fencer, Moses Jones, has kindly invited us to share his space at his school, Seize the Vor [https://www.seizethevor.com/]. His school meets out of Iron Phoenix Athletics, and is just off of I-5 in Salem. Moses and I have a LOT of plans, and while the change-over might be a bit rough, there are good things to come.

For Those Upset by the Changes
I know that this will not work for everyone, and I’ll be sorry to see anyone go, but if possible I should like to help those for whom the new schedule/location doesn’t work find a good spot. There are a few decent options for historical fencing in the greater PDX area, and a lot of solid Olympic schools. Please chat with me and we can work something out for you or you child.

Fencing While Injured and/or Old

Wound Man from the *Feldtbuch der Wundartzney* of Hans von Gersdorff (Strasburg, 1519)

In two separate conversations in the last twenty-four hours the topic of martial arts, combat sports, and injury has come up. My spouse’s uncle, yesterday, remarked that when he was a teen studying TKD they viewed the semi-ambulatory middle-aged coaches as old men—now much, much older, he realizes that they were not old really, but battered and damaged from hard-training and fighting. This morning, I had a chat with a friend and college, Matt L., in California, about avoiding the very thing my uncle in law noted—early decrepitude thanks to martial arts. As someone navigating that very issue I have some perspective, and some advice for those not yet there about how to avoid, or at least forestall, the physical consequences of our training.

This is a post I’ve started a number of times, then put aside. It’s not that I don’t know what to write, but that there is so much to say, and, so little that most people will find motivating. I was no different, so if this sounds judgmental, know that I’m including myself in the censure. When I was in my teens and twenties, I could do things, and so, I did. I fought in a collegiate tournament on a sprained ankle that I taped up; I didn’t wait long enough to start training again after a slight tear in the meniscus of my right knee or years later after a chance stab wound to the same knee, one that nearly severed the LCL; I didn’t take a break, but taped and armored up my torso after a missed parry meant two cracked ribs. These were not smart choices, and, they’re choices that in one way or another I have to manage now.

Injury & Recovery

If you are injured, be it while fencing or in some other activity, take-a-break. Let yourself heal. This can be especially challenging when one is an active competitor, because the fear of losing ground, of any break affecting one’s standings, rank, or success is strong. Add to that the desire not to miss favorite events and it’s a double whammy.

You have time, use it. One “can” fence on injured joints or strained muscles, but one shouldn’t. I’ve likely stateed this on this site before, but we pay for all the fun of our teens and twenties in our forties and fifties, so, the better you manage yourself when younger, the less you’ll suffer when you’re older.

A good coach, by the way, will not only support a break to heal, but actively encourage or even order it. I’ve worked with ones who said tough it out, and, a few who told me to stop and take a break. Maitre Delmar Calvert, for example, when tennis elbow started plaguing my right arm again, told me to take a break and go to PT. Maitre Handleman just a few years ago told me and one other grey-bearded chap to take more breaks and to use walking steps during a weekend coaching seminar. This is good, proper coaching, and, good advice.

As a younger person, I fought competitively for several years in ITF conference TKD, and, at a time where the pads we had were good, but only so much. A smaller glove could easily reach through headgear; the footpads we wore had no sole, so a side-kick landed as it would in earnest; and we had no chest protection. By the age of 13 or 14 I’d had two ribs and my nose broken, never mind the damage I inflicted on people the same way. When a fellow student, a bit over-zealous, broke my nose in the practice right before a tournament, my coach—who was excellent—was more worried about my mother freaking out than the fact I’d been injured. It’s fighting, and well, we get hurt sometimes—it’s “normal.” He and another coach set my nose (NOT fun), told me to go and change out of my dobak (which was covered in blood), and to keep the paper-towel under the nostril inside my lip there until it stopped bleeding (a great way to stop a bloody nose by the way).

Muhammad Ali, a hero of mine since childhood, was “the Greatest,” but paid dearly for repeated punches to the head

We accept injury as normal, but should we? Would it not be better to prevent it? I’m not sure I have a great answer or solution. On the one hand, I’m grateful for having learned early how much punching and getting punched can hurt—it no doubt helped me avoid trouble I was likely to be in otherwise. On the other hand, as a parent, well, I don’t like seeing any children hurt, especially when it isn’t necessary. My solution has been to focus on the mental side of all this, to help students cultivate mental toughness, confidence, calm, and wisdom to avoid trouble if at all possible.

Time & Repetitive Movement

Even if you are lucky to escape injury, years and years of repetitive actions take a toll on us. At 45, I started having an odd pain in my right leg and so saw my doctor. She ordered x-rays and other tests, and turns out my right hip was in the early stages of arthritis. I thought that was crazy; “I’m only 45!” was my reaction, but she then reminded me that I had been lunging on that same leg since I was 16. How many thousands and thousands of times had I likely lunged? Never mind other traumas to that leg.

It was the same with my elbows—Radaellian sabre mechanics use the elbow as axis, and even my Olympic training retained vestiges of this approach to cutting. I have tennis elbow in both arms, ironically because in 2001 I was in a serious car accident that all but destroyed my right shoulder, and so I started training as a leftie.

Neither of these issues arose from anything improper or stupid—they are the result of activity and repetition. While some degree inevitable, depending on one’s genetics and training, there is a lot we can prevent by taking simple steps. For example, had I rested my elbows longer; had I continued my PT exercises; had I taken better care of myself I wouldn’t be in as bad a condition as I am. I’ve been slightly wiser with my hip, though it has cost me some fun—I use more walking steps than fencing stance and footwork when teaching, and, hardest of all, force myself not to do things I actively want to do. At Rose & Thorns earlier this year, I desperately wanted to bout with people, but with my hip acting up after a misstep while teaching, I know I’d be on a cane, again, if I did. Missing out on the fun makes this a lot harder, but, if I can attend in 2026, hopefully that choice means I will be able to fence people.

Be Kind to your Future Self

Many of us want to fence into old age, right up until we drop, and generally we can IF we take care of ourselves. Nothing I say or write is likely to change anyone’s mind—I didn’t listen well when I was 18 or 28 either—but I’ve reached the age where it’s now my turn to take up the mantle and sound like Chicken Little.

If you’re injured, take a break and heal. If you are fencing a lot, warm-up, stretch properly, and after your workout cool down and maybe stretch again. If you are doing stupid things, and let’s be honest, at some point many of us have, at least consider first what that choice will look like in twenty to thirty years. I can’t say for sure that twice jumping out of a second-story window also contributed to my hip issues, but… [1] Fencing with seriously garbage repro sabres in the mid-90s while understandable given interest in historical fencing, meant that injuries from them were a magnitude higher than with an Olympic or Schlager blades. Neither of the latter ever cracked my ribs, sunk into my knee, or broke my fingers protected poorly by a brass knuckle-bow. The truth is the training I received, particularly from Maestro Al Couturier and his assistants, was perfect for studying Radaellian sabre, and the cutting dynamic doesn’t need a 100% accurate tool to work—one can use an Olympic sabre, something slightly heavier, or a stick. It’s the mechanics, not the tool. [2]

Ideally, in addition to fencing one is also exercising for health. This not only contributes to your general condition and well-being, but will aid you in preventing injury. A solid program for cardiovascular health and an appropriate weight-lifting/condition regimen only help. [3]

To the examples of Masters Albert and Delmar already mentioned, I’d like to point out some of the masters I’m working under in Barbasetti Military Sabre since 1895, Josef Šolc, who is 89 years old, has fenced for 75 years and is still going.

Exhibit A: Me

In much the same way as Sy Sperling was both president and a client for his “Hair Club for Men,” I’m not just advocating that you take care of yourself, but I’m a living example of what happens when you don’t. [4] I’ve been better about it in the last decade or so, but consider how late that is—I was in my 40s when I finally started paying attention to the good advice I got from coaches, maestri, and health professionals. There is no round-trip ticket to yesterday, so I can’t undo that or go back and smack sense into my younger self, but for many of you it’s not too late.

You can avoid being the middle-aged person often on a cane, or sitting out from the fun, or taking extended breaks to fix something you made worse by not taking that break earlier. We often say that the most difficult opponent we face is ourselves, and this can be as true on the piste or in the ring as it is outside of them. It will take willpower, discipline, and strength to avoid some of the pitfalls I’ve outlined here, but it can be done. You’re future self will thank you if you start taking care of yourself now.

NOTES:

[1] Details are unimportant, but needless to say jumping out of windows, for whatever reason, if it can be avoided, should be. When I talk about being young and dumb, I speak from experience 😉

[2] This is an important point and one often misunderstood, despite the fact that most of the historical fencing community is aware that people in the past often trained with sticks. The value of using a period-weight trainer isn’t that one is required to do things correctly, but that it helps us understand why certain aspects were necessary. For example, many cavalry sabres, especially mass-produced trooper blades, are front-weighted. It’s not only harder to use the wrist to move them, but it’s a less effective way to use the weapon. Radaelli’s innovation provided a better approach. One can, however, use the same elbow-as-axis mechanics with a sport sabre or stick.

[3] Beach muscles (or would we say Instagram/Tiktok now?) are not generally helpful in fencing. One needs strength in some degree, but the real value is in muscular support of joints, the cultivation of stamina, and the side benefits for one’s general health.

[4] Cf. 1984’s commercial, https://youtu.be/xeFoLdeqG1I?si=wW-4jlN131y13SgP

Technique Leak: Overcoming Issues in Cross-Weapon Fencing

I started the day off in a rapier lesson with one of the students with whom I’ve worked longest. I have often said that teaching is a two-way street, that both instructor and student—ideally—learn, grow, and improve as they work together. During one drill, my friend stopped, said “question,” and we stopped to chat. “Is there a reason you’re taking such a big second?” It was an easy observation, but one I had not made—was I? Was I taking too large a parry? He then asked “what else are you working on right now?” and then it hit me. What followed was a lovely chat about the ways in which different weapon tracks can “leak” into one another, something that can be a benefit, but in good cosmic equilibrium, can also work against us.

In this case, it was the latter, and I was grateful for his observation and said so. Focused as I was on the lesson plan, and on making purposeful mistakes, I didn’t notice an unintentional one, another insight Ken shared with me. There are many instances in which the instructor makes mistakes on purpose—it’s critical for teaching a fencer what to look for, how to take advantage of such issues, and it’s all valuable, but it’s sometimes a difficult thing to switch off, which is to say that a lot of us find ourselves struggling not to be in teacher mode when we’re bouting to bout.

The Drill

Here, the danger was not only my own overblown parry of second, but also undermining an otherwise valuable drill. At Ken’s level, we work on a lot of tactical set-ups, on second intention, traps, and ways to conserve energy. For me to drop the ball in any one section breaks the drill, and, potentially—were Ken not so aware—upsets the student’s learning. The drill in question started with a classic, workaday action:

Student: feint thrust to hand from 2^nd or 3^rd
Instructor: parries 4^th
Student: disengages to strike outside of the hand or arm

Next, we added a second exchange:

Student: feint thrust to hand from 2^nd or 3^rd
Instructor: parries 4^th
Student: disengages to strike outside of the hand or arm
Instructor: takes a half-step back, parries 2^nd, thrusts with opposition
Student: transitions from 2^nd to 3^rd to block, ripostes over the instructor’s weapon

In taking my parry of 2^nd so vertically, I made it a lot easier to hit me, something someone on their game would be less likely to do. After Ken’s correction, my parry reverted back to what it should be in this case, shallower, point closer to him, and danger way more real should he not cover.

Whither yon Leak?

It didn’t take me long to figure out what was happening. What I was doing in the instant was not so much taking 2^nd as it was dropping into what broadsword sources refer to as an “outside half-hanging” parry, that is, a block defending the same area as 2^nd, but which has the blade hanging more vertically. The “outside hanging” parry defends the upper half well in the same way.

For some time now I’ve been spending more time on “Old Style” broadsword. Thomas Page is the major source I am using, and the nature of that style of fight, never mind the change in heft and balance with a baskethilt, enables one to drop the blade more to parry in an outside half-hanger because the axis of rotation is the wrist, and, it’s thus quick for a riposte.

In rapier, such a deep parry is to invite a counter-attack or fail to cover a line, and so while there are similarities between them, they work differently. With Ken’s help, I now can start to work on better compartmentalizing these weapons.

Stopping the Leak

Awareness is the first step. Thanks to Ken, I am aware of that issue, and best of all, will double-check everything else I am doing.

Next, I drill both weapons with specific attention to the techniques unique to them. It always comes down to drill, more and more drill. I will also be far more mindful now, which is never bad, and with work not only will I fix some of these issues, but better serve my students.

As a coach of other fencers, and thus responsible for raising them up, challenging them, helping them reach the next goal, correct technique, just like proper timing, distance, everything, is a must. As a coach to other coaches, there is also benefit—each pitfall I encounter is another lesson for my colleagues, especially those starting out and yet unaware of problem X or issue Y. We are never finished learning, and, so long as we retain a “beginner’s mind,” we will continue to grow and be better able to make corrections as we discover places that require them.