I’ve been meaning to post something all week, but between work, fun with time-zones, and high school soccer it’s taken a few days. In sum, the Symposium was fantastic. It is to historical fencing what a graduate seminar is to a PhD program, only one that welcomes fencers of any level and can and will accommodate them. That is not easy to do.
I’ve been fortunate when it comes to teaching events–the rest of life might be a dumpster-fire, but to date the events I’ve had the honor to be invited to teach at have been incredible. The Symposium is well-run and organized, but able to flex where it can for weather, chance, or attendee comfort. Patrick Bratton and Chris Triechel, who run it, offer an impressive weekend of fencing, teaching, conversation, food, and local history. Our host at Ft. Ligonier, Matthew Gault, provided us with an air-conditioned room, tours, and even morning coffee. [1] A few of us stayed in the barracks, which are not air-conditioned, but in terms of immersion it’s hard to beat. This is the first event for which I brought period-dress, but the humidity and my poor ability to manage it kept me in summer-weight fencing clothes. Next time.
I was surprised, but honored to be asked to present Liancour’s method this year. The longer I dive into that text, the more I find to like, and, the more I see close affinities between his method and that of Labat, even de la Touche. My goal was to give everyone a sense of the contents of the treatise, but the second half focused a lot on application. Best way to illustrate things really. There were about 40 people the first day, and I approached the class much like I do those I teach at home, at least the longer ones. In a room of people that talented, it benefits everyone to have them weigh in on what we cover, and wow… so many great insights, comments, and connections. They gave me so much to consider, and I’m grateful for that.
In addition to my class, we had the delight to participate in a video conference with the excellent Damien Olivier–he zoomed in from France and shared his smallsword database with us. His introduction covered some key types, but the Q &A was just as engaging. Damien has created something new and unbelievably powerful for anyone interested in this period (roughly 1640-1800). While there have been some stabs at typology before–Aylward, North, Oakeshott–none of them could do what Damien is with this db. I’m super keen to see where it goes.
If my praise seems too fawning, consider how good an event must be to have people drive in from far away to attend not even knowing the headliner. I don’t say this in false humility, but as fact–the Eastern Seaboard in the US is where most of the smallsword-related events and clubs reside: for people to drive up from North Carolina, from Indiana, from Boston, etc. for a two-day event speaks volumes about the worth of the event regardless of who is teaching. Very few of the 40 people there likely have any clue who I am–I live 3000 miles away, I’m too injured to compete, and too busy to make a lot of events. While I have had the good fortune to travel and teach internationally, something I love, my focus day-to-day is largely local save on this website, Youtube, and the master’s program I help with in Canada. This is to say there is no reason anyone in the East should know me, and that is okay. For me, I had the pleasure to meet a lot of people I have heard about, many I had not, and the openness, enthusiasm, curiosity, and just general coolness of everyone I met there made it a lot easier being an introvert teaching.
On another note, but an important one for my nation at present–this group was diverse, and by that I don’t mean just safe for POC, women, and LGBTQAI+ folks, though it was that too. From conversations alone it was clear we had a mix of more conservative and more liberal people, all of whom got along just fine. Now, safe to say, an absolute bigot is unlikely to attend an intellectual event like this one, but that said, when it comes to doubts one might have about the possibility for unity in the US, it’s possible. There is more grey area than there are extremes either side, and that is something to paste in one’s hat. It is safer to believe the claims of past masters than any news story today, and given that Zach Wylde claimed to invent the parry of seconde (his “half moon parr”), that is saying something.
If you have a chance to go to the American Smallsword Symposium–go. Even if smallsword is not your favorite weapon or topic, you’ll get a LOT out of the event, and, you’ll meet some really fun people.
NOTES:
[1] For more on Ft. Ligonier, see https://www.fortligonier.org/
