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Our traditional cutting diagrams don’t really work with thrust-centric rapier plays. So we have created a new style of diagram more suited for the style. To start, we divide a circle into zones. These aren’t specific places on the opponent, but rather relative to where their sword would be in 3rd (e.g. Terza/Tertia, Langort). Onto… Continue reading Understanding Rapier Diagrams

The cutting diagrams we are using in class are inspired by the Meyer Lund diagrams. We don’t have clear instructions on how to interpret these diagrams, but it’s fairly clear that they meant to be used as patterns for cuts and thrusts. Since Meyer didn’t leave us with a key, we have to invent our… Continue reading Understanding the Cutting Diagrams

Fitness For our warm-ups, we are using exercises from Guy Windsor’sThe Duellist’s Companion: A training manual for 17th century Italian rapier. Sword and Buckler For Sword and Buckler, we looked at a selection of plays from Manciolino’s first book, chapters 3 and 4. In this book, all of the attacks from a given guard are… Continue reading Practice Notes for Oct 13

Rapier For L’Ange rapier we reviewed the fine details of the ‘German’ style grip. Then we repeated the exercise with the ‘Italian’ grip as you might see in Capo Ferro. Then we looked at plate 7 of Capo Ferro’s Use of Fencing. This play teaches one how to safely disengage when constrained and to punish… Continue reading Practice Notes for Oct. 16