Before pairing off with your partner, and at the beginning and end of each training session, it is appropriate to salute. We have no way of knowing if this was advocated by the masters of this period, but the culture from which they sprung was built on precise hierarchies with precise codes of conduct. So many later masters have described their own versions of salutes that I am sure some such form existed in the fifteenth century. A salute may be as simple or complex as you like. The Grand Salute popular in various forms in the eighteenth century was practically a miniature warm- up. What matters is that it is clear, and executed with respect. The form we use at SES is very simple.
1. Assume posta di porta di ferro, right foot forwards.
2. Withdraw your front foot all the way back until it almost touches your back foot, while raising the crossguard to the level of your upper lip. The sword should be absolutely upright.
3. Hold it for a moment and catch the eye of your partner or opponent. 4. Lower your sword to your right side with the point almost on the
5. Resume your guard position, or, if this marks the end of practice, step out normally.
Figure 8.2 Tanda Tuovinen demonstrates the salute used at SES.
The salute is a reminder that you are holding a deadly weapon, it helps to establish an appropriate mindset, and it serves to mark the beginning and end of each session.
deFences
Solo practice is the foundation of good technique, but foundations are only useful because they allow you to build upon them. The first function of swordsmanship practice is defence against attack.
There are three possible ways of defending yourself from a longsword attack:
• Counterattacking into the attack. • Parrying the attack.
• Avoiding the attack.
counTeraTTacks
This is without question the ideal defensive response in longsword fencing, emphasised in all Italian historical fencing styles.2 Counterattacks are done
in mezzo tempo. There are basically two ways of counterattacking in safety: with opposition and with avoidance. The counterattack with opposition is done by closing the line of your opponent’s attack at the same time as you
strike him. It is normal to avoid also avoid when counterattacking with opposition; if your opposition fails, then the avoidance should save you. The counterattack with avoidance is usually directed at the advanced target (his hands): as he attacks, you get out of the way and chop his hands off. Again, if the attack fails, the avoidance should save you.
Parries
The term “parry” was probably imported into the English language from the Italian rapier masters working in London in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and derives from the Italian verb parere, to set aside.3
With time, the term has come to mean any purely defensive blade action. Parries can be executed as either blocks or deflections.
Fiore’s instructions regarding blade defence are very simply: against any attack, beat his weapon aside. You will pass through, or end up in, a situation where the blades are crossed. This is the incrosada. This can be done as a collection of your opponent’s weapon onto your crossguard, as a strike against the incoming sword, as a yielding deflection, or by cutting through. As a last ditch defence, a block is also possible. Almost all of Fiore’s longsword plays include an incrosada in some form.
blocks
Against a cut, the most natural, reflexive action is what we call the “Oh Shit! parry”. The block is done edge on edge, and brings both weapons to a stop. As a last ditch defence, it is certainly better that getting hit, but it is not the best way of defending yourself.
deFlecTIons
A good swordsman can smash through a block. I doubt if any of my students could block a full-force blow from me, but the more experienced can certainly deflect even my most committed attack. In addition, hand- forged, expensive longsword blades need to be better looked-after than mass-produced sabre or smallsword blades: they cost ten times as much. The best-forged blade in the world will still chip if bashed edge on edge with the worst.
blade to knock aside your opponent’s. The difference lies in the fact that the deflection redirects the attacker’s energy, rather than stopping it. So while his blade is moving away from you, and yours is moving towards him, he has to reverse the momentum of his sword to effect a defence. This is much harder than recovering from a block. An experienced swordsman can use the energy of an oncoming attack to direct and power his own; equally, an experienced swordsman can use the energy of his opponent’s deflection to redirect his attack, or to effect a defence. Remember that every technique has a counter; but some have more counters than others. Longsword due tempi defence is mostly concerned with the various types of deflection, immediately followed by a riposte.
Deflections can be made inside or outside the arc of the attack, with the sword point-up or point-down, with the true or false edge, and they can be done hard, as a sharp attack on the blade, softly so that your opponent has very little awareness of the deflection, ‘stickily’ to retain contact with the blade, or as a push to expel the blade. In practice, the useful deflections are:
• Point up, true edge, outside the cut, against descending cuts. • Point down, true edge, inside the cut, against all cuts.
• Point up, false edge, outside the cut, against descending cuts. • Point up, true edge, inside the cut, against descending and lateral cuts. • Point up, false edge, inside the cut, against descending or lateral cuts. The purpose of the deflection is to close the line of the attack and to gain momentary control over your opponent’s blade. This is effected by degree and by opposing your edge to their flat.
degree
This describes the position of the point of contact between the two blades, relative to the hilts. Most incrosada are executed at the middle of the two swords: you aim to strike the middle of his blade with the middle of yours (as Fiore and Vadi put it: a meza spada). This is because you must protect your hands: longswords do not come with knucklebows.
connection to be as close to your hilt as possible, and as close to his point as possible. This effectively provides you with the longest possible lever with which to move his sword wherever you want it to go. To acquire this kind of contact it is first necessary to make an incrosada at mezza spada, then allow your opponent’s blade to slide down towards your hilt.