Category: English
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Fiore Interpretation 2
Deutsch: In einem anderen Beitrag habe ich ein Informationsblatt mit allen Stücken des sog. weiten Spiels (des zogho largo) von Fiore veröffentlicht. Da habe ich die Übersicht absichtlich minimal kommentiert. In nächster Zeit möchte ich meine Interpretation dieser Stücke nach und nach detaillierter aber trotzdem anschaulich kommentieren und zur Verfügung stellen. Ich habe hier das…
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Fiore Interpretation 1
Deutsch: In einem anderen Beitrag habe ich ein Informationsblatt mit allen Stücken des sog. weiten Spiels (des zogho largo) von Fiore veröffentlicht. Da habe ich die Übersicht absichtlich minimal kommentiert. In nächster Zeit möchte ich meine Interpretation dieser Stücke nach und nach detaillierter aber trotzdem anschaulich kommentieren und zur Verfügung stellen. Ich fange in diesem…
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Best Sword™
In another post I shared some thoughts about various attributes of sword design. Basically, different kinds of sword exist because no sword is optimized for all contexts and different people want different things out of a sword. In this light-hearted post, I share some of my favorite “best” swords. Why the longsword is the best…
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Hard and Soft Factors
Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier. Whether discussing a sword, an airplane, or a washing machine, the traits of that thing can be divided into “hard” and “soft” factors. These two categories exist to differentiate between different kinds of characteristics that affect performance. What are hard and soft factors? Every sword design has various…
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Does Fiore have the Zwerhau? Does it matter?
Purpose In this post, I take a deep dive into a specific cut found in fencing traditions contemporary to Fiore’s art which, in my opinion, does not seem to appear in Fiore’s longsword repertoire. My goals with this post are: I chose the Zwerhau because it is probably the most influential of all the named…
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Hit Quality: My Suggestions
Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier. What is “hit quality”? “Hit quality” refers to “how good” a hit is. Why does hit quality matter? There are two facts that stand in tension with each other: Fencing training that wants to appeal to a historical context involving earnest fights with sharp swords needs to contend…
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Pietro Monte describes how to run
Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier. I’ve been reading Pietro Monte’s “Collected Martial Arts and Exercises” recently and came across a chapter called “On the way to run” and I though it was hilarious and insightful to see how an educated person from the early 1500s describes the mundane act of running. I find…
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So, you want to grab a sharp sword
Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier. Too long, didn’t read: Blade grabs are historically attested. Grabbing a sharp blade is dangerous, but sometimes worth the risk. Robin Swords explains it really well in just 42 seconds in this video. Is it possible to safely grab a sharp blade in a sword fight? You might…
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Sparring: Rules, etiquette, and best practices
Eine deutsche Version dieses Beitrags findest du hier. I wrote a post in the past addressing sparring etiquette where I didn’t clearly distinguish between rules, etiquette, and best practices. This post is intended to supersede that one and reflects my current views on sparring rules and etiquette. What do I mean by “sparring”? With sparring I…
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Fun Fencing Quotes
A collection of insightful, cool, funny, inspiring or silly quotes from historical fencing texts. Emphasis is added by me unless otherwise noted. If you have a good quote that you think should be included, send it to me with the source! 15th Century Unknown “Practice is better than artfulness, because practice could be sufficient without…
Blume des Kampfes 