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@sinister-swordsman
Writing things down is a good way to remember them in the future! So says my Warder. Well, maybe not in those words, but my Warder has encouraged me to write down the things I learn.
Notes and stories on my time in the SCA Rapeir community. I started fencing around the fall of 2023.
My fighting style is generic SCA Italian (mix of several Italian styles, including Giganti, Fabris, and Capo Ferro). Lots of single sword and sword and dagger, but I also use a large shield in melees.
Success! I was at an Event recently and met the goals I set for myself. The mourning tournament was a double elimination Atlantian Speed tournament of ~30 fencers. My goal was to be in control of the fight. Rounds 1 and 2 this went fantastically. I took the initiative and just gained my opponent's blade by extending my arm. There was bladework that followed and I made my opponent reset the fight. I got a solid bind on Round 1 opponent's blade twice and kept my sword moving until I won. Round 2, I passed their sword from my blade to my dagger and completed my attack. I was the last non-grant level or higher fighter on the winner's half. Rounds 3 and 4 were less victorious for me. I was up against more skilled (and experienced) fighters, but I made them work to beat me and even made them back off. So I met Victory Condition 2.
The afternoon was dedicated to melee practice. Spears are fun! This was my first time really using a spear in melee. One of the best spear fighters in my Kingdom complimented me! I took what they taught a month or so ago and used it against them. Find a buddy spear-person. One person knocks an enemy spear to the ground (or skyward), the other strikes. And then with no other enemy spears in the area, you get to have a field day with the enemy swordsmen because they can't reach you easily.
For those unsure of a sport to pick:
Have you considered hitting your friends with a sword? Have you considered getting hit with swords by your friends? Have you considered making out after a duel?
I am trying to narrow in on the niche technical skills that separate me from the upper level fighters. Though I am not yet a grant level fencer, I can tell many of the people around me have those same expectations, and it has rather led me to expect it of myself as well. I am trying not to push myself too hard and go at my own pace, but sometimes one simply needs to burn bright for a while.
I was fortunate enough to have some friends invite me to one of their private practices this week. With my wife's blessing, I took a break from my own maternal duties to hone my edge a little and decompress from the stresses of motherhood. My blade has dulled but little in the three odd weeks I have been dealing with my newborn, I am pleased to report. I did some very long passes with a Noble Gentleman who has been invaluable in my growth this past year and a half. I did lose, of course. He is a Master of Defense and I am mostly pretty. All the same it felt good to make him hit me on the third or fourth pass instead of immediately.
I noticed I'm struggling to get into distance. Perhaps the issue is feeling out of measure, I am unsure, but regardless of the cause the effect is the same: I am on the defensive and not dictating the pace of the battle. I win when I am the aggressor, but now I am waiting for my opponent to come to me and if they have a better plan than my reaction then I have already lost. I figure the answer is likely in the way I move my feet, or perhaps even in my posture. When I consulted the Noble Gentleman, he surprised me with his suggestion that the problem is in my blade.
When preparing for an engagement, I focus on aligning my blade across theirs. I drift the weak around until I can create a wall with my weapon and then I bait out an attack to create an opening and strike in that gap. He suggested that instead of aiming with the weak, I aim with the strong--or to use his words when I repeated back my understanding "no, you aim with the whole blade"--so that when I approach I have pre-parried their counter and can come right in. By orienting the blade such that the forte makes a line through the weak, one can blow through the opponent's weapon and into their body.
I tried in the few passes I had left at that point. They were good fights, but I do not believe I am even close to mastering the concept yet. I hope I can find some more time at practice in the coming weeks so I can reinforce the skill before I forget I need to be doing it. There should be another learny tourney erelong and I hope to be able to show off a little at it--or at least convince the learnies that I am also senpai.
Since I've been working on a counter-move a lot recently, I've gone back to being very defensive so I can practice that move. Letting your opponent move first to counter-punch is a valid strategy, but sometimes offensive action is needed.
After sparring with my Warder, their observation was that I was making big moves. By that, when I went to take control of the fight it was done as part an attack, instead of just taking control. I gained control and attacked which did not always give me time to react to their reaction, often leaving me to take a blow as I struck my own.
The solution (thing for me to work on): get in control of the fight with a small movement. Extend my arm, cross blades near the tips, and maybe a small step, but don't immediately go into an attack. See if my opponent does something and then make them pay for it.
Tonight's lesson was on how to capitalize on a feint. The simple answer: run them down and stab them in the face!
How do we get there? It depends on how deep your opponent feints and if they react to you.
1. Opponent does a simple feint by extending their arm on a straight line, ignoring your blade. Their tip is at least 1/3 of the way down your blade. They have just put themselves at a leverage disadvantage. As the defender, you just have to move your blade on theirs and advance (passing steps are nice).
2. Similar to 1, but your opponent is slightly smarter and does not stay still after initiating the feint. As the withdraw their blade, follow it with your blade and press the advantage. The caveat here is if your opponent's feint is very shallow, in which case you should not chase them down because they did not give you the advantage.
3. A smart opponent sees you advancing after their failed feint and decides to push your blade to the side. As you advance and feel resistance, performance a cavazione, raising your hilt, and stab them in the stomach. Raising your hilt keeps you from getting stabbed in the face after your opponent realizes that your blade has once again moved in a deadly way. An off-hand parry could work too.
4. What if you're fighting someone using a high guard (ex: Fabris or most Spanish fencers)? As thy come into the feint, gain their blade and keep pushing down/around in a circular motion, again raising your hilt, and stabthem in the stomach. Another option is just use an off hand parry and stab your opponent.
I would like a large sword, for mental health reasons
Follow up to the previous post.
Saturday, I was not as successful as I wanted to be with my goal of not hanging out a in neutral position with my opponent. Many fights started that way, with blades slightly crossed. I did, on occasion, try to feint that I was gaining their blade to provoke a reaction, but it rarely worked. And didn't provoke the reaction I wanted.
The main tournament was a Points Tournament (Bear Pit where you could gain 5 wins before going to the back of the line). I frequently faced Masters of Defense and Bronze Rings/White Scarfs. While I usuallu lost the first pass, I did manage to get 11 wins over ~2 hours! I felt pretty satisfied with how I did, before learning that I was in the top half of combatants (~35 total). I had two or three very nice disengages where I was able to jump my opponent's tempo and immediately attack for the win (two vs Bronze Rings and one vs a MoD).
At court, I received my Cavendish Knot. It has a very nice drawing of a plate from a German fencing manual... One person has somehow closed the distance enough to pick the other combatant by the waist (my Warder will not teach me how to do this! 😆)
Tonight's lesson: don't hang out in a neutral position.
By neutral, I mean swords just barely crossed, when both fencers are within measure of each other. It is a dangerous position to be in. Either can strike in the blink of an eye without giving a tempo to react in.
Tonight was about taking control of the fight (I am a very defensive fighter, people's biggest "complaint" about me is my ability to run away). I tend to step back and live to fight another day if attacked and on feints. My Warder had me do the opposite this practice. When they made the first move, I had to regain control of their blade (usually through a cavazione) and go on the offensive when my action put me in control. Sometimes the cavazione was enough, others I had to step back and reset the fight but then immediately step back into the fight in control and attack. Who knew all those footwork drills we do would pay off? 😆 Yay footwork! (I actually like doing footwork drills. They're a good warm up/cardio and also always useful.)
Next, my Warder was always on the advance. Their victory was getting past me. My victory was not letting that happen (ideally by putting my sword through them). A cavazione sometimes worked, but wasn't always the best solution. Stepping into their path to change the angle of attack while keeping the strong of my blade on their weak worked well.
These drills added on to my prior month's work on tempo. Recognizing when I'm in control or can take control and make my opponent realize it.
The challenge will come at Saturday's event. Fighting people I don't normally fight can make me freeze a bit. My victory condition will be to recognize when I'm in a neutral position and (attempt to) make it my fight.
Are spears better than swords?
kingfisher
Rapier fighters being called masters of defence is really cool until you remember that the acronym is m.o.d and that people JUST CALL THEM MODS???
Like I’m imagining like. The queen of some kingdom surrounded by her attendants while some arrogant knight kneels before her throne and she just says “mods ban that guy” and the rapiers surge fourth and haul the knight back off to the erics
Fun fact: You cannot get better at fighting without doing basic self care and also footwork. Take this time to remember:
did i eat today?
did i drink water recently?
am I cleaned and refreshed?
have i gotten enough sleep?
If the answer to any of these is NO you are NOT allowed to go questing for the grail or hunting dragons you gotta be in top shape
i let him hit cause. uh. well i’m gonna be honest it’s cause i fucked up my parry timing
Training the Squire.
She took a certain swordtok channel talking about dual daggers as a bad weapon choice as a challenge.
This was a clip from her first time fencing using two daggers against me with my greatsword.
Somehow, after multiple attempts, she got the angle of the parry just right, and parried my sword, while stabbing me in the armpit.
Later, she managed this...
And a few other plays in which she hooked my sword with her off-hand dagger, before stabbing me.
She's got a lot more to work on, but she's determined to make "dual dagger combat" viable for the girlies.
I hope she succeeds, rooting for her
She's only just started with this, so she's really carving her own path on it. So far, she has a few moments of brilliance amidst failures, but that's what we both expected for her 1st/2nd time ever trying it.
Give her a year or two, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was able to do this the way Booktok girlies imagine their heroines.
I'm gonna be honest, there's a reason I don't talk about Sellsword Arts, and it's mainly because I just don't like them as I find them obnoxious. That's not a condemnation of people watching them, I just don't enjoy them.
The other reason is that they know just enough to give an opinion that is entrenched in absolutist HEMA ideology with no room for experimentation or nuance, or in stage combat. I can't fault the latter, I don't do stage combat, so it's not something I can comment upon. But the rigidity of HEMA can bother me increasingly as it stifles development and informed speculation where we lack information, or takes the written word as gospel in a way that is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the reality of practise.
This means that I try to avoid their content, as it often starts with a position which is fairly well researched by people in HEMA, and devolves into David making blanket statements without any nuance. And that's when he's talking about well researched content. His video on axes being generally bad weapons was outright incorrect in almost all aspects, to the point a member of the group I'm in (who is something of an expert on axes, having recognised the lack of info and put years of study into actually learning how to make them work) addressed the topic.
Similarly, my squire is a dagger enthusiast, and she knows she's going to be at a disadvantage for it. She still manages to win more often than most people in the same position, and actually fighting her with a dagger against dagger especially is a losing battle. So of course, she heard "dual daggers doesn't work", and we decided we'd test it.
Right off the bat, we have some issues with how David approached the topic. First, in his video, he mostly spends time running blindly in, not parrying or binding, then claims it won't work. Compare with the clips of Squire Jess entering with a parry, and using the second dagger to attack into the opening underneath...
We've concluded that dual daggers (so far) is certainly not an ideal selection for combat, but also that (1) it is possible and can definitely be used to fight other lightly armoured opponents. And that (2) given practise, dual daggers can make an effective response to other larger weapons. It's also worth pointing out that from my perspective, dual daggers is up there with giant sword: not always the most practical choice, but it is a power fantasy for the target audience, and certainly feasible within a proper context. That's not even mentioning the use of dual short blades in, say, Kali.
So I hope Squire Jess and I can help support the Booktok and fantasy girlies that want to imagine their fighting style working, because Squire Jess is a 5ft-nuthin' girl half my weight and size, who regularly stabs me and throws me to the floor. Which I take as a point of pride—after all, I taught her!
I've done a lot of stage combat, and especially in writing and performances I'll admit that while I think a healthy dose of realism is good to ground things, power fantasies are fun to explore for a reason.
I also wholeheartedly agree with the stance that being too rigid in foundational points kills the ability to explore and grow. Foundations should always be a starting point to build on - and yeah, maybe not everything you explore ends up being good, but you never know what discoveries there are to make along the way. And that's part of the joy and art of things like this.
Obviously it makes sense that dual daggers is going to be at a disadvantage in a lot of situations. But the power fantasy of it is exactly - being at a disadvantage, and being able to find ways to use it anyway. To find the advantages others might overlook. I think the comparison to great weapons is perfect in that regard.
All of that is to say - I love seeing people approach something that is cool and fantastical from the stance of 'Is it possible, how can we make it more reliable, what can make this work, what can we learn from it?' as opposed to a stance of condemnation.
An absolutely valid and based take, thank you for adding your input to this! :)
Everyone, please tell me something good that happened for you in 2025 - doesn't matter how big or small!
Hundred Blades Saga
Attention, all good gentles! In the course of this New Year, I will do battle with one hundred different fencers. I shall collect each of their names in this book. Every blade I engage with shall be counted, whether at practice, pick-ups, or tournaments, and all skill levels. However, I will only be counting individual combat, and not melees. If you should find me at a tournament, please cross blades with me and have your name recorded.
I haven't the foggiest how many fencers I have fought this year. Probably dozens. Perhaps tens. Maybe even seven. As such, the determination to face one hundred blades is both arbitrary and aspirational. The "Fifty Blades Saga" simply would not be as as exciting. That said, I already know I will not be doing as much fencing as I should like next year--I will be having my first child in May--so this is my way of keeping my dance card interesting. I wish to fight as many people as possible.
If I do not successfully find one hundred blades this year, then next year I will start again. I shall simply repeat this every year until one hundred fencers can be found. The book shall be renewed as needed.
As is my wont, I shalln't be sharing the particular names of my honourable adversaries that I might best respect their privacy. I will however be giving semi-regular updates on my progress. Though you will forgive me when the summer months are quiet--due to the aforementioned child.
So pray, spread the word far and wide that Lady Cwenthryth of Northwic is seeking blades to cross. She shall welcome steel with steel, and shall reward all her adversaries with thanks and good cheer.
