Montante Rule #1 from Viedma
“Firstly, the montante will be placed in the disciple’s right hand, standing in the middle of a hall, who makes a forward movement ahead with the montante, then passes the montante and his hand above his head, turning his face over his right shoulder in a manner that he comes to see the point of the montante with the right eye. Cutting with it, he runs a tajo, giving a step with the right foot in front, having placed the left hand on the pommel of the montante. Without moving the left foot, he makes tajos, which have to leave from his right shoulder. He also changes the montante to the left shoulder and makes reveses, taking the right foot back with steps toward the rear, and this has to be without moving the left foot. He will do this for eight days.”
Retrieved from SpanishSword.org (pdf, page 142/148, or 65v)
So, starting off with the montante, much of the advice within the Facebook “Montante Swordsmanship” group did not advise starting with Figuereydo (I’ll spell his name right someday), instead looking at the more straightforward sources.
Lo and behold, Viedma’s first rule is specifically designed for the beginner montantero, which he says to do “for eight days”. So, I practiced this rule for one hour each on eight separate days, and nothing else, when starting with the montante.
And, I like it. It teaches you a way to get the montante moving, and how to maintain a cut, how to change the direction of a cut, and at the most basic level how to hold a piece of ground while using a montante.
I love this rule, it’s simple and instructive, but you can add variances into it as well. You can change the directions that you send the Tajos and Reveses and the number you do before changing to really use it dynamically.
