There are three actions that are the basic elements of the Italian Rapier decision tree: Gaining the blade, lunging, and performing a cavazione. Really, the majority of actions in Italian Rapier are going to boil down to one of these things. Gaining the blade and lunges have already been discussed, so it’s probably a good […]
Author Archive
First Giganti Redux 7: Cavazione 2 comments
Cherish your old sites, but not too much 3 comments
(Because fighting can’t happen without a place to do it) The SCA is running into an increasingly more common situation. The basics of it are that our expectations for event site costs have not kept up with the reality of event site costs, which has kept event cost inflation artificially low, and we’re approaching a […]
First Giganti Redux 6: The Lunge 10 comments
After teaching guards and counter-guards and the basics of theory, the first action Giganti moves to instructing is the lunge. There’s a good reason for this: If your entire plan is to take a single tempo and strike, the lunge is the best option. It covers the most distance with the fewest moving parts. Since […]
First Giganti Redux 5: Tempo 4 comments
Many sport fencers and SCA fencers who’ve inherited the traditions of sport fencing talk about “the tempo of the fight,” meaning the speed of actions and the rhythm of actions and counter-actions. This works for the weapons and style of strip fencing – light, whippy, and able to land valid touches without actually having your […]
First Giganti Redux 4: Measure 8 comments
“That distance from which you can hit him with a firm-footed attack [lunge]” For the longest time I thought this was the only thing Giganti really had to say about measure. I reached this conclusion because in his chapter on Measure and Tempo, that was the only thing he said about measure. He devoted seventeen […]
First Giganti Redux 3: Counter-guards Leave a comment
Having provided his list of the qualities of a good guard, Giganti then basically says to ignore that because good fighters don’t form guards, they form counter-guards. A counter-guard at its most basic is a guard (still with most of the qualities of a good guard) which positions the sword and your body so that […]
Weekly Warfare – 6 – The Bulgarian Death March 2 comments
Fighting in the Society follows a certain rhythm. This rhythm manifests itself most visibly at fighter practice. People will spend some time chattering on the sidelines & armouring up; then there is a time period of fighting, and then it seems that many of them will take a break at roughly the same time. This […]
First Giganti Redux 2: Guards 2 comments
Giganti starts off with discussion of guards and counter-guards. At times I’ve tried to approach instruction on Giganti by starting first with the theory pieces (tempo, measure, line) because the reasoning behind Giganti’s instruction on guards is tied directly to his application of theory. However, this invariably ends up with the feeling of putting the […]
Giganti First Redux 1: Introduction Leave a comment
Four years ago, I worked through Nicoletto Giganti’s Scola, overa Teatro (as translated by Tom Leoni) and documented it on what was then Wistric’s Weekly Warfare. In full disclosure, it was, I think, my third read through, but the most detailed and considered I’d been till that point. It took the format of quoting an […]
Giganti Second XII: Giganti’s Third Books 9 comments
At the end of Giganti’s first book, he mentions that, God willing, he will one day produce a second book where he would explore more fully the use of the dagger, buckler, targa, rotella, and cloak. At the end of my first pass through his first book, I planned to make at least one post […]