Giganti prefaces the dagger section by pointing out more men are killed with daggers than with swords. He then promises a third book on fighting with dagger alone against “a variety of weapons.” Maybe that one’s also in the Wallace collection. His basic approach strongly echoes his rapier fighting: When they attack, push their dagger […]
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Second Giganti XI: Dagger Fighting Leave a comment
Wistric’s Pennsic AAR 4 comments
MONDAY The warpoint plan was that rapier and heavy would fight the same scenarios (mostly) on the same day, which held promise of the back-to-back woods battles, one of the best endurance tests I’ve ever encountered. Monday was the day for field battles! HEAVY FIELD BATTLE The Queen’s Spears rallied up, 8-10 in number. Duke […]
Weekly Warfare – 5 – How to Fight Forever Leave a comment
Ed. This week Iskender discusses how to live forever, or at least the best approximation you can get. Once, I knew a gentleman in Falcon Cree named Monsieur Jacques Abaran. Monsieur Abaran was the fifteenth White Scarf in the Academie d’Espee. He was not a garrulous man. Rather, he possessed a quiet, humble dignity. […]
Second Giganti X: Cloak 6 comments
or, The off-hand that’s NOT just like dagger In contrast to all the other off-hands, Giganti treats the cloak as not just like a dagger. The obvious reason being it’s not rigid. He advises not to use a cloak made of silk or other lightweight material. These are useless, and in his words “I […]
Second Giganti IX: Offhands that are Just Like Dagger 5 comments
Giganti introduces his defensive secondaries (buckler, targa, and rotella) by saying there’s no difference between them and dagger. “Anything you have learned with the sword and dagger can be accomplished with the sword and rotella/targa/buckler.” Which means if you’re using them differently, you’re doing something wrong. Probably, you’re thinking you can offend with the dagger […]
Giganti VIII: Coming to Grips Leave a comment
Giganti’s standard policy is to win the fight outside of measure or as you come to measure. Everything after that is just pushing your sword through your opponent. Coming to grips, then, shouldn’t happen unless somebody did something wrong. I think I’ll repeat that: Coming to grips shouldn’t happen unless somebody did something wrong. Giganti […]
Second Giganti VII: Voids Leave a comment
Whoever wishes to be accomplished in this profession needs to understand not only how to move well, parry correctly, and control the sword. He must also understand how to evade thrusts with his body. Giganti illustrates and explains four voids against thrusts in the Second Book (though he only calls two of them voids) and […]
Weekly Warfare – 4 – Explosive Strength Leave a comment
Ed. This week Iskender (with an assist from Abbe Faria) discusses how to improve the speed of your actions and reactions. What Abbe Faria discusses here refers not just to speed, which can be described for swordplay as velocity of movement, but explosive strength. This refers to the acceleration of body mass. Not just how […]
Second Giganti VI: Defense against Passing Lunges Leave a comment
Giganti devotes two sets of plates to what he describes as “furious passes” but which seem more likely to be the combination of a passing step that flows into a lunge (the passing lunge or pass-lunge) that shows up on the SCA list so very often. The big advantage to the passing lunge, and why […]
Second Giganti V: Parrying with dagger while passing 3 comments
I often remark that Giganti leaves nuance aside (having addressed theory sufficiently in the first six pages of his first book) and just tells you what to do. His section on attacking with passing steps starts with the same approach: “If your enemy attacks… you can pass with your foot if you know how to […]