The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

A while back, Caelia asked me this, and I’ve been putting some thought into it. The easy answer is yes, I would.  I don’t think I’d seek out tourneys any more than I do now, but I love fighting.  Nothing else could get me to stand around in the cold for three hours freezing my […]

In general, I start raw new fencers with the “Misha Method”, aka the 4-3-2-1 approach: 4 ways to move, 3 ways to defend, 2 ways to kill, 1 secret.  After that, we start working on the various pieces and sub-pieces, but it gives them a context in which to think of the work they’re doing. […]

Silver or DiGrassi or one of those period windbags states three fundamental principles of combat: Measure, Tempo, and Judgment. You’ll hear them restated repeatedly. Marozzo has another, Simultaneity of Attack and Defense (his statement is “Always defend when attacking, and attack when defending”). Again, a pretty good idea. There are a couple of others. To […]

Marozzo called it “Guardia di Coda Lunga y Larga”: Swetnam called it his “Lazy Guard”.  Before I’d heard of either, I called it “Lazy Provost Stance”. You stand ready to fight, except your sword is hanging comfortably at your side, well out of the way of any attempt to bind your sword, but a quick […]

In a discussion with fellow combatants, I made the statement that there were five big leaps fencers make, with the qualifier that the five leaps was a number pulled entirely out of my ass.  But, on further consideration, I would say it’s a pretty accurate count of the leaps in form to go from rank […]

Or, “the silver lining in the porcelain throne” (Yes, Guenievre, you should probably look away now) A bit too much fun with EtOH has left Caelia feeling somewhat under the weather (and the Jameson’s, and the Murphy’s).  She says she’ll try to show up to practice tonight (which is good, considering there are only three […]

Baron Alejandro’s advice to his strip fencing students et al. Many of you have heard me espouse the maxim, “No dead weight on the strip.” What I mean by this is that there is no reason at all to carry anything onto the strip that you don’t need. The majority of the time that I […]

The following e-mail thread has been ongoing on the Academie list, and has some useful thoughts. The opening post: Greetings to the list. A few people have been working with me recently on turning up my aggressiveness from its current minimal level. I find myself with numerous mental hurdles to overcome in being more aggressive. […]

Baron Llwyd wrote a chapter for the still nascent Atlantian Rapier Melee Manual on the importance and means of communication.  Definitely worth a read!