Archive for July 2010

Giganti 13: Blade Angles, Agrippa’s K, and Passata Soto   Leave a comment

This week brought two more voids, with an interlude of sword positioning for advantage (and that skipped page about fighting aggressive fighters) How to Parry Thrusts to the Chest with Single Sword This illustration shows you a safe way to parry thrusts to your chest and to deliver a counterthrust… in different ways; some pass […]

Posted July 27, 2010 by wistric in Giganti, Italian Rapier

Giganti 12: Inquartata (inquartati? -e? -ae? -es? issimo?)   2 comments

Giganti teaches, basically, two voids, though he breaks the Inquartat (aka demi-volte/volte) into three ways to get there.  The “scans0 della vita” of Capo Ferro shows up here for discussion at length.  His (and here I’m paraphrasing the labels provided by Dante) “strike under the sword” and “passata to the left” show up elsewhere, but […]

Posted July 24, 2010 by wistric in Giganti, Italian Rapier

Giganti 11: Interesting techniques   2 comments

No fencing journal this week, because it would basically be a C&P of last week’s.  But Giganti brings some interesting fun to the game.  I love the illustrations of these next three sections, and the actions depicted are beautiful little techniques that are actually useful lessons. The Correct Way to Deliver a Thrust while the […]

Posted July 12, 2010 by wistric in Giganti, Italian Rapier

Journal, 6/28   Leave a comment

First, a congratulations to Letia on reaching the big 3-0, the day before Thursday practice of this week.  Part of her birthday present was 30 passes promised to her, which we’d originally intended to do on her 30th, but life and weather intervened, so we fought them at Thursday practice.  More on that later. Looking […]

Posted July 9, 2010 by wistric in Journal

Giganti 10: Feints (Part 2)   3 comments

On to the more specific discussion of particular feints, used to illustrate and reiterate: How to Strike to the Chest with Single Sword – from the Measure and Parity of Swords This illustration shows an artful manner to strike the opponent in the chest while assuring yourself of his weapon so that he may not […]

Posted July 6, 2010 by wistric in Giganti, Italian Rapier

Giganti 9: Feints (part 1)   5 comments

Last week Gawin and I worked through the first half of Giganti’s discussion of feints.  Here I’ll discuss only the first section.  I usually substitute rapid sword movement and body/foot/hand fakes for anything like a formal, structured attempt at a feint, which has left this as a rather gaping hole in my arsenal.  Time to […]

Posted July 2, 2010 by wistric in Giganti, Italian Rapier