[ Posted by Janka
Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:21:43 GMT ]
This plate rambles a lot, and I have cut it down a bit. It reads like it was put in as an oversight, and that he was utterly excited about the parry.
I just gotta show you this utterly cool parry! It defends your head, which is really such a useful part of the body to have.
So he is in prima or whatever. You are in quinta(1). Raise your arm and turn to quarta and stepping forward stringere him on the inside.
If he seeks to disengage under your sword and to cut, turn your hand to seconda and join it with the dagger towards the rear of the forte of your sword, like the figure shows.
From there, you can strike safely in two ways: thrust to the face, or cut to the leg.
(1) If I recall correctly, this is the only place apart from the definition pictures where numbers higher than four are actually used. Quinta is shown on plate 4 as a position holding the sword and dagger together and back.
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[ Posted by Janka
Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:13:28 GMT ]
So, we're back to the sword and dagger stuff, but with a twist. Why this one particular configuration is the one shown of the stuff against a left-hander I have no idea, again.
Note that the adversary is left-handed.
He is in quarta, with his arm extended. Stringere him on on (his) inside in terza, with your dagger high.
If he disengages to strike you in seconda, you can strike him in three ways.
One. You could just lower your dagger, parry his sword, and strike him with a stramazzone riverso cut in the face (shown).
Two. You could parry similarly and strike him in seconda in the chest (shown as an alternative).
Three. You could also strike him in quarta during his disenge with your sword alone, and this would in fact be the best option(1).
(1) Not that he bothers to say why this would be the best option, but I speculate that 1) it is fastest, and 2) places you well on the outside of his sword, with your dagger very clearly ready to threaten him, which seems clearly a superior place to be in case you screw it up, compared to the position shown.
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[ Posted by Janka
Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:35:15 GMT ]
I think I might actually like this cape stuff; I have discovered in myself a tendency to hand-parry that could use some padding, but is not really "technical" enough to work with a dagger in the hand.
There's the previous and this plate about the cape stuff in the book. I have no idea why of all things did he decide to explain 1) the cuts, and 2) a counter-disengage from quarta. But that's now just how it is.
He is in quarta, his sword extended on a high line.
Stingere in quarta, on the inside. Appear really committed in the stringere, and place your cape arm under your forte.
He will want to disengage to thrust. When he does, parry upwards and to your left with the cape, and counter-disengage, remaining in quarta, and strike him in the face.
Or in wherever else that feels convenient, really.
I skipped here the "this picture shows blah blah" redundancy and only used it as support for how to interpret the rest. One day (likely when I am retired or something) I would like to for real play the "copyeditor for CF" and try and present all his material in a way that I feel it would have presented by someone who can actually write.
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[ Posted by Janka
Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:51:55 GMT ]
And now for something completely... similar.
How to use sword and cape.
To get the cape to your left hand do as follows. Let it fall off your right shoulder, on to your left arm, as far as about to the middle of the arm. Then wrap your left hand to the outside of it and envelop the arm in the cape while you take terza, or whatever guard you like.
Basically the cape works more or less like a dagger, except when it doesn't. Main difference is a cape can be cut or stabbed through while obviously a dagger can't.
Against cuts you can defend with a cape in many ways.
For example if you are in terza and he throws a mandritto at your head, step forward with your left foot, and parry against the forte of his sword with your cape and thrust him in the chest.
Also you could parry that mandritto in prima and accompany that parry with the left arm with the cape. If you on the same tempo bring your left foot close to your right, you can then advance with the right and hit him with a mandritto of your own.
Or if he tries to cut you in the leg, mandritto or riverso, you pull back that leg and cut him in his arm (mandritto if he tried a riverso and the other way round.
Whatever, anyway, the point is that with a cape you can and should follow the sword into a parry and then hold the sword with the cape and that'll give you better room to strike.
I'll show next how to gain his sword from the inside with sword and cape.
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[ Posted by Janka
Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:38:24 GMT ]
Once more, with a feeling!
A strike in the chest in quarta between the weapons. This works because the adversary is in a wide guard and lets his enemy arrive to measure.
He is in quarta with his arm withdrawn, and his dagger straight high and wide and the dagger arm extended.
Take an extended terza, crossing your dagger in front of your chest. Then approach his dagger from outside.
If he remains in his guard until you get to measure, once the point of your sword is even with his dagger, suddenly disengage over the dagger and strike him in quarta.
Moral of the story: don't just stand there, you idiot.
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[ Posted by Janka
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:22:28 GMT ]
This picture shows a strike in seconda over the adversary's dagger while he passes to strike(1).
He is in quarta with her sword withdrawn and low, and his dagger high and extended wide.
You will take quarta with your sword extended and your dagger high. Yes, I know this sounds stupid, but bear with me, it'll make more sense in just a moment.
You see, he will likely move with a pass to parry your sword from the high line downwards, and to strike you in seconda.
Draw your right leg in and parry his sword downward, towards your right side, under your right arm. You can then disengage your sword over his dagger and strike him in seconda, as shown(2).
(1) Sort of same as the previous, only the other side.
(2) This is obviously a two-tempi action - you draw your right leg back to parry, and the picture shows a lunge on the attack. It is less clear to me and from the translation if the disengage over the dagger needs to happen on the parry, or on the beginning of the attack, though. Probably depends on the timing of the adversary, too.
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[ Posted by Janka
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:36:13 GMT ]
Here we go again.
I see less and less pattern now that I go on with these. It's just "see where he strikes, parry with the dagger, disengage and strike" from various starting positions. I fail to see what is the crucial difference between most of the plates (I assume there is one). Also bored, as having no intent really to put this into actual use in the foreseeable future.
This picture shows a strike in quarta under the adversary's dagger, into the chest, while he is stepping forward to strike in seconda.
He's in low terza, his dagger wherever.
Go into high terza opposite of him and cross your dagger across your forte.
He might now approach with a pass to strike you in seconda over your dagger, attempting to parry across with his dagger(1).
Parry his blow, draw back your right leg, disengage under his dagger, and lunge well forward to strike in quarta (see picture).
(1) I put "he might now" here, not "when he", because it seems to me he could do some other stuff too. I realize it's the same for every plate, and to be honest it's been bugging me for some time, but only now it started to get so painfully obvious that the "when he does this or that" more or less means "should he do this or that, you can then" that I actually had to switch... Of course, some actions are more likely than others, but none are guaranteed.
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[ Posted by Janka
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:44:02 GMT ]
Will this stuff will never end?
Here we see a strike in quarta to the throat that requires very little actual movement. It's done to a disengage from the sword and an attempt to parry by the adversary.
He's in high terza with his dagger crossed at the beginning of the forte of his sword.
Stingere in terza on the outside and hold your dagger high.
When he disengages under your sword, attempting to parry your sword with his dagger, you attack. Bring your dagger from high to low towards your left side to parry his sword, and disengage your sword under his dagger, and strike him. These all actions from you need to happen on the same tempo.
The picture shows an attack in quarta to the face, but really, just strike him wherever seems convenient, it's not like it matters much here.
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[ Posted by Janka
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:10:36 GMT ]
In this picture we see a strike to the chest with a pass, in falso from down to up, between the weapons. You need to press the weapons together well for this to work.
The opponent is in terza with both weapons extended on an oblique line, so that the point of his sword is aimed at your right shoulder, and the point of his dagger to your left shoulder.
Also take a terza, with the point of your sword low, but your dagger on a high line, bending your body to the left.
When he approaches (it does not matter much why he does this, it'll work in any case), on the tempo of his advance pass with your left foot toward his right side, doing one of the following:
1) parry with the dagger over your right arm, and thrust him from down to up between his weapons, or
2) disengage over his sword, and press his sword with both weapons (shown), and strike him in terza. Note that this strike should land on the same tempo with your pass.
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[ Posted by Janka
Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:24:41 GMT ]
Since it is obvious to anyone who isn't both blind and stupid that the best thing I can do for my swordsmanship is to acquire some fitness, I have been working towards that.
I am happy to declare that I can do one honest-to-god all-the-way-down-and-all-the-way-up "narrow" push-up keeping my elbows at my side, and a bunch of more in a wider position and/or fudging a little (but no more than anybody else) here and there. I can also do other stuff that I could not three months ago, but I'll list that one because it is the one I am most proud of. (People who do fifty before breakfast can STFU. Progress is what matters, no?)
There's a downside, though: I am constantly hungry. Not hungry as in "mmm, I think I'll have some chocolate" or "could eat something if something magically appeared but not hungry enough to bother making something", nor hungry as in craving some particular thing, or hungry as in vaguely feeling like eating, as if something is missing from the diet. No, hungry as in hungry. And constantly as in "I had a large pizza an hour ago, so yes, a steak and salad sounds like a really good idea".
It's probably good for me, but for gods' sake, I do wish there was a food source on campus other than the Unicafes and the student associations' stacks of instant noodles and microwave pizza.
A picture of a strike in seconda over the dagger from a feint, and a parry with the dagger from above to below the right arm.
You are in terza or quarta, with your swordarm withdrawn and your dagger at your wrist.
He is in quarta with his swordarm withdrawn and his dagger extended on a high line.
Feint under his dagger and raise your own dagger. He will seek to parry your feint with a downwards motion towards his left side.
On that same tempo, you will disengage over his dagger and parry his sword. This parry goes under your right arm, pushing his sword further inside (see picture).
Your strike from the disengage will be in seconda, over his dagger (shown).
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