Two Years After

It has been a while since my last post about my fencing epiphany and I thought it was high time that I updated you all (my five subscribers) on my adventures in swordplay.

For the most part, I have been concentrating on the French foil since 1998. I have occasionally dabbled in the use of other weapons, mostly the epée and saber and on rare occasions, the rapier.

Since my last post I have still concentrated mostly on the foil. That being the weapon most widely used at our fencing club. One thing I have tried to do was to travel around to other schools and clubs and cross swords with as many different fencers as I could. My travels took me to the other end of Missouri to Trovare Di Spada In St Louis where David Achilleus was gracious enough to fence with me for a while. Later on that same day I visited The Baited Blade, in St Charles MO, and met some wonderful people there, including Fencing Master Robert Mc Pherson and his protégé Emily Moore (who incidentally had studied under Maitre d'Arms Nick Evangelista, my own fencing master).

Later on that year, at White Hart Renaissance Faire I would fence with members of Five Rings Fencing out of Kansas City, including Fencing Master Mark Wickersham and several of his students. A year later, I would fence again with members of Five Rings Fencing, only I would play with rapiers (something I do not often do). Over a two week period I fenced three rapier bouts and I was trounced in the first two. What can I say? the rapier is not my favorite of arms. However I was able to prevail in the last encounter through careful observation of my opponent, who was tall, slender and left-handed. Remembering techniques I learned from Maestro William Franz, so many years ago I delivered a passatta sotto and finished the bout to everyone's surprise (see photo).

The passatta sotto is a maneuver where a fencer extends his or her point into an oncoming opponent while placing the left hand on the ground and simultaneously extends the rear leg into the lunge position, lowering the body so it ducks beneath the opponents thrust. A later version of this maneuver omitted the placing of the left hand on the ground and simply extended the arm backward into a type of reverse lunge.

Now this may seem like bragging, but my point in bringing this up is no so much that I had defeated an opponent who was younger, stronger, faster and more limber than I was, but that I had recognized an opportunity to use a very unique and risky maneuver that very often does not work in most fencing situations. To the casual observer, I pulled this trick out of my hat and won in a spectacular manner, but what was not visible to the masses (okay, the twenty spectators that were watching) was the many times in the past I had tried this very same maneuver and gotten stabbed for my trouble. Not seen were the countless hours of practice perfecting the move that would so often fail me. Had I lived in an earlier time, I might have borne scars from my failed attempts at the passatta sotto, that is, if I had lived through the experiences. I am fortunate that we live in such an age where experimentation can be done with the sword so that mastery can be achieved at a lesser cost to life and limb.

The real trick to using the passatta sotto was knowing when to use it. My opponent was at least six feet tall, he was left-handed and was attacking high to my outside line. Had I not been paying attention to what he was doing I might have just as easily eaten his blade.

A New Awakening

I will never forget the first time that I really "fenced" against an opponent.  It was about a year ago in a club in New York City called Hudson River Fencing.  Now if you read my last blog you will know that I have been studying fencing since I was 15, so you are probably wondering what the heck I am talking about?  Well when i say I studied the sword I meant that I practiced and did all the moves that my various teachers taught me, then I tried to execute them out on the fencing strip.  Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't.  

But it was only when I was physically worn out and forced to observe what my opponent was doing was when I was able to truly 'fence', to apply reason to a problem and solve it.  My vigor was gone, my joints ached, I was out of breath and the only thing left for me to do was relax and observe and act according to what I had seen my opponent doing.  When he attacked and i parried and riposted, deceived his parry.  When I attacked and he parried I watched to see if it was a lateral or circular parry and hit him with a one-two or a double' depending on what the situation warranted.  After 22 years I had finally begun to really fence.

Before then my approach to swordplay was mostly formulaic.  What I mean is that I would have a pre-conceived notion of what I was going to try on my opponent and then I would either do it successfully or not resulting in me touching or being touched.  What took me twenty two years to figure out was that you needed to watch your opponent and probe his defenses. then when you have determined what their response will be you must launch an attach that they won't expect or be able to counter.  They key is to watch what your opponent is doing.  Don't just go out there with some maneuver pre-planned hope that it works.  

One other really important thing to keep in mind is that you must relax and conserve your strength.  I realize that relaxing while in the midst of a fight is not easy but when your mind is calm, you are in a better state to deal with the stress of the encounter.  Once you have your ind and body at ease you can execute your movements more effectively.  Speed doesn't become an issue anymore as you can deal with a faster opponent by using distance and timing.  Fast, aggressive fencers used to scare me and I think that is part of their effectiveness.  Sudden, and frequent attacks create an air of ferocity but if you are observant and you have mastered the basic attacks and parries you can easily defeat a faster opponent.  Fencers who rely on speed and strength often don't have much in the way of technique, the very few who have done their homework and learned multiple attacks and defenses and good form are more effective but there still exists a weakness in that they have rarely met anyone who could counter their attacks.  When you are able to defeat most fencers with a few simple moves then there is rarely any need to improve yourself.  Such fencers can be overcome once their initial barrage is withstood.  Also, when a person moves fast, he or she often sacrifices accuracy.  It is better to move with purpose than with speed.

Why Fencing?

Greetings dear reader:

This is a blog about fencing.  Particularly my own experiences with fencing.  Ever since I was a young boy I have been fascinated with swords.  My earliest recollection of a sword and swordplay was from the Disney animated movie Sleeping Beauty where the Prince slew a dragon using his sword.  I don't remember much else from that movie.  I certainly didn't care much for the rest of the story, me being a boy and thinking that girls were icky at the time.  That part where he kisses the princess and they live happily ever after, went right by me without notice.  My only thoughts were of swords and killing dragons.  Later on in my childhood I made wooden swords and played with them.  I made armor out of cardboard too.  Let me warn you that cardboard doesn't absorb kinetic energy very well but if you paint it it can look pretty impressive.

My first real experience with a sword was when I was fifteen.  I was walking past a house in my neighborhood and in the yard I saw a man giving a fencing lesson to a student.  I forget what weapon it was.  But I stood enraptured, watching the event and after what seemed like forever the man called me over.  He introduced himself and ased if I wanted to take fencing lessons from him.  I enthusiastically said "YES!" and so he became my first fencing teacher.  My life would never be the same.

A week later I was standing before him with a saber in my hand and a mask on my face.  The mask was a bit uncomfortable at first, but I quickly got used to it.  In retrospect, I realize that I should have learned the foil first.  My teacher Will, did in fact try to give me a foil lesson, but due to a medical condition he was unable to hold a foil and direct its point.  So saber would be my weapon of choice for a while.

My lessons lasted until the end of the summer whereupon he moved and left no forwarding number.  You see, Will was a tragic figure he was just recently out of a divorce and his body wracked with complications that diabetes had inflicted upon him.  So when he vacated that house, keeping in touch with some fifteen year old kid was probably the last thing on his mind.  I never forgot him though and years later I re-connected with him.  There would be more lessons of course from him and other teachers of the sword.  Some great and some not so great.  But since my first lesson with Will, I knew that I wanted more than anything else in the world to master the sword.