Posts: 226 Location: Hobart, Australia
Fri 22 Dec, 2006 5:37 pm
Re: I think I see.
| Mike West wrote: |
So while you are using a real rapier, with bated blade, and are acting as if you're fighting for real, you pull the rapier out of the thrust at the last moment, before you strike, or without that much force that their protective gear cannot defend against?
The speed of the thrust may be a full speed, but the attack ends before you make serious contact? |
Dear Mike,
Basically yes, though I don't pull the rapier out of the thrust, just land my thrusts (and mainly cuts as I do far more cutting play than rapier) with the amount of force I deem appropriate. When I teach students to cut properly I get them to hit other students. This has the benefit of teaching them control and of getting them used to being hit. It's hard to explain the exact mechanics in words rather than actions, but basically you redirect the energy you've generated to get the speed, around your opponent. Pulling implies a direct counterforce to stop the attack and this is 1) very hard, 2) damaging to your joints and 3) not very effective.
And speed is overrated in fencing. It is a useful attribute but unless it's coupled with good timing it's not as useful as it could be. I often hit fast people by being slow and getting them to quickly put their sword in the wrong place.
And yes, rapier blades are not inflexible iron bars, but they don't sag under their own weight as I have seen some rapier simulators do. The distal taper on most rapier blades is such that they are very stiff for about two thirds of their length and increasingly flexible for the remaining third. Like a modern fencing foil, they should bend in the foible. If your blade bends in the middle when you hit something then it will be hard to do good rapier fencing.
And John O'Meara is good, isn't he?
Cheers
Stephen
Posts: 450 Location: Montreal,Canada
Sat 23 Dec, 2006 7:44 am
Hallo Stephen,
I was wondering, after reading your comments about speed, how your teaching deals with another problem in modern fencing, which is distance. In the age of electrical signals, and organisations which tolerate only the lightest touch, I have always thought that we are out of whack with the distance required to have a blade properly incapacitate the adversary.
Now I can understand that this problem would not arise with the cut techniques as the area of the blade required to be effective is the same, however a thrust which ends in the first half centimetre of the clothes I'm wearing, though perfectly valid in modern fencing and different game systems I have known (SCA and other groups), would not inflict the damage required to stop an opponent from continuing his action against me, putting the overextended fencer at a distinct disadvantage with regards to handling his rapier with any authority. Now I'm aware of the redoublement, which I mention in case some of our friends would think that I am not, but this doesn't really address the issue, the issue being the true distance of a proper thrust, which substantially modifies one's obligation to control the adversary's blade, or pass under or besides it, when going in for the thrust.
I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter as I certainly do agree that rapiers, which come in a variety of blade configurations, would not flex where modern equipment does. I have yet to see a rapier effect a beautiful arc as a fencing epee blade will do on occasion...
Merry Xmas to you and yours, and all our Commonwealth friends down under,
Jean-Carle
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