Getting Started in Bolognese Swordsmanship

[Stewart Sackett]

So, in the case of the sword alone does the sword side (right foot) lead or is the left footed stance maintained as the default?

[Steven Reich]

So, in the case of the sword alone does the sword side (right foot) lead or is the left footed stance maintained as the default?

In general, the Bolognese prefer to use (but not exclusively) right foot forward guards with the sword-alone. A look at Dall'Agocchie's techniques for sword-alone will give some ideas as to the preferences--i.e. he uses left-foot-forward guards, but seems to concentrate on the right-foot-forward guards in that he tends to give more actions for them. OTOH, in Manciolino, all of the actions for sword-alone are from Porta di Ferro Stretta (i.e. right foot forward). The Anonimo Bolognese gives actions for right and left foot forward guards, although I think that it might favor the former somewhat.

In general, if someone asked me for advice on how to "fight sword-alone" in the style of the Bolognese, I'd say to favor right-foot-forward guards, especially Porta di Ferro Stretta (or Porta di Ferro Larga if you wish to make a nice big invitation to induce your opponent to attack first). Then, I'd relegate the left-foot-forward guards for situations where you end up left-foot-forward as the result of the end of an exchange or where you wish to present a different tactical challenge to your opponent. Obviously, this is sort of a simplification, but I don't think it would be totally "wrong" or against the underlying philosophy of the system.

As a point of interest, it is worth looking at a contemporary to the Bolognese--Francesco Altoni, whose manuscript dates from the first half of the 1500s. In this work, Altoni refers to every position with the right foot forward as a 'guard' (guardia) and every position with the left foot forward as an 'assault' (assalto), because (he says), a guard is a defensive position and an assault is a position in which to attack your opponent. In general, all of Altoni's positions (i.e. guards and assaults) are with the point in presence.

Steve

[Keith P. Myers]

Hey Guys!

Reviving an old thread...for the third time? I'm getting back to doing some Bolognese work now that I live closer to Steve Reich and can do some quality training. I went back and read what I originally wrote on this thread over a year and half ago and thought...hell yeah! It's all still true!

I recently invested in A & A's Sidesword trainer. It works great and I really like it! Definitely one of the best choices for Bolognese Sidesword!

http://www.armor.com/rapier219.html

This is new from Darkwood Armoury and designed for Destreza style rapier practice, but it looks like it would also make a great sidesword trainer for Bolognese or Meyer and it is a bit less expensive:


http://www.darkwoodarmory.com/index.php ... cts_id=366

I'm going to get one of these for practicing Sword & Rotella:

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... und+Shield

I recently purchased one of Christian Darce's Montante/Spadone trainers to work with, but I see he has a new website up and I don't find them! I'm sure he would make you one if you asked!

Don't the road a bit I plan to get one of these beauties from A & A:

http://www.armor.com/train233.html

This is good stuff!

[Richard Marsden]

Post vids, for I am a visual creature and love to see all this in action.

[Keith P. Myers]

Post vids, for I am a visual creature and love to see all this in action.

Ask and ye shall receive!

From Steve Reich's website:

http://www.nova-assalto.com/?page_id=1570

Illka has a ton of stuff on his video page:

http://vimeo.com/marozzo

[JohnPatterson]

thanks for sharing that Keith I hadn't seen that before