Phoenix Society -Sword and Buckler Video-

[Roland Warzecha]

Guys,

thanks for the appreciation.
Made my day.
My wife thinks I am wasting too much time writing forum posts.
So it is great to see that someone finds it useful.

Now back to training!

Roland

P.S.: Send a pic of that t-shirt, Shaunn!

[Sean Karp]

Some people tend to stick at one WMA art and seek mastery, our group is a different in that we work with rapier and longsword as our 'bread and butter' and try to extend into other areas as well for enjoyment's sake. But we do not wish to diminish the art. We'll simply progress slower in that realm I think. We'll see!

There are no dangerous weapons. Only dangerous people.

I too seek to learn multiple styles of fighting to find what is my style. It's like shining a light on an object but using the shadow from multiple angles to see it's shape.

-Sean

[Richard Marsden]

Working on Sword an Buckler.

Roland said, Go Kill Leave. Alas, I ended up doing lots of Go Leave Kill.

The others are doing better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gggKU_PXZ8g&feature=youtu.be
Kyle, one of our newest, and John. Kyle takes a hard one to the throat, but was ok and continued his rampage later.

[Stuart Peers]

Roland's sword and buckler DVD introduces the concept of Strength and Weakness in balance. I think that basic tactics for sword and buckler involve trying to present your strength in balance to your opponent's weakness while avoiding his strength in balance. I notice that when you retreat from an engagement you go straight backwards and this means you're on the back foot facing his strength in balance - not good. If the engagement's not going your way try to 'flee to the side' and not backwards.

You didn't mention which sword and buckler system you're studying. You tend to keep the buckler quite low, almost waist height. I've been looking into MS I.33 and always try to maintain an appropriate forward lean (while keeping my weight evenly distributed between the feet - means the bottom sticks out a little) and I keep the buckler up at shoulder height. This way the lean makes the head the only viable target while the buckler stays high to protect the head.

[Richard Marsden]

Hello!

Yes, my 'leave' needs to be more lateral! Thanks much.

John P will be taking the lead on this and he's focusing on I-33, and so I shall as well. He picked up Roland's video soon after his comments to us. We are working on getting the stances down and proper tools. We have things that 'work', but aren't quite right. Soon to be fixed as supplies arrive. Our cousins, La Fratellanza, are working hard on I-33 and we cross-train.

I also have some work from Tom Leoni's "Complete Renaissance Swordsman" that I try to work with. I know its a much later period, but I can't help but like some of the guards in there!

Thanks once more for taking the time to comment and watch.

[Richard Marsden]

New plastic bucklers, new Alchem steel swords. We're trying our hand at sword and buckler again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP8xkwwvMtc
John and various

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t07H6xgicRQ
Ryan and Tony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSEj2M0Kx9Y
Richard Ryan and Tony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOwdBYEqpwI
Tony and John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iws3A_y1Ss
Richard Sean and Andrew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXldtW5o3_k
Richard John and Ryan

[peterdk]

hi Richard

Just a quick observation, it seems to me that you guy's spend a lot of time with the right foot forward fencing rapier style leaving your right hand and forarm/shoulder head area as prime targets for a quick strike and/or buckler strike.

we spend a lot of time on the foot work aka boxing/thai boxing so that the buckler is constantly in play as a guard or weapon, not sure its right but I33 does show the left foot forward a lot.

best regards and good training

peter
laurentiusgildet east
Denmark

[Richard Marsden]

Thanks, we'll work on that for sure. It's such a danger in rapier and you can see that come forth when we have a go at sword and buckler.

Personally, this system is the trickiest for me. Lots of multi-tasking going on in my head! We'll be sure to post more! Share your own videos if you can. We always like to see what others are doing and we copy them without shame.

[peterdk]

computer just died on me this morning, this is an old flick, but fun none the less.

http://youtu.be/uSU3C0X30oI

i will see if i remember to bring a camera on thuesday at training, to give you a better idea about what we are doing now.

best regards

peter

[Richard Marsden]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECKFwEqUMaQ