Phoenix Society -Longsword Video-

[Richard Marsden]

John steamrolls me, my end play reveals my true colors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IPDYa_kPJY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydRlcgl-sOA
Kyle, behold the weekly progress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crCTVUxD17Y
Ryan is getting his sea-legs still, and this was just the last bit of video of some longer exchanges. We'll show progress as the weeks progress!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3cqH8p6sA8
Mike and I practice something for a bit, then spar.

Mike is from La Fratalanza, and the rest of the lads are Phoenix Society.

[Jesse Eaton]

Rich,

Seeing that you are a fan of longpoint...

About the speaking window.

Doing the speaking window:
stand straight, observe what he does.
Strike in, when he twitches.
About the one who draws himself away from you,
truly I say this to you:
no man can truly defend himself without danger!
If you have understood this correctly,
he can rarely come to blows.

Glosa It is called the "speaking window": when he binds against the sword with a strike or parry, hold strongly with the long edge against his sword with outstretched arms, with the point in front of his face, and stand calmly and observe what he tries to do against you.

That which is called "the little wheel".

When you fence with someone, stretch out your arms far in front of you so that your thumb is above the sword, and turn the sword deftly in front of you with the point going round precisely like a wheel from below out to your left side; and go in this manner against the man. And from there you can change through out to whichever side you would like or bind with him. And when you have bound you can use whatever technique you want—that which you believe will be best—as before. (Notice here that this technique is with the thumb up on the blade)

That which is called the "long point".

Before you come too close to him in Zufechten, set your left foot forwards and hold the point towards him with outstretched arms towards the face or the chest. If he cuts at you from above and down towards your head, wind with the sword against his cut and stab him in the face.

Or if he cuts from above or from below against your sword and tries to knock the point away, change through and stab him on the other side into the opening.

Or if he meets the sword powerfully with the cut, let your sword snap round. Thus you strike in against the head.

Good stuff i use a lot from http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Sigmund_Schining_ein_Ringeck

[Richard Marsden]

Thanks for the information and link. We are using Fiore's work, so his comments on Longpoint are a little more vague. It is a deceptive guard, it knows how to thrust, and how to avoid cuts. (To paraphrase)

In practice we try probing with longpoint and when an opponent tries to cut, we void the sword. (Many ways to do this) and follow up with a thrust, or we cut the hand that is exposed.

Something else we try is to use longpoint to ease into a bind. Soon as swords are crossed at the tips, there are some things we can do even though a hard strike didn't lead us to the crossing and even though the crossing isn't as vertical as Fiore shows in his comments on coming to the cross.

Another thing we can do is perform something called an exchange of the points, in which you push their sword aside while stabbing them, or a breaking of the thrust, where you cut into the middle of their sword, forcing it to the ground and follow up with a false-edge cut under the beard. If the opponent does not have a beard, we put one on them to make the play work.

Thanks for your links!

[Richard Marsden]

Our Latest How To!

Fiore Italian Longsword

Raised Heel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGn5bPnu2xk&feature=related

Iron Door
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6IulylMLE

Woman's Guard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iS2mOJZmig
Variants of Woman's Guard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofefaQbRWy0

Long, Two-Horned, and Short
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZRfu5rp1Ao

Boar's Tooth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ol3rgI3dKU

Long Lying Tail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_zxGyE2Myw

Window
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2rQL5bUhAY

Crossed at the Tips (The cut and thrust solution)
Crossed at the Middle (The cut and thrust solution)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea2XNC2HUuI

5th-6th Play from Fiore as well as Close Measure techniques
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Rt1zp524g

[Joey Nitti]

thanks for those Richard and John. They give a Liechtenauer guy like me a good quick glimpse at Dei Liberi's stuff, and I found myself nodding and saying "yep, we do that too" many times during the videos, particularly the one about iron door. Cutting his attack away and then cutting back to his head with the short edge is almost exactly like one of the plays of the krumphau from schrankhut. Not to mention the "exchange of points", which is pretty much the same as the german "absetzen"

Someone should make a table or list that lays out all the parallel or equivalent techniques in the Fiore and Liechtenauer systems, and also point out the different ones.

[Richard Marsden]

There is some lengthy debate on this.

Here is MY take, so remember it's just me.

Fiore knew many methods and went to many places to learn them. He wrote down only some of what he learned. He wrote down the quickest and safest (in his mind) techniques.

So, when you look at other Masters I think nearly everything Fiore does, somehow crosses over. Differences may be subtle. Two batters don't hold their bat the same way, they are both playing baseball though and both want to hit the ball. They have different coaches.

We hope the videos help and we'll make more and clean up some as needed.

[Joey Nitti]

There is some lengthy debate on this.

Here is MY take, so remember it's just me.

ah of course, always important to keep that in mind.


question: With your typical fendente that you do from woman's guard on the right, you do the little step sideways with the left foot, and then a pass with the right with the cut. How do you deal with the fact that that little step with the left is kind of giving the opponent a tempo to react before you even start the cut? I'm sure I'm probably just missing something that is blatantly obvious to you guys.

just for reference, the way we (our group) does the typical oberhau from vom tag on the right is to begin the cut before stepping, and almost let the sword lead us or pull us into a pass of the right foot.

[Richard Marsden]

At speed we want to get things as quick as possible, so we try to get things done simultaneously. The foot shoots left, the body unwinds, (so you're covered if they attack into you), and then pass while cutting (if possible). If done correctly, the shift of the lead foot left can be done fairly quickly!

The tight angle of Fiore's cuts (teeth to knee) and the drifting left and then passing helps make the cut quick and come from a favorable direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV7udyXfoAQ
Check out 14 to 17 seconds to see it in action. Not perfect, but you'll get the idea of what we're going for. Compare John's action which is more like Vom Tag oberhau to mine which is more like Posta di Donna fendente.

[Joey Nitti]

right. makes sense. nuff said

[Richard Marsden]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJBepo3vmwg

Kyle tests out his new Albion steel against Richard. Music added to cancel out the sound of the Girl Scouts of America... all of them.... shrieking at once over and over.