Sliding Steps and the Nine Hand and Blade Positions

So I was sick yesterday, which meant I couldn't go to practice. It was terribly sad. As such, I wish to organize some thoughts for next practice. These are several concepts I have come to understand from Sebastien Romagnan's Destreza text. I probably don't understand them as well as I could, but learning is the process of refining understanding. An important step in refinement, for me, is writing things down. As such, I have written them here.

As well, some of these concepts seem like they would be interesting and useful to people.

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Destreza has a particular type of sliding step. The front foot takes a step forwards similar to a lunge. The back foot comes up to meet it, and then the back foot goes back out. The two feet meeting allows one to gain a couple more inches of reach, without over-extending and falling forwards. The back foot does not touch the ground, but instead continues elsewhere. As well, the instant of feet meeting allows you to decide whether your back foot continues into a passing step or returns out of measure.

The red circle is you, the black circles are where your feet go.

This is in the order specified by the green numbers.

The slide really does create additional reach. It's pretty sweet. I want to start integrating it into my standard Italian-ish game. For some time I actually did by accident, because I was preparing a second lunge in order to catch people who reacted by moving backwards quickly. I am unsure why I stopped - perhaps because passing steps took the theoretical place that preparing a redouble took? Either way, it's time to introduce this into my game.

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Secondly, I think I have come to understand better the idea of Spanish-style bladework. As described by Romagnan (whose book I suggest you acquire if you find these concepts interesting), there are a set of nine positions and a set of three distances-from-the-center. They end up forming three cylinders  (or cones, depending on how you think of it) - a two-foot-diameter one, a four-foot-diameter one, and a six-foot-diameter one. I don't personally believe that the number of feet is exact here. It seems like it would suffice it to say that there is the small, medium, and large cylinder/cone/pyramid/whatever shape you want to call it.

Your hand can be in any of these positions, and the tip of your sword can be in any of these positions. This image is to be imagined as looking at your opponent. The 1 position is to be imagined as as having your arm extended straight at them, with no bend in your elbow and your sword pointing outwards. The 2 position is your tip or hand being level with or in line with their head.

Wheeeeee swords.

If nothing else, this is a useful framework for defining blade positions. It lets you understand where you are in relation to your opponent's weapon - an understanding sorely lacking in the traditional Italian one-two-three-four shorthand we generally use. Additionally, the position of your top quillon is defined in the same way.

As an example, Capoferro's guard in third places your hand at 6, your tip at either 1 or 2, and your top quillon at 2. Probably in the 4-foot cylinder/circle/pyramid.

Giganti's bastard guard for the outside line in terza-quarta places your hand at either 5 or 6, and your tip at 9. Also your top quillon in 9.

It would be a super-interesting exercise to annotate an Italian manual with this notation.

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This becomes weird when there is a significant height difference. As I understand things, this is what a side-view of two people of radically different height doing late-period Destreza would look like.

That short figure's leg-to-torso ratio is way different from what I intended there.

I could also be completely wrong about this.

Note that the cylinders are tilted, such that each fighter's 1 line (not drawn - it goes along their arms) is pointing at the other's shoulder. This is all well and good when it's another Diestro that you're fighting. But extending your arm like that just gives your opponent your tip, especially if you have a long sword. Even if you attempt an atajo. This is something I have experienced in drilling at home.

Several throwaway mentions of lowering your arm occur in various texts. For example, if I remember correctly, Thibault advises that you lower your arm if you are fighting in constricted circumstances, such as in a tunnel or some such. So I wonder if it would be useful to consider the 1-line to connect your respective elbows, rather than your shoulders. This would mean we could do things in two ways. We can either tilt down from our shoulders or we can lower our elbow to the same level as our opponent's elbow.

An example of lowering from the shoulder, to create a line between elbows.

I totally forgot to label the 2 and 6 lines.

Also I drew the Italian's sword.

Note that the cylinders are angled downwards from the Diestro, and the Italian's hand is on the inner 6 line.

...the Diestro's hand is supposed to be on the 1 line, not the inner 6 line.

An example of lowering from the elbow.

I drew the Italian's sword. It seems much less complex than the above.

Note that the cylinders are straight and parallel to the ground, here.

Perhaps neither of these is correct, but I have had trouble making the Destreza things work on Italians in the past, so I am interested to try these things. It is fully possible that the answer exists in Romagnan's book and I missed it. Or even that it is in another book that I have read fully or partially, and I just missed it. Or perhaps it's one of those ill-explored territories in fencing.

This doesn't at all take into account the fact that the ideal Atajo is accomplished with a 60º/120º angle between the blades.

This is a very abstract image of an arm, a hand, and a sword from each person.

The person on the right is taking the sword of the person on the left in an atajo.

But yeah. It's hard to take your opponent's sword in an atajo if they are already at an angle like Italian guards tend to be.

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So, in summation, there are a few things that I want to try on Thursday at practice.

• Sliding steps to gain extra range and to be able to move more freely.
• Different guards against Italians, to understand how Destreza concepts can be used in an Italian fight.
• Trying to understand Destreza concepts better in general.

Yay violence! I hope that this entry was educational, or at least interesting. This post does not cover nearly all of the things in Sebastien Romagnan's book. It only covers the things I am finding most interesting at this current moment in time. Have good fencing, everybody~~~!