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I primarily worked on two things - Fabris Rule for Single Rapier #4, and keeping my hilt at the same height as my opponent's hilt until I actually want to take an action. I will discuss both in detail here.
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I have here a footwork chart for how I have been executing Fabris Rule for Single Rapier #4. The reason for this chart is to show that you can, with slight preparation, go to either side from any foot-position. In the description of the rule, Fabris says you should go to the direction of your back foot, but I have found that sometimes I want to go a specific direction, such as when I am fighting single against case.
I fear that this isn't as legible as I had expected it would be.
As is my tradition, we shall go through this in the form of bullet-points.
- Begin in a position with your right foot forward. You should be outside of your opponent's lunge measure. You should not be in a specific guard yet as per Fabris Rule for Single Rapier #3, but you should be prepared to parry if your opponent performs a lunge with a passing step.
- If you wish to move to the right, step your back foot forward to the position marked "1R". You should adopt a guard with your blade and hilt parallel to the ground, close below their sword. In this step, you are entering Misura Larga, which should be their lunge measure.
- Take a step with your right foot to the position marked "2R". You should lift your tip, keeping your hilt at the same height from the ground such that your blade will cross theirs. You should lean to the right, such that if your opponent keeps their sword still, your sword will block them from attacking you.
- As you do the above step, you should be noting which side of your sword your opponent's sword ends up on.
- If your opponent's sword ends up on the left of your sword, continue leaning to the right and take a step with your left foot to the position marked "AR". You will maintain the crossing of your sword with theirs and stab them. This will require a bit of an awkward contortion of your torso, but it is doable.
- If your opponent's sword ends up on the right of your sword, that means that they have turned to follow your body. You should use their rotation against them, by reversing the direction to which you are leaning. Take a step with your left foot to the position marked "BR" and lean to the left, switching your sword to the right side of your body to block their sword out. Stab them.
- If you wish to move to the left, step your front foot forward to the position marked "1L". As above, you should adopt a guard.
- Take a step with your left foot to the position marked "2L". You should lift your tip as above, but here you will be leaning left rather than right as described above.
- As above, note as soon as possible which side of your sword they end up on.
- If your opponent's sword ends up to the right of your sword, continue leaning left and step with your right foot to the position marked "AL". Stab them, maintaining the gaining of their blade.
- If your opponent's sword ends up to the left of your sword, that means they are following your body and you should use that against them. Lean right and step with your right foot to the position marked "BL". Move your sword to the left side of your body to protect yourself even more and stab them.
Some additional notes:
- This seems to work best for me when my blade is shorter than my opponent's blade.
- When using this with single against case, life is more difficult. I find myself using my off-hand quite a bit. Additionally, I find myself not switching my blade to the other side of my body on the steps to "BR" and "BL", relying on my voiding lean and my off-hand to defend myself. The step to "BL" is particularly difficult, and sometimes I do find myself switching the side of my body that my blade is on, relying solely on my off-hand to defend myself against their case blade.
- I find myself stepping toward whichever blade is in more of an "Italian" hilt-low, tip-high position. I wonder if this is necessary. It seems to work best.
- I also have had trouble when my opponent keeps more of a parallel-to-the-ground guard. I suppose that the Fabris solution here would be to go under their tip while applying opposition with my sword.
That's that. I want to continue trying this rule against case fighters. It seems to work acceptably, though I do wonder if it's just the fact that I am willing to put more quickness into my movement which is gaining me victory. I also wonder how this would go against a case fighter who wanted to be more aggressive than the ones I have been working against.
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I also worked with keeping my hilt at the same height as my opponent's hilt. It was interesting.
The idea behind this is vaguely Spanish-inspired. In theory, if my sword is at the same height as theirs, then I should be able to counter any motion of the wrist with one of my own. Similarly, I should be able to counter any motion of the hand by making one of my own.
What do I mean by this? Well, let me explain.
The Spanish have the idea of "breaking symmetry". That is, you and your opponent will have the same stance until one or the other of you "breaks symmetry" in a way that ideally gives you an advantage. This means positioning your sword to the left, right, above, or below your opponent's sword, perhaps with some sort of a push.
It is certainly the case that being above or below your opponent's sword can create opportunities for you to attack. If your hilt is significantly lower than your opponent's hilt, you might be able to thrust in at their gut in a way that denies them the opportunity to parry with the strong of their blade.
Similarly, moving your hilt above theirs creates an opportunity to strike them such that geometry denies them the opportunity to parry with the strong of their blade before you touch them. This is the idea behind thrusting in Prima in the Italian school - unless they physically move backwards, they cannot apply their strong to your weak.
Keeping my hilt at the same height as theirs makes it much easier to deny them these opportunities to break symmetry. Especially against people who throw sniping shots, it means that I can foil these attacks with a quick motion of my wrist, and perhaps a small movement of my hand. Essentially, it is a compromise that allows me to be ready for everything.
Of course, this only applies at long measure. When we get to short measure, all of these assumptions go out the window because you don't have time to react any more. This creates a flowchart something like this:
- Maintain hilt at the same height as theirs in misura larga.
- Somehow establish an advantage.
- Immediately move into misura stretta, breaking symmetry.
- Lift hand, lower hand, something.
- Stab them using the advantage created by broken symmetry.
There are a number of other assumptions to question here, about how to make this work. For example, perhaps the height shouldn't be dictated by the distance from the ground. Perhaps it should be dictated by the line between your shoulder and their shoulder, since one or the other of you might be larger, and thus have more target area to defend. And do you really want to go completely down toward the ground if your opponent does?
I personally think that you shouldn't move your hilt beyond your presence, but that is just my current intuition. We'll see.
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Things I want to work on:
- Fabris Rule for Single Rapier #5, in which you aim your tip at their hilt, and then bend your arm at the elbow as you enter long measure, in order to create an advantageous crossing of blades.
- More thought about the things outlined in this post.
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YAY SWORDS.
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