I have been working my short-blade Destreza game. Essentially, I've taken the concepts from last post and expanded on them somewhat. The diamond-shaped parries continue to be important, wherein my tip is at one corner of the diamond, and my hand is at another corner of it. From there, I tried to figure out the best ways to attack from that set of eight parrying guards. That's where things got weird.
So, against opponents who have similar reach and are not moving backwards, executing one quarter-rotation around the diamond in the direction of your hand seems to be sufficient. From there, we thrust and then withdraw into the guard we've ended up in.
To further elaborate - if we take this figure from last post.
You can see it as a diamond around our opponent's head and torso. We want our hand to be at one of the corners of the diamond, and our tip to be at one of the corners next to it. So, an example would be hand at the bottom, and tip at the left. This is a good position for keeping your opponent's sword outside of your presence to the lower-left.
If they disengage around your hilt, you would need to adjust, either flipping your tip from the left to the right and keeping your hand in place, or if they are executing a smaller disengage, bring your hilt to the right and put your hilt at the bottom, cutting into their sword and forcing them into motion.
If they try to move up and around your tip, into the upper-left area, you would need to adjust in the opposite direction - You would need to bring your hand to the left corner, and then move your tip to the top corner, likely not losing contact with their blade at any point in this process.
Since it has been pointed out that this is in no way what Viedma was talking about, by someone who is a better academic than I am, I'm going to start using a different notation for this sort of hand position. Given that the transitions tend to go in the direction of the hand relative to the tip, "clockwise" and "counterclockwise" seem like good ways to specify things. This, paired with hand position, results in things like "low clockwise", referring to the position where the hand is low and the tip is to the right. Or "high counter-clockwise", where the hand is at the top of the diamond and the tip is to the right. Or "left clockwise", where the hand is to the left, and the tip is in the bottom corner of the diamond.
One point that bears mention - Transitioning between these guards can be weird. The transition from Right CCW to High CCW or Left CW to High CW can be awkward and difficult. It requires an "uncoiling" of the arm, usually after attacking. There is more detail to these transitions, but I will leave that off for the moment, because it's not actually super useful.
In any case, this is pretty excellent when reach is similar and your opponent is fighting like a Spaniard.
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REACH
When your opponent has more reach than you, they can do several frustrating things. Most of them don't matter, in terms of the above. Taking their blade using the diamond will still take their blade. However, there are two things that people with reach can do which will frustrate these plans.
MOVING BACKWARDS AND ATTACKING
People with more reach gain a lot out of moving backwards and attacking. Given that there is a small zone in which they can theoretically reach you and you cannot reach them, it behooves them to move away from you. As such, it is much more likely that a taller opponent will have some amount of momentum away from you, and you will need to approach them quickly. Frequently, against a taller opponent, I approach in a straight line rather than a circle.
As well, given the backwards movement, it usually means that there will be more time between my initial parry and the eventual stab on one side or the other. So against people with more reach than you, you may need to transition more than the one-or-two steps around the circle necessary to control a less long-reach opponent's blade.
Generally the attacking procedure against someone with similar reach goes like this:
Low CCW => Right CCW => Stab to their stomach under their left arm => Return to Right CCW and exit defensively
Or even this, if they are retreating:
Right CW => Low CW => Left CW => Stab to their stomach under their right arm => Return to right CCW and exit defensively
Against a person with more reach, the second of those would be the default. And, if they are retreating, you might have to go one more guard around the diamond, or two more:
One more:
Right CW => Low CW => Left CW => High CW => Stab or cut to right side of face => Return to High CW and exit defensively
Two more:
High CCW => Left CCW => Low CCW => Right CCW => High CCW => Stab or cut to left side of face => Return to High CCW and exit defensively
In general, it is best to attack to the stomach. Attacking to the stomach will leave you in one of the guards where either your tip or your hilt is low - Low CW, Left CW, Low CCW, or Right CCW. I also prefer to attack to the part of the stomach under their off-side, but I'm not sure if that is actually correct. As such, you should consider the endpoint of your guards, with respect to how long you think pursuit will take.
As such, if your opponent is right-handed (and left-handedness just changes the "best" to "followed closely" and vice versa)...
If you think you can get there in one rotation around the diamond, Low CCW and Right CW are the best guards, followed closely by Left CCW and Low CW.
If you think it will take two rotations around the diamond, Left CCW and High CW are the best guards, followed closely by High CCW and Right CW.
If you think you can get there in three rotations, High CCW and Left CW are the best, followed by Right CCW and Low CW
Four rotations results in a loop. So you start in the position that you would like to end in - Right CCW or Low CW, followed in idealness by Low CCW and Left CW.
The reason this all needs outlined is that you usually can't tell if your opponent is going to move away from you before you start executing a motion. So, you need to get into a place where you can easily take one more rotation around the diamond.
Given that length has already been established as adding one needed rotation, this results in the following:
If you are fencing someone of similar reach, you will most likely need to execute either one or two rotations around the diamond. This results in Right CW and Left CCW being the strongest offensive guards.
If you are fencing someone with more reach, High CW and High CCW end up being the strongest offensive guards for pursuit, if they let you gain their blades from the bottom. Frequently, they will adopt high or low refused guards, which don't allow this.
Sometimes you can fudge more or less - either getting an extra rotation in, or getting one fewer than normally might be necessary due to your opponent moving forward. Without the strategies in the next segment, I would suggest trying to fudge one more rotation against opponents who have reach and keep their swords low - this results in either 3 or 4 rotations, which mean that Right CCW and Left CW are ideal, both of which put your tip low and should cover your low line.
REFUSED GUARDS
If you have similar or less reach than your opponent, a refused guard is generally the thing that happens right before getting stabbed for being off-line. For an opponent with more reach, however, a refused guard can draw you off-guard so they can attack you in unexpected ways. There is, however, a general solution for this problem.
The solutions in the previous section work well when your opponent's sword is still within or near the diamond. However, if they are outside of the diamond, they can wait for you to attempt to gain their blade and disengage in ways that result in you always pursuing their blade. This is suboptimal.
The way that I have been working against this, when I remember to, is by performing a leaning thrust or demi-lunge toward a part of their blade toward the middle, but that I can still get a stronger part of my blade onto. Your blade should be to one side or the other of theirs, depending on things we have not covered yet. Your quillons should be on the diamond-cone or outside of it.
Note here that the lean is, in part, to reduce the size of your defensive diamond, by refusing your stomach and lowering your head, with respect to their shoulder. Kinda like Fabris!
The intention here is to confound the direct route for their blade. If they bend their elbow to try to bring their sword directly on-line with your body, their blade should encounter your quillons, which should leave you safe and able to progress through rotation normally. Or, even better, you may be able to just stab them, keeping their blade on your quillons. If they pull their arm backwards with their shoulder, this should increase the time taken for their attack quite a bit, and does not bear individual consideration.
If they try to push through your blade, you should be able to begin rotation in a clockwise or counter-clockwise manner and reduce this to the previous principle.
If they try to pull backwards to a weaker part of your blade to push through there, you should be able to do an anti-rotation to regain strength. From Right CCW to Low CCW, as an example.
If they do nothing, you can begin a standard rotation.
If they have no pressure against your sword in a way that implies pulling away from your sword, you should immediately execute two rotations around the circle in quick succession. Normally, one rotation would be fine, but the fear here is that they will execute a mid-blade disengage, which a double-rotation will confound in this situation.
The choice in blade placement relies on where you want to go for the attack. If your opponent's blade is below the bottom corner of the diamond and you put your sword to the left of theirs, this means that you will end up in one of Low CCW, Right CCW, or High CCW.
As an example, if your opponent's sword is below the bottom corner of the diamond and you have extended yours and leaned forward such that your blade is touching theirs, to the left of their blade:
Opponent tries to press through your sword => Right CCW => Thrust to stomach under their left arm => Return to Right CCW and exit defensively
But I just glazed right over mid-blade disengages.
MID-BLADE DISENGAGES
Lastly, they can execute a mid-blade disengage. This is a disengage in which their hand and hilt move counter to the motion of their tip, which increases the speed of their sword's movement. It also changes the position of their hilt, which can mean that where you previously had opposition, you suddenly don't any more - frequently a mid-blade disengage will result in their blade briefly being parallel to yours. The sudden break of their wrist also means that their tip pulls back far enough that they can attack around your hilt faster than you can change your blade's position to regain their tip.
The reason that this is a more relevant technique for people with more reach is that a mid-blade disengage draws one's hand away from the center line generally, which puts you in a worse defensive posture. This works for longer-reach folk because they don't have to worry as much about defense, given that they can usually hit you before you can hit them. It also pulls their sword back a tiny bit, for this same reason, meaning that they give up a bit of reach.
A normal disengage would leave their tip about as far out as previously, which would allow you to get "past their tip" or to force their blade outside of your presence. The mid-blade disengage, however, foils this.
The parallel blade position also makes it much harder to gain their sword. If you think in terms of spacial rotation, 90ยบ is the most that you can need to rotate in order to cross your sword between their sword and your body. As well, a mid-blade disengage is frequently executed in counter-tempo, which means that your blade already has momentum in the direction opposite to where you would need to go.
Third, mid-blade disengages are super fast. Super fast.
The most unfortunate part about them is that, for many mid-blade disengages, the point of rotation is inside of the diamond-cone-thing that you are trying to keep their sword out of. This, coupled with the other parts of mid-blade disengages, allows a long-blade-user to penetrate the diamond with impunity.
Unless, of course, you are careful.
If your opponent is a careful sort who attempts to keep their arm within your diamond-cone-thing-of-defense, then most of the stuff up until now won't work, if you enter with extremely decisive intent. The counter here is to approach slowly at first, and then when you get past a critical point to approach with fast intent.
Destreza-ish Counter to Mid-Blade Disengages
There are several ways to do this. The more Destreza-ish way to do this is to consider the circle. When walking around the circle, you can take three steps. In the first, you execute a tiny gain of your opponent's blade. Since you are near the maximum of your opponent's measure, the diamond is tiny at this point, so executing an appropriate gain only requires a small movement from the diameter line.
At that point, they have a few options. They can attempt to execute a disengage, mid-blade or otherwise. Given that your hand and blade only moved a bit, you will be similarly fast when compared to them. This allows you to begin rotation normally.
However, if they execute a mid-blade disengage, you can do something better and faster. A mid-blade disengage requires them to move their hand toward your tip, which gives them a counter-movement of their tip toward your hilt. If you notice this, you can switch the direction around the diamond you are going and strike them. So, if your small gain in in Low CCW, you switch your tip from left to right while keeping your hand near the same position, to enter something between Low CW and Left CW. This should allow you to strike through your opponent's blade in a way that they can't defend against, so long as you make sure to use your blade and quillons to keep their tip outside of the defensive diamond.
If they try to attack through your blade, you likely can either begin rotation, or interpose your quillons such that you are defended by your quillons. This allows you to simply angle your tip in toward them and stab them, likely in the face.
If they try to pull back to a weaker part of your blade, this pulls their tip off-line. Ideally you should be able to execute a lunge and stab them, at this point.
It is good to note that you should be acting on a circle sized according to your opponent's reach, for all of this. Read the next section for more information on that.
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ITALIAN NOTES FOR DISTANCE
This is similar to the Destreza version, but instead of walking the circle, we take little tiny steps forward. So small. About the length of your big toe, and faster than your opponent can react to them.
A useful thing to think of is Alfieri's division of measure. Alfieri has three measures that matter - misura larga, misura perfetta, and misura stretta. These translate to Large Measure, Perfect Measure, and Close Measure.
Large Measure is roughly the place at which you can hit your opponent with a full, deep lunge. It roughly corresponds to being on opposite sides of the Destreza Circle.
Perfect Measure is the place at which you can hit your opponent with a demi-lunge. That is to say, leaning forward, and taking about a foot-length step forward with your front foot, but leaving your back foot in place. It roughly corresponds to the first step around the circle.
Close Measure is the place at which you can hit your opponent by simply leaning and attacking. It roughly corresponds to the second step around the circle.
In general, an attack from Large Measure can be reacted to. An attack from Perfect Measure just barely can't be reacted to, and a thrust from Close Measure is absolutely too fast to react to. This all assumes a clear line from your blade to your opponent.
So, in order to deal with your foe, you need to approach into at the very least your Large Measure, and more likely your Perfect Measure.
In general, you will be trying to advance and maintain a gain of your opponent's blade until you enter Perfect Measure, at which point you attack them. They are required to attack you before then, or lose. I advise the above Spanish-ish actions to defend against the various things that can be done, though Capoferro's responses work well.
In general, the things which seem to work rely on distances. In Capoferro terms, as far as I know:
- Their Large, Perfect, or Close Measure, out of your measure
- They execute a standard disengage to attack
- You respond by parrying appropriately and taking a large step forward.
- They execute a mid-blade disengage
- You re-cover the line, since mid-blade disengages very briefly reduce their measure and you can't attack yet.
- They attempt to yield around your gain of their blade
- You widen your gain and pull back some, taking a very large step forward, likely entering your perfect measure and attacking.
- They attempt to pull their blade back and re-situate it
- You re-cover the line, since pulling back briefly reduces their measure and you can't attack yet.
- Their Large Measure, your large measure
- They execute a standard disengage to attack
- Duo-tempi parry/riposte
- They execute a mid-blade disengage
- Single-tempo parry-riposte, since mid-blade disengages very briefly reduce measure.
- They attempt a yield
- Widen, step forward, prepare to attack
- They attempt to pull back their blade
- Mid-size step forward, maintaining your gain on their blade
- Their perfect or close measure, your large measure
- Same as large/large, but with harder timing
- Their perfect measure, your perfect measure
- They do anything
- Single-tempo parry/riposte
- They attempt a yield
- Voiding attack
One thing I've been thinking about is arcs of approach. The Spanish want you to approach in a circle. Why not in a manner that has you move forward first, then arc to the side as you might enter your opponent's dagger range, in order to stay out of it? HMM.
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NEXT-DAY EDIT
When fighting my dialect of not-Destreza, there are some strategies that I forgot to implement last practice which I need to remember to implement in the future. They are specific strategies that need implemented against longer-reach people, due to the principles of reach inequality. They are:
- Opponent has less reach or equal reach
- For rotations / transports, prepare to go between 0 and 2 steps around the diamond, based on how they move.
- For 0 or 1 steps, get in Low CW or Low CCW
- For 1 or 2 steps, get in Left CCW or Right CW
- Opponent has more reach
- For rotations / transports, prepare to go one more step around the diamond than you otherwise might.
- If they allow it, get in High CW or High CCW and block them out to the top, preparing to attack after 2 or 3 steps around the diamond.
- If not, get in Left CW or Right CCW, preparing to take them 3 steps around or even 4, which is a full circle.
- If they adopt a refused guard outside of the diamond-cone of defense, execute a leaning thrust / demi-lunge toward their blade, making sure to choose which side your blade goes to based on how many steps around the diamond you want to transport them.
- Make sure that your quillons are on or outside of the diamond.
- Try to make sure that a stronger part of your blade is touching a weaker part of their blade.
- Make sure that they can't, in one motion, get their tip to your body. Make sure they need to pull back with at least one of their joints before they thrust, to hit you.
- If they give their blade to your quillons, then use your quillons to push them farther outside of the diamond if you can, and stab them.
- If their blade is not drastically off-line, make sure to come into measure slowly.
- Do it in two steps, so that you can force them to execute their mid-blade disengage in timing that you can counter.
- Just Take Their Blade
- Jump directly into a diamond-based stance like Low CW
- Thrust Toward Their Blade
- Thrust at their blade, profiling yourself to be protected by your quillons outside of the diamond
- Two-Step Actions
- Do a smaller version of the above two techniques, approaching into their Large Measure to the point where you can step to Perfect Measure in one small step
- At that point, do a full version of the above techniques.
- This is to be used in situations where an opponent can execute mid-blade disengages.
- Defensive Parry Techniques
- Reactions to an opponent's actions from neutral in their Large Measure
- Aggressive Parry Techniques
- Proactive techniques to gain the blade from neutral in their Large Measure
- Resulting Positions 1 - Their Large Measure
- A concise classification of the positions that result from the above techniques
- First attacks
- Attacks which take advantage of a flaw in your opponent's guard to hit them from neutral in or as they enter your Large measure
- First Counter-Action attacks
- Attacks which take advantage of an incorrect action from your opponent from neutral in or as they enter your Large measure
- Resulting Positions 2 - Your Large Measure
- A concise classification of the positions that result from attacks in the first intention
- Second Defensive Parry Techniques
- Reactions to an opponent's actions from Resulting Positions 1 and 2, while in their Large Measure
- Second Aggressive Parry Techniques
- Proactive techniques to gain your opponent's blade from Resulting Positions 1 and 2, when transitioning from their Large Measure to their Perfect Measure
- Resulting Positions 3 - Their Perfect Measure
- A concise classification of positions that result from the above techniques
- Second Attacks
- Attacks which result from Resulting Positions 1 and 2, requiring that you are already in your Large Measure
- Second Counter-Action attacks
- Attacks which result from Resulting Positions 1 and 2, prompted by an incorrect action from your opponent which allows you to stab them, requiring that you are already in your Large Measure
- Resulting Positions 4 - Your Perfect Measure
- Third Defensive Parry Techniques
- As above, but while in their Perfect Measure
- Third Aggressive Parry Techniques
- Same, but while transitioning from their Perfect Measure to their Close Measure
- Resulting Positions 5 - Their Close Measure
- Third Attacks
- Attacks from positions in Resulting Positions 3 and 4. This would also have some guidance about possible attacks from when you are within your Perfect Measure, but their Large Measure.
- Third Counter-Action Attacks
- You get the idea by this point
- Resulting Positions 6 - Your Close Measure
- Inside of Close Measure
- Exiting Measure
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