| Related sites for http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/index.htm |
| International_Motorsports_Hall_of_Fame_and_Museum Located adjacent to Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Site offers biographies on Hall of Fame members, gift store, museum information and an interactive tour. | | Kilbey\'s_Vintage_Stock_Car_Racing_Photos A collection of vintage stock car racing photos, mostly from Melbourne Speedway (Melbourne, FL) and Huntsville Speedway (Huntsville, AL). | | Motorsports_Museum_and_Hall_of_Fame_of_America A museum that honors and preserves the achievements of the legends of motorsports on land, sea, and in the air. Located in Novi, Michigan. Includes profiles of many competitors by category, facility i | | Dr__James_Naismith Foundation features biography of the man known as the inventor of the sport of basketball. | | A_N_D__WebWorld_Boxing Provides boxing championship results from a broad range of the sports governing bodies. | | Ben_Caunt_-_Champion_Bareknuckle_Boxer_of_England_1841-1845 A brief description and a few illustrations of those invovled in his Ben's life and fights. | | Conn,_Billy Official site. Includes biography, articles and photos. | | Cox\'s_Boxing_Corner Boxing history and analysis of fighters, especially the great fighters of the past. Articles, slideshows, reviews, pictures, and polls. | | The_Cyber_Boxing_Zone An online boxing magazine devoted to current news, opinions, a boxing encyclopedia, and book reviews. | | Fitzsimmons,_Robert Site dedicated to one of the hardest punchers in boxing history with photos, facts and links. | | Heavyweight_History Boxing history of all of the heavyweight WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO title fights since 1892. | | The_History_of_Pre-War_Boxing_in_Britain Includes photos, list of those who engaged in more than 5 contests, list of venues in Ireland and the United Kingdom, boxers records, and handbills. Information focuses on the time period of 1920 to 1 | | International_Boxing_Hall_of_Fame Information about IBHOF, the enshrinees, ring news. | | Jack_Johnson Biography of boxer who became the first black heavyweight world champion. | | Jo_Sports_Inc_ Offer a range of historic boxing memorabilia through a searchable online catalogue. | | Montrose,_Dave Biographical information, records, photos, and fight reports from the past. | | Owen,_Johnny Profiles and record of Johnny Owen and numerous other Welsh boxers. | | Retired_Boxers_Foundation Official site of the RBF an organization dedicated to assisting former professional boxers in times of need. | | Speary,_Billy Original articles and press photos, history. | | Tiger,_Dick Photo essay dedicated to the late Nigerian middleweight and light heavyweight champion. | | Tippett,_Jimmy Website on one of London's great fighters from the 1950's with record, photos and articles. | | Tunney,_Gene Provides links and photos of the 1926-28 heavyweight champion who twice defeated Jack Dempsey. Also includes photos of Jack Dempsey, Harry Greb, Tommy Loughran, Tom Heeney, Bob Martin, and Herbert Cro | | Ghosts_of_the_Gridiron Information on early professional teams in the Philadelphia area such as the Frankford Yellow Jackets, Pottsville Maroons and Philadelphia Quakers. Team histories, images, schedules, statistics, and p | | The_Helmet_Project Documents how the helmets for each team of the NFL, NCAA, NAIA, CIS, NFL Europe, Arena football, CFL, as well as defunct professional leagues, have changed over the years, as well as any interesting a | | Professional_Football_Researchers_Association_(PFRA) History of professional football, including the players, teams, leagues, games and stories from the National Football League (NFL), World Football League (WFL), United States Football League (USFL) a | | Historical_Rugby_Articles Links to a variety of articles about the history and origins of rugby. | | The_History_and_Origins_of_Rugby_Union A brief article and links to information about the history of rugby. | | The_New_Zealand_Natives\'_Rugby_Tour_of_1888/89 A history of the New Zealand Maori rugby team's tour of Great Britain and Australia in 1888/89. | | Rugby_Football_History Includes a timeline, the Olympics, the six nations, the tri-nations, and the rugby world cup. | | Acorn_Vaulters Team located near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Includes background information, photos, recent competitions and contact details. | | American_Vaulting_Association Promoting the sport of vaulting in the United States as a member of AHSA. Includes rulebooks, event information and results, plus links to member clubs. | | AVA_Region_IX_Homepage American Vaulting Association region of the nineteen eastern states. Calendar, pictures, and links. | | Balance_Farm_Vaulting_Team Offering team and junior vaulting, lessons, clinics and summer vaulting camps. Located in Hadensville, VA. | | British_Equestrian_Vaulting Information, discussion forum and webcasts about UK vaulting. | | Clearview_Vaulters Offer lessons, clinics, and demonstrations in Ontario, Canada. Information form, calendar, and photos. | | Flying_V_Vaulting_Team Competitive vaulting team from the Canberra region of Australia, registered with the NSW Vaulting Council. Team information, membership fees and photos. | | Horses_of_the_Sun Equestrian facility specializing teaching Voltige in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Lessons, summer camps, and clinics. Information about Voltige, services offered, and photos. | | Morning_Star_Vaulters Club for all ages who wish to learn the sport of equestrian vaulting, Novato, CA. Information about the horses, pictures, and links. | | Silver_Star_Farm Offers vaulting instruction at all levels. Calendar of events and useful links. Located 45 miles NW of Nashville, Tennessee. | | Valley_View_Vaulters_Inc_ Includes history, awards, horses and vaulters, lesson schedule and calendar of events. Based in Lake View Terrace and Long Beach, California. |
|
diGrasse's Rapier Fencing Manual, Video Version
Giacomo Di Grasse
His True Art of Defense
A Video-Enhanced Rapier Tutorial
Plainly teaching
by infallible demonstrations, apt figures, and perfect rules
the manner and form how a man without other teacher
or master
may safely handle all sorts of weapons, offensive
and defensive;
with a treatise of deceit and falsings,
offering a way by private industry to obtain
strength, judgement and acuity.
First written in Italian by the fore-said
author, 1570
Englished by I.G., Gentleman, 1594
Americanized, abridged and interpreted by Rick Orli, 1994
© Richard J. Orli, 1994, 2000
credits
Slow modem? Click me  for the
no-video/no-graphics version
Also, you must have MicroSoft Explorer 3.5 or higher to view the video clips (Sorry Sorry Sorry....)
WARNING: Swordplay can be
dangerous if improperly practiced. Routines should be practiced only under the
qualified supervision of a fencing instructor or by a Society of American Fight Directors instructor. The videos show staged (carefully choreographed) and
well-practiced moves, done by experts. Any sort of 'free' fencing or play demands
the use of modern sport fencing equipment, including facemasks and flexible/lightweight
swords (such as foils or epees).
Contents
forward
note to novice readers
Rick's
Basics Review
The
First Part - The Basics
I.
Introduction
II. The Sword
III. Of Footwork
IV. Of Wards
V. The Strike
VI. Defending
VII. Application of Method
The Second
Part Attack and Defense
VIII. One RapierIX. Dagger
X. Cloak
XI. Buckler
XII.
Square Target
XIII. Round
Target
XIV. Case of Swords
XV. Two-handed
Sword
XVI. Staff Weapons
XI. Pike
The Third Part
Deceits and Falseing of Blows and Thrusts
The Forth Part
How a Man by Private Practice may Obtain
Strength of Body Thereby
Index
Rapier Technique Demo (4MB .avi)
WARNING! THIS IS NOT
INTENDED AS SWORDPLAY INSTRUCTION FOR BEGINNERS.
Foreword
In 1594 the writings of an Italian Fencing Master, Giacomo
diGrasse, were "Englished" from the original Italian for the benefit of his
London students. I highly recommend the 1594 version, which uses the language of
Shakespeare and the King James Bible, and is very readable. Regrettably, it has been my
experience that most students are daunted by certain typographical conventions and
unfamiliar terms, and so satisfy themselves with only a quick glance. This modern
interpretation was prepared originally for my students, and will serve readers with a
historical interest in period fencing technique who prefer a more streamlined and
accessible version of this classic work.
To keep the text concise, my working assumption is that the reader is familiar with modern
fencing jargon, which is used as applicable. Brief explanations are included in the gloss.
In addition, the gloss includes comments on diGrasse's intent or observations from the
experience of modern fencing or martial arts. In the second edition, I supplemented
this material with video clips of selected rapier techniques.
The original translation was likely performed by Jerenimo, a student and successor to
Rocco Bonetti, and associate of Vincentio Saviolio. Saviolio would, within a few years,
author his own manual on the Art of Defense.
DiGrasse promises to teach us to "safely handle" weapons in the title. What does
he mean, given that the chance of suffering a wound or death against an equal opponent is
50% at best? Clearly safety is a relative concept based on small steps taken to bias the
odds. He emphasizes one central tenant: the objective is not to strike and be struck, but
to strike and remain without danger.
Safety means:
1) Being more skilled, trained, in better physical condition
than your opponent.
2) Doing nothing that may yield a double kill. (If the
chance of a double kill is 10%, you have only a 45% chance of surviving against an equal
opponent.)
3) Having a readiness to win - to kill; confident
aggression.
DiGrasse and his peers advocated a style of fencing that emphasized the thrust with
light-weight point weapons and high speed movement. This style rendered obsolete the
earlier form of heavy backsword play which relied on the cut.
It is interesting to note that Saviolo writing in English freely uses Italian terminology
such as imbrocatta, squalanbrato, etc., while di Grasse's translator was careful to use
only common English terms. George Silver, a contemporary champion of the good old
fashioned English way of things, mocks both the Italian words and the very concept of
rapier play. However, even he uses some Italian jargon by the time of his second work, and
certainly the use of Italian was common and fashionable by 1600. Shakespeare uses fencing
terms such as "stocatta" in Romeo and Juliet and other plays. Undoubtedly this
was due to some extent to the credit of Saviolio himself, a popular teacher of defense for
the cream of English society.
This new fashion was in turn superseded by a fundamental change in fencing technology and
fashion around 1660. "Small sword" techniques, dominated by the French School,
replaced Rapier techniques, which had been dominated by Italian masters such as diGrasse
and Saviolio. One consequence is that modern fencing jargon is based largely on 1660
French language. Italian terminology of one generation earlier is, as is rapier play
itself, now archaic and disused outside the realm of theater and reenactment.
Rick Orli
As a translator/interpreter I took many liberties with translator
IG's words to be true to spirit. Please quote IG when you wish to quote DiGrasse. The 1694
manuscript is available from Syke's Sutlering (Falconwood Press edition).
A partial online version of IG's 1694 diGrasse transcribed by
Steve Hick is at: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hudson/digrassi/
The original Italian manuscript in facsimile is available from
William Wilson at : http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hudson/digrassi/
Comments or questions? I'll be happy to
hear from you: Rick Orli
A note
to the reader about some basics
THIS WEB SITE IS NOT INTENDED AS SWORDPLAY INSTRUCTION
FOR NOVICES, BUT THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE ADDRESSED TO YOU, THE NOVICE.
The subject of this document is not theatrical fencing,
although that is the closest description of what I do most often. Theatrical 'combat' is a
dance, where you and your partner adhere to a strict plan and know the rhythm by heart. In
contrast, non-theatrical real Combat means you keep your plans a strict secret from your
enemy, and if you detect a rhythm in her moves, you use that knowledge to, figuratively
speaking, stomp hard with the big boot. In theatrical fencing, maintaining eye contact to
pick up subtle cues, designing phrases to consist of cue-action-reaction, maintaining a
measure 'out of distance', mis-directed blows, etc. all play a part in making for an
effective and safe presentation. These issues are not discussed here.
Nor is the subject competitive sport fencing or using
pseudo-rapiers. As I discuss below, the modern sport of epee is competitive fencing using
pseudo-smallswords, which started out to be a true dueling simulation but grew to be false
to the spirit of combat or dueling (even while being a lot of fun and good sport). Any
well-intentioned effort to do the same with pseudo-rapiers is doomed to the same end for
the same reasons.
The subject here is the methods, technique and mindset for
training for combat or dueling, as diGrasse intended, (or as best as we can research and
as near as we can guess). This is a historical study exercise, and from this base you can
go where you will.
In discussion I assume knowledge of fencing. Here is a test
for you. Do you know the difference among a prise de fer (beat parry with the
foible/weak/tip part of blade), a 'regular parry' (with the forte/strong part of blade)
and a glasse or bind (exclusion made with constant blade contact, such as in a time
thrust)? And I don't mean theoretical... I mean, viscerally do you know the timing and
what it feels like to do each of these correctly, because you have done each many times in
drill? If not, then you do not have the intermediate level (2nd year) of training
necessary to know what I am talking about in this tutorial, nor do you have the background
necessary to study on your own.
By the way, I'm not prejudiced solely in favor of modern
western fencing. If you had studied Kendo or Philippine stick fighting for a good solid
year or two, I bet you would know exactly what I was talking about above even if you had
never heard of a 'prise de fer' (you can always look it up...(ah, might be like the kaeshi
waza...)) and you would be ready also.
Nor can I say in words the correct 'feel' for executing a
parry - how to make it snappy yet firm, how not to either over or under parry, or how to
make a thrust fast yet smooth. These are things learned only by hands-on practice, with
the assistance of an instructor. DiGrasse believed that a man might be self-taught... that
may have been true then because it would have been possible to observe, in daily life,
good swordsmen in practice and bouting, and chances were your group of sparring buddies
would have included someone who had had basic training. Today, that is simply not the
case. The visual image of rapier play you may be straining under might have come from the
'bish-bash-bam' Errol Flyn movies, or from the comic-fantastical combat in the Highlander
films, or even Star Wars. Please believe me when I say that that type of 'movie knowledge'
is worse than total ignorance (although check out Kurasawa's 'Roshamon' for a thoughtful
film commentary on fantasy versus 'real' dueling).
Anyway, my point is, if you are interested, you ought to
learn how to fence and get a LOT of practice fencing through the handiest means available.
Most likely that means taking modern sport fencing lessons. Many large urban areas support
some type of rapier group, but these often meet irregularly. A serious student should
fence twice per week, and preferably much more - that is usually possible only with modern
sport fencing.
I am not even going to argue that it's all transferable
knowledge. As a matter of fact anyone interested in becoming a first rate sport fencer
should not learn rapier. Basic things like the footwork and even the timing is all
different. It can even hurt a bit if your objective is Rapier only... If I am in a
competitive situation where I want to hit my opponent, I turn into a competitive modern
fencer with a rapier in my hand - I can't help myself, I was too well trained for too many
years, er, decades. Also, to be frank, some of the rapier moves just don't seem that
great.... I've been up against the US national champion and Olympic medallists, and if I
imagine sticking a rapier into their hands, can I see getting away with a 'traverse'
against them? NO WAY! At the core of it all, is how to move with a sword in hand -
and to learn that you have to spend a lot of time moving with a sword in your hand.
This material should not be considered as a 'how to' manual
for beginners, but as a resource for experienced fencers who want to find out a bit about
the rapier and 17th C. fencing technique.
OK, so your taking up sport fencing, what kind? Of the
modern fencing weapons, Foil is best to learn for similarity to real combat fencing. Why?
Because foil was invented as training weapon for dueling with the small sword, around
1670-1680. People nowadays dismiss it and dis it, because it is lightweight, but mostly
because of all the 'rules'. They say, real fightn' ain't got no rules.
True it is lightweight, but it is only a tad lighter than
the small-sword it is trying to simulate. But, I'm here to tell you that there are only
two rules in foil, and they are not made up BS just to crimp your style, but real good
advice designed to save your hide in a duel:
Rule 1) Don't waste time trying to hit where you can't kill
(e.g., chest yes, ankle no).
Rule 2) Never do anything that will result in your own
death. (e.g. suicide is bad)
The foil 'rules' were devised by 17th Century fencing
experts (who had fought in and survived real duels) as a means to teach their sons,
cousins, and friends how to conduct themselves in a duel so that they might win. So for
example, the rule about avoiding death is expanded to say something like... 'if your
opponent is stabbing at your heart with a sharp thing, better run, dodge, or block before
you even think about doing anything else'. The foil fencing rule book had to say that in
several pages, and used several dozen pages to explain exactly what constitutes an attack,
a dodge, and so on. Rules that codify what is and is not 'good' are necessary when people
are playing with safety gear, since without the negative reinforcement of dying as a
consequence of error, practice easily degenerates into simultaneous whacking nonsense with
people arguing about who got who first or who hit harder. Since the deadly use of the
rapier is not as common today as it was in 1570 in the province of Grasse, a student's
casual observations and guesses cannot be trusted to provide a 'reality check'.
Once people found that this swordplay stuff was a lot of fun
to do, it became a sport and the rule book quadrupled in size again to include
sportsmanship and scorekeeping guidance. As dueling became irrelevant, the sport aspect of
fencing became dominant, and it took on a life of it's own, and became less duel-like and
more sport-like. This was an inevitable consequence of the situation, and I refuse to
think of it as either good or bad. Still, foil even as a sport adhered to the two deeply
true-to-reality rules above.
Epee was never a training weapon for the duel, but was a
sport from the get-go. It was no doubt a well-intentioned effort to simulate the
conditions of a duel more realistically than foil, by eliminating "right of way"
rules and allowing the whole body to be a target. However, one of the original mechanisms
designed to force realism... single hit elimination, and simultaneous hit double
elimination, was quickly tossed aside to allow prominence to the sporting aspect. From the
duel simulation perspective the result was total disaster, teaching mastery of weird
suicidal attitudes and dangerous moves. Epeeists specialize in calculations such as: this
move results in a simultaneous hit 50% of the time, 23% I win a clean hit, 12% my opponent
gets a clean hit on me, 15% no hit.... I should do it all the time. (Rephrased: A move
that would result in my death 62% of the time is great!) This bogus calculation also
affects foil multi-point bouts, but at least each individual phrase in a bout is tested
against a style template to maintain some degree of fidelity to sound dueling technique,
if not necessarily attitude.
A NOTE ON KIDS AND LEARNING
I am often asked.... How old should one be to learn? Best is
about age 8, second best 7 or 9, third best age 10... you get my drift. That is, modern
fencing. I would not encourage learning rapier until the late teen years. If you are
a kid, or are responsible for a kid, you should know that any serious fencing school that
wants to produce champions LOVES to give lessons to kids.
Further Reading:
Joseph
Swetnam, by William Wilson
Jakob Sutor, Künstliches
Fechtbuch , by Peter Valentine
Art of the Sword
, by Rick Orli
Targeteer,
by Rick Orli
William Hope, The Complete Fencing
Master, by Rick Orli
Polish Sabre Fencing - 16th-18th C.
My 17th C. Polish Horse
Artillery reenactment group
John Clement's "Historical
Armed Combat Association" has a great collection of stuff and pointers to other
internet sources.
Also:
.http://www.swordplay-symposium.com/Default.htm
http://www.swordforum.com/ and the forum, http://www.swordforum.com/ssi/
http://www.aemma.org/index2.htm
Many thanks to:
Peter Valentine -
Provided scanned illustrations of Jakob Suter. All Suter images are copyright Peter
Valentine.
Robert Gonia - Participated in and helped
develop the many Rapier demonstrations.
Fred Schlop - Target and Pike demonstration.
Brian - Partisan and Muskette Butte
demonstration.
William
Wilson, - Provided scanned illustrations
from the original Italian diGrasse. All Italian edition diGrasse images are
copyright William Wilson.
Basics Review: Movement,
Measure, the Thrust, and the Cut.
Rapier Technique Demo
*
|
|
