Ludwig von Regensburg's blog

More Manciolino.  Working from the Leoni translation and introduction, we worked on the first five attacks and responses from Guardia di Testa.

Warm-up: Lunge practice.

Review: Guardia di Testa, di Faccia (both high guards), Porta di Ferro Stretta and Coda Lunga e Alta (both low guards).  Parries can be accomplished by transitions between these guards.  Cuts in this style tend to be "incomplete" or Colpo Imperfetto rather than Colpo Finito.  Reviewed Mandritto, Riverso, Stramazzone.

A first look at Manciolino.  Working from the Leoni translation and introduction, we tried the first four attacks and responses from Guardia di Testa.

Problem: There is little footwork specified.  Instances where footwork is specified are passes, except one instruction to step with the right foot at the opponent to make sure you get close enough to strike with a cut.  Inspection of the rest of the chapter shows this is the approach throughout.  I note one instruction to step towards an attack.

Lesson plan: Beginning rapier based on Meyer interspersed with discussions of fencing theory.  Development of multi-part attack and response drills, starting well out of measure, should appeal to non-beginners.

Started with the usual footwork practice.

Brief review of Meyer's lunge (to the body) and parry.

Discussion of hand orientation and strength of the edge vs flat.

Incremental drill (slowly add steps to build a long sequence): A & B in Eisenport. 

1. A approaches B.  B lunges when A comes into measure.

2. A parries B's lunge.

(Patrick's Notes)
Revised "Primary Stances" (Ringeck: Fier Leger) Drill: Start in High Vom Tag (Oberhut) with left leg forward. Cut to Alber, Ochs and Pflug, then thrust into Langort, passing to each position (remembering the intermediate Langort / Hangetort). Then swing via Nebenhut back into Vom Tag (now with right foot forward) and repeat.

New Horizontal Cuts drill: Cut from Ochs to Ochs using either Mittelhau or Zwerchhau. Leader can call to mix them up.

(Patrick's Notes)
Drill: Starting from Schluessel, perform a Scheitelhau passing forwards then Unterhau passing backwards to arrive back in Schluessel. First do stopping at each stance (Vom Tag, Langort, Alba, Eisenport, Hangetort, Einhorn) then do slowly but smoothly (no stopping).
Similarly practice Zorn, starting and finishing in Ochs (Langort, Wechsel, Nebenhut, Hangetort, Einhorn) on both sides.

(Patrick's Notes)
Revision:
Hitting (and intending to hit) during drills

Recovering in guard after the hit
Stringere
Practised: stringere - lunge, lunge into covered line, cavaccione, contracavaccione.

(Patrick's Notes)
 
Discussed the problem of left/right.  Meyer only discusses explicitly
two left/right variants: Ochs and Pflug.  In Ochs, it's left if the
sword is on the left (right foot forward), in Pflug, it's left if the
left foot is forward (sword on right).  We decided to adopt the
convention (till something better comes along), that stances are
generally described by which foot is forward except for Ochs.  So, for
example, Wechsel left has the left foot forward and sword on the right.

(Patrick's Notes)   This is a list of the stances we practised:

From high to low

1. Setting off / Absetzen
Meyer says: Setting off is when, from one of the four guards [High, Low, Irongate, Plow] you turn the long edge against his weapon, and turn into the Longpoint.