Finger injuries and sparring

So I found out last night just how useless hockey gloves can be for longsword sparring. During the last pass of the sparring session between myself and a colleague last night I got thwacked on my left little finger. We were using A&A Fectherspiel swords. When I took off the glove I noticed blood and thought "well crap". I went to the bathroom to clean it up and noticed just how bad I had been hit. Long story short, after 3 hours at the Urgent Care clinic, I have what the docs called a partial distal amputation with the tip of my finger bone chipped off. I again want to point out that the swords we were using were blunted not sharps. We have never, and never will, spar with sharps. I find the very idea ridiculous. In fact, my injury would have been better had it been a sharp sword as it would have simply sliced the tip of my finger off, not mangled it up.

Axe lengths

Anyone else notice that the axe lengths in the Getty are shorter on average than those in the PD? The Getty axes appear to be about shoulder height while the PD's appear to be about user height (with the exception of the 4th play). Two things about this, first that it explains a lot about Fiore's axe plays where he holds the axe one-handed. With a user height axe, gripping it the way it says/shows makes it very difficult if not impossible to hold (maybe I just need to train more :p ). The second thing is that it furthers my hypothesis that Fiore shows an earlier form/style of pollaxe play. Comparisons between Fiore, Vadi and the Anonimo Bolognese show a developmental arc in axe-play. The number of poste I think helps show this; 6 in the Getty, 4 in the PD, 4 in Vadi, and 2 in the Anonimo and Le Jeu. The majority of the plays are similar and the basic principles remain the same, but there are some differences which I believe occur because of the differences in axe size. All of Fiore's different axe poste/plays are possible with a longer axe, but some would just work better with a shorter one, for instance the play described in the Getty as coming out of the vera crose-Fiore says vera crose with the axe works just like the first scholar of the Remedy Master of the spada in arme section. That play is essentially a parry with the middle of the haft with a step offline, driving their weapon down and thrusting. This works really well with a shorter axe but is slightly more awkward with a longer axe.

p.s. I was actually impressed with "Bones" tonight. They had a mystery involving medieval re-enactors. One of the ladies is attacked by a guy dressed up as the Black Knight, who half-swords for the fight. Later she describes his fighting as using "the Serpent" and "the Arrowhead". I was impressed with tv for once! I mean "the Arrowhead" is a stretch, but hey it's a start. On the downside, they kept calling it "chainmail" *sigh*

The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe

This book, by Dr. Sydney Anglo, is one that I have been trying to acquire and read for over tw o years now. I finally got ahold of a copy (thanks Mike) and I'm about half-way through it.

First the positive feedback; this is a wonderful book if you are looking for a general overview of most of the manuscripts used today in HEMA. The few manuscripts that he hasn't mentioned (that I noticed) are because they are relatively recent discoveries and the book was published in 2000, so things like the new Florius Fiore MS just weren't known about. I also believe that Dr. Anglo does a good job of tracking certain ideas (especially the attempt to "rationalize" fencing via mathematics) through the years. To me, however, the most striking thing about this broad cross-comparison of sources is how much the varied masters agreed upon. While there were significant differences (for instance in the number and naming of guard positions) overall you get a sense that swordsmanship, whatever it's form, boils down to a few key elements; control, timing, speed and strength.

My problems with the book stem mostly from the fact that while I have no doubts about Dr. Anglo's abilities as a scholar, I wonder at his experience in martial arts. For instance, when he describes pollaxes as being "awkward" and "inefficient" against armour it makes me wonder. I have never found axes to be unwieldy, nor have any of the folks I've talked to who have handled surviving examples. And as far the axe's efficiency against armour goes, the whole purpose of the weapon's design is to defeat a man in armour; i.e. to crush, to pierce, to hook and to cut. But I can accept that my umbrage with these points could be merely personal. The next however I cannot. When discussing the fact that Agrippa used multiple figures in one plate in order to show movement (example), Anglo criticizes 19th century historian Jacopo Gelli because Gelli claimed that Agrippa was showing "combats of three against two, or four against three" when in fact Agrippa was jsut indicating motion. Anglo specifically states that Gelli's misconception came about because he did not read the Italian, merely looked at the plates. The ironic part is, in the beginning of the book, Dr. Anglo discusses the Flos Duellatorum by Fiore dei Liberi, which he claims holds illustrations that depict encounters with "multiple attackers". The illustrations he is referring to are this one from the sword in one hand section and another very similar illustration from the two-handed sword section. The problem is that these illustrations do not depict combat against multiple opponents; they depict that the same basic covering action can be used against a thrust, cut, or thrown weapon. This common misconception when looking at Fiore's work can only be explained by not reading the Italian. Ironic huh?

All quibbles aside, Dr. Anglo's The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe is worth reading and owning. As with any secondary source just make sure to take what you read with a grain of salt.

PACMAC

So today I got to help Sean do a demo at the 3rd Annual Pacific Martial Arts Conference in Eugene. Like last year, it was fun! We used some real cheap pseudo-wasters to show 60 odd martial artists from various systems and styles some basic grappling actions from the Spada in Armi sections of the Fiore manuscripts. We used the "new" fiddle-bow-esque posta from the Florius (which we have named "Posta di entrare" - Guard of Entering). The first action we did was a simple serpentine on the sword and take-away against a thrust. Then we used the same basic action, but entering deeper and wrapping the left arm in a ligadura sottana. We had planned on doing a collar-throw and reversal from the Bolognese pollaxe material, but we ran out of time :( All in all it was a great day, at least what I got to experience before I had to run off to work. I think my highlight was Sensei Best of Best Martial Arts in Eugene talking about how the basic karate punch (and it's action) can be used as a high and low block, much like every strike with sword can be a parry as well as a strike. All in all, it was great to network with the areas other martial artists and spend a day (or part of one anyways) realizing that we all do the same stuff, just differently.

So, as an aside to what I normally write about here, I am a big MMA fan. As a sport it is very impressive. By far, my favorite fighter is Fedor Emelianenko. If you know who he is, or if you have no clue, just watch these 6 mini-episodes about him. He is not only a great fighter he truly is a wonderful and well-rounded man.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DirtyFedor

Updates

So by far the single most frustrating thing about living in Eugene with all its rain is that the grass is permanently soggy. This, combined with living in an apartment, means that I only have two choices for sword/axe training: 1) Drive across town to the salle or 2) Practice in the middle of the complex's driveways. I know that deep down it is my own laziness that keeps me from actually grabbing the weapons and doing it, but sadly in this age you have to be careful about practicing our arts outside. I have already had police called on me by my neighbors for practicing in my old yard with my aluminum sword, so I can only imagine how quickly the cops will be called if I break out my pollaxe in the driveway! So I will just do what I have been doing for a while, which is going to the salle about an hour before class and spending my time at home doing the mental side of WMA training (especially trying to learn French).

On the positive side, owning all six seasons of Mythbusters is awesome!

What a fun weekend!

So this was a fun weekend. Between our water heater nozzle breaking off and spewing 15 gallons all over our floor, which then had to vacuumed up (Thanks Chris and E!) and working at the mall during Christmas, it has been ridiculous. By the way, in case you've ever wondered, hand vacuuming a floor with a 15 gallon Shop-Vac is an awesome back workout!

What was awesome is that last night (Monday the 22nd) I got to teach an "Intro-to-Pollaxe" class at the Academy. It was the first time I've been able to teach pollaxe material by myself and I based the night on my interpretation of Le Jeu de la Hache. What is great about teaching WMA is that it allows you to see if your interpretations really hold up and whether they are easy for others to learn too. There were only three folks there last night, but two of them had never handled an axe before, so it was good to see if my "basic axe training" actually works! It also was one of the first times I had been able to play with the axe in my kit (breastplate, arms and helm). The only change I wanted to make because of the armour was the realization that I need a better gambeson/arming cotte. The debate is now to go historical (expensive) or psuedo-historical (potentially cheaper).

At the end of the night, I wanted to change a few specifics about the plays I chose, but I had learned a lot about axe-fighting as well. In my opinion, axe play isn't as subtle or "elegant" as sword-play (because of the limitations imposed by armour and polearms in general), but it's beauty is in it's very straight-forward system of play. After all, there is a reason Fiore describes the axe as "ponderous, cruel and mortal"