Consulting Swordsman
This is my 100th blog post, and I have just released my latest book, The Medieval Longsword, to my campaign backers. It will be up on Amazon and elsewhere soon. By way of encouraging reviews, and to soften the blow for all those who missed the campaign, I will give away a free ebook copy … Read more
“The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right name” – Confucius. In this post I will demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that every wonder of the modern age is attributable to the systematizing of knowledge, pioneered by Fiore dei Liberi. Yes, really. I have recently returned from a very rewarding trip to Australia, teaching … Read more
Greetings! You may be thinking about pre-ordering my new longsword book through the Indiegogo campaign. In case you’re wondering what the book contains, you can see the table of contents on the campaign page. Here is an example of one of the dozens of drills, with its accompanying photos. The Exchange of Thrusts: Fiore’s instruction … Read more
The real thing is the only bullshit-free scenario in martial arts. If you’re an MMA fighter, that’s the ring on fight night. If you’re a soldier, that’s being in the presence of the enemy. And if you are a swordsman, that is someone trying to take your head off with a blade. But the real … Read more
I have been working for the last nine months on creating a teaching tool for students of Fiore’s art: a card game called Audatia. The game has been designed from the ground up as a way to make the abstract elements of Fiore’s system, such as the terminology and the overall tactical structure, easier to … Read more
The second day of the Sydney seminar began with revision and expansion on the first day’s work, taking some of the dagger plays into a freeplay-type context, then going over much of the sword material again. This established a base, upon which we built an understanding of how the material fits together, and how we … Read more
I am slow. So I study speed. The first advanced Fiore class every month is a freeplay-based session, in which we use freeplay and related exercises to expose specific weaknesses in individual students, for them to work on, and general weaknesses in the group as a whole, which sets the theme for the next month … Read more
The effects of Longsword Length One of the mysteries surrounding German (i.e. Liechtenauer) and Italian (i.e. Fiore) unarmoured longsword combat (and I’m sure it keeps you awake at night too) is the different responses to a crossing at the middle of the sword (meza spada) in the two systems. At Fiore’s crossing of the swords … Read more
Learning about safety in historical martial arts: the hard way. I have often remarked in class that I have broken bones in training so that my students don’t have to. In other words, the safety regulations we have were arrived at through my getting hurt and figuring out ways to avoid it happening again. One … Read more