rapierproficiency

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It's here

More photos to come when I'm home

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So I fought the single rapier world number 112 at a tournament a few weeks ago, and other than being a lovely human being who beat me thoroughly like 11-5, I did get this nice attack which I feel warrants some more analysis.

I was essentially trying to recreate a method of attack that I've seen some Olympic epee fencers do a few times, wherein they quickly duck beneath their opponent's point to score. Like so:

The problem is though, this is often contingent on your opponent going for an attack of their own - and my opponent unfortunately does not take the bait. Rather, he retreats and moves out of distance, preventing me from scoring in the traditional epeeist way.

However! While the original plan failed, it did present an opportunity for a fun play. As I crouched suddenly and agressively while moving forward, my opponent, having some self preservation, retreats a little. While he does this, he drops his guard slightly, moving from seconde (defending the outside line with wrist pronated) to quarte (defending the inside line, wrist supinated) This, naturally, exposes his outside line.

In that moment, I was able to extend my point, pronate my wrist, and launch a fleche (an attack where the back leg passes over the front, creating an explosive running attack) which lands cleanly onto his chest/shoulder area.

The benefit of pronating my wrist is it creates opposition. While Olympic epee is governed by electric score boxes which have built in delays to officiate afterblows (In epee, once a light goes off, the other fencer has only 40 milliseconds to land their afterblow), HEMA is a lot more based on the judges discretion. Thus, it is much more important to make it clear that any afterblow is parried or significantly out of time.

By pronating my wrist, and placing my blade on my outside line so that my long edge faces his blade, I was able to both attack and move his blade clear as I did. In doing so, I pretty much pre-parry any counter he has at his disposal. While his blade does get out at the end and potentially clip my leg a teeny bit, this is easily over an acceptable tempo where an afterblow can be given, and therefore, the three points for a thrust to a chest was awarded to me!

To be honest though, a lot of this analysis is fun to do after the fact, but my body moved before my brain could process what it was seeing properly, so I'm thanking the training and muscle memory for this.

Anyway I'm still not really sure what I'm posting on this damn website so like if anyone has bothered to read all of this, and liked it, please let me know and I'll keep at it!

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Blade and Mounting for a Double-Edged Dagger (Ken). blade, late 12th–early 13th century; mounting, 14th century. Credit line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23064

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Falchion dredged from the River Thorpe near St. Andrew, England, circa 1320

from The Norfolk Museums Collections

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Kicked out of a by-the-books style fencing/HEMA tournament after attempting to strip immediately before the bout.

"But I'm doing Fabris!" I protest as I'm hauled out, pants down.

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How are you doing today?

From the London Longsword Academy's Facebook page.

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This video shows some exchanges between an i.33 fan and an i.33 expert. John was able to wrap and/or stab me easily whenever I let my hands drift apart.

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Apropos of a spring-themed tournament, I believe I entered a new phase of my HEMA​ journey at SpringSteel​ ⚔️💐. Looking at the numbers, my performance was on par with how I would typically do. BUT! Reviewing the footage confirms my feeling that something different was happening 🐣. Instead of fighting from the nach and slowly chipping away at shallow targets, I was able to advance confidently, win the bind, and land deep blows to the head and torso 💪🎯. I think this development has a lot to do with my recent dabbling in Meyer fechtschule-style fencing. It's still super new to me, but I'm excited to do more! Thanks to all my friends and instructors at Einhorn ⚔️🦄, my worthy and chivalrous opponents ⚔️💖 and, of course, ✨️San Diego Swordfighters✨️ for hosting another great tournament 🎊🏆🎊🏆. See you at the next one ⚔️💜!

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A PhD Sword.

Commission work.

In a few civilised countries out there, custom is to present new Doctors with a sword for their graduation - a thing I can but fully agree with.

This one however is flying to other skies.

Spring steel blade, and sand-cast bronze fittings, then gold-plated. The grip is water buffalo horn with gold-plated copper wire.

Scabbard is leather over linen wrap over wood, and the throat and chape are a gold-plated mix of brass and steel.

You'll notice a recurring theme on that one.

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Rapier, Italy, circa 1620

from Czerny's International Auction House

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Presentation Sword from the Dutch Republic dated to 1690 on display at the National Museum of Ireland-Decorative Arts and History in Dublin, Republic of Ireland

King William III, of Orange, presented this ornate ivory sword to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, in appreciation of his service at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 during the first Jacobite war. Bentinck commanded cavalry at the battle and was later present at the Battle of Landen (where he was wounded) and the Siege of Namur in 1695.

Photographs taken by myself 2018

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…and this is one of those times

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MILF (man I love fencing)

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"comrade in arms" yeah i bet he was in your arms. every night. fruit

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gonna have to start bringing a tripod to the gym if I wanna get back into montante videos 💀

mostly godinho: encircling cut, against a shieldsman, against two shields (see if you can spot the difference!)