Guards, Blows and Plays - HEMA - The Medieval Teaching Method

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#TheSwordsmanOfTheDale #HEMA #historicalfencing
WARNING: The advice and movements shown in this video are for informational and educational purposes only. Consult a health professional before engaging in any exercise or martial arts program.
Tracks: Skaga, Traveler
Swords used:
Ensifer Corona Feder
SIGI Schiltless feder
Paul Binns type XIV

[@FedericoMalagutti]

A little bit more grammar and wording errors than my average, unfortunately!

[@jasonjames9836]

I learned when acting as an Arabic to English and back translator that as long as the meaning comes across clearly despite errors, those errors become virtually invisible. I honestly was into the concepts so much that I didn't really notice them.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

@@jasonjames9836 thank you for your kindness

[@zethron1173]

As a native Texan with English being my primary language; you did outstanding! Keep it up, bro. Really good stuff.

[@zethron1173]

@@FedericoMalagutti Also, did you hear of the latest discovery? They have rediscovered another fight book written by Meyer! I'm not sure how into German styles you are but it is very interesting. It's very well persevered!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

@@zethron1173 yes, I'm really interested in it, looking forward for some kind of translation of it! :D

[@Vindrows]

It's like heard a football commentary in radio without know rules and terminology. Some things are easy to understand, some others require studies and personal interpretations.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

True!!

[@mikexibalbafarms4169]

Very helpful for me as a beginner thank you Federico

[@FedericoMalagutti]

You are welcome!

[@sethdusith6093]

Really, really good video, it made me realize how these manuals translate to the forms people end up using

[@FedericoMalagutti]

I’m happy to read that, it’s the main goal of the video, to traslate manuals into reality and vice versa.

[@geeemm909]

Excellent video again Federico. Nothing wrong with your grammar or wordings. You communicate in English far better than many English people. Always very informative.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thank you!

[@incongruouscat4646]

Hi Federico, another EXCELLENT video, thanks so much. This yet another way you have 'joined the dots' for me re fencing and the manuals. I had not made those connections until now. Fabulous! 🙂

[@FedericoMalagutti]

You are welcome!

[@TheNapkuchen]

Your videos are a great source of information and inspiration! I love to watch you fight and to analyze your movement. You are such a chill person. Please never change, Federico! :D

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thank you very much! :D

[@AngryArchaeologist]

I really like your point about 'plays' - this is something I have been thinking about a lot, lately. To me, a lot of HEMA teaching seems to put too much emphasis on teaching set plays - which rely on a compliant partner behaving in a predictable manner for sometimes six or seven actions in a row. This reduces HEMA to something like a choreographed dance routine, with fencers who look really nice when they move in these patterns, but who are not actually able to fight when faced with a non-compliant partner who is trying to deceive and out-fence them in the chaotic environment of combat. Undoubtedly, plays can help us learn good structure, movement and some of the 'grammar' needed to fight, but plays should not be some sort of goal in and of themselves. The real art is being able to abstract from the plays - to take the lines and dots, as you say - and be able to improvise new patterns with them as needed in a dynamic and unpredictable combat environment.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Exactly ;-)

[@TheUnistat76]

A truly excellent video. Really, a great way of explaining the style of manuals. As someone with an interest, but no HEMA experience, this really helps me see the manuals in a more practical, helpful way.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Cool! This is exactly the goal I wanted to achieve with this video :D

[@andreweden9405]

Federico, thank you for such an informative video! As a follower of Matt, Shad and you, I appreciate that you were respectful to everyone you addressed. Although, I also wouldn't have cared if you hadn't been!😀😁 I've been discovering many parallels between the disciplines of music and martial arts, and especially between the historical performance movement that has occurred within the medieval music community, and HEMA: There are original treatises for practitioners to study in both disciplines that still survive from the Middle Ages, both disciplines are practiced today, both have enjoyed a relatively recent resurgence in popularity after a long period of neglect(i.e. not very many people were interested in studying medieval fencing in the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries, and the same can be said for medieval music), both areas have seen an increasing emphasis on historical accuracy, and both have an enthusiastic amateur following, as well as a professional "elite" of practitioners. In addition to this, I have found at least four composers that lived between about 1170 and 1490, who were also documented knights! When I say knights, I don't mean composers who were just honorarily "knighted", as this did occur as well. These were composers who were also documented to have been actual soldiers and men-at-arms. And all of this is just the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of the similarities! By any chance, do you have a recommendation for a comprehensive book that covers all of the main historical manuals from I:33 up through at least Marozzo? I want to say that I heard about the existence of some such all-in-one book a while back, but I'm just not sure. Thanks again!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Absolutely, music and fighting are both subjects to times and rhythms and they share maaany similarity just because of this two concepts. In relation to the book, unfortunately I can’t direct you to something which I read personally, I tend to work on many publications but they tend to be specific for the various arguments. Cheers!!

[@andreweden9405]

@@FedericoMalagutti , Haha, you were probably confused by the beginning of my comment here! I thought I was commenting under your "History Affair" video, but ended up in the comments for THIS video instead!😂 Anyway, thank you for your reply. You are so correct about music and fencing, and the similarities between them that are related to tempo and rhythm. Since I don't actually practice any sort of martial art myself, that's something that's easy for me to overlook. But yes, that's a huge similarity! In fact, I've often wondered if some forms of medieval fencing weren't occasionally choreographed to music. There's a certain 13th century illustration showing two guys fencing with sword and buckler, seemingly to the accompaniment of a piper, and I'm sure that's not the only pictorial evidence out there. I know that you like Fiore, Talhoffer and Vadi. Do you like any of the music from these periods as well(circa 1380 to 1500)? There are some ensembles out there that have done amazing work, and this is to say nothing of what an awesome historical treasure Western written music is, and how blessed we are to have so much of it survive. In my opinion, it's about as close as we can get to time travel, because it's a written system that is that good at expressing what the writer(composer) wanted to hear.

[@SchildwachePotsdam]

Very nice way of thinking about medieval pedagogy. Definitely some nice food for thought, thank you!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

You are welcome!!!

[@Davlavi]

Nice love the analysis.

[@corrugatedcavalier5266]

Connect the dots, got it! Fantastic video, Federico.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thank you Jeff!!

[@nerd_fencing_coach]

Russian comrades approves italian longsword concept! Thank you for video, very good explanation. You tell what we thought.

[@Michael_Lammer]

Once again an excellent video, thank you very much!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

You are welcome!

[@Michael_Lammer]

This is another excellent video, thank you very much!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thanks!!

[@inthedenoftigers5702]

An excellent video but with one minor quibble. Its certainly true that from the Medieval period right up to the Renaissance the 'Guard' was a hand position to launch a line of attack, probably due to the fact that the hand is somewhat retracted because of a lack of comprehensive hand protection. However in from the mid Renaissance to the modern period Guard is most certainly not predominantly a hand position from which to launch an attack, but a blade position which negates an opponents line of attack. A Guard in todays languarge is more analogous to the english word 'to ward/ward off'. This dichotomy is incidentally still present in modern fencing because to come on guard in 'sixte' in the modern french pedagogy means primarily 'to protect the outside high-line' (from which you can riposte in to quarte/septime/octave lines), while in the modern Italian pedagogy Terza is more of a 'gunsight' (which invites an attack in Prima/seconda/Quarta). This is perhaps due to the fact that italian smallsword/spadino developed out of extant italian rapier theory rather than the newer french school. This on the whole makes no difference whatsoever, because when blades join fencing is fencing, but words do not have the same meaning over history and cultures, so perhaps the guard as and position from which to launch an attack is mostly historically applicable to earlier HEMA? Also one possible negative effect of this approach is it might confuse people new to HEMA: the constant mantra to differentiate HEMA from sport is that the emphasis is to defend oneself *first*, and linguistically this would imply understanding the word the 'guard' in its later meaning which means to protect, rather than as a line of attack. Still, its a very good video.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Well, first of all thanks. Secondly I don’t actually see a problem in this, I mean, every guard closes a line and opens another. Anyone can sit in, for instance, dente de zenghiaro without any problem, he will close a line (low left) and open the others as an invitation. And this is true for every guard. Conceptually speaking, every guard may end up being an invitation of some sort, or part of a movement, or a parry or something else! Here we are mainly talking about how a manual, bi dimensional and static, tries to pass all this various concepts, in the medieval period, to me, this was the method used. A guard always defends something, a guard always invites somewhere, a guard may be a tool to pass the concept of movement on a piece of paper etc etc. I don’t see a problem in this, and I would add that I tend to be one of the most conservative swordsman which I know, I double rarely and I tend to like a more defensive/offensive approach to fighting, so this way of looking at theory don’t made me do weird shit! In fact, it helped me improving on that aspect too, because movement is safety!!!

[@emarsk77]

Nice video. It echoes a thought I had a while ago. In the treatise by Dall'Agocchie, there is a nice and simple exercise ("passeggiare nelle guardie", or "walking in the guards"): a sequence of blows, mostly sgualembri, that bring the swords in all of the low guards, left and right, while stepping forwards and backwards. An interesting detail is that most of the times the instructions say to do a falso and then a sgualembro to bring the sword in the next guard. It seems obvious to me that, while the sgualembri can possibly be thought as "real" cuts, done with the intent of hitting an imaginary opponent, the falsi aren't: they merely describe a sword movement. So, my thought is that, just as the guards are not just defensive stances, but also descriptions of positions between movements (as several treatises say, more or less explicitly), in the same way cuts and thrusts are not just offensive actions, but also descriptions of movements between positions.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Exactly, cuts and thrusts are absolutely not the only motion from guard to guard, parry, feints, beats... Everything useful to land or counter an action follows the same rules. And yes, the Passeggiata nelle Guardie is a good example of how renaissance people connected in a far more clear way this concepts all together, Bolognese people tend to do it generally by explaining most of their actions as "a cut toward a target which will bring you in guardia di something" but Dalle Agocchie has a specific tool, the one that you mentioned, that does it ;-)

[@jasonjames9836]

This is another way of approaching. I do remember your Poste di Spada video touching on the concepts as well. The interesting thing about treating a manual and particularly poste this way is it can help a person with branching pathways conceptualize the next move if done more as a RPGish combat. Poste chess - I'm in Posta Longa on the edge of measure considering a thrust and my opponent is in Posta Dente di Cenghiaro and likely wants to beat my blade up and away and hit me with a Fendente - using your idea of dots and lines there are a number of radiating lines from each persons dot and the tactics become the choice of which dot is each player going to next. I'm running another class later today and have a newish guy coming in. I'm going to give him the dots and lines theory and see how he understands it. I enjoy your theory videos quite a bit. Please keep them coming.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Cool! Let me know how it goes ;-)

[@tarquiniussuperbus21]

I think you are right.

[@mandalorianactual1215]

Great video my friend!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thank you Pat!!

[@mandalorianactual1215]

@@FedericoMalagutti You're most welcome my brother from across the pond!

[@ericpaisley8501]

As always, a good video to help the community going deeper into the sources.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Thanks!!!

[@Tsurukiri]

Federico, here’s an idea for you: pick two or three I.33 techniques and make a sparring video in which you both are using ONLY those two or three techniques. Can you make them work in a sparring situation as they are presented in the book, or do you need to modify something? Sort of teaching vs. sparring application video. Hope you like this idea!

[@FedericoMalagutti]

I’ll think about it, it’s quite hard because of the situational basis on which fighting tend to develop in relation to every single opponent and his repertoire, but I’ll think about it.

[@Tsurukiri]

@@FedericoMalagutti It is hard, but you already know the easy stuff! Perhaps see if you can find three I.33 techniques which can end up in a cyclic fight sequence? Stich-shieldslag-krucke(krucke as shutzen for the shieldslag)-stich… the cycle repeats. I don’t know. It’s hard.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

@@Tsurukiri we will see! Hehe

[@generalpatton2910]

turn on closed captions for theological lesson

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Uh?

[@generalpatton2910]

@@FedericoMalagutti automatic cc : guards = gods

[@FedericoMalagutti]

@@generalpatton2910 ahahahahahah!!!!

[@effigytormented]

No it makes sense. They are just the obvious positions to strike from. Fighting is as natural as walking if but we take the time to understand ourselves.

[@matteomacchiavelli]

I'm really interested in this topic, do you have any ideas about how this could be translated in an efficient training program?

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Well, yes, but a 4 hours long video would not be enough. Anyway I try to approach this topic from many different ways in my video, so you may find more in some old ones (like “how to use poste di spada”) and I’ll treat more in future one.

[@matteomacchiavelli]

@@FedericoMalagutti thanks a lot!

[@Tsurukiri]

Do we know why the manuals were written? To what purpose? That might be the key why they are like that.

[@FedericoMalagutti]

Manuals, as far as we know, were either tools to store knowledge (e.g. A master could use it to remember some specific bits he lost track of from now and then) or teaching tools (they contained the teaching method of the instructor) or more rarely, like in the Talhoffer case, a marketing tool. In my experience reading manuals, I would arbitrarily argue that of this options the “Teaching method” one is the most relevant in terms of number.