Greetings,
I have spent some time in a single group following their rules and guidelines as to how I should fence. In more recent years I have begun to engage with other groups who have similar but differing perspectives on the same activities. This has resulted in some interesting scenarios and some opening of my mind as to how swordplay works. This blog is focussed on the idea of cross-training with other groups and how this can benefit the swordsman regardless of the weapon form which is chosen.
The most useful benefit in engaging with other groups in swordplay is experience. It introduces the fencer to another approach to the same or similar weapons that the individual may not have experienced before. All which is learnt in this particular scenario is useful for the future of the fencer regardless of whether any blades are actually crossed. This leads to another aspect of the experience in that not all groups will have the same approach in their training or their goals and seeing swordplay from a different perspective can also be useful for a different approach in their own dealings. No group should be judged from the outside, all have something to share with regard to this, and the experience of engaging with these other groups can only be of benefit to the fencer and the wider fencing community.
In that even sword groups who share the same weapons do not train the same and sometimes they do not even have the same overriding principles behind their swordplay, the experience of crossing blades with different schools can show the fencer different problems and approaches which can be presented in the actual form and conduct of combat. This can only benefit the fencer as it may give them some ideas about how to solve similar problems in future encounters with other fencers as well.
Experience in crossing blades with other schools gives some idea about how they approach the combat form and this can be intellectually stimulating in a big way, especially if the system being used is different from the system that the fencer is most commonly used to. This experience can open new ideas about how the weapon can be moved and also how the body can be moved in concert with the weapon.
Elements from other schools can even be incorporated into our own fencing allowing a broadening of the style being used and this is most useful. It is useful as it increases the knowledge of the weapon and also gives the fencer the benefit of a different point of view. All this can be useful if the fencer is willing to use it.
There are some schools of swordplay which have a very rigid approach and there are others which are much more relaxed and fluid in their styles. Both types of school have benefit to the fencer and the wider community. A school may have chosen to focus only on one weapon form or even a single teacher in a single weapon form. Regardless of how rigid the school is knowledge can be gained about ....
The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...
It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV
... or direct from the author.
About Me
- Henry Walker
- Either an author who fences, or a fencer who tends to write a lot. I found a passion for writing first, then I found fencing. I also found that the pen and the sword work very well together. The pen may be mightier than the sword but together they are much greater.
I agree wholeheartedly with this idea. I have found that my style has changed, and on average improved, when I have fenced with people from different groups, different codes and different styles.
ReplyDeleteFor example, one of the schools I played with recently are big fans of sniping legs. This prompted me to consider how open I leave my legs since most of the opponents I face do not snipe legs, yet in Real Life Combat, it is hard to move once your legs are gone. In this other school, a leg shot was seen as fatal, which is very similar to the SCA's cut and thrust.
I also gained when looking at long sword and how that can change the aspect of sword play. The teacher in that code used a quite different code to that which I normally play, thus shifting the bias of moves.
I have even found that dancing styles can influence the way in which you move. A good cha cha or rhomba moves your hips quite a bit, while modern dance changes the perceived plane of gravity, each lending quite a different form of movement on the field.
Just my 2 cents.
Pantera
I could not agree more. I do notice that you've worded all this very carefully, I presume to keep local politics out of it as much as possible. (Well done on that note, by the way - I am rarely able to be so tactful, and generally have to refrain from discussion to avoid putting my foot in my enormous mouth).
ReplyDeleteI particularly like this point: 'Threats about brutalising or mishandling a style due to its contact with others should be put behind for the experience gained by the fencer in the approach to the swordplay.' It is so easy to get caught up in the idea of following one master, or one style, and maintaining some kind of 'purity' (a concept which I suspect is in part borrowed from some EMA traditions, and from the Hollywood idea of the 'perfect fighting art'). I think people often forget (or don't realise) that the only way the masters became masters was by fencing as much as they could and, often, by studying with many other masters and synthesising the ideas they learnt from others into their own practise.
I always get the feeling that the only person who ever fenced EXACTLY according to, for example, Thibault's book was Thibault himself, and probably even then not all of the time.
Anyway, those are just some of my occasionally-not-completely-informed opinions, such as they are. This is a very considered and insightful post, as usual. Looking forward to the next one =)
- Delia
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments. I have always felt that we all need to get out there and engage with others in order to expand our knowledge of the sword arts, regardless of our origins.
@Delia: Yup, keeping politics was a part of the plan. If I want to talk something SCA or otherwise I will say so, but in general I tend to aim the blogs at a more general sort of audience, hence a lack of finger-pointing or name-calling in the blogs. I just hope people find some use in what I write.