Check Your Height

Greetings,

Much has been said in various manuals and treatises about the combat of the short fencer against the tall fencer and also vice versa. These are considerations of note and need to be taken into account. What does not seem to appear all that often are considerations of teaching a shorter or taller student and how this may change the approach that the teacher might take. This is something which needs to be considered as this will affect how the individual will be effective with their weapon.

Being a taller person, actions are performed in a particular way, and tactics are appropriate to a particular method. These are not so much for a shorter person. Thus as a taller person who is teaching people who are shorter, these things need to be taken into account. This is vital otherwise we are teaching the shorter person simply that they will be less effective because they are shorter and cannot do what the taller people can do, and this does everyone concerned a disservice.

What is ironic is that most people assume that because taller people have the length that they have the advantage, this is not necessarily the case. If a person who is shorter than their opponent extends their weapon from their shoulder, they will be directing their point toward the target area of the opponent.  If a taller person extends their weapon from their shoulder, they may be directing their point over the head of their opponent. By having to drop the point down, length is lost due to the change in angle from the right angle at origin to an acute angle. The same reason a person may safely stop-hit at the face while keeping their leg free from attack. This is also something that should be taken into account.

In teaching the height of the individual must be taken into account, especially if there is a marked difference in height between the trainer and student. There is little point in teaching a short person to fight like a tall person as they do not have the reach, and there is not much greater advantage of the reverse because then the taller person will not learn to use the advantage of their reach. Actions which rely on an individual being a particular height as compared to their opponent should be examined, as many of them will not be as effective, and in some cases effective at all when the fencer is shorter. It is at this point in time that the trainer needs to change tact to suit the student.

A cut delivered vertically designed to clear or at least block the opponent's weapon while striking them is an excellent attack and works beautifully when executed properly, when the fencer is the same height or taller than the opponent. When the fencer is shorter, the angles are changed. The sword will connect further up on the weapon and so will not have the strength to do the job designed and the striking part of the weapon is less likely to strike the opponent due to length. The result is that this technique is not as effective, if at all. The trainer thus needs to find an alternative, such as stepping off-line and striking the arm, or stepping off-line and coming upward and underneath to strike the flank. This is only one example, there are many more.

Both teachers and students need to take height differences into account, not only from the point of view of combat situations, but also from a teaching point of view. A shorter or taller student is going to result in different angles as a result of their height. These are going to have to be taken into account in their training, and some actions will have to be modified. A good teacher will look at this as just another challenge to be surmounted in the adventure of teaching.

Cheers,

Henry.

Human Bodies: It's Just a Shoulder... No It's Not

Greetings,

The following article is going to get all anatomical. For those who are waiting for my Part 2 about Females and Combat Training, this is not it, you are just going to have to wait. This article will be addressing some of the parts of the body which we assume that we all know about, but actually do not know as much as they thought. In my case, it was necessary that I learn about these things due to various medical conditions and to understand how to maximise my abilities. Another important thing, I do not have any sort of medical degree or medical training, I just want to point out some stuff that people may not realise.

So, you are fencing away with a friend and you get hit in the area around your shoulder. To be more precise, a couple of inches inside where the ball-joint of your shoulder is. According to SCA rules that is a "killing blow" and you are out, it may not be according to other rules. This discussion will examine why this shot would most likely be a killing blow in the period in which swords were most prevalent, but before this we are going to have a look at breathing.

Lungs

Human lungs showing lobes
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2312_Gross_Anatomy_of_the_Lungs.jpg

Your average adult does not utilise all of their lungs when they breathe. In fact they only utilise about 66% of their lungs when they breathe. This is because they have not learnt how to use all of the upper lobes of the lungs. Lobes? Ok, so the lungs are divided into five lobes, three on the right and two on the left. For the most part people are content to use all of their middle and lower lobes and some of their upper lobes.

This means that they are not utilising nor gaining all of the advantage of their lungs. Of course to gain access to these extra parts of the lungs takes practice. One way to access part of them is to lift your arms above your head and place your hands on top of your head. Sportsmen do this in a passive fashion. People with lung complaints, be it sickness or injury learn to utilise various parts of their lungs due to practice. It takes a lot of concentration.

Lungs and Combat

What has this got to do with the previous conversation about the "shoulder" shot? Well, examining the lungs as they are separate from the body does not help with allowing us to see how they are situated in the body. So, we need to have a look at how the lungs, complete, sit within the body to see how this is going to affect a shot which is made against the torso.

Lungs in the torso
http://www.naturallivingideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/lungs-2.jpg

What can be seen in the image is that the lungs actually cover a much wider area that previously thought. Pretty much all that is rib-cage, protects lungs, except for the much lower parts which protect the liver and other parts from the rear. Pay special attention to how close the lung is to the "shoulder" area. This anatomical model does not actually fit the internal structure all that well, but you get the idea. A shot to the "shoulder" has a likelihood of striking the lung. Not a good prognosis for living in the Renaissance period.

"Shoulder" Hit

So, now we will have a closer look at the subclavian area, for this so-called "shoulder" hit and see exactly what can be hit should a weapon strike this area. Even if the lung is not struck the combatant will still be left in a very sorry state.

The right shoulder
http://www.maropice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/large-intestine-anatomy-luxury-anatomy-subclavian-vein-left-subclavian-vein-anatomy-of-large-intestine-anatomy.jpg

What can be seen in this graphic is that the pink area is all lungs and other associated breathing apparatus. The red lines are arteries, i.e. coming from the heart, and the blue lines are veins, coming back to the heart. Just in case you did not know the carotid artery is the one which carries blood to your brain. The subclavian artery is the one which supplies blood to the arm. Needless to say if any of these are struck the combatant would be in real trouble.

Conclusion

Much more could be said on this subject, but it was designed to simply point out some elements of note for people to understand. Breathing exercises will improve the efficiency of your lung use and will enable you to fence longer. It is also a useful skill to have in case you are not able to use some part of your chest or lungs due to illness or injury. Talk to a medical professional or physiotherapist or someone similar about breathing exercises, you can only try them and find out.

This has been a very brief anatomy lesson with regard to the lungs and the shoulder. There are other systems which are damaged when the shoulder is struck by a sword, such as nerves and muscles, however to keep this a little more succinct I decided to go for the elements which would have the greatest impact. When fencing, consider what you are fencing with and what the actual impact of a real weapon of that kind would do to the part of the body that just got struck. For starters, it will help improve your defense and that can only be a good thing. Hopefully it will also make you really appreciate the martial side of the combats you are involved in. [Edited: Thanks Beth Tobin for the correction about the number of lobes and their location]