THE NOT SO CRUELEST CUTS OF ALL

This past weekend I had the second week of my medieval fencing workshops at the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts.

We went through the stances and basic postas again and I felt myself getting confused at some of the stances. Each posta or guard, can be done on either side of the body, so left posta's are done with the right foot forward, left posta's are done with the right foot forward and I kept screwing them up. I found this a bit surprising, as I usually have no problem distinguishing left from right.

Marx was on the left. Jerry Falwell is on the right. See, I know this ...

Then our instructor started to take us through the various cuts with the sword, each cut coming from a posta and then returning it. I did well with the cuts, edge straight and stopping it right on the mark.

The posta's then began to make some kind of sense to me. Instead of being absract stances, they were for something.

Standing and holding the sword with the tip down and in front of you (boar's tooth) then opening your wrist to hold it to one side (left or right tail) or laying the edge of the sword across your shoulder, tip pointed back (women's guard) began to make sense when moving the sword up through all the points, so I was swinging it up around my head to guard or turn into an attack

Some directional confusion aside, I like the precision of it, the control you must exact on the blade. This isn't Hollywood fencing with its big fast sweeping movements that look so cool on the screen. This is all based on reality, interpreted from the l'arte dell'armizare, not a fanciful work of fiction, but a training manual for fighting. Not fencing, not sport, but fighting

The instructors are very good at always explaining the real life application of everything that we're doing. And I see the benefit of learning all these elements, the guards and thrusts and cuts, and learning them precisely; it can be a very fine thing, your grip on the hilt, the position of the "true" or cutting edge of the sword always being aware of your feet and where the sword is pointed and where you are holding the balance of your body

That balance, of course, is a bit of an issue with me and my not so bionic ankle. The instructor kept questioning why I was having trouble shifting weight from the rear foot to the front foot and I had to explain my situation; I sometimes felt that if I shifted the weight the way she wanted, Vic would be more Weeble than D'Artagnan. But let's face it, I could never pull off a Musketeer, my French accent is really really stinky

I have four sessions left and I know we will continue to work on our stances, guards, cuts etc. I don't expect any sparring, I don't believe that's covered in the course. I've earned a month of free formal lessons at the academy which covers grappling, dagger, sword etc. I'm hoping by the time I reach the end of this course that I'll be able to evaluate whether or not I have the physical capacity to continue

Gee, imagine me learning bare hand and dagger and sword ...

Be afraid. Be very afraid (Oh, that advise wasn't for people on the street, it was for the EMT's and ER wards of Toronto, they should really just clear their calendars)

WHY WOULD ANYONE GIVE ME A SWORD???

But they did. Give me a sword that is.
The "they" in question is the Academy of European Martial Arts based here in Toronto

AEMMA teaches, studies and competes in the form of medieval fencing known as l'arte dell 'armizare as chronicled in a 14th century manuscript by Fiore dei Liberi. This swordmaster laid out in detail, with illustrations, the tenets of grappling, dagger and sword fighting. The Academy teaches these disciplines as faithfully as possible
Which brings us to me. You know, the guy with the messed up ankle and the 50 something body who's major form of exercise is hoisting pints of beer .. hmmm .. does fencing require strong elbows?

OK, I'm not that bad, but seriously, I am not in the greatest of shape (remember, I sit on my bum for a living and no, I don't have any job openings just now). And that ankle is pretty much a mess. I know it can be more flexible but for sure there is a limit to that flexibility. The other issue I have is my balance. Like .. I really don't have it anymore. Once upon a time I was quick and I had good balance. I'm still fairly quick ... watch me pop the lid off this beer bottle.

Oh too bad. You blinked.

So anyway ... AEMMA offers all kinds of instructional variants, starting out with a apprentice style system and working your way up. Commitment to time and commitment to money. I found a way to test the waters as it were: A six week course offered through the ROM. A basic introduction to the the, um, basics that would allow to me A: see how my ankle would fare and B: just find out if I wanted to commit to further training.

It's not that I have failure to commit ... I wouldn't want to make that strong of a statement .. cause that would be .. well .. commiting.

I had my first class this past Saturday. The stated capacity of the class was supposed to be 20 students which I thought was pretty good. It got even better. There are five students and three instructors which is about as good a ratio for which you could ask.

And I'm probably going to need all the personal attention I can get.

The class is four guys and one girl, all of them of the age where they could call me Dad .. or maybe even Grandpa. Hell, the instructors could call me Grandpa. Hmm, I know online I must be able to buy a walker with a custom sword attachment

This first class covered the very basics, namely postures and the basic guards, called postes. Unlike formal European competition fencing, this form is based on the reality of the situation, it's not a sport, it's a defensive art form. So instead of moving in a straight line, the postes are designed to give you 360 degree protection from your enemies. With me, though, I found my enemies may need to give me a moment while I sort out my lefts from rights. It's not something I normally have issues with, but it's the point of the sword point always aimed at the person to whom you want to kill ... Which is funny, cuz the instructors seemed like such nice guys ..

I could see that once I became comfortable with these postes, that everything flows from them, including your attacks. There's a logic and precision in it that appeals to me so it all comes down to practise and execution ...

Um, perhaps "execution" is a bad choice of words when discussing swords

Stay tuned