Footwork Drill

1. Passing Left & Passing Right
2. Passing back
3. From Guardia Alta, pass with your right foot into large pace, throwing a mandritto to the head ending in Sotto il Bracchio. Redouble with a riverso ending in Coda Lunga Stretta as the left foot comes behind to complete the pass.
4. From Guardia Alta, pass with your right foot, and throw a mandritto to the leg ending in Sotto il Braccio. Traverse left and throw a riverso to the face, ending in Coda Lunga Alta.
5. From Guardia Alta, throw a mandritto to the head that ends in Sopra il Braccio. Slip the right foot back to the left, then pass right, lifting the hand into Guardia d’Alicorno and then throwing a mandritto to the face, ending in Sotto il Braccio.
6. From Guardia Alta, throw a mandritto to the head that ends in Sotto il Braccio. Redouble with a rising riverso to the sword hand ending in Guardia di Testa.

Concept 1 – Gathering Footwork

All our footwork thus far has revolved around the use of passing footwork, with particular emphasis on getting the angled step with the passing step. We mostly do it this way to avoid the direct counter attack, which the geometry of the passing step provides.

To move directly forward, Bolognese swordsmanship employs a very particular style of footwork, based on the gathering step. The gathering step (or gather forward) is where from our passo largo stance we bring the rear foot forwards to the front feet assuming passo stretto. This gather forward brings the feet together, but doesn’t bring the torso into out opponent’s death bubble. This gathering step is then immediately followed by a step forward with out other foot, returning us passo largo. Effectively we have stolen distance with the gathering step, allowing us to quickly punch forward with an attack. This footwork is the foundation of one of the few Bolognese combinations to have it’s own name – elsa e tira (to ward and to throw). Used defensively the sequence is called else e fugie (to ward and overthrow / put to flight)

Gathering Footwork

1. Gather the rear foot forwards to the front foot, ending in passo stretto. Do not let the body move forwards.
2. Step forward with the other foot into passo largo.
3. Continue forwards down the hall. When you reach the far wall, pivot on your feet so that you face the opposite direction.
4. Repeat the gathering steps back down the hall. (It’s now being done with the opposite feet.)

Elsa e Tira with Gathering Footwork

1. Start in Porta di Ferro Larga (sword foot forwards, point down with the hand inside the front leg).
2. Gather forwards with the rear foot throwing falso manco to Guardia Alta in passo stretto. That is a false edge cut travelling up the mandritto cutting line (B to A.)
3. Step forwards with the front foot, throwing riverso (C to D) to Coda Lunga Stretta.
4. Gather forwards with the rear foot throwing falso dritto to Guardia Alta (D to C).
5. Step forwards with the front foot and throw mandritto (A to B) to Porta di Ferro Larga.
6. Repeat from 1, travelling down the hall.

Teaching Note

The elsa e tira sequence should be one smooth fluid cutting sequence. The tip of the sword follows the path of a large charity ribbon shape, going up one leg of the ribbon and down the other leg.

The rear foot doesn’t change orientation, but maintains the outwards pointing angle. It also gathers up besides the front foot, not into the heel of the front foot. Remember we are supposed to have some space between the feet in our stances, not heels in line.

Revision Exercise

Buckler Parry

1. Both start in Guardia Alta in passo stretto. (That is with the feet close together.)
2. The opponent throws mandritto to the head of the defender on a right pass.
3. The defender extends the buckler into the opponent’s sword hand on a left passing step, parrying the blow. The forearm should be rotated during the action so that the buckler handle crosses the line of the opponent’s sword as this gives the strongest parry. The buckler thumb is typically at about 2 o’clock.
4. Repeat 5 times, ensuring the buckler crosses the line of the sword in each instance.
5. Repeat the sequence with the opponent throwing fendente, riverso and rising riverso with 5 repetitions of each.

Concept 2 – False Edge (Falso) Parries

Falso Parry as an Extension to Guardia di Faccia

1. Attacker in Guardia Alta, Defender in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
2. Attacker throws a mandritto to the head on a pass left.
3. Defender parries by extending into Guardia di Faccia on a pass left, hitting the incoming blade with their false edge. The blade should be angled gently upwards to provide a ramp for the incoming blade to slide down, so that it is stopped by the back arm of the cross. If the timing was right it may also act as an impulse beat, sending the sword away to the outside line.
4. Repeat 5 times, and then repeat for a fendente thrown from Guardia Alta and a riverso thrown from Sopra il Braccio.

Teaching Note

The action is best thought of as a counterattack to the opponent’s sword hand and right temple. The extension into Guardia di Faccia should bring your sword all the way across so that the false edge (ie back edge) is completely closing your outside line. The step left increases our safety, by moving us away from the outside line, and helps accelerate the sword due to the turn of the hips. This turn, together with the turning of the hand from palm down to palm up during the parry is what makes the increase in tempo necessary to intercept the incoming blade.

Falso Parry as a Transition to Sopra il Braccio

1. Attacker in Guardia Alta, Defender in Porta di Ferro Stretta.
2. Attacker throws a mandritto to the head on a pass right.
3. Defender parries by cutting from right to left with the false edge on a pass left, hitting the incoming blade with their false edge, ending in Sopra il Braccio. The blade should be angled gently upwards to provide a ramp for the incoming blade to slide down, so that it is stopped by the angle between the sword and buckler. If the timing was right it may also act as an impulse beat, sending the sword away to the inside line.
4. Repeat 5 times, and then repeat for a fendente thrown from Guardia Alta.

Teaching Note

The action really is as simple as just sliding the flat of our sword’s forte across the top edge of the buckler, to transition from Porta di Ferro Stretta to Sopra il Braccio. The idea is to try and whip the back edge tip of the sword into the opponent’s hand or the forte of the sword, and have it travel down their sword towards the tip. This collects the opponents sword and causes it to travel down the defensive ramp to be collected at the intersection of our sword and buckler.

This parry does not work well against the riverso, because of the lack of crossing action against the incoming blow.

Falso Parry From Guardia di Testa with a Slip

1. Attacker in Guardia Alta, Defender in Guardia di Testa, right foot forward.
2. Attacker throws a mandritto on a pass right.
3. Defender parries by slipping the right foot back to the left, bringing the sword vertical and touching the face of the buckler with the false edge in front of the left shoulder. The false edge should catch the incoming blow, trapping it on the intersection of sword and buckler. The sword hand should be below the buckler.
4. Repeat 5 times, and then repeat for a fendente thrown from Guardia Alta.

Teaching Note

This parry is one I describe as the baby grab parry, and is taken from Manciolino’s first assault. The action of pulling sword and buckler back in front of the left shoulder is the same as when a baby grabs something and pulls it to them. I usually teach this with a call of “Mine” as I make the parry. The sword must be vertical in front of the buckler, and to the left of the boss on the buckler if you have one, so that the inside line is completely closed by the sword and buckler. The slip back is used to increase our safety margin, and to give us a little bit of extra time getting into the parry position. Whilst it may not seem like a transition to a parry as described, it actually continue with the riposte into Sotto il Braccio, riposting from there with either a montante or a rising riverso.

This parry is also not used against the riverso, as we would just parry that with Guardia di Testa, our starting position!

Summary

In this lesson we have seen us use footwork to both move away from the incoming blow, and to choke it up before it comes to full power. We have also used the slip to increase the tempo providing us more time within which to parry.

We have also seen 3 different types of parries, all of which are transitions to one of our known Guardia positions. This is an important concept to understand, as we “must attack to a place we can defend from, and defend from a place we can attack from”. These positions are the starting guardia with which we are familiar.