Lesson 17 – Spadone vs Sword

Ok so the last class of term rolls around and we're dealing with temperatures in excess of 30°C! That meant we did a different class to what should have been a bouting practice class, because I wasn't going to let people armour up in that sort of weather. So what we did was look at some basic concepts behind spadone versus single handed sword. It's really an applied class for the drilling work we've been doing for weeks.

Countering the Parry of Guardia di Testa

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent parries with Guardia di Testa.
4. Blow fails, attacker retreats back out of distance.

This first drill is about showing how the guy with a single handed sword must defend themselves using a committed parry structure. The force behind the spadone blow will smash through any improperly formed guard. What the students learnt here is that fully committed defensive structure gave the spadone wielder a free tempo to redouble their blows, which is what the next drill is all about.

Redoubled Blow Against a Committed Parry

1. Attacker repeats mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind
2. Opponent parries with Guardia di Testa
3. As we see the extension into the parry, beat sword to left by pushing pommel under arm to throw mandritto falso tondo. Rebouble with tondo to head or body.
4. Opponent takes the hit
5. Attacker retreats out of measure.

So what we saw here was the ease with which we could defeat the committed parry. The students then decided that the committed parry was a sub-optimal solution for the swordsman, so they decided they'd try a beat parry instead, stepping into the spadone blow to meet it before it comes to full force.

Redoubled Blow Against the Closing Beat Parry

First we practised the actual parry whilst stepping inwards…

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent parries with mezzo mandritto, gathering or passing forward to meet the blow.
4. Blow fails, attacker retreats back out of distance.
5. Opponent attempts to riposte with riverso to head.

The opponents actually managed to get the occassional parry & riposte to land so they were emboldened by this success. This was when I informed them of the one small issue they have, which is the speed with which the spadone can redirect, and it's superior leverage…

1. Attacker repeats mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind
2. Opponent parries with mezzo mandritto
3. As we see the forward movement into the parry, beat sword to left by redirecting the mandritto towards the debole of the opponent's sword. Rebouble with tondo to head or body.
4. Opponent takes the hit
5. Attacker retreats out of measure.

The students suddenly realised that the spadone has superior leverage, and the ease with which you could redirect the blade meant that the mezzo mandritto was not a safe parry at all. It was at this point one bright spark said that it was impossible to get the forte into the parry with a mezzo mandritto, so we should parry stepping in with the hanging parry instead. So we had a look!

Redoubled Blow Against the Closing Hanging Parry

Looking to be able to close with a hanging parry, we had the opponent switch to Coda Lunga Stretta, which allowed them to gether in or pass in with Guardia d'Alicorno as the parry, which continues as a tramazzone to riposte to the head.

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Coda Lunga Stretta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent parries with Guardia d'Alicorno, gathering or passing forward to meet the blow.
4. Blow fails, attacker retreats back out of distance.
5. Opponent throws tramazzone to riposte to the head.

Again, the opponent's had the occassional riposte success, and then I asked the question regarding whether the spadone wielder would just blindly continue the blow, or would they capitalise on the weakness of Guardia d'Alicorno? Again leverage with the spadone becomes our friend…

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Coda Lunga Stretta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent parries with Guardia d'Alicorno, gathering or passing forward to meet the blow.
4. As we see the forward movement into the parry, redirect the mandritto towards the opponent's leg, cutting through the debole of the opponent's sword. Rebouble with tondo to head or body.
5. Opponent takes the hit
6. Attacker retreats out of measure.

By redirecting the mandritto towards the leg, aiming to cut through the opponent's debole, we end up with a huge leverage difference. That difference is the oppoenent's thumb trying to oppose the lever we have between our two hand with the spadone hilt. It's an order of magnitude in difference, and the student's all found that their parry collapsed under the redirected attack. This redirected attack was effectively taking people off at the knee, and they found it disturbing how easily the redirection could be done.

Countering the Spadone With a Strong Cut From Guardia Alta

I then posed the question, what's the weakness of the cut from the spadone? They all quickly understood I was talking about the downwards momentum of the cut, which they already knew can be difficult to control. We can capitalise on this by adding to the momentum…

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Guardi Alta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent traverses right, hitting the spadone downwards with a strong mandritto or fendente.
4. Blow is driven downwards into the ground, attacker typically loses their grip with the front hand.
5. Opponent riposte with a blow to the exposed body or head.

Everybody loved the way this action nearly completely beats the spadone out of the hands of the attacker! This was when I asked, are we as spadone users smart or stupid? What do we know about dealing with Guardia Alta from our other studies? That's when I got the answer that if it was sword & buckler, we should be attacking the hand, which is exactly what I wanted to hear! (Yeah I've got some smart students who are really starting to put the pieces together!)

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Guardi Alta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto to the opponent's sword wrist from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent traverses right, attempting to hit the spadone downwards with a strong mandritto or fendente.
4. Attacker hits to the hand with the original mandritto by redirecting the blow sideways, and then reboubles with a second blow.
5. Opponent takes the hits, and the attacker retreats out of distance.

Attacking at the sword wrist just shuts down the strong cut out of Guardia Alta. I even saw a few times students throwing the initial attack a bit slower to encourage the counterattack, just so that they could redirect the cut into the wrist as the opponent started to throw their blow. It really brought home that the spadone user can't just be a guy relying on force to win, they can also be really smart about it.

What if I Attack into the Cut With an Extended Thrust?

It was at this point that one of my students came up with the clever idea of using the counterthrust to attack into the cut from the spadone wielder. The thinking being that the extended point would give the reach to defeat the attack from the spadone.

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Guardi Alta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent passes forward and left, counterthrusting in Guardia di Faccia with the the edge turned upwards to close the line as they hit.
4. Attacker takes the hit, with the opponent withdrawing back and right behind the extended point.

Seems easy when you write it, but the opponent needed to really commit to the closing action. Most of the time the spadone wielder would subconsciously redirect their cut inwards collecting the incoming thrust and still hitting the opponent without being hit. So we changed up the footwork to give the opponent extra tempo through am increase in measure.

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Guardi Alta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent slips back closing the inside line with a mezzo mandritto, immediately following with step in thrusting to the chest or head as the spadone passes through to the ground.
4. Attacker takes the hit, with the opponent withdrawing back and right behind the extended point.

Except We Can Easily Defeat the Counterthrust

The slip back had one fatal flaw, it also gives the spadone wielder a tempo within which they can react, and their greater reach proves fatal…

1. Attacker with spadone, opponent with single handed sword in Guardi Alta.
2. Attacker throws mandritto from Right Guard, Point Behind.
3. Opponent slips back closing the inside line with a mezzo mandritto, immediately following with step in thrusting to the chest or head as the spadone passes through to the ground.
4. As the opponent slips back, the attacker also slips back changing the mandritto into a single handed thrust by letting go with the right hand.
5. Opponent takes hit either directly or as they start to move forward with their attack.
6. Attacker retreats back, pulling the spadone back into a point forward guard.

The students taking the role of the swordsman all quickly found they couldn't stop the thrust single from the spadone. The biggest complaint was the lack of time to react, with the spadone just moving too fast to prevent the thrust from landing.

Summing Up

The guy with the spadone has a huge advantage in reach, leverage, momentum and initiative. The guy with the sword is at a major disadvantage, especially if the spadone guy is sensible with his actions. As we saw, the clever man can easily deal with anything the guy with a sword can throw at you, which just goes to point out why the spadone was such an effective battlefield weapon.

Lesson 16 – Thrust Provocactions

This lesson builds on Lesson 4 where we used the initial imbroccata thrust as a feint. This time we'll be using the same sort of action as a provocation, with the action setting up the molinetto in 2nd intention.

Revision

1. Thrust in 2nd Intention
2. Thrust in 2nd Intention on a Pass
3. Low Line Thrust in 2nd Intention
4. Low Line Thrust in 2nd Intention on a Pass

Thrust Provocations with Cuts in 2nd Intention

The imbrocatta thrust from either the point forward or hanging guards can be readily turned into a redoubled cut. We can use this imbrocatta  action to provoke a response from our opponent, opening them up for the redoubled cut.

Thrust & Riverso

1. From Left Hanging Guard, lean forwards and deliver imbrocatta to the chest.
2. Drop the tip and using the momentum to turn the sword through a circular cut deliver a riverso to the head.

Thrust and Mandritto

1. From Right Hanging Guard, lean forwards and deliver imbroccata to the chest.
2. Drop the tip and using the momentum to turn the the sword through a circular cut to deliver a mandritto to the head

Note: These two static footwork drills allow the students to learn how to turn the thrust into a cut.

Thrust and Redouble

This is a moving drill designed to teach the student to flow the thrust into the cut, and then into a hanging guard in defence.

1. From Right Hanging Guard, make a volta stabile forwards and deliver imbrocatta to the chest.
2. Drop the tip and using the momentum to turn a circular mandritto to the head on a right step forward. Make sure the step forward is performed in a true time with the forward motion of the mandritto.
3. Redouble with mandritto tondo without moving the feet.
4. Recover back with volta stabile to Left Hanging Guard.
5. Make a volta stabile forwards and deliver imbrocatta to the chest.
6. Drop the tip and using the momentum to turn a circular riverso to the head on the left step forward. Make sure the step forward is made in a true time with the forward motion of the riverso.
7. Redouble with riverso tondo without moving the feet.
8. Recover back to Right Hanging Guard.
9. Repeat from 1.

If space is limited turn to face the opposite direction in Left Guard, Point Forward and instead throw a riverso combination followed by a mandritto combination.

Bouting Practice

1 on 1, both with spadone

This is a limited target drill, where the targets are restricted to the head and forearms. Each fencer is using the spadone simulators, since we don't generally have enough protective armour to use the steel blunts.

2 on 1, with 2 using boffers

This bouting exercise is designed to teach the spadone wielder to use redoubled cuts against multiple opponents. Since the spadone wielder is using a shinai simulator, we used boffer swords instead to simulate the relative weakness the single handed swords have against the spadone.

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Lesson 15 – The Thrust in 2nd Intention

Whilst we have briefly touched on this in the past, the thrust is also a devastating redoubled attack with the spadone. The only caveat is that this technique is really for one on one fights, not for melee. Most authors recommend the thrust be omitted from melee situations as the flow of the spadone can be broken quite easily during the thrust.

Thrust on 2nd Intention Partner Drill

This drill is taken directly from Alfieri's Lo Spadone, Chapter 10.

1. Both start in Right Guard, Point Behind.
2. Attacker throws a mandritto on a right step to the head.
3. Defender parries with Left Head Guard, turning the vita into the parry with a volta stabile.
4. Attacker rolls the hands up anti-clockwise to deliver an imbroccata to the head, lengthening the right step into a lunge.
5. Repeat 5 times then switch roles.
6. Switch to Left Guard, Point Behind, throwing riverso and rolling up clockwise to deliver an imbroccata to the head on a left step. Repeat 5 times each.

Thrust in 2nd Intention on a Pass Partner Drill

1. Both start in Right Guard, Point Behind.
2. Attacker throws a mandritto on a right pass to the head.
3. Defender parries with Left Head Guard, turning the vita into the parry with a volta stabile.
4. Attacker rolls the hands up anti-clockwise to deliver an imbroccata to the head, whilst completing the corrective step.
5. Repeat 5 times then switch roles.
6. Switch to Left Guard, Point Behind, throwing riverso and rolling up clockwise to deliver an imbroccata to the head on a left pass. Repeat 5 times each.

Thrust in Low Line on 2nd Intention Partner Drill

1. Both start in Right Guard, Point Behind.
2. Attacker throws a rising mandritto on a right step to the flank.
3. Defender parries with rising mandritto, turning the vita into the parry with a volta stabile.
4. Attacker rolls the hands up anti-clockwise to deliver a stoccata to the belly, lengthening the right step into a lunge.
5. Repeat 5 times then switch roles.
6. Switch to Left Guard, Point Behind, throwing rising riverso and rolling up clockwise to deliver a stoccata to the belly on a left step. Repeat 5 times each.

Thrust in Low Line 2nd Intention on a Pass Partner Drill

1. Both start in Right Guard, Point Behind.
2. Attacker throws a rising mandritto on a right pass to the flank.
3. Defender parries with a rising mandritto, turning the vita into the parry with a volta stabile.
4. Attacker rolls the hands up anti-clockwise to deliver a stoccata to the belly, whilst completing the corrective step.
5. Repeat 5 times then switch roles.
6. Switch to Left Guard, Point Behind, throwing riverso and rolling up clockwise to deliver an stoccata to the belly on a left pass. Repeat 5 times each.

Controlled Bouting

1. In pairs with one person designated as attacker, and one as defender.
2. Attacker attempts to hit to arms and body with redoubled attacks.
3. Defender attempts to hit with parry riposte or counterattacks to arms or head.

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Lesson 12 – More Molinelli Applications

This lesson builds on the work from the previous lesson with molinelli. In this one we look at the horizontal molinelli applications which provide different results than the vertical molinelli of the previous lesson.

Molinelli Revision

1. From each guard descending true edge molinello on a pass
2. From each guard rising true edge molinello on a pass
3. From each forward guard true edge molinello on a crosswise pass
4. From each rear guard false edge lead descending molinello on a pass

False Edge Molinelli Deflection

1. From Right Guard, Point Forward against the mandritto cut falso dritto to Right Head Guard on a volta stabile and continue the horizontal molinetto into a mandritto on a right step forward.
2. From Left Guard, Point Forward against the riverso cut falso manco to Left Head Guard on a vlota stabile and continue the horizontal molinetto into a riverso on a left step forward.

Expulsions

1. From Right Guard, Point Forward against the riverso cut mezzo riverso to Right Head Guard, and then push the tip over the sword and down sweeping with the false edge to the left (mandritto tondo falso) to expel the sword and then return with a riverso tondo to the flank.
2. From Right Guard, Point Forward against the mandritto cut mezzo mandritto falso and then push the tip over the sword and down sweeping the true edge to the right (riverso tondo) to expel the sword and then return with a mandritto tondo falso to the flank.
3. From Left Guard, Point Forward against the mandritto cut mezzo mandritto to left Head Guard and then push the tip over the sword and down sweeping the false edge to the right to expel the sword and then return with a mandritto tondo to the flank.
4. From Left Guard, Point Forward against the riverso cut mezzo riverso falso and then push the tip over and down sweeping the true edge to the left to expel the sword and then return with a riverso tondo falso to the flank.

Defence of the Bridge

1. Two on one drill, the two using single handed swords at either end, with the spadone wielder in the centre.
2. Spadone wielder uses pass and turn with molinelli to to keep the swordsmen from crossing.
3. Swordsmen attempt to hit the spadone wielder with a good down right blow.

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Lesson 10 – Reinforcing the Parry – Riposte response

This is a follow on of the most common error seen in the restricted bouting session at the end of Term 1, that being the delay in the riposte after a parry.

Warm ups

• Attack and recover to Hanging Guard
• Eight Cuts parry drill

Serpentines as Parry Riposte Partner Drill

1. Paired drill, both starting in Right Guard, Point Behind
2. Attacker steps in throwing mandritto to the head.
3. Defender parries with Left Head Guard, and then ripostes with riverso to the head. This action makes the tip of the sword travel in an S-shape, and hence is called a serpentine.
4. Repeat 5 times then switch roles.
5. Repeat the sequence for riverso, rising mandritto and rising riverso with each blow being countered by serpentine parry riposte.

Note: The rising cut riposte is to the lower body.

Parry with Hanging Guard – Riposte with Thrust

1. Paired drill, both starting in Right Guard, Point Behind.
2. Attacker steps in throwing mandritto to the head.
3. Defender parries with a rising mandritto to Hanging Guard on a traverse left with the left foot.
4. Riposte with an imbroccata on the right step.
5. Repeat 5 times each.
6. Repeat from Left Guard, Point Behind throwing riversi.
7. Repeat from start, this time the attacker parries the imbroccata with the defender taking the energy to turn a mollineto to the head.

Parry behind extended sword on a slip

1. Paired drill, both starting in Left Head Guard.
2. Attacker throws riverso to the head on a left step.
3. Defender slips back the right foot, extending the point into Guardia di Croce. (Line closed to the right)
4. Riposte with imbroccata on a right step forward.
5. Repeat 5 times each.
6. Repeat  from Right Head Guard, throwing mandritto and extending into Guardia di Faccia. (Line closed to the left)
7. Repeat from start, this time the attacker parries the imbroccata with the defender taking the energy to turn a mollineto to the head.  

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