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Fighting with the Longsword: Modern-day HEMA Practices
IV.2.2.
Codex Guelph
27
This rule set sets out a Gang system; each fighter has five strikes, and when the first
fighter has landed five strikes, the Gang ends. A “strike” is defined as a fighter’s blade
hitting the opponent’s blade or the opponent. The Gang is not interrupted if one of the
fighters is hit; the hits are simply counted, and at the end of the Gang, the fighter with
the most hits wins.
The challenge of the rule set is the following: If one fighter lands a clean hit with the
first strike, all that fighter need do is to parry the remaining four strikes in order to win
the Gang. So the other fighter will need to avoid the first fighter’s blade and seek to land
a clean hit without parry.
IV.2.3.
Manciolino
28
Manciolino proposes weighted scoring for sparring bouts, but an at first blush counter-
intuitive one: Hits to the head count three points, hits to the arms, torso and legs one
point, and hits to the feet two points; hits to the hands garner no points. Manciolino
argues that the clean hit to the feet is technically so challenging that it should be
rewarded.
This is in direct contrast to Manciolino’s recommendations for the serious fight – in
those
situations,
he
recommends
attempting
strikes
to
the
opponent’s
hands
by
preference.
IV.3.
Evaluation
The common feature of these selected historical rule sets is their artificiality – there is
no effort to imitate a “realistic” fight. The masters who formulated these rule sets lived
in times when the sword was still a current weapon, and fights risking life and limb
were, if not a daily occurrence, still a real risk, whether by way of self-defence, duel or
war.
In our view, our ancestors’ concern was to incentivise fighters to favour technique and
tactics, and they must have believed that their rule sets, each in its own way, promoted
these goals. They were certainly expert enough to be able to evaluate both the practical
needs of their pupils and the training required to get them there.
We also need to bear in mind that at the time these rule sets were created, fencing in a
salle, school or club was practiced by burghers who had a day-time job, often one which
involved working with their hands. Neither they nor the fencing master could afford the
27
This rule set was developed by Szabolcs Waldmann from research on city fencing rules, and
presented at Swordfish in 2011.
28
Interpreted from Manciolino’s Opera nova, pp. 3-7.