page5
Acta Periodica Duellatorum, Conference Proceedings
119
III.2.
Technical Fitness
This is obviously the primary aspect that comes to mind; wielding historical weapons
requires specific techniques, and techniques can be further differentiated by reference to
the situation in which they are meant to be applied: whether in the context of friendly
training in a salle, in a judicial duel, a tournament, a battle, or self-defence.
5
It is the general opinion of the community that the Fechtbücher on which the various
instructors build their interpretations do not show basic fencing – the basic skills
presumably would have been acquired informally in the course of growing up in a
society where everyone was, and was expected to be, armed and capable of elementary
self-defence. The Fechtbücher elaborate advanced techniques, sometimes with the flavour
of a trick or gimmick, in others as part of a structured and advancing curriculum.
6
A hotly debated point of contention in the HEMA community is whether today’s
tournament fencers have attained a level of skill where they are able to correctly use
advanced techniques in a bout. No doubt there is much dismal fencing on display, but
in the authors’ view and experience, there are ever more instances where a fencer
correctly assessed the tactical situation in order to apply the correct advanced technique,
and was able to do so effectively (in the sense of landing a clean hit) in terms of
technical execution, speed and force.
7
The definition of “advanced technique”, it must
be noted, is highly variable, but here is used as shorthand for an exchange of several
blows where both fencers use specifically named techniques from a manual in an attack-
counter-counter format, or technically difficult single intention attacks.
Anne-Caroline
Le
Coultre
and
Mathijs
Roelofsen
of
Unil’AMHE
(University
of
Lausanne) as well as Jack Gassmann of Artes Certaminis (Gais AR) were on the floor of
the
lecture
hall
to
explain
and
demonstrate
various
techniques,
supplemented
by
illustrations
from
historical
fencing
manuals
and
shots
from
recent
tournaments
showing specific techniques in action. As is made evident by the pictures shown below,
this part cannot sensibly be replicated here – we appreciate that the depictions are likely
baffling to the uninitiate. Nothing can replace guided practice. However, during the
sparring presentation, the fencers did display interpretations of techniques such as
Absetzen, Schielhau, Zwerchhau and Sturzhau with success and relative ease.
5
See
e.g.
Terminiello,
Gaiani;
Chandler,
Autobiographies,
describes
and
analyses
the
violent
altercations Benvenuto Cellini got into, as well as the much more cautious ones of Bartholomäus
Sastrow from Stralsund, as a mirror of the reality of civilian use of arms in the 16
th
C.
6
The 3
rd
International HEMA Gathering in St. Cergue, Switzerland, in January 2017, organised
by GAGSchola from Geneva, focussed on this complex. This raises the question of the role
played by Fechtbücher in the transmission process, addressed for instance in Jaquet, Combattre En
Armure, pp. 79-124.
7
See Kristian Ruokonen, “There is no technique in tournaments” – Kristian Ruokonen’s video response (17
April
2017,
<https://www.reddit.com/r/wma/comments/65uqex/theres_no_technique_in_
tournaments_kristian/> [queried 15 May 2017].