JD Wiest
No seriously, what’s in a technique. A lot of times in historical martial arts we get caught up thinking about the literal interpretation of a technique. ‘When Ringeck says to spring with the zwerchau to the left side, is it literal, or is it figurative--What is a spring anyway.’ I guess a better way to frame the question is, why? What’s the tactic?
I did a thorough breakdown of Antonio Manciolino’s Sword and Large Buckler plays, and extracted the tactical insights from the techniques, and I would like to use that as a platform to share how you can take a handful of techniques and get a snapshot of the tactical framework of a system. Let’s dive in!
Book IV,Chapter I:
The lesson starts with a description of the approach and a provocation:
“Gather your right foot near your left, then step forward with your left foot, without delivering any attacks” As you press the opponent in this fashion, he will be forced to do one of two things: either attack you or retreat.”
From here Manciolino goes on to describe five distinct parries if your opponent decides to attack you in the timing of your step, and this begins with a simple thrust. The fascinating thing about this series is that all five parries seem to represent a falling order as your opponent comes closer and closer in measure. For example, if you’re just outside of measure as you begin your approach, and your opponent tries to catch you in the timing of your step you have plenty of distance to react, so the response is a simple step off line, parrying with the buckler, and a cut to the exposed sword arm. Safe and quick; because your opponent has reacted too soon, you have plenty of time to move your feet.
As the plays progress, and you have less and less time to react, the initial parry becomes more condensed. Where the first two plays have steps offline accompanied by big sweeping cuts or attacks to shallow targets, that we would call wide play actions, the third play commands a quick thrust beneath your buckler, and the fourth while still seeing a false edge parry to defend against the thrust, settles for a riverso to the legs that is followed by a thrust to regain the center line. The fifth play loses ground entirely, and forces you to make a true edge parry to close the line, and a slicing riverso across the face (Duplerin, yea?).
Pass with your right foot towards his left side, delivering a riverso to the sword arm in that tempo and letting your left foot follow behind the right; then, keep yourself safe by passing back with your right foot and setting yourself in Coda Lunga e Alta as above.
Or, you can throw your left foot towards his left, while jamming your false edge under his incoming attack; pass with your right foot towards his left side and deliver a mandritto to his left leg, letting your left foot follow behind your right. Then, throw your right foot back and perform a meza volta (half turn of the hand) with your sword hand, which will get you into the initial guard.
You could also pass with your right foot towards his left side, pushing a thrust to his flank and letting your left foot follow behind the right; then pass back with your right foot and comfortably recover into the initial guard.
You could also pass with your right foot forward somewhat to the opponent’s left, jamming your false edge (accompanied by your buckler) under his incoming thrust; then immediately strike his left leg with a riverso. Recover by passing back with your right foot and placing your sword in Guradia di Faccia, and finish by setting yourself in the initial guard.
Or, you could pass with your right foot forward somewhat towards the opponents left side , opposing his thrust with your true edge; then, turn a riverso to his face while passing back with your right foot. For your defense, end by pushing a thrust in Guardia di Faccia and recovering in Coda Lunga e Alta.
What are the tactical insights from this series of actions?
Change the line of attack: The buckler, more often than not, will dominate the center line. To create effective attacks, you have to use active footwork to flank the closed off center of your opponent.
Attack weak angles: While Manciolino doesn’t describe your opponent’s thrust in detail, we can assume it is probably a stocatta, with the sword below or to the side of the buckler. This means the hand is in a handshake, knuckles-down position, and the strength of his skeletal structure is driving downward. To exploit this, Manciolino instructs you to JAM the false edge of your sword under his thrust. This will attack the vertical weak angle and force your opponent to lose any hope of leverage, giving you a tempo of attack.
Always re-establish center: Going back to Manciolino’s words in book one when he’s introducing the guards and cuts, “If you receive a hit while hitting your opponent, your glory would be naught, since this would make you simultaneously the victor and the vanquished. Do not, therefore share your victory with your opponent, and do not let him share his shame with you.” This requires two keys; the first is to attack in tempo, the second is to cover your retreat. We see this play out in three ways.
Mezza Volta: When your final attack to your opponent is a mandritto, the cut will naturally end in Porta di Ferro Stretta/Larga or Chingiara Porta di Ferro Stretta/Larga, from this guard you are in a great defensive position. If your opponent tries to repost with a mandritto you have the line covered, and if he tries to attack with a riverso, a simple turn of the hand is enough to ward off their blow.
Footwork: Notice that the left foot is always trailing the right foot during the actions where you are stepping to your opponents left with your right foot. A step to the right alone exposes the whole body, but if you circle your left foot behind your right foot when you step, you’ll re-establish the center line, and flank your opponent. The attack is delivered while your weight is on your right foot allowing your left to circle behind, ground, and then you can retreat to a left foot forward position and safely assume the appropriate guard to prevent an afterblow.
Dominating the center line: Footwork changes the center line, but as we discussed above, footwork isn’t always the best available option. If you don’t have time to step off-line, or your initial attack is predicated on attacking the center of your opponent, the best way to retreat is to dominate the center with a powerful thrust. This is also the best option when you’ve cut a riverso, and your sword is inclined to travel away from your body. Riverso’s, especially when cut with power, are harder to stop because your torso isn’t acting as a natural barrier to stop the cut. The best way to counter this tendency is to engage your muscles to start moving to another assumed position. In this case the action is a thrust into Guradia di Faccia, and this is one of the most common actions in the Bolognese sword and buckler tradition. If you need to step out of measure safely, it’s a pretty safe bet to just thrust under your buckler into Guardia di Faccia.
All of that can be derived from 5 relatively simple plays, and that’s really just scratching the surface of the tactical analysis we can glean from these actions. In the next installment Chris Nolan will be providing an even deeper look, and then we’ll follow up with next six plays of Book 4 Chapter 1 of Antonio Manciolino’s Opera Nova.
Italicized text provided by Tom Leoni’s, “The Complete Renaissance Swordsman” Freelance Academy Press 2010.