The work has began regarding the sword and buckler. Before we can start running the classes, I need to make sure I have something up-to-date I can teach to the students. The core will have three elements:
- a set of handling drills to get the body used to carrying the extra weight of the buckler and to get the sword and the shield to move properly
- a set of drills that will teach basic actions easily applied to free fencing (and therefore to any situation), hopefully something that will expand upon the beginner’s course material for the sword alone
- the contracted form of the Primo Assalto, the first assault or exercise sequence laid out by Manciolino
The last one is the most important for myself to learn at this point. I have decided to take the beginning and end of the primo assalto and in the middle perform the first ten offensive actions and then the embellishment. What I’ve got so far looks like this:
The entry is missing one rising cut and the offensive ten actions are still under work, so there are a few quirks still and some work to do but it’s getting there.
For my students reading this, if you are interested in reading the original source material I strongly recommend ordering a copy of Tom Leoni’s translation of Manciolino. If you can read Italian, a facsimile of the original text can be downloaded here.