Indeed ... I fence both Modern and Historical and refer to all the old treatises when sharing my observations above. My point has often been that Modern Fencing at the coaching level still resembles the Fencing of 300 years ago ... not a lot has changed but for some rules, blade profiles and safety gear.
I do indeed work with Historical Small Sword, it is one of my great passions - the difference between Small Sword and Modern Foil are really so very small - hand parries notwithstanding, the 60/40 weighting on the back leg with Small Sword is one of the few small differences. The speed of modern foil and Small Sword are about right also, but for blade weight whippyness. Looking at the treatises for Small Sword is really like looking at modern Foil coaching, amazing!
Even today in Modern Foil Fencing, the Italian style of coming on guard presents the blade slightly off the outside line in Tierce - essentially adopting the Guard with an absence of blade. The Italian system of Foil still teaches a great deal of absence of blade which gives the opponent little opportunity of gaining 'sentiment du fer'. The French Foil system has you coming on guard in 'Quarte' with the point in line, hand in supination.
Thanks, this is now required watching for the rapier wing of our historical fencing club! Very clear explanation of a core concept. :-)
Great! We have other videos as well, though I find this core concept tricky to teach. We hope this helps!
Indeed ... I fence both Modern and Historical and refer to all the old treatises when sharing my observations above. My point has often been that Modern Fencing at the coaching level still resembles the Fencing of 300 years ago ... not a lot has changed but for some rules, blade profiles and safety gear.
I do indeed work with Historical Small Sword, it is one of my great passions - the difference between Small Sword and Modern Foil are really so very small - hand parries notwithstanding, the 60/40 weighting on the back leg with Small Sword is one of the few small differences. The speed of modern foil and Small Sword are about right also, but for blade weight whippyness. Looking at the treatises for Small Sword is really like looking at modern Foil coaching, amazing!
And you can see that in historical manuals as well. Compare Italian rapier to French Smallsword and tada! Thanks for the comments and watching!
Even today in Modern Foil Fencing, the Italian style of coming on guard presents the blade slightly off the outside line in Tierce - essentially adopting the Guard with an absence of blade. The Italian system of Foil still teaches a great deal of absence of blade which gives the opponent little opportunity of gaining 'sentiment du fer'. The French Foil system has you coming on guard in 'Quarte' with the point in line, hand in supination.
Blade weight as well, no? Saber being the most telling! Do you work with historical small-sword? I bet that is real close to sport.