The SCA is unique in that it encourages exploration into sword play at realistic speeds for percussive force fighting. To my knowledge there are few other ways to experience this type of fighting safely. The second focus is on the martial aspects of pre plate armor sword play (and other weapons) and how it might actually work when applied. One area that gets a lot of apparent malice is that lack of backing up evidence for the style of fighting that is employed as there are no texts related to sword play much before 1400 but the sca is interested in fighting from 600 - 1600. I recently noticed a very interesting image that is freely available on this wiki article which relates to Arp Aslan from around the 11th century:
Of particular interest is the fine warrior located center and back wearing red. What strikes me is the stance he is employing in this image which appears to be in SCA terminology 'tent' or 'house' block. This has become the dominant stance for many of the top tier fighters in the SCA.
While there are no books instructing on this guard it is very effective in blocking sword blows with ones own sword and is very fast becoming the main stance I use when fighting sword and center boss (as the warrior appears to be doing in this image). What struck me is that I wouldn't have noticed this stance without being able to practice sword play at full percussive strengths due to the lack of perspective that 2 dimension drawings have. Further more this stance wouldn't exist if single hand swords weren't regularly used as blocking devices on their edge. This appears to go against some of the information I have recently heard from other sword practitioners, clearly more investigation is required.
ps. I note a lot of plate metal armor around the legs and what appear to be plate gauntlets, I was under the impression such armor was very rare until several hundred years later, am I wrong?
Here I'm going to talk about what is essentially a set of single sword high guards or blocks. We use these when fighting Florentine, sword and shield, sword and Buckler or even bastard sword however; as they will translate well to most weapon combinations. We've been developing them together from individual techniques developed by others.
Almost all of these blocks are from duke Gaston and duke baldar.
Here they explain their drills, and show most of the blocks:
Block
All blocks are with the strong of the blade. As that is the strongest part of the sword, and it's sca heavy, so there's no edge to ruin.
The wrist should be held straight and strong (as when throwing a punch), when blocking, to block well and prevent wrist damage.
Guards
neutral position - not a block. sword upright in front of sword shoulder at elbow height. Poised to move into any defence.
House - blocks high blows to your sword side. From neutral, move hand out swordwise, facing blade edge mostly outwards, tip should point up and towards your centre.
Tent - protects high attacks to the shield side. From house, push the tip towards shield side and lift hand up towards your head.
Ponytail - protects from high wraps. From tent, move the tip down and your hand moves behind your head, so that the swords is near vertical behind your head.
Shoulder - not a block. the ideal position to start most snap shots from. From ponytail, move your hand to just in front of your sword shoulder, so that the sword can rest on your shoulder.
Outside - protects from high blows to the sword side. From shoulder, bring your hand up and onto your shield side above your head. Your upper arm is horizontal, lower arm near vertical, and the sword completing the other edge of a triangle. Look at your opponent through the middle of that triangle.
Cross - protects from high blows to shield side. From outside, bring your hand down and the tip up, so the sword is near vertical, with the tip slightly back towards centre and the blade facing out and towards your opponent.
Smooth
This sequence can be made into one continuous movement as follows:
Neutral -> house -> tent -> ponytail -> shoulder -> outside -> cross -> neutral and repeat.
With this motion the centre of the swords should stay near the top of the head throughout the movement. You shouldn't pause at each block, it should be a smooth continuous movement.
Then repeat the sequence in reverse :
Neutral -> cross -> outside -> shoulder -> ponytail -> tent -> house -> neutral and repeat.
All interim positions between each block are also blocks, being to block shots coming at different angles.
For instance to block a high vertical slot shot, block with the position between house and tent.
Flip
The house and outside are blocking the same position, and so the sword should be in a similar position It both guards. Tent and cross share the same relationship. From house, flip the sword over so that you go into outside, then back again, then repeat. Do the same with cross and tent.
Push
House can be moved to cross by just pushing your hand across your body, then push back to house. Tent can move to ponytail by pushing the tip around the back, then move into outside by pushing the tip further around. Then reverse that movement.
Lift
From house you lift the sword up to horizontal over your forehead, with your palm facing out, then over into tent, then reverse and repeat. From cross you lift the sword up to horizontal over your forehead (but the with your palm facing you) then over into outside block, reverse and repeat.
Hard or soft
If a block position is held firmly during a block, then we call that a hard block.
If the sword is moved to another position during the block, we call that a soft block.
A hard block will cause the attackers blow to stop, and then bounce back. A soft block doesn't absorb the energy of the blow, it deflects it into another direction. For instance, a house block moved over to tent, will cause the opponents sword to continue over the top of your head.
Close or far
For each of the guards you can hold it close to your body, with the sword close to vertical providing good protection at close range. At longer range It can help to push the tip towards the opponent. This will threaten a thrust, and at the same time change the angle of the block to meet longer range shots. It makes soft blocks a lot easier as well. With the tip held more forward, when you block the shot, bring the tip and the rest of the sword back towards you. This slows down the opponent's shot and deflects it at the same time.
Relation to longsword guards
If the tips are pointed forward more and the hand brought back, these guards become very similar to the traditional longsword guards.
For a right hander:
House - right plow
Cross - left plow
Tent - right ox
Outside - left ox
Shoulder - right shoulder
Ponytail - if you bring it up becomes crown
Shots
From each block there's a torque shot that can be thrown directly from that block.
Tent - block onside, shot onside
House - block offside, shot onside
Cross - block onside, shot offside
Outside - block offside, shot offside
Ponytail - block wrap, shot wrap
So you can see that it covers ever combination of onside/offside shot and block.
Drills
For each guard there are partner drills to practise the block and the corresponding shot. If both partners take tent in matched hands, both in right. Then partner A throws a slow onside head torque, partner B will already be blocking that shot with tent. Partner A returns to tent while partner B throws the same shot, which is blocked by A's tent. Then repeat.
Outside block and ponytail are done the same way, with matched hands. House and cross must be done with mirrored hands left against right, as the hit and block on the same side.
When a partner gets tired, call out switch, and do the same drill with your other hand.
From these basic drills, you can add in more shots or blocks and make them more complicated.
The next step is to do the same drill in full armour, throwing at full speed.
After that we turn the drill into a restricted fight where the only block is the one being practised and the only shot is the one for that block, eg tent and onside head.
It helps you to practise both the block and shot at different ranges and different angles this way.
Should sword blocks be done with the blade or the flat of the blade?
Can you block with the weak or must it be with the strong?
Parts of a sword
Some people make it very clear which way is correct:
He's doing unarmoured longsword, which means that you can use both hands' strength as part of the block.
When doing SCA florentine however we only have the strength of a single hand to block with. We have always been told to block with the blade and I think it is for this exact reason.
We will have to try out blocking with the flat of our strong, to determine if it is even possible with single handed swords.
In SCA heavy, we're assumed to be wearing chainmail; which means that light cuts are completely ignored. This means that to block a shot, you only have to take the force out of a blow. You don't have to prevent the blade touching you, only foul the shot. This means that a kind of weak block can be effective with the weak part of the blade.
So it may be possible that we'll end up make a video like the above one, but with us chanting "blade of my weak".
I somehow doubt it though.
