This entry took longer to post up here mostly because I'd thought to myself "I can just set up a flowchart to illustrate this!" Sadly, the software that I tried to use for this was a pain and I spent far too long banging my head against it, so I'm back to words. Maybe in a later post you'll see a picture of my illegible scribblings which if you squint are sort of like a flowchart, if you're being generous. Also, it has just been super hard to actually be able to focus on writing for the past few days. Change in season, probably.
Anyway, onward! We previously discussed how the methodology of Book Two is an exercise in placing your opponent into obedience while collapsing measure. Let's take a look of Fabris' first rule for proceeding with resolution with the single sword and try to map this out!
Each rule that Fabris describes is structured similarly - there's a section that's a description of the process described from an initial guard that you've adopted as you approach the opponent from out of measure, along with how to handle the opponent's general responses. The plates which follow reinforce that, but can also describe variations or edge cases which can derive from that initial situation.
Broadly speaking, Fabris works with three ranges of measure for the rules. There's just outside of measure, wide measure, and narrow measure. He wants you to walk with an "ordinary step" towards your opponent, bending your body and raising your sword as you do. For the first rule, he wants you to take his guard with the arm extended, with your sword on your opponent's weaker side. When your points are just beginning to cross, your blade should be "slightly above and stronger than his without requiring any further motion." You should keep your blade as close to possible to your opponent's while still avoiding any blade contact. This is where the action really begins.
Let's pause here and review a couple key points before we continue. First, when Fabris says an "ordinary step" he clarifies that what he means is that you should be "moving your feet at an ordinary
step, as if you were walking - only quicker and with smaller strides." The plates illustrate the fencers standing with their feet at the typical 90 degree angle though, so I'm assuming that as you assume your guard, you will do so with your entire body. That said, I've found that you should continue one foot in front of the other as you progress, rather than the front foot/back foot fencing advance step. Additionally, Fabris points out that your "step should not be widened until the point of your sword reaches the opponent." No lunging or taking a sudden deep passing step until you are in the moment of wounding your opponent, at which point you should suddenly drive your sword through them to the hilt, as per usual.
Second, the blade position is important. You want to have your sword in a straight line, over your opponent's sword on whichever side is the weakest - the rule doesn't specify that you need to start inside or outside at all! You simply need to start having found your opponent's blade.
Finally, the plates depict our example fencer from this starting position with their feet uncrossed - their sword foot is leading, and the off-side foot is behind. Ideally, I admit that it's easier to begin here as you work your way through the rule. This is fairly simple to achieve in a structured practice while you work through this step by step with a partner, but it's much harder to achieve with precise certainty in a bout. As long as you are controlled and have a solid grasp of your measure though, you should readily fall within the bounds of "close enough to make it work" and that's really all that we can ever ask for. With that, let's take a look at the step-by-step process here.
First, we have the most straightforward option available to us - if our opponent does nothing, we run our sword along theirs until we strike them. We want to get our hilt to the point that our sword crossed theirs, and then keep right on going. Fabris does point out that we want to stay on top of their sword if at all possible; this is simple enough if they remain in third or fourth. If they decide to set up in first or second, we can run along their blade to the inside or outside, wherever their blade is weaker.
As straightforward (and frankly, rare) as this option is, Fabris does hammer home an important point regarding our forward movement. We should run along our opponent's blade with a smooth and continuous forward motion. We shouldn't pull our arm back, nor should we fling our arm or body forward. We should just ensure that our blade is more strongly positioned such that we cannot be displaced.
If from the moment of crossing our opponent retreats, we should simply continue to advance smoothly forward. In effect, we continue to engage at this measure for somewhat longer. If they attempt to push our sword away or gain our blade, a small cavazione is all that is needed to ensure that we continue forward safely. Once that set of steps is done, we're essentially right back where we started, and can proceed safely from there.
If as we're stepping into narrow measure our opponent tries to push our blade out of line, we'll be turning into second. If we happen to be on the outside, we'll lower our body and turn into second while performing a small half cavazione, dropping our point underneath their blade without moving our hand and wound them. If we're on the inside, we'll still turn into second, effectively yielding around their push, letting their blade drop way out of our presence, and wound them.
If they try to cavazione in narrow measure? Honestly, Fabris doesn't even specify and that's probably because it's simply an awful idea - if they do though, I'd just turn my hand to pick them up on the other side, or even as they perform the cavazione and strike them.
Finally, if they try to break measure and change guards? Fabris says that you can also break measure and start all over again... or you can keep progressing forward and follow their sword with the tip of yours and just keep on with the progression we've already outlined here.
That's it! That's the basic procedure for the first rule of proceeding with resolution with the sword alone! Next time we'll look at the plates attached to this rule, and possibly poke at a couple of the problems we might run into putting this into practice in a modern SCA context before we move on to the second rule of the sword alone - which has us beginning in "a third formed with the body positioned squarely toward the opponent, the chest wide open and the feet pointing forward" so that'll be fun to see!
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