An historical martial arts school in Croydon, Folkestone, and South London
I stand buckler forward sword across my forearm.
He enters with a stab or cut which I redirect past my line to my right
then grip his blade with my left hand
and bring the whole thing sharply to my left
taking his sword and hitting him with my counter.
This shows long point menace…
Here I grab his blade, and enter with a thrust from the left hand.
He prevents the same move by smashing me in the hand with his buckler,
I let go of the sword, grab his buckler and twist sharply…
then, as they say, he is geography.
(I’d like to thank masters Ringeck, Tobler, and Pratchett for that last bit).
This time Nick has bound down the longpoint
and attempts a shield knock and enter…
I stay with the bind, beat back against his shield knock,
throw my right elbow over both his arms.
After a bit of a tussle he drops his weapons and gives a kick to me arse,
I spin around and give him the point.
This is the counter-ward to the second ward
This time I move to his right to blind-side him,
and if he does nothing enter with the cut.
Seeing this coming he slams his sword at my head
which is covered by the ward.
I swap my sword for my buckler…
and step through with my cut.
This hanger is another counter to 1st ward, again I only use it to get close enough to thrust.
In this sequence he tries to enter with his own hanger and thrust under the sword; all I have to do is move further to his right to hit him with my own stab.
Here I show to be aware of what’s coming next.
Showing a bind down and re-entry after that.
In this lot he tries to either cut to my exposed head or to bind on my sword.
I stay in the bind,
shield knock,
grapple and counter…JOY…
Nick in first ward (like he’s drawing the sword) me in half shield, I’m circling to his right as I advance to try and blind-side him.
In this instance he doesn’t react in time so I stab him…Hah.
This time, as I am in 1st ward and enter with a cut to the hand.
In the following I try the hand cut…
as nick prevents this with the bind,
I (moving back as he moves forward) change at the sword (note the way my buckler is under my sword hand; this should prevent it getting trapped and allow me to grapple should he carry on with the shield knock)…
and enter with a counter.
I.33 is dated to c.1280-1320 and is kept at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, UK. It is probably from Southern Germany and is a comprehensive treatise on the use of the sword and buckler (a small fist-held shield) out of armour. It contains pictures and descriptive text.
Sword & Buckler – End of Point
