This article focuses on Renaissance swordsmanship within the Society for Creative Anachronism. Mishka describes how light blows, protective equipment, and historical clothing come together during fencing with sidesword and buckler. The different fighting styles of Mishka and his wife are also discussed. Experiences with LARP, SCA, and HEMA each have their own influence on their technique, footwork, and defense.
The accompanying video shows a training session and at the same time serves as an example of Mishka's love for photography, videography, and documenting historical martial arts.
Mishka: The skill I wanted to demonstrate in this video is Renaissance swordsmanship: historical fencing. I fence in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), where we work with very light blows. We assume that all fencers wear only one layer of linen clothing and strike only hard enough that, in a real fight, the skin would have been wounded. We fence with blunt swords, which makes the chance of actual injury small. Despite these light blows, we wear protective equipment in case a sword breaks: tunics of two layers of linen, elbow and knee protection, padded gloves, fencing masks, throat protection, hard back-of-the-head protection, hoods, and shin guards. Normally, a struck arm or leg is considered disabled and you continue fencing. My wife and I usually fence to 'first blood': the first hit ends the fight, after which we begin again.
In this video, my wife and I are wearing tunics that she made especially for SCA fencing, combined with gambesons from CelticWebMerchant. Our swords come from Sigi Forge, a smithy from Slovakia. The gloves and masks come from Purpleheart Armoury. For our elbows, knees, and shins, we use modern motocross protection. We wear that under our historical clothing so that we can look as historical as we ourselves want.
Although we study some historical texts — hello, I.33! — most of my fighting style comes from about fifteen years of experience with the LARP Amtgard. The fighters there use particularly light weapons, often weighing only a few dozen grams, and fight at a very high pace. Because I have become accustomed to this style, I use my sword extensively to defend myself. I often let my buckler passively cover an attack line, rather than using it actively to protect vulnerable spots and openings in my defense.
That is not especially easy to see in this video, because we are mostly fooling around and having fun. When I fence competitively, however, I rely heavily on distance control and footwork. I stay out of range until the moment I am ready to strike. Then I move forward, place my attacks, and withdraw out of range again. Drills bore me quickly; I prefer to leather by doing, in the middle of the moment and by jumping straight into the deep end.
My wife, on the other hand, trains extensively with HEMA groups. During our almost daily fencing sessions, she puts into practice what she has learned during her lessons. She regularly manages to surprise me by using a historical technique against me, while I am accustomed to LARP techniques. In our limited back garden, I notice that my footwork is severely hindered. As a result, I get hit on my legs more often than I would like! I myself prefer to target the fatal target zones: the head and torso.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I absolutely LOVE creating media. Editing this video did not take a particularly long time: five minutes of fencing were reduced to thirty seconds of highlights, while I switched between two cameras and added zooms, transitions, and music. Still, it was tremendous fun to do, and I happily spent about an hour working on it.
The information about the music is as follows:
Music: Bonfire by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords)
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Creative Commons license
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