Given that I spent a long time in Asian martial arts, it’s no wonder why it is I like forms. While I have some misgivings about their usefulness in empty handed fighting arts, I think they are often essential for those arts that concern themselves with weapons. For this reason I have been thoroughly enjoying learning Antonio Manciolino’s first assault for the sword and buckler, and it’s had me thinking about the various things a preset pattern can teach you.

When I was doing eastern martial arts, I remember being told that certain parts of a form were for specific situations. “This part of the form is used against a very aggressive opponent,” my sifu would tell me, “whereas this part is for someone that you have on the ropes, and you’re chasing him down.” In this way you could learn different tactics and lessons just from doing one exercise, which I found to be quite valuable in its own way. This kind of experience with training exercises makes me wonder if the same kind of thought process could apply to the Bolognese assalti, with each section teaching different fundamental lessons and strategies. With this in mind, I started looking at the first section of Manciolino’s first assault, and I think that there is a very specific lesson being taught here.

Here is the section I’m referring to. For the record, I am using Tom Leoni’s work “The Complete Renaissance Swordsman”, as my reference:

1.) Pass with the right foot obliquely towards your right side, while delivering a falso against the boss of your buckler and going into Guardia Alta, with the buckler held in front of your face like a mirror.

2.) Pass forward with the left foot and perform a ritocco of the buckler, placing your sword in Guardia di Testa and lowering your buckler alongside your left thigh.

3.) Pass forward with the right foot and lift your sword into Guardia Alta.

4.) Pass forward with the left foot, executing a montante accompanied by a mandritto Sopra il Braccio, and getting into Guardia di Testa.

5.) Pass forward with your right foot, hit the boss of your buckler with a falso and execute a montante up to Guardia Alta.

6.) Then, you have the embellishment:

a. Throw your right foot behind the left while cutting a fendente into the rim of the buckler; let the sword continue downward and behind you all the way up into Guardia Alta.

b. Pull your left foot behind the right and perform a ritocco of the buckler.

c. Pass forward with your left foot into a wide stance, getting into Guardia di Testa.

d. Pass forward with your right foot hitting a falso into the boss of your buckler.

e. Life a montante into Guardia Alta pulling your right foot next to the left, and making sure that your buckler keeps your head well defended.

Manciolino uses this exercise as a way to enter against an opponent, and I think there are two main lessons being taught in this section:

1.) Manciolino is backing up his earlier advice that, as one approaches your enemy, you should never stay static in your guard.

“While you and your opponent are studying each other, never stop in a particular guard, but change immediately from one guard to the next. This will make it harder to judge your intentions.”

This is simple and usable advice, but how many people actually do it? If you look at most HEMA matches, many practitioners stay static in a guard they feel comfortable in, making it very obvious what it is they are capable of doing, and what they are likely to do in response to the other fencer’s actions. Sometimes even experienced fencers will change guards at an improper time, leaving an obvious tempo for attack, and this also causes problems. I would argue that, in learning the first section of the assault, one of the lessons that is being driven home is that you must always transition between guards as you approach, and your cuts will be the vector for those transitions. As a side note, this is very similar to the rule often cited in German sources where you do not cut without stepping, and you do not step without cutting.

What an exercise like this provides is a basic blueprint for certain actions. Oh, you’re approaching your opponent, but you aren’t sure what guard to take or how to move into it? Remember your assault, and you will know the basics of that.

2.) Manciolino, in my opinion, is also teaching a way to intimidate an opponent as you are coming in. Admittedly, I could be right or wrong on this one, because I have not yet finished reading Manciolino’s treatise, and perhaps he gives a yea or nay on that one later on, but I would be willing to argue, from what I know so far, that the graceful and aggressive comportment shown in the assault, and the fluid guard transitions within, is being used as a way to discourage your opponent, and show him you are “serious business”.

In this way, just by doing the introduction and embellishment of the assault, a student can work on two (or potentially more) important lessons, as well as work on the basics of footwork, guard transition, and cutting.

The adventure continues.

Cheers.