The Trivium was foundational - necessary information for the student to proceed in their studies. It was never an end to pursue, but rather the key with which to unlock more knowledge. Sword science utilizes this sequence effectively. Grammar becomes for us the Technical information. What is an attack? How are attacks developed, executed and defended? Essentially the ‘what’ of fencing. Logic becomes for us the Tactical and scenario based information - the conditional clauses that provide context and meaning. Essentially the ‘why’ of fencing. Finally, Rhetoric becomes for us actual simulated Combat - free and spontaneous - the true communicative form of our science (essentially how our science becomes art).

As the Trivium is sequential, so too the order of sword training. Students begin learning a vocabulary - both in English and in body mechanics which expands to include blade actions. Altogether these movements, carefully constructed and repeated, become the working nuts and bolts with which fencing is built. Once the student can move and speak with the new vocabulary they need to learn why these nuts and bolts work. Armed with the logic of fencing the student is empowered to not only understand, but to continue to decipher and more accurately solve new problems which their opponents will attempt to confound them by. Ultimately, the student must surrender to the stress and uncertainty of combat. Only in this sacred place will the distillation occur: form subdues formlessness, logic dispels uncertainty, and experience makes action effective and effortless.

For these reasons it is understandable how the characteristic, sang-froid, has been used to describe our antecedent sword bearers. It is the appeal to reason, rather than emotive power, that the fencer acts and succeeds.