Introduction: Bastone Siciliano

In Bastone Siciliano the stick is kept in constant motion, travelling around the head in various serpentine circular movements known as Muliné until it is time to execute a strike or parry. As an interesting aside, this constant, circling motion of the stick around the player’s head may provide possible insights into the ‘Frequens Motus’…

Introduction: Bâton Français

The baton was systematized in France during the 1800s and during the mid 1850s baton practice was one aspect of a gymnastics curriculum for French soldiers established at the Joinville military academy. Practice with baton was also popular in 19th century Savate salles. It is likely the baton was popular among various 19th century European…

Fighting a longstick

Various native forms of stick fighting including: Singlestick (British) Greatstick (British) Jogo do Pau (Portuguese) Juego del Palo (Spanish) Makila (Basque) Bastone Siciliano (Sicilian) Scherma de Bastone (Italian) Stockfechten (German) La Canne (French) Bâton Français (French) Bataireacht (Irish) Shillelagh (Irish). […] Examples of arts involving longsticks include Hutton’s Greatstick, Jogo do Pau, Juego del Palo,…

Rossfechten – Mounted Fencing

Two obvious ideas are the idea of a good “seat”, and an appreciation of distance and feeling. An effective seat is essential not only for balance and stability, but also for effectively communicating with the horse. Correct posture and weight shifting keeps us balanced and in control, and gives subtle cues to the horse. The…

“Longsword Training Guide” by Hugh Knight

This book is a training guide for learning the German Longsword. It contains Formal Partner Exercises, Basic Drills, Structured Partner Drills, and much more. It is intended to be used with the author’s “Knightly Art of the Longsword” to teach the reader how to go beyond mere techniques of the art to actually learning how…

Where’s the axe in a poleaxe?

  Few terms used in the study of medieval combat are as often confused or misused as the word “pollaxe.”Partly, this is due to the fact that modern people want to apply modern rules of logic to medieval subjects, something which is not supported by actually reading what medieval men wrote.They also tend to ignore…

Art of Swordmaking by Maciej Kopciuch

I’m an artist craftsman from Poland. My specialisation are medieval swords 10-15th century. I’m also a painter, sculptor, music composer, writer. Interested in medieval Arts, martial arts and crafts. My approach to swords reconstruction is to be as close as possible to this what I can see in museums. I think that the real, original…