Hello

I have seen this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4Ng6DBfrg&feature=related

And i wish to know if they footwork is accurate.
Does it really matters the way in wich you step to perform a technique?

What about the hand in the sword? Does it really matters if the hand of the side of the frontal leg in the middle guard, is near to the cross-guard or grabbing the pommel? Or this can be swiched?

Thanks.

Footwork, or the skill of putting yourself away from the enemy and the enemy into your weapon, is really the core of any martial art. Without, fighting is awkward and difficult, not to mention you put yourself at a disadvantage without mobility.

As for hand placement, based on what little langswert fetchen I've studied, it has to do with which hand is dominate; as far as I'm aware, you don't "switch" hand placement. You actually use the "rear" hand to provide leverage -- when you swing into the cut, you pull towards you on the back of the handle, adding additional momentum (or so the article on our own site says).

In any respect, the guys at Gadiatores are very skilled and are well practiced, so I would not expect there to be discrepancies that cannot be well explained. You should be able to get a message off to them via their website, or sword forum international.

M.

Thanks for the answers guys.

I think i realized how it works, i´ll bang my head before asking stupid questions.
It seems that the right hand is the one near the hilt, as Mr. Eversberg II said before.

Look at the guy with the red throusers in 2:36:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC5FIyfI8TA

I tend to advance in that way when fight, since i feel more stable. Do you think it is ok?

I have Flos Duellatorum and it is very hard for me to follow its instructions, specially with footwork.
My friend had John Clement´s Medieval Swordsmanship: Illustrated Methods and Techniques, and i can remember that he wrote that the leading leg can be eighter the right or the left without any hand shift, mostley depending in wich hand was the dominant one for the cross-guard, instead of wich leg was the dominant... i guess...

Rodolfo

At 2:36 the guy on the right in the red throusers first makes a passing step (right foot moving forward pass the left foot) and then a simple step with his right foot. Their footwork looks good to me.

Ran Pleasant
ARMA DFW

Thanks Randall.
Thats what i wanted to mean when i said if footwork really matters, if passing and simple steps can be performing depending in the moment, instead of being tied to certain form of counter-attack.
I ask because i practise with my friend, we use not very orthodox home-made wooden wasters, with the size and the weight of a sword (Well, mine is only 110cm long), and when we simulate a fight my friend (Who has a very sharp eye) tends to attack me when i do the passing step. I feel more stable if i do the simple step, but i don´t know if it is ok,
We try to do our best with the Flos Duellatorum and the other book, but i still have the sensation of unaccuracy.

Can you recommend any book covering footwork and longsword combat?

Thanks you guys, it really helps me a lot.

I found this video showing some of the steps, Do you know
in wich Fechtbuch they are explained, or shown?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsPJEc50sgY

Thanks

I'm not shure if these steps are explained in a origional book. But these steps do make sence if you combinate them with what germans like lichtenhauer and talhoffer are trying to tell you :)

The book "Fighting with the German Longsword" by Christian Tobler is very good. My training partner and I have been working out of this book with (hopefully) very successful results. Also there is a DVD available on German longsword that is good. Both break down the footwork and techniques in an understandable way.

Di Grassi has a detailed explanation of footwork for his rapier stuff, but much of it is also applicable to other European forms:

http://www.musketeer.org/manuals/diGrassi/digrass1.htm

As for your problem, Rodolfo, have you considered the amount of lateral (side-by-side) movement you're making? One of the mistakes that made me suffer a lot of hits early in my German longsword training was an overly linear footwork--I wasn't moving to the sides enough, which gave me problems in achieving the correct range and geometry for counterattack techniques. Strangely enough, the thing that fixed this for me was more practice in aikido's circular footwork.

Hell Again guys,

When you talk about passing steps and such, are you refering to Meyer?

I think you should not say that it covers everything you need to know. His book is just an interpertation of what he thinks. Please, don't go blind on just 1 book of a average guy. We now have the possibility to look in lot's and lot's of old and new books. Make use of that possibility.

Thanks for the recomendations.

I was thinking that most fechtbuchs were made to keep the art alive, not to learn without the help of a true master. What do you think?

Guy Winsor is just one of many good HEMAists in Scandinavia let alone the world.

Just chill a bit. No-one is denying that GW haven´t spend alot of hours with his art. His method of training has some flaws in my humble oppinion but still he has done alot for the HEMA in the last decades.