[Hugh Knight]

I am very pleased to announce the publication of the fourth book in the die Schlachtschule unarmored combat series entitled The Knightly Art of the Longsword by Hugh T. Knight, Jr.

Johannes Liechtenauer, the father of German martial arts, created a system of combat that was second to none in all of history. Later authors wrote books detailing his art, some for earnest combat and others for a sportive version, that have survived to the present day. This book attempts to draw together the writings of various masters of Liechtenauer’s school into a single, comprehensive source detailing the art of fighting in earnest. Not limited to a single author, nor to just the basics of the art, this book attempts to show the full range of Liechtenauer’s art without mixing in any of the more sportive sources from later authors. In addition to the techniques themselves, The Knightly Art of the Longsword includes information on strategic concepts, fundamentals, equipment, finding a school, training, and even how to teach the art. It also includes several carefully documented essays on medieval swordsmanship and how to practice it, along with a complete glossary of German technical terms relating to the longsword and a full bibliography. It is available in both a perfect-bound edition and a spiral-bound edition designed to lie flat and open for use at practices.

This book will be of interest to anyone with an interest in knighthood, medieval combat, history or martial arts in general. Whether you are new to the study of medieval combat or have extensive experience in the art, this fully documented and lavishly illustrated book with more than 340 pages and 600 photographs will be a useful and fascinating addition to your library.

The Knightly Art of the Longsword has been published through Lulu.com and is only available for internet purchase at this time:

http://stores.lulu.com/hughknight

The author is the founder and head instructor of die Schlachtschule: The School of Battle, a school located in southern California and dedicated to rediscovering and practicing the knightly arts of combat from medieval Germany. He has more than 30 years of martial experience ranging from traditional Japanese sword and grappling arts to over ten years of German martial arts practice. He founded die Schlachtschule in 2003 and teaches a curriculum that includes sword, spear, pollaxe, grappling and dagger combat both in and out of armor. More information can be found on the school’s web site:

www.schlachtschule.org

[Jean Thibodeau]

Great news I was looking forward to this one after buying just about every book you already have available at LuLu.

Will order it soon, probably early next week ...... maybe I will ask my longsword school director if he wants me to buy a copy for him at the same time ? Oh, he has a copy of the Wrestling and dagger book since I bought two of those by accident when " clicking " on the LuLu site and decided to " donate " it to my director rather than sending it back.

He has also had a quick read of the Sword and Buckler book and he praised the clarity of the writing as well as the general focus on strategy and tactics as general principles and not as just a series of " he does this/you do that " ( of course each technique is explained in this way but there is a lot of effort put in in explaining the why one does things and not just what one does. ). He might not agree with everything or at least would debate some things as most all instructors have their own ideas on interpretations, but bottom line he found it a very valuable resource book.

The much shorter book on the longsword may be short and incomplete as you stated but it's an invaluable quick reference that I can consult before, during or after a class or just when I want to refresh my memory about the basics: The basics may be few and simple in theory but doing something simple well is something one can always improve on.

Oh, another of our instructors went to see some Youtube clips from your site of you in action and he commented that he was impressed by the economical use of motion in execution of techniques ( I haven't seen those clips myself " YET " ).

To quote, he said" That although you seem to hardly move at all in the clips he saw, but when you did move you did it with such efficiency that it seemed like magic ...... sort of you are still .... BLAM you move and place the technique !

[Hugh Knight]

[Craig Shackleton]

Hugh,

Thanks for posting the discount code. I decided to pick up your new book, along with two of your older ones, Pollaxe and Ambraser Codex.

I've got your sword and buckler book, you may recall that we had a brief email conversation about it. I try to avoid online "discussions" about these topics, but I thought it was worth mentioning that I like your work, I agree with you on more points than I disagree with you, and you consistently make me reassess my own thinking and present yourself well where I do disagree.

I'm sure I'll have questions and comments about my new purchases too, but mostly I just wanted to mention here that I like your work and look forward to more.

And Jean, I'm curious who your instructor is. I'm more or less just down the road from you. I need to start expanding my HEMA connections.

[Hugh Knight]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Just ordered 3 copies, one for me, one for my Director and an extra one I'm fairly sure one of my friends at " les Duellistes "
will be happy to buy.

One idea I might suggest to my director but might be a good idea for other schools would be to recommend this book to new students (old students also ) or even stock a supply of them to sell at cost or a very modest profit to students ..... or at the very least have a copy or two available to consult during classes or borrow.

The idea is certainly applicable to other authors out there but the LuLu ordering systems seems particularly user friendly and efficient.

( Note, OFF TOPIC: Tinker has a book available at Lulu about the modern reproductions of period swords and sword making in general, second edition with more or revised content ...... I already have the first edition:
http://www.tinkerswords.com/Page2.html

Just a little " plug " about ordering from LuLu and for Tinker's book for those who might have hesitated ordering from LuLu not knowing how easy it is ).

[Hugh Knight]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Hugh Knight]

[Jason G. Smith]

[Craig Shackleton]

[Jason G. Smith]

[Jean Thibodeau]

The book arrived yesterday and I'm very pleased with it and as with all the books I purchased from Hugh the writing is clear and easy to understand.

It's also quite thick and seems very complete: I find that the best way to read it for me is to first sample the more general parts dealing with the basics and then jump around getting a feel for any specific technique I am most curious about and eventually read the whole thing at least once. After this it's really studying the text and images and visualizing how one would do each technique in the order one wants to try them out with a training partner or in class ...... the approach might be more to read in order of techniques covered for a novice or someone for whom the concepts are very new.

For a more experienced student it is more of a " GO TO BOOK " before, during or after practice session to fill in the gaps in one's individual knowledge or experience.

I think the book is written in such a clear style that even a beginner should be able to use it but it's really a great resource for the more advanced student who has practical real life experience as this helps a lot in understanding what would naturally follow next when looking at the pictures.

Note: I am amazed at how much information one gets from the well posed pictures supported by the clear explanations in the text. One would think that it would be better with more pics for each technique shown, but even with 3 pics one can understand the " in-betweens " and the logical ending of each technique. ( Oh, some techniques are illustrated by more than just 3 pics, so don't take the above literally as only 3 pics per technique: I just mean that the pics really communicate efficiently so one doesn't need a ton of them to get an idea of what is really going on ).

Longwinded way of saying that I like the book and it's a good read both a casual first read followed by a more " serious " studying the techniques read.

[Hugh Knight]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jean Thibodeau]

Well I've been reading the book more intently and I find a lot of subtle but important nuances in interpretation that could make a great deal of difference in the efficiency of one's swordsmanship.

I haven't tried to test out very many things yet but we did consult the book about doing a Schnappen from a right Oberhau pages 99 -100: we where training variants of Schnappen for the last few weeks and last Saturday during a free training day ( Unstructured training day where we can ask questions, try out things or do some freeplay with the Director/instructor as opposed to the regular classes during the week ).

In any case, we referred to the book and tried this out and although like anything else it needs more practice to do it well, we found it very useful to have the book as a ready reference and it was a good training experience.

The book has a lot of interesting and for me different takes or nuances that change the way one would use the techniques tactically with more efficiency, a few examples without getting into too much detail:

1) Active Fühlen Page 15 changes the way one approaches the issues of sensing when someone is hard or soft in the bind in that one doesn't bind and pause and then decide how to act. To me it's more like acting as if the opponent is soft in the bind as the default plan " A " and if they are soft the technique succeeds. If the technique doesn't succeed then it's because the opponent is hard in the bind and one instantly applies the appropriate action.

2) The Zornhau being not like the other master cuts in that it's not a one time technique ....... I won't get into the details of why but the explanation seems to make sense and worth trying out Page 62 - 64

3) The Krumphau: Again just subtle differences in angles, quote " Hugh makes an explosive leap to his front at about a 45 degree angle. At the end. however, he's still facing to his front not at an angle. "

Anyway, just a sample of the little things that seem to me make a big difference in execution of the moves and very valuable to consider even if all might not agree with some of the interpretations. ( They seem to make sense to me but I'm not qualified to critique with any authority and I hope I'm not giving a false summary of of the material ).

I think that very small differences in the geometry of moves or subtleties of initiative and Fühlen can make disproportionate differences in the results or efficiency in swordsmanship, possibly a " lame " comparison/simile: Lets say we describe on paper the actions/moves of a very good bowler and a description of the moves of a mediocre bowler, on paper the descriptions might be identical or very close to identical in spite of one bowler being very good and the other very bad.

With Historical Fechtbuch we have, at times, ambiguous or incomplete description of actions where the fine points may be missing or hard to understand, fine points that make the difference between being excellent or mediocre: I think we understand the original material well enough that there is general agreement about the broad lines of what the actions where but the fine detail making one great are discovered by testing different and evolving interpretations to see what seems to work best.

Just conjecture on my part or just thoughts of the top of my head, so don't take the above as anything more than " a gut feeling " that Hugh's interpretations are giving me some of those fine details that make a great deal of difference finding what works or doesn't work.

[Hugh Knight]

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Hugh Knight]