A note on protective equipment Due to my recent posts showing images of my Wisby gauntlets, I have received a number of queries regarding hand protection. I have to say that I believe that there is *no* ultimate gauntlet that offers perfect protection and still allows for full tactility. I have made a number of gauntlets for sparring myself over the past two decades and finally gave up looking for the Holy Grail. Instead, I changed parameters of sparring. More than two years ago, I had my students tone down speed and force levels and we started to freeplay without gauntlets or protective gloves. At times even without masks. Swordplay became more controlled, a lot more precise and very technical. All of these criteria I consider the most important qualities one should strive for when practicing historical swordsmanship. You can see a whole section of hits against unprotected hands and lower arms in our latest video. Sure, this is not our maximum speed. But if you look at how fast the points actually travel in most encounters, you can tell that most of our cuts and blows and thrusts would well do their job. After all, we are training for using swords, not maces – and yes, we still have a long way to go, no doubt about that: I realize that it helps to have a shield, and single swords do not unfold the same impact as longswords. Yet, if I was training unarmoured combat with the longsword instead of sword & buckler, I would still use the same approach. I happily accept a black finger nail every two years or so if this is the price for keeping my fine motor skills which I consider most important for correctly using a sword in the way shown in the fencing treatises. You may say it would be impossible to fence without heavy gauntlets in, say, one of the modern tournaments where people strike full force. Yes, that may be so. But frankly, is this a top priority for your practice of historical swordplay? The majority of freeplay that I see elsewhere does not appeal to me very much. 98% does hardly look like the plays I see in the fight books. And this is not really surprising because when you hit each other with blunt weapon simulators in modern armour, than this is not Bloßfechten. We cannot expect to see the same techniques frequently appear in a context that totally differs from the one that historical swordfighting techniques were designed for. Most modern HEMA freeplay is much closer to stick fighting by design – and so this is what you get. I know, because I have been there, too. And safe for an exercise of coping with stress, I did not gain much. If, in contrast, your aim is to practice historical swordplay, and you are striving to learn to master techniques and tactics that were designed for unarmoured duelling with sharp swords, than the goal would have to be to modify your sparring modes in such a way, that they mirror the original combat context as much as possible, instead of making an established and widespread form of freeplay your guideline. Sure, safety is paramount. But that was true back then, too. Actually, not getting injured is the whole point of a martial art in the first place. But it would have to be your skill to ensure this, not your gear. If you feel that your skill is not up for full speed sparring without arm guards, knee pads, gauntlets, fencing coach jackets, spine protectors, elbow pads etc. than simply do not go there. If excellence in unarmoured swordplay is your aim, what is the point of „full force, full speed“ when you are only able to expose yourself to it when wearing heavy protection anyway? If, however you do not bother that your fights look like hectic, uncontrolled western-shoot-outs with sticks with little resemblance to the complex plays from the treatises, then feel free to ignore this text. It is not addressed to you, in that case. But if you are struggling hard with bridging the gap between what you train in technique practice and free application thereof in sparring, then maybe you should stop looking for the perfect protective gear (which does not exist anyway), and rather start considering to change the parameters of your fight simulation. In my opinion, it is an instructor’s task to ensure safety at training and freeplay. He would have to guide students to according skill levels and make sure that people only fence at a speed and force level that they are up to. It works at my school and it works at the BBB, where people have fought literally thousands of bouts over the course of five events in minimal kit – without a single injury.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 15:25:07 +0000
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