The Weekly Warfare   Musings martial from across the SCA

Last week Gawin and I worked through the first half of Giganti’s discussion of feints.  Here I’ll discuss only the first section.  I usually substitute rapid sword movement and body/foot/hand fakes for anything like a formal, structured attempt at a feint, which has left this as a rather gaping hole in my arsenal.  Time to fix that, the Giganti way.

Feints – Explanation. The Feint of Cavazione from the Hand

Since there are several offensive actions, there will be several lessons in this book.  However, do not expect me to list every single offensive action that is possible in our discipline; that number is limitless

I’ve considered sitting down and writing out a list to see if my list approaches limitless.  It could be that I just don’t use the same terminology as him (instead thinking in general categories), but I can’t really picture more than, say, 6-10 offensive actions.  Let’s see:

1. Stesso tempo lunge
2. Stesso tempo lunge with cavazione
3. Stesso tempo lunge with other line change (oblique lunge, low lunge)
4. Beat-lunge
5. Cut
6. Ballestra
7. Feint
8. Stesso tempo pass
9. Feint and pass

But, looking at that list, I’m over-reliant on about three of them almost to the exclusion of the rest, including number 7.

Among the artful ways to strike the opponent, feints are in my opinion distinctly superior to all others

Given the English teacher blood that courses in my veins, his use of the term “artful” caught my eye. I doubt he meant it in a modern sense (even though the translator is modern). More in a “masterful” sense. In Giganti’s vision of the art of defence (direct, efficient) the feint is among the most direct and efficient attacks.

Feinting means motioning to do one thing and doing another

Which is a “duh” statement, but opens the door to discuss feinting on the rapier field: Most people either can’t sell the feint, or feint in such a way that exposes them to counter-attack.  Feints tend to be a weak thrust delivered well short, or a half lunge, also delivered well short but with the added aspect of bringing their body into their opponent’s range.  I’m tall-ish, I’ve got long monkey arms, if you bring your body into range and your arm is too busy focusing on throwing a fake attack, you will have a bruise on your sword-side nipple.  Giganti talks more about proper feint technique, but for me it boils down to don’t move your feet, throw vigorously from the waist up (extending the arm and body) such that you are extended and ready to complete your lunge, but also not too close to quickly disengage the parry you’re trying to draw out.  That said, Percy throws his beautiful feet feints all day long, but the vast majority of fencers need to walk on this one before they start running.

For the feint discussions, Giganti describes a process that boils down to: Set up in a described manner, perform an action that will draw a parry.  If no parry, lunge and kill.  If parry, cavazione and kill.  The action that will draw a parry is the feint.

Take this section as the exemplar:

Set yourself in guard to the inside… so as to provoke the opponent to gain your sword.  As the opponent steps into measure… perform your cavazione

All of this (and I’ve excised about four lines of text) is just the setup.  Here comes the feint:

… perform your cavazione and feint a thrust to his face

He provides a bit of instruction now on how to feint:

however, feint your thrust wide, to ensure that the opponent’s steel won’t meet yours

If your opponent’s parry lands, even lightly, your disengage has to be much larger and slower, and you die.  Back to the plan, we’re now to the “two roads diverged” step:

If he does not parry, push your thrust home…

If he parries, perform an additional cavazione and strike him as pictured in this illustration

So, again, setup, feint, cavazione-strike.  The next four or five sections all follow this same pattern.  In this case, setup to the inside so that he closes the line and cavazione.  Perform the feint to the outside, then cavazione again for the strike…

where the opponent has incautiously run against his adversary’s point.

Have I mentioned I love Giganti?

Be sure not to let the opponent’s blade touch yours as you perform your second cavazione

Here again a reiteration of the point made above: Don’t let your opponent touch your sword.  A huge chunk of determining Right-of-Way in foil is “Well did your blades touch, and who initiated the contact?”  And despite the ludicrous actions it sometimes lead to, its roots are found in this lesson from Giganti.  If your disengage or feint get entangled, your action has just ended and you must re-defend before you can safely attack your opponent.

Also, keep your head and body a little withdrawn so you can safely judge what the opponent has in mind

And so your opponent can’t get a lucky shot at you, because

If he attacks without you using this precaution, the action would result in a double hit

Lastly, be sure to glide with your true edge against the edge of the opponent’s steel

Again, maintain mechanical advantage and protect yourself.  I think it’s the use of “glide” at this point that has led to an interesting difference between Dante and me in how we understand Giganti’s instructions.  I’ll let him speak to his approach to feints, as I’ve found both my understanding, and my application of Dante’s understanding, to be equally useful tools, but I don’t want to do a disservice and misrepresent his thoughts.

In summary…

– Present your point… extending your arm (but not your step)
-If the opponent parries, perform a cavazione in the same tempo and push your thrust home accompanied with the extension of your foot
-If he does not parry your feint, extend your step and push your thrust home

Setup, feint, and either disengage or don’t, but finish it with the lunge.

Note: the following two illustrations…

He discusses how the next two illustrations might appear the same, but are slightly different (they are) and worth presenting.

Of course, it then turns out they’re also slightly wrong, or at least in the wrong place.  The first one seems right (9), but the second one (10) illustrates the action in a different section, and third (11) ends wrong.  This was a pain in the butt the past two weeks in working through these, and led to an observer asking if I’d memorized the footnotes because I reminded Gawin to read footnote 18 when we were discussing plate 10.