Manipulating Proportion – Practice

Immediate Practice

5 minutes – Explore angulation and penetration

• Have your partner disengage back and forth between your inside and outside. Ensure that they bring their point back to the same height each time.
• Experiment with penetration by crossing your partners sword near their point, then penetrating further down their weapon until you’re crossing them at their mezza spada. Watch how this increases the size (and time) of their disengage.
• Experiment with angulation by crossing their sword in the debole (about 6-8 inches from their point) and moving your sword between a position where it is parallel with the ground (hilt and point at the same height) and one where your hilt is low and your point is high. Watch how this increases the size (and time) of their disengage.
• Experiment with putting both concepts together.

5 minutes – Practice following your partner’s disengage-under with a volta stabile.

• Start by stringering your partner on the inside, as shown in the last lesson and this one.
• Your partner will attempt to disengage around your sword to gain advantage on the outside. You will follow them with a volta stabile to trap their weapon underneath. Your partner can then attempt to get to the outside, and you will follow them again (as shown).
• Be efficient in your movement. Follow with your point, not your hilt.
• See how using angulation and penetration can make following your partner easier or harder. When there is very little angulation and penetration your partner’s movement will be smaller and thus more challenging to follow.

5 minutes – Practice responding to your partner’s volta stabile by cutting over their sword.

• From a mezza spada crossing, your partner will use a volta stabile to regain the advantages over your weapon. You will follow this by cutting over their sword and reacquiring the advantages on the opposite side. Repeat back and forth between lines.
• Experiment with how changing angulation and penetration can increase or decrease the size of movement required by your partner to regain control.

5 minutes – Practice responding to volta stabile and cavatione

• Have your partner alternate between the cavatione and the volta stabile. You will respond to each movement to stay in control.
• Pay attention to how much angulation and penetration you have at the end of each movement. Note how increasing them makes the job of following much easier.

Ongoing Practice

• Good sword fighting is about proportion management. You should always be forcing your opponent to make big movements that you can counter with smaller movements.
• Bring an understanding and experimentation of angulation and penetration into all aspects of your practice. If a technique is difficult to achieve because you don’t feel like you have enough time. See how you can force your opponent to give you more time by using these concepts.