Classical Fencing
Scherma Tradizionale Italiana: Traditional Italian Fencing
Traditional Italian Fencing is the late 19th century practice of the foil (a blunted training weapon), the épeé or spada (the dueling sword), and the sabre (a cutting as well as thrusting weapon). It is the art from which the modern sport of fencing derives. Today’s practitioners study the traditional art as a means to […]
German
The Unorthodox Fighter
A while ago, I was asked the following question: „I.33 and most of the other manuscripts are based on the idea that there will be a meeting of the swords and actions at that bind will determine the victor. How do you deal with an opponent who refuses to bind, using only his buckler to […]
I.33
The Origins of European Swordsmanship
A common feature of all historical European sword-fighting, as reflected in medieval and Renaissance combat treatises, is fencing with blade binds. In this refined fighting art, a crossing of swords informs a combatant on appropriate maneuvers, based on pressure feedback sensed through one’s blade. Actually, the concept of going where pressure takes you is, indeed, […]
Italian
Italian Rapier Fencing – The Art of the Duel
by Gregory Mele, Chicago Swordplay Guild Rapier fencing was the first truly “civilian” system of fencing, maximized for single combat and meant to be used without either any secondary arms (although their use continued for quite some time) or protective armour. Originating in Italy, rapier fencing spread throughout Europe, where it developed into several unique […]
Longsword
English Longsword: The Harleian Manuscript
Most period two hand sword texts or fechtbücher of the 14th and 15th centuries were of German or Italian provenance so folios 82 – 85 of Harley ms 3542 provide a rare and welcome glimpse into a medieval method of English two-hand sword combat. Contained within this work (ff.84v -85r ) is a well-written verse that hitherto, due to its use of supposed cryptic […]
Messer
Jessica Finley Ringen and Langes Messer Seminar Report
On Saturday July 28, Jessica Finley gave a day-long seminar in Ringen and Messer techniques from the German medieval martial arts tradition. The day started with a three hour Ringen course, for which thirteen people attended. Drawing from the techniques of Master Ott, Jessica skillfully led the group through a series of basic exercises leading […]
More Articles
Welcome to CFAA’s Newest Member: Swords of Chivalry
CFAA is very pleased to add Scott Farrell of San Diego, CA and his group Swords Of Chivalry* to our ranks. For those of you who might not know Scott, he is best known as the owner of Chivalry Today and its popular podcasts: http://chivalrytoday.com/ Swords Of Chivalry teaches several medieval weapon styles taken from the German/Lichtenauer school […]

CFAA Welcomes the Freifechter
The Chivalric Fighting Arts Association is pleased to welcome its newest member, the Freifechter (http://www.freifechter.org) Founded in the year 2000, ‘Die Freifechter’ are one of Germany’s oldest historical fencing clubs. Their training focuses on the single-handed, single-edged sword from various historical eras. Systems trained include Messer according to the so-called ‘Glasgow Fechtbuch’ and Johannes Lecküchner’s […]
Why you should train with sharp swords, and how to go about it without killing anyone.
Swords are, by definition, sharp. Anything sword-like that is not sharp is either a foil, or a percussive weapon like a club. I am a swordsman, and so I use sharp swords. Do I let my beginner students fight each other (or even handle) sharps? No, of course not. But my senior students have done […]
Stop Complaining & Get Training: A Simple Challenge for 2014
by Bill Grandy, Virginia Academy of Fencing, USA (Author’s note: Before anyone calls me a hypocrite, let it be known that I am training while I write this. I’ve set the requirement for myself to do 20 squats before typing a new paragraph, with the first set starting the moment I finish this sentence… hopefully this […]
Tournament Rules
Tournament Rules The following tournament rules are used by Northwest Fencing Academy to train fighters, and for tournament play. We used these rules successfully for the Accolade Tournament Finals at Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium in February 2013, and we will use them for the upcoming tournament finals at Western Martial Arts Workshop. Tournaments provide a […]
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 11,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 18 years to get […]
Upcoming Articles
Good day all! We’ve been somewhat remiss in posting articles lately, but your patience will be rewarded! We have several articles in the pipeline that should be of note to anybody interested in the Historical European Martial Arts. Among these is another piece by our prolific and always excellent Bill Grandy concerning Fabian von Auerswald, […]
Switching Between Systems
One of the benefits to having produced things like my books and the syllabus wiki is that they provide a service to a vastly wider range of students than I can possibly train in person, who consequently ask me a wider range of questions, forcing me to think about things differently. One such example is this from Javier Andrés […]
Upcoming Articles
The CFAA blog has some interesting articles coming up, and so here we are to entice you with a bit of a preview. First off, English martial arts will be featured through a paper on the English longsword tradition, by Terry Brown, with a link to his fantastic transcription of the verse contained within the […]