I’ve been teaching a lot more longsword at my local practices lately. Someone asked a bit ago about the general beginner’s curriculum I use. I looked at the rough outline I sent them and thought about posting it publicly, but then realized that I’d probably need to provide a bit more detail than just myContinue reading “Longsword 101 Curriculum”
Author Archives: Arik Mendelevitz
Pillars & Attributes: The Interplay of Fundamentals and Natural Skill
I’ve had a few conversations recently how different attributes interact with success in different areas of fencing and I thought it might be helpful for me to explain how they all fit together in some sort of actually thought-out piece instead of trying to remember each of them off the top of my head. BeforeContinue reading “Pillars & Attributes: The Interplay of Fundamentals and Natural Skill”
Giganti’s Feints: A Revelation
You know those times you grapple with a problem for months and then someone just drops the answer in your lap and everything is suddenly illuminated? Well let me walk you through my past two days of sword research. This weekend I came back from Pennsic with a few things I know I wanted toContinue reading “Giganti’s Feints: A Revelation”
How to Teach Feints
Recently a good friend of mine asked for some advice on how to teach feints. Thankfully I had just spent a couple of months working on a sequence to help teach just that to one of the folks at my local practice. Please note that this sequence is set up to teach the fundamentals ofContinue reading “How to Teach Feints”
The Spada Due Mani of the Anonimo Bolognese Part II: Video
After almost two years, I was finally able to put together a full video for all of the plays the Anonimo gives us for his sword in two hands. Feel free to give it a watch here: For anyone interested in looking back at just the text, feel free to check it out here: https://foolofswords.home.blog/2020/03/23/the-spada-due-mani-of-the-anonimo-bolognese-part-i-words/
The Anonimo Bolognese Part I: Nine Manners
For my latest project I decided to read the entirety of the Anonimo Bolognese from cover to cover. This is intended as the first article of many in my explorations. For those unfamiliar with the text, the Anonimo Bolognese is a compendium of two overlapping, handwritten manuscripts written some time between 1500 and 1550 currentlyContinue reading “The Anonimo Bolognese Part I: Nine Manners”
Guardia Mista? More Like Guardia Missed Ya!
Why a Seventeenth Century Guard is Muddling Your Decision Tree and Losing You Fights As a preface, this article is intended more as a practical lesson on how to avoid a common mistake while fencing than it is a scholar piece deciphering what the original authors meant. The topic of this is one of theContinue reading “Guardia Mista? More Like Guardia Missed Ya!”
The Anonimo and Marozzo or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Spada Dui Mani
Today I would like to focus on two specific texts from the Bolognese fencing tradition. More specifically, I’d like to do a case study peering into the Anonimo Bolognese and Achille Marozzo’s Opera Nova. My hope is that this will help elucidate some broader thematic differences between how the two authors want us to fight.Continue reading “The Anonimo and Marozzo or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Spada Dui Mani”
Two Takes on the Lunge
In rapier, lunging is THE foundational movement. Sometimes we do a little less, such as throwing a half cut or performing a firm-footed lunge, and other times we do a bit more by following it up with a remise or a passing step. The basic unit of measurement, however, remains the same. So with that,Continue reading “Two Takes on the Lunge”
A Handy Guide to Understanding Tempo
Out of the three main building blocks of Italian swordsmanship (structure, measure, and tempo), tempo is by and far the most elusive of the bunch. Both structure (how well your bones are lined up) and measure (how far apart things are) are things I, as an instructor, can just point to in space. We canContinue reading “A Handy Guide to Understanding Tempo”
Fool of Swords 