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I taught a short class on spear tonight at Stormhold Heavy training using boffer training spears. The system I taught is not particularly historical but could lead to further historical study quite well – I hope. The aim was to teach something that would be useful quickly and appropriate for using in SCA  armoured combat war scenarios.

Class notes below:

Spear Class

Purpose of the class; what this system is and what it is not. Further reading for those interested (Fiore, Mair)

 Footwork

  • Simple step; advance, retreat
  • Increase; aka demilunge
  • Pass – passare, tornare
  • Gathering step

 Lines:

·         Inside/outside
·         Low/high

Attacks

  • boars thrust – spear low and rising
  • greek thrust – spear chest high, hands in 4th
  • sliding thrust – pool cue, both hands stay on, rotating the hands
  • Imbroccata (aka swiss) – spear above the shoulders, rear hand in 1st, front hand in 4th

 Distance drill (done for each thrust individually)

1.     A& P moving
2.     When either thinks they are in range call thrust, caller is A
3.     P freezes, A thrusts with control
4.     Check whether it would have landed

 Defences

inside parry – point in
outside parry – turn the body aka face the weapon
high parry – window guard aka imbroccata thrust
low parry – squat beating the opponents spear downwards