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