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| Blunted steel rapier combat |
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Western European Historical Swordplay has come into its own during the last decade both as a viable martial art and as a form of serious historical inquiry. Using facsimiles of historical fight manuals (many having only recently been translated into English) and replica training weapons, modern students experience a discipline which has far more in common with Asian martial arts than with modern sport fencing.
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In modern sport fencing, the lightest physical contact between combatants is strictly prohibited. Historical swordfighting is FUNDAMENTALLY PHILOSOPHICALLY DIFFERENT. Swordfighting is ... fighting with swords thrown into the mix. The original swordplay manuals include all kinds of deliberate direct physical contact. At the Bramble Schoole, grappling, controlled punching, kicking, throws, and even knees to 'the cods' are regarded as viable attacks.
Even the weapons of historical swordplay are fundamentally different from those of modern fencing. Instead of the whippy, insubstantial foils, epees and sabers of sport fencing, historical swordplay employs wooden training swords called 'wasters' and / or blunted steel replica swords. These training weapons have more mass and hit far harder than sport fencing weapons.
Historically, a certain number of cracked skulls and gouged out eyes were accepted as the price of learning the "Noble Science of Defence". For safety reasons, modern historical fencers use head & eye protection, generally in the form of modern fencing masks.
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Above is a photo from a demonstration of Elizabethan era rapier fighting. The rapiers used are full weight historical replica rapiers with protectively blunted edges and tips. On the right is something closer to what you would actually see in an Elizabethan fight school. Note the complete absence of head and eye protection. The weapons pictured are wooden training swords (wasters). Wasters were much less expensive training weapons which, although punishing during practice, were less likely to cause irreparable damage than their steel counterparts. Pictured are Joshua Wever and Scott Crawford, the director of Bartholomew Bramble's Schoole of Defence and the Arts Mylitarie.
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| Elizabethan style waster swordplay |
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