Class 6: November 21, 2004

Last class! After reviewing and drilling all four sequences, some things clicked and I have a new view of rapier. This is my very basic take on it: when it comes to DiGrassi, what you really want to do is thrust whenever you can -- the goal is to impale your opponent. If you choose to attack after defending yourself, you're probably going to be in a position where the best thing to do is cut. So thrust as much as possible, and cut only when you're in no good position to thrust.

There's no thrusting in the German longsword style (Meyer, 1570) I've been studying. It's mostly cuts and blows, and a typical goal is to get close enough to grapple and throw your opponent to the ground. No impaling. The idea of prefering thrusts over cuts has taken awhile to sink into my head.

Patri and Mark demonstrated a few techniques from different rapier combat masters, which was really interesting. They also showed and talked about copies of roughly 25 other rapier manuals written during the Renaissance. All in all, a very fun and interesting course.

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