Sword & Buckler Workshop

November 1,2, 2003

Conducted by Stephen Hand
Stocatta School of Defense (Australia)

On Nov 1 & 2, 2003 Stephen Hand from Stocatta School of Defense (Australia) presented a workshop on Sword and Buckler Fencing as preserved in MS I.33. Stephen is a leading researcher of this material and has recently, collaborating with Paul Wagner published a book on the material by the Chivalry Bookshelf. Stephen clearly is very intimate with the material and has internalized the system to a significant degree. Stephen presented the system in a very clear manner allowing complete novices to walk away understanding the foundations of the system.

20 people participated, AEMMA recruits, Schollers, Free Schollers, and a collection of other interested parties including a Stage Combat fight director, Steve Muhlberger (researching personal combat for his next book), a SCA fighter and a Phillipino martial arts master, Nanoi Galiano, who brought his lead students to participate in order to further his research on the links between Philipino martial arts and European systems.

A pair of students working the plays in the workshop. L:unknown, R:Anton Cvet.

Day one of the workshop was devoted to the principles of the system, the concepts of ward and counter ward, defending and attacking the arm, the stab knock, the shield knock, falling under the sword and other concepts where deeply investigated.

A traditional class photo. Back row L: Brian Mcilmoyle, Chris Kovach, Terry DeCoste, NA, NA, David Cvet, NA, John Wignall, James Hobson, Kel Rekuta
front row L: Matt Fisher, NA, Miguel Cura, Stephen Hand, Chris Armstrong, David Murphy, Charles Jevons.

Steve despite being quite jet lagged form his intercontinental flight delivered crisp instruction filled with many examples. The experiential instruction nature of the manuscript became clear as we worked our way through the first few sections of I.33. This stuff has to be done to understand .. just looking at the manual will not illuminate the subtle and very deadly nature of this fencing system. Anyone who mistakes this system for a "game" is going to be surprised by its pragmatic and lethal simplicity. Day one finished off with tapping a keg of Scholler Kel's fine brown ale as we all gathered around the bar in the Salle and examined the days work.

On day 2 we focused on plays from the various wards and counter-wards incorporating the principals learned the day before. The day was punctuated by a brief interlude where Steve demonstrated some of his ongoing research on the use of the large shield using a couple of old heaters lying around in the AEMMA Salle d'Armes. We finished the day looking at the priest's "special ward" and counter and the enigmatic "walpergis's" ward. Day 2 again finished off over a few pitchers of Kel's beer.

In all we were very impressed with the system, and with Steve Hand's presentation of the system. We look forward to working more with this material and incorporating sword and buckler fencing into AEMMA's scholler curriculum.

Click the video camera icons for a couple of film clips on the workshop:

video clip #1 (requires Windows media player, 2.3MB)
video clip #2 (requires Windows media player, 1.5MB)

by Brian McIlmoyle
AEMMA