The Martinez Academy of Arms hosted this unique and international event, in the city of Jersey City, NJ, U.S.A. Saturday, January 9th.  Maestro Ramon Martinez hosted the event, and who also provided excellent demonstrations of his skill, as well as the skill of others of the school, including his wife Jeanette in the area of classical fencing.  Demonstrations included the Spanish style, French and Italian fencing and rapier styles. Special guest appearances included Rey Galang, director of the North American headquarters of BakBakan International, Paul MacDonald of Edinburgh, Scotland, Fight Director of the Dawn Duellists Society and Andrea Lupo Sinclair, President of the Associazione Triskell, Milan, Italy.  Some details of each form of presentation follows.

La Verdadera Destreza

One of the first demonstrations provided to an audience of approximately 200 - 300 people, was by Maestro Martinez and his wife, Jeannette Acosta-Martinez included the Italian rapier, Spanish rapiers, sword and dagger.  It was clearly evident the skill that these two people possessed.  The variations of the Italian and Spanish style, whereby the Italian style being more energetic, much movement, more animated, more of a linear style whereas the Spanish style, cool and deliberate circular footwork movements waiting for the opportunity to strike.  The photo on the left illustrates the "La Verdadera Destreza", the Spanish school of rapier.  It utilizes circular footwork whereby each assume a calm, cool persona relying purely on skill rather than force to defeat the opponent.  Much of the origins of la verdadera destreza is based on Don Jeronimo de Carranza, who published his De la Filosophia de las Armas in 1569.

Spada y Daga

An extremely fascinating demonstration of martial arts were the Filipino with their spada y daga, a sword and dagger technique.  The Filipino, under Spanish occupation for over three hundred years, had been greatly influenced by the Spanish in the evolution of this martial art by the Filipino warriors. The Spanish with their introduction of European weapons, primarily the sword, inadvertantly provided an opportunity for the people, indigenous to the Philipines, the tools and techniques to develop this highly effective martial art in their battle against the Spanish.   Under the direction by Maestro Rey Galang of the BakBakan International School of Martial Arts, provided an excellent and educational demonstration of the skill and swiftness of this form of martial art.

However, there is still some confusion as to the exact influence the Spanish had on this development, given that different areas of the Philipines have different terminology and pedagogy that use Tagalog nomenclature for techniques and demonstrate little, if any Spanish influence.

Dusack

An extrodinary demonstration by Paul MacDonald and Gareth Hunt, both hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland involved a weapon which has origins in Germany. It is essentially, an large, elongated "meat cleaver", one sharp edge, slightly curved blade with an integral hand grip. It has a certain resemblance to a large machete. This instrument of "physiological re-arrangement" as Mr. MacDonald had put it, has been written about as early as the fourteenth century.  The weapon is in its entirety, a single piece of metal. The unarmed hand and arm is often used as leverage to facilitate the motion of the weapon for its delivery to the target.  Often, the weapon is supported by the unarmed hand due to the weight of the weapon.

Paul MacDonald is the fight director of the Dawn Duellists Society (DDS) of Scotland, which he founded in 1994.  The mission of the DDS is to revive and teach forms of historical swordmanship, from the late medieval broadsword technique through the epee de combat of the nineteenth century.

Renaissance-era cut and thrust

Maestro Andrea Lupo Sinclair of Milan, Italy demonstrated his skill with the cut-and-thrust sword forms, often utilizing the services of Paul MacDonald and or Gareth Hunt.  Maestro Sinclair, dressed in traditional Italian garb for the practice of the sword forms, expertly handled the offensive attacks provided by both Paul and Gareth, using a cut-and-thrust sword and small buckler.  Maestro Sinclair involved significant positioning, footwork, circling, dodging and vaulting which clearly demonstrated the "enthusiatic" manner of Italian swordplay.

Maestro Andrea Lupo Sinclair is the founder and president of FISAS, the Italian Ancient & Historical Fencing Federation, a group dedicated to reviving the true systems of ancient training and use of cut-and-thrust sword.  He has also founded the Italian Federation for Historical Swordplay and the European Federation for Historical Swordplay.

Other Demonstrations

Other demonstrations included a hand-to-hand martial art form called "Arte dell'Abbracciare" by John Kovacs.  The literal translation is the "art of embracing" or "seizing".  The techniques presented by John are sourced from the fifteenth century Flos Duellatorum, written by Fiore de' Liberi. The demonstation clearly illustrated the ability to defend oneself against a knife-bearing assailant. John is a student of the Martinez Academy.  Other demonstrations included a classical foil competition, single rapier vs. single rapier, rapier and cloak vs. single rapier, Italian smallsword vs French smallsword and others.

The rather blurred photo on the left presents the maestros, responsible for the demonstration of skill and technique of their students and themselves during this exposition.  Beginning on the left, Mr. Paul MacDonald, Mr. Ramon Martinez, Mr. David Laoum (MC of the event), Mr. Andrea Lupo Sinclair and Mr. Rey Galang.  Other participatants in the exposition, included: Jeannette Acosta-Martinez, Andy Baiman, Kim Moser, Edgar De La Vega, David Storrs, Michael Su and Christopher Umbs.

This concludes the trip report. I apologize for the quality of the images.  I was trying out my new "Christmas" present, a digital camera. It'll be better the next go around.

David M. Cvet
AEMMA