#abrazare

An evening and a morning late, I suppose, but better late than never. This week was meant to be longsword, but something happened with Matt and the club weapons, so another scholar led the class, and the beginner section ended up being on the start of the hand-to-handy grapply (abrazare) bit of Fiore’s treatise.

Pretty interesting, generally, for any number of reasons. Namely, that the existence of and attempts to reconstruct like...14th/15th century Italian hand-to-hand martial arts, as opposed to East Asian ones, is an interesting contrast to make. Like, the fact that they exist at all is a fact worth noting. But for those vaguely familiar with the rest of Fiore’s system, it’s also interesting to see how it sort of operates on the same systems. He basically implements and reworks four of the guards that appear in his two-handed and one-handed sword systems for unarmed fighting. Posta longa, denta di cinghiale, porta di ferro, and posta frontale. And a lot of the plays are sort of translations of stuff I recognised from the later sections in the treatise: his gioco stretto pommel strike plays, for instance. That gives the whole treatise a nice sense of continuity and holism, to my mind, and means that knowledge of different sections are applicable across weapons systems too, if you’re clever with them.

Also, I guess the fact that a lot of these are techniques that presume your opponent is trying to stab you with a dagger, and often has surprised you, make them pretty interesting too in the context of like...medieval Italian street brawls and suchlike. And the content of the section, if you read it, clearly has these sorts of life-or-death no-holds-barred brawl situations in mind, given how fucking dirty most of the techniques are --- it’s all joint-locks and -breaks, eye gouging, nose-smashing, and “BY THIS PLAY I WILL DESTROY YOUR TESTICLES, SUCH THAT NO STRENGTH WILL REMAIN IN YOUR HEART”.

(For more cute little bits of nastiness from this bit of Fiore’s treatise, at least according to my interpretation, see here.)

Anyway, we went through like the first four plays, which are basically ways to fuck someone up who tries to grip you by the shoulder or throat in one hand, and wail on you with a knife or just their other fist. Mostly it involves stopping the momentum of their potentially-knifey hand, getting your body the fuck away from it, while breaking, locking, or straight-up dislocating their left elbow and forcing them to the ground. That, and various ways to respond to their likely responses.

But this throws up something else interesting, for me. Sword techniques are sort of distanced from their likely effect, when you practice them. Which is probably for the best because, god, do you really wanna be thinking about what a sharp longsword wielded proficiently is gonna do to someone? (I mean, kinda, yeah, in the abstract, but I’m in no hurry at all to literally find out.) It’s hard to imagine, when you’re just drilling with a partner, what the effects of these plays were meant to be. But with unarmed stuff, grappling, locks, etc., even just slowly and gently practicing them gives you a sense of their likely effects. When you practice, you push to just the beginning of possible discomfort for your partner, and when you’re on the receiving end, that discomfort is a warning sign --- the mechanics of your body are getting turned against themselves, and you sort of feel that if your partner pushed a little further, applied a little more force or torque, that they could do real damage. Even applying very little force, as the one executing the grapples and stuff, it’s weirdly easy to get your opponent very thoroughly off-balance, or immobilised, or on the ground.

“ Hi there guys, gals, and non-binary pals! HAPPY NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY

6 years ago today, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life by sharing my authentic self with the world and came out as gay. In what has now been a full circle moment, I am proud to announce a special pre-order dropping today of the new Bigotry Free Jiu Jitsu rashguards

There have been far too many intolerant martial artists doubling down on expressing sentiments that are against human rights, and we simply we not stand by and allow those within the martial arts community to exclude, diminish, or disrespect the validity of anyone’s right to be treated equally

This collaborative effort could not have been possible without the support, allyship & love of my friends at @suckerfreejiujitsu , the original artwork render of the logo done by @roobeeo , artistic talents of my boyfriend @n.p.art.gallery in reworking this design to incorporate the new, all inclusive Pride flag, and our manufacturer Usman, who was able to quickly put together this beautiful rashguard which features the colors of the Trans flag

All profits from this project will be donated 50/50 to The Black Trans Advocacy Coalition & to The Center for Black Equity. “

You can find them here via suckerfreejiujitsu with other great designs as well.

Found here via  QT HEMA 

From there description:

“Welcome to QTH, the first and only group for queer and trans people in HEMA! This is a safe space for discussion, support, advice, etc. We are currently a closed group for privacy reasons only, membership is open to everyone.There are no formal rules at this time, but if you are an asshole I will ban you. Sometime soon (a week or so) formal rules will be established. For now, just be nice.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you are not queer OR trans: Welcome! Because this is a space for a marginalized group, here are some guidelines for participating in our space.This space is open to everyone, but please understand that it is primarily a space for queer and trans people. This means that no one here is obligated to educate you, or explain things to you. It also means that if you say something hurtful or talk over queer and trans voices, you will be asked to rephrase your comments or take a step back. At some point, someone will say something along the lines of "straight people do this and it's bad" or "cis people do this and it's bad". Resist the urge to defend yourself personally! If you are here, it is very likely that they don't mean you. “

While there’s other queer-friendly HEMA groups this is the only one meant primarily for LGBTQ folks.

Do not forget to check out the QT HEMA fb page or their great patches.

Jiu-jitsu as such isn’t really HEMA but is a related grappling art to those found in HEMA, HAMA, HCMA, HPMA etc.

So folks wanted to study historical grappling arts may still find it useful and it’s always cool to help stand against bigotry.

Ringen discussiongroup! is a good place to check out if you’re interested in historical wrestling variants, as are  HEMA Grapplers  and Scholars of Fiore dei Liberi.

The first group focuses on ringen, the second is about more general historical wrestling types,the third on armizare, the wrestling portion of which is called abrazare.

If you’re interested in learning about historical forms of boxing or as it was often called pugilism check out  HEMA pugilists

If you are interested in more modern forms of unarmed combat do check out  Southpaw's Mixed Mutual Arts Club

Remember to check out  A Guide to Starting a Liberation Martial Arts Gym

Consider getting some patches of this sort to show support for good causes.

“And the takedown of the year goes to: Chilean protester vs riot cop 🤼”

Here’s a full video, the comrade here manages to tackle the same cup again as another approaches and then make a gateway.

Found here via  Ringen discussiongroup!

“ it resembles Folio 21r of the Codex Wallerstein” 

(here in Bi colors)

Here’s a version from Meyer mentioned in the comments of the post above.

In lgbt colors.

Close up on the takedown itself:

From the comments: “ “  Casting 1.62v.3 􀂾 When an opponent has run under you with his sword, so that you two come very near together, then throw your sword back away from you, bend rapidly down before him, and grip his legs with both hands. Pull toward you; thus he will fall on his back. Concerning this see the small figures on the upper left in Image D." page 108 of the Forgeng translation  “ That translation seems to be out of print but another is on the way. And here’s a few other options in the meantime.

Another analysis of the situation, but to be noted that setting this up improperly can lead to getting caught in a guillotine choke.

A similar post on the topic here.

A post with a video on specific historical wrestling techniques here.

And here’s another old post about some Meyer wrestling.

There’s also a great article on wrestling in Meyer written by Keith Cotter-Reilly one of the best on the subject. Here’s a recent post about it. It talks of this technique as well. And here’s a post about a video with the techniques mentioned in the article.

“Timing is the skill of executing a move at the right time. What is the “right time”? It’s the time at which the move can be the most effective.

Some moves work without timing, providing you have a strength advantage or leverage, or both. If your opponent is standing square on his feet, poised and ready with good balance, you may be able to lift him and throw him anyway if you are much stronger. No timing involved. You will however spend a lot of energy, and your chances of getting countered are very high, especially if your opponent is skilled.”

While written as part of  Principles and Concepts for Martial ArtsPrinciples of Martial Arts for Judo, Bjj, Wrestling, Sambo and Other Grappling ArtsBy: Sylvain Galibert it can be applied to historical wrestling forms, realistically the basic principles outlined here can be applied to historical fencing generally as well, at least to a degree

Ringen discussiongroup!  is a good place to check out if you’re interested in historical wrestling variants, as is  Scholars of Fiore dei Liberi.

Found here via Fighters Against Racism Forum

Consider getting this rashguard if you’re at all interested in grappling of this or that form.

It can also work great for working out generally too.

Ringen discussiongroup! is a good place to check out if you’re interested in historical wrestling variants, as are  HEMA Grapplers  and Scholars of Fiore dei Liberi.

The first group focuses on ringen, the second is about more general historical wrestling types,the third on armizare, the wrestling portion of which is called abrazare.

If you’re interested in learning about historical forms of boxing or as it was often called pugilism check out  HEMA pugilists

If you are interested in more modern forms of unarmed combat do check out Southpaw’s Mixed Marxist Arts Club

Good luck.

And stay safe

And if you can consider donating to any of these causes.

We need change and justice for all.