Dear all,
Mike Prendergast, from the Historical Combat Academy in Dublin will be hosting a workshop at our salle on July 16th, at 19:30. The event is free, no need to pre-register, just show up and participate!
“How to Start a Fight, Milanese Style”
A workshop for longsword, or bring a spadone/montante, if you have one.
Legendary general, soldier and physical trainer, Pietro Monte (1457-1509), is best known for his ‘Levata’ or basic training of the sword. Join us in this workshop to go beyond the fundamentals to learn some of Monte’s more advanced techniques and understand the tactics employed by this professional sword master to survive and thrive on the battlefield of Renaissance Italy. Monte used the two-handed sword as the basis for all ‘short weapons‘, so those lessons apply to longsword, single sword, and, with some modfication, sword and buckler, etc.
In this workshop, we will practice some of Monte’s strategies for approaching the fight, opening up our opponent’s defence, striking them and, importantly(!), covering ourselves on our withdrawal.
This workshop also documents why Monte is a master who *should* have been name-checked in The Princess Bride.