Longsword - Footwork II - Passing Remarks on Steps

 In my last post, I discussed footwork, and started to develop a reference pool from which to draw.  As a quick refresher, there are basically only three ways to move the feet: turning, passing, and advancing.  Fiore's terminology is voltare (related to the English word "revolution"), passare (related to... now prepare for this leap of linguistics... "pass"), and accressere (related to the English word "increase").  He adds tornare - a retreating passing step - and decressere - same, but for an advance.  Let's discuss an example.

For my money, the best series of plays demonstrating footwork in Fiore is on Getty leaf 20r (the beginning of sword in one hand) and 20v.  20r shows three ruffians - the Italian description is "cowards" - attacking the master; the following page shows four potential responses by the "scholars," or the master's students.  With one notable exception, they all use the same footwork, so for brevity's sake I will only use the first scholar for this exercise.  I've also mixed and matched manuscripts here - the scholar shown is from Pisani Dossi, not Getty (link provided so you can see why, later) - because I want to draw attention to the scholar's calves, and I think the detail I want to point out is better on that one.

As you can see, I've marked this up some to demonstrate my point.  I've used the same color code I used in the last post, with some additions.  I've marked the feet with circles, with the foot that starts in front marked in a hollow circle, and with one line; the foot that starts in back is solid, with two lines.  Since they are foundation, and green is how I marked foundation in the previous drawing, they are green.  Above the knee, I have marked the torso in red.  I'm not getting into torso rotation in this discussion, so I have not bothered putting the shoulder axis on here; this is busy enough as is.

So what are we looking at here? I believe, based strictly on experience elsewhere, that the drawing of the attackers and the master is meant to be taken as a single drawing.  The master is aware of the attack and has enough range to react.  There are, to my knowledge, no fewer than three solutions that all involve the same basic footwork, and are all a matter of interpretation.

First and most basic, we'll do what I'll call the "straight solution."  The straight solution involves a turn in place - the weight and facing shifting from the back (solid bubble) foot to the front foot - what Fiore calls a volta stabile (stable turn) on Getty 22r.  The next step in the straight solution is a passing step to close the distance, rotate the body, and move the "floppy bits" where they need to be.  This has the advantage of being the single fastest series of movements, involving the straightest lines and the fewest "beats" of time.  The feet move the shortest possible distance, but the entire engagement takes place on the centerline, meaning that both combatants have equally good targeting opportunities.

Second, and I include this as a possibility because the orientation of the ruffian's shoulders changes between 20r and 20v, is what Fiore calls a meza volta on 22r - a "partial turn," where the lead (open bubble) foot stays planted, and the back (solid bubble) foot rotates through most of a 180-degree arc around that foot, but not all of it.  Guy Windsor's theory in his "perfect step" discussions is that it's about a 135-degree arc, but of all the manuals I've read, Fiore tends to be the most forgiving of what you could call the messiness of combat, so prescribing 135 seems excessive, and a better description would be "sufficient to get you off line and on target."  The point of this move is that the scholar is now off the ruffian's line of attack, but the ruffian's entire body is square-on to the scholar, giving him his choice of targets.  The disadvantage of this footwork solution is that it requires the foot to travel a longer arc, meaning that, for the same energy spent, the scholar is off their final position a little bit longer.

The third footwork solution, and the one that I think fits the circumstances of the bottom drawing of 20r best, is what I think of as a compound step.  The lead (open bubble) foot slides in an advance, probably no longer than the length of the foot itself, like an ice skater pushing off the rear foot.  When it lands, the rear (solid bubble) immediately launches, either in a passing step or in a turn.  I think the passing step is the more likely, because it travels the shortest possible route and uses the fewest units of time and energy, it uses explosive power to close the range unexpectedly, and, properly executed, it allows the scholar to dominate the mental battlespace.  By closing the range unexpectedly, and driving the opponent off-tempo (taking what the Germans would call the vor), it also allows the scholar to seize targeting opportunities that the ruffian doesn't expect.  There is support for this sort of movement in other sources - off the top of my head, the fencers in the even-earlier MS I.33 are very fond of what look like dainty exploratory steps, where the front foot glides forward, and Roland Warzecha's done some discussion on this subject elsewhere.  The problem with this is that this is easily the hardest to train, either solo or partnered - solo because you trip over your own feet, partnered because that explosive movement requires much better control to execute safely.

Discussing explosive power leads to the reason for Pisani Dossi instead of Getty for this particular drawing.  Note the heavily bunched calves of the scholar in Pisani Dossi; the Getty manuscript has them too, but the Pisani Dossi is better in this one particular detail.  The weight is generally on the balls of the feet, and the line of power generation is pretty clearly initiated at the ball of the foot, through the calf, and up through the thigh to the torso.  Looking at the Getty 22v for comparison, the master and scholar's spines stay upright and straight the whole time, there is no "crunch" or "flex," all the striking power comes from torso rotation and leg explosion.  Even the master's initial position, with shoulders relaxed and sword down, keeps the spine upright and straight.

In summary, 20r and 20v allow at least three potential footwork solutions to the problem of "how do I rapidly establish my position and control this field?" There are more, and every combat situation is a fluid, flexible game of paper-rock-scissors, but it's important to note that even a fairly footwork-agnostic source as Fiore's manuals have clear preferences, and the example above is enough to demonstrate that footwork, posture, positioning, and leg conditioning must have been an important part of that training curriculum.

Above I mentioned an exception among the scholars on Getty 20v, where the footwork example doesn't apply.  Well... it sort-of does.  If you click through to Getty 20v above, you will see that the top-right scholar, conventionally labeled "b," has his feet reversed from what we are describing here.  My supposition, based strictly on shinkage experience, is that he simply held until the ruffian was at his desired range, and then executed a "wheel" cut, either from above or below, at the same moment he executed a volta stabile, and used the slight foot motion required to get off line.  Unfortunately, the text is less than helpful here.  Hatcher's translation: "I have rendered you completely unprotected, and now I will easily strike you in the head. And if I choose to pass forward with my rear foot, I can perform close range techniques against you, such as locks, dislocations and grapples."  This is eminently doable, but requires a sense of timing, whereas the footwork solutions outlined above are more forgiving on timing.

A final note - because I referenced Getty 22r, and I don't read medieval Italian script and can barely puzzle through the language, and therefore assume that at least some of the people who read this can't either, I'm going to include the Hatcher translation of that critically important page down here:

We are two guards that are similar to each other, and yet each one is a counter to the other. And for all other guards in this art, guards that are similar are counters to each other, with the exception of the guards that stand ready to thrust—the Long Guard, the Short Guard and the Middle Iron Gate. For when it is thrust against thrust the weapon with the longer reach will strike first. And whatever one of these guards can do so can the other.

And from each guard you can make a “turn in place” or a half turn. A turn in place is when without actually stepping you can play to the front and then to the rear on the same side. A half turn is when you make a step forwards or backwards and can switch sides to play on the other side from a forwards or backwards position. A full turn is when you circle one foot around the other, one remaining where it is while the other rotates around it.

Furthermore you should know that the sword can make the same three movements, namely stable turn, half turn and full turn.

Both of these guards drawn below are named the Guard of the Lady.

Also, there are four types of movement in this art, namely passing forwards, returning, advancing, and withdrawing.