The thing about his own fighting endeavours is that there was nearly always something asymmetrical. get the pictureĥ - Fight in a close environment (Alehouse)Ħ- Fight through an encirclement and escape an ambush. (futher D6 1-2= 2 adversaries 3= 4 adversaries 4= you. Others with pocket pistols, and then add random Scenarios that reflect his hair brained escapades i.e: Some with talcum powder (dust) in their pockets. Say 20 individuals differently armed (Most with smallswords, but some with broadswords, Targes, spadroons, quarterstaves etc) Some with Tricorn hats. I personally always thought that HEMA McBane done in the spirit of his book would be very scenario driven. Even modern foil would have three times the amount of techniques. then you are essentially left with a very stripped down french derived smallsword system that you can still use in tournaments, but if you just stuck to the techniques mentioned by Mcbane that yes it's very limited. Well if you just take the smallsword techniques and strip away grappling, the auxiliary skills etc. Plenty of other fencing masters claimed they were great fighters, but McBane stands out as amongst the few that had eye witnesses to attest his skill.Īnd he is the only historical fencing master that admits losing his first duel and running away from his first battle. Oh and the fact that he was a veteran of about a dozen battles and sieges and was a prizefighter whose skills can be verified by third parties. Its the brawl outside a tavern in the rain with men who owe you money, the fighting your way out of a Bordello while fighting off pimps and prostitutes at the same time that sort of thing. Its not Duelling smallsword its Rencontre (street) smallsword. It's to do with blinding people with sand in your pocket or with your hat, nutting people in the face, making sure when you hand a weapon back to a gentleman (rather than a ruffin) you hand it back to him point first, how to lunge on slippy ground, that sort of thing. It's to do with his insane colourful history and the auxiliary techniques. The reason why Mcbane is loved by his fanboys (which include myself) is less to do than with the techniques: Go down to any modern fencing salle and you will see Reprises with Half-lunges going for the opponents arm done by most sport epeeists on any given night. Idiosyncratic names for parries and an emphasis on the above technique. Reprises with Half-lunges going for the opponents arm. To get the flavour of McBane as opposed to say his near contemporaries Such as Hope or any of the other Parisian masters its necessary really to read into the 15 or so short smallsword lessons and see what is emphasised i.e turns up again and again which is: This is important to bear in mind because its pedagogically very different from later 19th and 20th century foil systems when trying to reconstruct. Like most pre 1880's smallsword, Mcbane forms a parry and thrusts are made from those hand positions so for example: a parry of tierce had a thrust in tierce. The other hand positions such as Italian High Quarte and Seconde/Hanging guard, and a slew of others may require more reading into and interpretation but are strictly auxiliary and I wouldn't bother experimenting with them until you get your bread and butter parries down. So Tierce/Quarte/Quarte Basse/Seconde of most systems McBane calls these Quart/Tierce/Low Quart/Portgueze Guard/ The thing to understand about McBane is that its essentially French smallsword (he first learnt it in Ireland - possibly the Mahon-L'Abbat line) and then changed to his idiosyncratic method when on campaign in Flanders and the low countries.Ī lot of the Hand positions have their names changed but can be mapped somewhat on the typical french smallsword systems: Don't try to compare to illustrations as they are poor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |