Lessons of the Lines: Sword in Two Hands: The Six Dissimilar Guards

Hello everyone, Kurt Holfeder here and welcome back to another episode from Holfeder Labs. Today we continue on with the works of Fiore's Armatzari and we are going to be shifting into the six dissimilar guards in which Fiore prescribes to us that we can hold a sword in of two hands. Now one thing about this section right here that I am going to talk about is that each one of these positions have got their own plays and actions which he tells us we can do. There'll be a second segment on each one of them going down that way with it all as well as how we may get into them. But for today I want to first and foremost introduce them to everybody for there's some people that may not know what they are and I want to take the opportunity also to share what my theory is and how this practice of the six dissimilar guards actually is for something else which has more about preparing us for the long arm combat of the forearm section. So that being the case here before I go too far into it let's get into it. Okay so this week we're going to be focusing on the six dissimilar guards and again some of the observations that we get from them, I'm sorry that I get from them, that I also think is what Fiore is trying to convey to us as far as for training as well as utilizing other arms here. Now right off the bat here you can tell I already have two other pieces right here that are part of his tradition and the reality is I think that there is a reason why you have six dissimilar guards in this section as you go into the sword in two hands before we go into other ones and I think that has to do a lot with about what the second portion of the book really has to deal with which is long armed combat. So in this case right here when we start to talk about the sword in two hands we are starting to go down the journey of long armed combat and there are rules there that apply to the body and how we have to shift things back into close quarter combat that allow us to understand that essentially when you lose when you lose length and distance on somebody you have to be able to go back to it but before that there's always entry there's always crossing and whatnot. So the six dissimilar guards I'm going to put them across the screen right here they are essentially in my opinion they are not just necessarily positions to take up in a fight they are also what I would say is the beginning reps and sets that someone might learn before going into larger heavier arms beyond the sword. A way I kind of talk to my students about this is it's kind of like if you've ever been to the gym and you want to bench press 225 pounds you don't just start there you start off at lower weights so you might start with like 90 pounds but work to you know 135 work to 185 and eventually work up to 225 to be able to get to your goal. To me at this point why you have six dissimilar guards with the sword is because essentially this is that 135 weight area that we're going to on the journey to the 225 and beyond weights. These six dissimilar guards are not just ways to do that however they are also very universal concepts that we can utilize the sword that make the fight of the time very dynamic. In armored fighting out there it is not uncommon to see these types of guards come into place it's also not uncommon to think that you know to employ them to be able to distract people in different forms and fashions and so as much as we are also learning about how to use longer arms we are also in the same context right here making this tool here the sword a lot more deployable under different types of combat situations. So we're going to talk about all of these right here again the first one that we see within the manuscript is the archer's guard the post essentiario so it's sitting there along the lines like this now obviously this looks like it's a throw position in the following videos in the following weeks I'll be talking about what he says in each of these and then I'll be talking about how to deploy these things and so on and so forth. But this right here essentially is just a throwing guard position to allow ourselves to be able to hurl the sword. In the link to the description of this video you'll also see a spot in there as well a video that I put up there where I throw sharp swords in one of my cutting ranges and it is very effective and I highly encourage you to take a look at that because I think that this is something that is very prevalent and very easy to do and had a very very important relevance in the history of time. So archer's guard very simple and easy right here I just turn myself open I turn my and I open my foot back here same constant as opposed to longer which allows me the ability to get this position up. The next position that we see is the standard sword in one hand position so we've already seen this guard position as before so it's down here along the side here up slightly to upwards the point being is that once again use the sword on this right here so you have a mass weight here and you can cover in different forms and fashions. The third one here is one of the shortened sword guards or armored guards that we see or grips I should say and again the thumbs are aligned towards the tip if you will but my hand is not on the pommel so much it is I'm sorry it's not on the haft it's dropped back to the pommel for mass extension and reach here. This makes it very nimble and the the next armored sword position is putting the hands together inside here or our thumbs are inboard and now we have the sword in front of us in this form and fashion here again very very very tight to the body and also being able to have a little more structure with the length of the blade. Both of these right here this is a quick note and I'll talk about it here it's different as far as how they all go this right here is longer but it's weaker just because the arm is inside of how the structures work here this is a weaker position this right here is shorter but it is stronger because of the structure of my arms and I think those are just once again variants ways of being able to do this. The fifth position is that sword in two hands position that we will be talking about here in the next couple of weeks which is both hands on the handle and the sixth position here is we see him in an axe guard position I'm sorry axe grip that's what I call it where I held the sword in place here on the point and also here in half and I have it at the crossguard section. This is not a position that's universal to Fiore in plenty of German systems you'll hear it called as the as the Mordschlag or throwing the Mordschlag at somebody. Fiore doesn't he talks about this as far as a sword that is also an axe as well which in previous videos you've seen me talk about this right here some of the armored swords that are in his manuscript as well okay so now that we've discussed what these six positions are here we're going to discuss about how I feel that they tie together into other concepts which are very important there's lessons within them so before we start talking about what they do individually we're going to start talking about how they translate and once again why I think they convey to these different tools of war as well. So the first position we have here with the the archers right so being able to throw the sword interestingly enough if I hold like this of course the tip goes down just longer in weight right and this case right here you see the same thing right here when it comes down to being held by the tip area this weighs more so therefore wherever it's at whatever is dominating it so if I let go this is going to swing right if it stays in my hand it's going to make the other portion swing so this becomes the bevel point if I move my arm up right here now it basically becomes something that I am able to be able to transfer this out and throw with relative ease. This transfers over very nicely into the lance up in the same fashion now if I carry this right if I want to throw this thing but I need to have the weight in the back appropriate so that it doesn't dip down in flight but it actually carries forward in that kind of flight area. Mind you this right here is something I built for myself so you know it's it's not necessarily 100% historical but it does convey the lessons of which I think Fjord is trying to say with the lance up it's got a pedaling here which does convey things right it does allow for certain rotational pieces which is another part that's also once again taught with the sword. So if I'm in this position right here when I come in to throw this and we see images of him throwing spears or people throwing spears and my logic is that he had people throwing spears and he's taught you how to throw it because you have to be able to train against it then you know how to hold this thing in a way that is balanced so that when you cast it it doesn't start flipping in the air. That is something that the sword in this position teaches. The second position the sword in one hand and the sword in two hand as far as handles itself to me are just sword positions. You can of course hold an axe a spear and we will hear things like Pulse of the Adonai when it comes down to certain things right here you'll get those things right here but the reality is by holding it here in this position this right here is not necessarily a fighting position this is right here and now we're starting to talk about how we can use this thing at max blade extension. Okay so we're not you that doesn't necessarily translate over into this however we do know and some of the images we'll see pictures where Fjord has the axe up in the position right here where he has it right here we do see that possibility out there but again as far as lessons go of this right here this is again what I would say when you cast it this way this is talking about this tool set this tool right here as far as blade optimization and doesn't necessarily convey over to this. Okay the third one is once again where we have our thumbs aligned into this right here this is also the weight is back in this which allows for a faster tip you can already see here how this in itself becomes very much so like a spear or a lance so in this case right here again if I'm holding up the spear my thumbs are towards this gives me the ability to stick where I need to go if this is very forward this all is very heavy it's all in the forearm right here that makes it harder someone clacks this down I'm locked into place so again being able to make it so that I have the space to work a lance in place is important that comes from that guard. With an axe it's no different again we have the breather who's the breather and again if this is very far out there this is very heavy and sure some people might be thinking well I can fight that way you could but again this isn't just about 30 second bouts like we might see in modern day it's a longer fight and being able to convey this and work this means that you have to be able to balance it out properly so that the sticking mechanisms that happen here are pliable in that context. The next guard position that we see is where again the other armored sword position thumbs inboard we find it we'll find out later on but this actually is a great position against dagger we'll talk about this so this position right here conveys to the other tools of war that we see within Fiori's arsenal so this does also convey very very much so to both the sword and the I'm sorry to the lance and the axe however I also believe it conveys very much so to dagger so this right here becomes the same concept as Reveza where you can kind of go back and forth and use a backhand shot to create different areas right here just like with the dagger we have the same kind of line right here it's the same kind of concept right here where we can have that backhand shot to fight with so because this thing is equaled up here we're closer to the mid we're closer to the mid portion of the handle we have a little bit equal balance right here to be able to do the things that are necessary that's the big part about this right here so this is basically in my opinion a great way of teaching how to fight but also conveys once again to pull arms as we know in that situation right here with the heavier weight that means I can also start looking at striking areas so again how we start utilizing this back and forth to kind of get that bashing kind of smashing mechanism that happens and again built up in more we're very very strong and that allows us to convey and do things that in this position we can do but because this is open it does make us a little bit weaker to bricks same thing with the axe we'll see that also with the axe in my opinion is his very crochet whether it's this way right here thumbs align or here I mean honestly I try I can look at that but sometimes the drawing is a little bit kind of crazy I don't think he really cares I think it could be this way or it could be this way point being is once again I have means of being able to strike with that backward shot which allows this thing to be much more dynamic in that in that purpose when it comes down to the next position the sword in two hands being out off the shoulder here so again we have it where again we're talking about max usage of the blade now of course this does convey over to the other arms here but again as I said the weight of these of historical ones is different than when something that you go away from the training there's plenty of patents about there but does not weigh the same thing as a historical piece of equipment so with this position here having the sword in two hands it is about longest projection of the sword itself into a position which allows us to kind of be able to use the crossings which we talked about last week and of course the last one we have here is the concept of ax grip where we see it right here and again there are great trainers out there for this but this once again the weight in the hands here feel the thumbs are in line towards the puddle which allows me to once again create the same thing but I reserve my heavy position the cross guard here in reserve so I might be out here and then strike out with that heavy blow when I've cleared up certain things in front of me as you can already tell that right there also is no different within the ax using the q end right here to thrust in and have my heavy blow in reserve so that when it does come maybe I beat strike at the same time and this heavy shot is ready to go and deliver the punch I need for it okay so that right there that right there is the conveyance of what I believe those six positions talk about and they convey to the training piece out there with the sword interestingly enough here I see once again I talked about the algorithm the combinations which Fury offers for us so each and every last one of these shows us ways in which how to hold this in a beneficial factor so this right here in this position we're looking at how our fingers are basically holding this here we see one hand on the sword one hand off here the thumbs are both aligned towards the tip here both here both the hands are uh both the thumbs are aligned towards the center whether and we're already starting to see how these become combinations like what can you do with each of the hands um when we start going into other positions here of being on the sword both hands are on the handle right now right and then final last but not least both hands on the blade itself so but if you're here they're now once again pointed towards the pommel of the sword so in that position right there those are all advantageous things and beneficial ways to carry this thing so that you may also be able to deploy it but I also believe and when I teach this portion in my classes I also believe that this right here is the great way to also convey the necessary training that happens for later arms because the sword becomes such a diverse tool of war and that concludes this portion right here about the six dissimilar guards and some of the lessons we see out of them as well as the various combinations that happen that happen with them we'll be talking about other ones here in the following weeks in regards to each one of their plays and what they talk about to kind of convey again once again the purpose of those positions