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Guy frequently keeps this blog updated with thoughts, challenges, interviews and more!

German v Italian medieval swordsmanship. Ask the Sword Guy episode 10

Which do you prefer- sausage or spaghetti? Mercedes or Ferrari?

Today's questions were:

This is Matthew in Michigan and I'm curious about the why one might choose to study longsword from the German tradition over the Italian tradition, and vice/versa?

Thank you for undertaking this venture and for your ongoing support of the martial arts community.

And

I've got a question! I'm a German longsword student, so in watching your materials one of the things that always strikes me is the Italian preference for double-time actions, as compared to the more single-time focus of the German tradition. So, can you hold forth on that a bit? Why does the Italian tradition embrace double-time and the German tradition eschew it? I can imagine all sorts of reasons why the traditions might have diverged in this way (weapon size, differences in use of space, etc.) but I'm interested in your take on the topic generally.

And

Given that Fiore mostly describes plays at the crossings, how do you approach fights with more percussive fighters who actively avoid the bind? When you're training folks for that, do you look to the guards and strikes part of the manual for this kind of thing? Or is there another part of the manual you think adequately preps people to fight from out-of-measure into gioco largo?

Also: what's your favorite response to a roverso Zwerchau (god that feels weird to type)

Appreciate your work!

Tony

There is one more question, regarding herrings and trousers. And a blooper at the very end. Here's the video:

https://youtu.be/equ9q41Eync

Enjoy!

Shownotes:

Audatia decks on DriveThruCards: https://www.drivethrucards.com/browse.php?keywords=audatia

Training for Foresight: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2016/04/seeing-the-future-training-foresight/

The Medieval Longsword Complete Course: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/the-medieval-longsword-course

Guards part 1: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2019/02/the-fiore-translation-project-11-the-guards-of-the-sword-part-1-of-3/

Guards part 2: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2019/02/the-fiore-translation-project-12-the-guards-part-2-of-3/

Guards part 3: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2019/03/the-fiore-translation-project-13-the-guards-part-3-of-3/

The Fiore Translation Project #14 The Guards summary: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2019/03/the-fiore-translation-project-14-the-guards-summary/

Size Matters: https://guywindsor.net/blog/2012/08/size-matters/

Fiore Facsimile (the closest you can get to owning the manuscript): https://amzn.to/2MOowWH

This week only discount on the Solo Training Course https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/solo-training/?product_id=1182611&coupon_code=PRELAUNCHMADNESS

I'm sure you have an opinion: do share!

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