A Short Study of the Smallsword

The small sword (or court sword, l’épée courte) is a weapon that began to spread across Europe as early as the 1630s.  This weapon, effective in both attack and defense and designed for the thrust reached the height of its popularity in the late 17th-early 18th century; particularly in England and France.  Due to the small sword’s practicality, lithe & lethality, it became the weapon used to dissolve disputes*. Because the small sword required fencing kill to handle, and due to its piercing nature, the small sword duel was deemed “more civilized” than weapons concentrated on slashing and hacking.

Goodbye Rapier

The rapier, a popular image of today due to its use in movies (Zorro, The Princess Bride, The Three Muskateers, etc) became less and less popular in the late 17th century.  There were many reasons for this, one being the rapier’s bulkiness/ un-suitability in confined quarters, and changes in men’s fashion.  Richard Cohen, author of By The Sword wrote,

In 1663 the “suit”- the first piece of menswear to fasten in the front – made its appearance.  The rapier, easy enough to carry and draw in the days of the doublet and hose, did not sit well with the brocaded jackets, breeches, and silk stockings.  So popular in the 1640s and 1650s, it had become antisocial, “an infernal nuisance to passers-by.”

Description
Almost essentially a thrusting weapon; although records exist of its occasionally being “sharpened as a razor” for dueling, the major French small sword instruction treatises focus solely on the thrust.  The sword is easily recognized by its shorter blade (29-35in.), Pas d’ane, quillon and knuckle bow.

*The picture to the left is of a small sword trainer made by Triplette Competitive Arms (Elkin, NC)

The small sword gave rise to a new school of fencing, “escrime francaise.”  Author Cohen writes:

In 1653 a book by Charles Besnard of Rennes, a leading master showed conclusively that the French had finally improved on the Italians, whose masters had never allowed for purely defensive movements -every parry had also to be a thrust.  Besnard (alleged to be the first to use the word “fleuret,” the French word for “foil) saw that always trying to do two things at once was a mistake and separated attack from defense… Besnard also introduced the formal salute, a symbol of courtesy and good form.

What’s better?

Are all swords equal? No.  Each of the various weapons of the past and present were/are constructed for specific purposes. What remains true (like all martial arts) is that skill (in this case, wielding the sword) is paramount.  The evolution of weaponry has always been based on the necessities of battle (in other words, what tool is need to overcome a foe(s)), it’s intended use and trial and error.  Fashion and practicality aside, the small sword was designed for the thrust – which as always been the most lethal of blows.  It’s shorter length, gave the fighter more agility and control over the blade.  Even though a dagger was often needed for close-quarters, the small sword carried on strong until the Napoleonic Age.

The Beginning of the end

In 1799 a coup d’état brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power in France.  A formidable fencer by the time he reached military school, Bonaparte relished fencing, but despised the duel.  His thoughts were that “A good duelist made a bad soldier.”  By the time he had seized power, although there were still no laws banning dueling, Bonaparte had seen too many great fencers die or become disabled due to this reckless pastime.  Being a superb weapon in the battlefield, especially on horseback, the thrust-centric small sword was not.  Through Napoleon’s battles across Europe and into Russia, the only bladed weapon was the cut-centric saber/sabre – which he used to great effect in his heavy calvary charges.  (more on sabre’s in another article!)

NOTE TO READER (via Michael McQuown)

The ‘dueling sword’ and the smallsword are not the same weapon. The dueling sword consisted of a simple cup or bell guard, a handle, pommel, and a blade, with no quillons. It was never meant to be worn and was often made in pairs and carried in a case solely for the purpose of dueling. It is the direct ancestor of the modern epee and was often called the ‘epee du combat.’

Small Sword vs. Basket-Hilted Backsword

This is one of my favorite choreographed sword fights of all-time [movie fight review: click here]

True Combat

One of the most realistic scenes involving the small sword can be seen in the first fight in the movie, The Duellists.

More Information

For small sword and bladed weapon enthusiasts everywhere, you’ll be happy to hear that the CombativeCorner will be conducting an interview with Jeannette Acosta-Martinez, possibly the foremost expert of the Small Sword and the French School of small sword combat living today.  She is one of the main instructors at the Martinez Academy in New York.  Read our interview with her husband and fencing maestro Ramon Martinez.

OTHER FENCING LINKS

FENCING LANGUAGE IN “THE PRINCESS BRIDE”

FENCING LANGUAGE IN “I LOVE YOU, MAN“

10 QUESTIONS WITH MATT EASTON

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Coach Michael Joyce teaches classical foil fencing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Mr. Joyce got his training at both the St. Louis University (1998, 1999) and University of NC-Greensboro (1999-2002) Fencing Clubs.  He has been teaching (fencing) professionally since 2005 and enjoys fencing with the French Smallsword, the Chinese Jian (straight sword) and Shaolin Rope Dart the most.

Making Your Mark : Get There First

Not Just For Fencers!

One thing that should be stamped in the mind of every fencer (and martial artists) worried about reaching your target is to understand two important points:

The first is that the hand, arm or even weapon is superfluous.  Your opponent, your “test of skill” is the man or woman in front of you, nothing more.  So much confusion begins when the student feels that every engagement must be “beat” or “pressured.”  When the space opens, the mind-body-(sword/fist/etc) should fly swiftly towards his or her area of weakness.  “Parrying/Blocking” are sometimes counterproductive.  In fencing there are rules governing where our point should land.  However, as martial artists we should all learn control.  Remember, “Mastery of anything does not come out of chaos.”*

The second is that (even as a beginner) we must learn to understand our opponent’s intention, and move where his/her conscious energy is not.  In fencing we all seek “Sentiment du fer” (Feeling of the Blade) and it is this that’s one of the most important qualities in a masterful fencer.  Understand the Yin and Yang of the blade…  that when your opponent presses hard on your blade, the most efficient and quickest way to jump back into the offensive is to be “soft/yin.”  On the other side of the coin, if your opponent is weak or is too relaxed on the piste, consider overcoming your opponent with an increase in “hard/yang” energy.

Remember, that it’s the successful marriage of soft and hard that creates sentiment du fer.  Mastery of this comes back to desire, patience and practice.

MORE FENCING ARTICLES HERE:

PROPER GRIP OF THE FOIL

FENCING LANGUAGE IN “I LOVE YOU, MAN”

FENCING LANGUAGE IN “THE PRINCESS BRIDE”

*Master Quote, by Nick Evangelista.

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10 Questions with Julia Richey

Julia Richey is the head coach and owner of the Royal Arts Fencing Academy in Columbus, Ohio.  She also expanded youth fencing in the United States by putting together the Arnold (as in “Schwarzenegger”) Fencing Classic.  The next to be held March 2-4, 2012 (click here for more details).  Recently, Richey was featured in a short film by partner and fellow fencing coach, Tim Mills called “American Fencer” about Richey’s life as a young fencer and later, a successful teacher and promoter.  Watch the video here (click).

 

Now… It is our privilege to give you the next in a long line of amazing interviews… Fencer/Teacher extraordinaire, Julia Richey.

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Fencing should be an easy sport to promote. What is the best way (in you and Tim’s opinion) to “turn on” kids to the sport of fencing?

Julia: Each club has to make a huge effort to promote itself using every opportunity to connect to the public like shows, shopping centers, big events, etc. More than that, the opportunity has to be there to try it not watch it. Watching experienced fencers fence at a demo is great, but picking up the sword yourself will make you want to do it.

We need to celebrate our stars. Students have to be raised with knowledge and respect of the fencing stars. We don’t have a  future without a past.

Tim: And our stars have to promote and be visible.

It all relates to visibility. Every kid has made something become a sword and fought in the backyard. They imitate Star Wars, Captain Jack Sparrow or the Princess Bride. When we do events people walk by all the time getting into an en garde and pretending with their friends. We are blessed with the fact that Hollywood still loves a sword fight and new movies come out every year with them. This year alone we’ve had Pirates 4 and the upcoming Three Musketeers and Puss in Boots. They just need to know it is available.

There is a lot of discussion about how to change fencing to make it more TV friendly or understandable by the public. There are certainly some things we have to do in this regard, but we put too much emphasis there. That won’t fix it. There are a great many sports that have complicated rules. If it is exciting and engaging the audience will learn the rules.

At the Arnold ( and all of our events ) we set up an area to “Try Fencing At the Arnold.” The kids are watching the fencers on 25 strips and think it looks cool, but just outside those rooms is an area where they can put on gear with their family or friends and try it out. This is a hugely successful thing that helps to get people fencing. In the case of the Arnold, they travel from around the world, so it benefits other clubs more than ours.

Really, you should come to the Arnold next March and see all the little things we’re doing to try and engage the public and get fencing in the minds of the world.

Who are some of the athletes competing today that you admire and what is it about them that sets them apart?

Mariel Zagunis, she is the first and only american fencer that one all Olympic games that existed in her weapon.

Stanislav Podzniakov ( recently retired ), did the same for russia, won it all and was a model fencer for many even here.  He will continue that role in his current position.

Tim Morehouse, besides being the best male sabrist in the country and Olympic silver medalist, he is the best promoter of our sport. He is one of a handful of people in this country that have made great efforts at bringing fencing to the public attention.

There is a longer list of competitors that I admire their fencing in all weapons.

What weapon appeals to you the most and why?
Foil, sabre then epee in that order. It’s like watching three different movies. They’re all exciting but each brings different feelings to you. The structure of the foil fencing allows you to set up and have resolution in the most powerful way.  Sabre feels like playing cat and mouse with me being the cat.  Epee is like dancing: structured with only three rules that, if you follow them,  you can win the Olympics.  Of course when I was young in the Soviet Union, girls only had the choice of foil.  

Who were your mentors in fencing? And what was something important that you learned from them?

I had a lot of them, actually. My first coach Victor Knyazev who brought me into the art of fencing and gave me more than he had to get me to the national level at the time. Through my fencing career since 1984 till now I have met and met had great experience from learning from many amazing, worldwide personalities that fenced, taught fencing or just wrote about it.

Fencing is a great sport that provides great coaches and athletes that are accessible to all of us. I just read a great article from one of our parents that Tim is about to post to our newsletter website about how awesome our sport is that his kids have trained with, fenced with and met Olympians and elite fencers from several generations. There aren’t many sports that provide opportunities like that.

In your movie, American Fencer, it showed that you suffered from a severe back problem. How did you back problems come about?… and how did you renew yourself?

My back problems started with an injury that did not occur because of fencing, but because of my fanaticism about fencing I was told by my doctors not to fence. But that was not acceptable. I just kept working at it and fought through constant pain. It reached the point that it snapped shown in in the movie. Thankfully with my knowledge and trinaing in reformer pilates and personal training, I was able to recover myself to the best back condition I’ve ever had in no time. Now, most of my pilates clients come to me to recover their backs, knees, hips after accident or surgery. Or to improve their golf swing.

Has Katya decided to fence like her mom?

She did when she was younger. She was also helping with classes and traveled a lot with me. When she became a teenager she wanted to go her own way. She fell in love with rowing. Then she shifted to artistic routes and never came back to sports ( yet ). Certainly, the fact that her mom is very competitive with almost everything surrounding fencing contributed to her needing to find her own way outside my sport.

What are the biggest obstacles in running a fencing academy?

Do you want the short list or long one?

It’s a delicate balancing act to keep clubs open that don’t have many decades of stability and a city where fencing is recognized and know. For us it is always an issue of balancing the need to get out to various locations and expand our offerings against the available resources.

We consider our fencing club our family.  We do a lot to support each other.  We offer opportunities outside the norm like lock-ins and making our short films, which the kids love to do.  That, too is a balancing act.  We have to grow in size in order to survive, but at the same time we can’t grow so big that the personal touch and connection isn’t there from us.  Fencing is all about relationships, whether it is our opponent on the strip, the referee or your coaches.  Like any relationship, they require a lot of work and fine tuning.  The hectic “real” world often challenges what we would like to do.

Continuing our theme, visibility is the hardest thing to do.  There are still a lot of misconceptions about fencing.  Breaking those barriers and getting the media to see fencing as a viable story is often difficult.  We’re fortunate that we have a huge event with Arnold Schwarzenegger to help us.  But again, that may help other clubs more than us.  It is difficult to take the limited resources a club generates and get advertising and visibility on almost no budget.

We do anything and everything to get in front of people.  And then we let them try it.  The nice thing about fencing is that even if someone comes through and doesn’t like it or thinks it’s more work than they thought it would be, they’re still going to tell their friends they got to fence.  So it works in our favor.  We could actually write an endless list of things about running clubs.

(Combative Corner…  I wish you would)

What are you future goals, for this year or for the next 5?

Like in preparation for Olympic games I have big goals and small ones that serve the big ones. TIm and I working every day on creating different tools, structures and doing research on ways to reach the public to make fencing more popular. My personal crazy goal as a citizen of Columbus, Ohio ( OSU Buckeyes ) I want to make fencing more popular than football in this country. It is very hard to raise champions in the middle of the country when they don’t have competitions to overcome to become the best. We need a strong base to build off of.

Have you come to a point where you’ve decided that the saber is your favorite weapon, or are you still a foilist?

I’m always a foilist. But, as I said, they all relate. I just found ways to use my foil ability to make sabre fun, exciting and useful for me.  If I had a choice when I was starting fencing, I probably would have chosen sabre.

When Julia is not fencing or teaching or helping run a fencing academy, what does she enjoy to do in her free time?
Free time?  The parents of our fencers encourage Tim and I not to take vacations because any time we have down time we come back with more ideas and thus more work.

Sculpture. Art. That’s how I ended up running the Arnold Fencing classic.  I love music. I taught myself guitar when 16. I love to dance, which relates to next movie we’re editing now. Equestrian. I love jumping horses. I like to drive fast. Books and movies.  Good food. And my main favorite I love people and like to have experience of meeting and discovering different personalities.

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10 Questions with Tim Morehouse

Tim Morehouse is an Olympic Silver medalist in fencing (Beijing Games 2008) and a National Champion (2010, Atlanta, GA).  He has achieved a lot since getting graduating from Brandeis University including: Masters degree in Education, the number one ranked US Men’s Saber Fencer (2009-2010) steadily climbing the ranks to within the top 15 in the world.  The CombativeCorner has been eager to learn about this guy, and luckily we did.  Look to find all in his upcoming book, due out in Spring 2012.  Click on the image above to visit his website.

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How did you know you wanted to be a fencer?

I didn’t! I didn’t even know what fencing was when I first went to the tryouts at my middle school, but it was one of the few options for being on a team at my school, so I went to check it out and fell in love!

What was your biggest challenge when you first started?

My first semester of fencing I actually got a C! I had a hard time focusing and paying attention for long periods of time when I was younger so fencing really helped me to improve my focus an discipline, but focusing was also my biggest challenge at the start.

What is your favorite weapon and why?

Saber. I have fenced it since I was 14. I started in foil, but I always use to look over at the people practicing saber and wanted to do that one instead so I made the switch to saber. It if fast, dynamic and a lot of fun.

What is the greatest thrill of your career thusfar?

Winning Olympic Silver Medal in 2008 Beijing Olympics, my National Championship in 2010 and becoming a first team all-American in 2000 while representing my school Brandeis University

What athlete has inspired you the most and why?

Jackie Robinson was a big inspiration for me. I wrote a book report on him when I was in 4th grade and the character he showed helping to overcome the color barrier in Major League Baseball was unbelievable. He faced so many challenges and overcame all of them.

What is your favorite film to watch (that has fencing) and what about it makes it your favorite?

The favorite fencing thing I’ve watched is the Modern American family fencing episode and it is HILLARIOUS! The son on the show is a dominating epee fencer at his club and his family is so proud, but he wants to retire before the gold since he has to fence a girl…I don’t want to give away the whole episode! They just did the whole episode so well, had me dying of laughter!

What would Tim Morehouse have become (you think) had fencing not been a part of your life?

I’m not sure. I really enjoy acting and have done a lot of classes in high school and was missing one credit to be a theater minor in college. I was never able to do any plays because fencing always took priority.

What goes through your mind before you begin a bout?

I’m thinking about what action I’m about to execute and also telling myself to “come to my baseline” mental place. I always want to be fencing from a familiar and strong mental place. Never get too high and never get too low.

What ritualistic, superstitious, or mental preparation do you do pre-competition? In other words, how do you get prepared?

The night before I like to relax and watch TV shows. On long trips, I’ll usually bring a season of something. I also will write notes to myself the night before about things I want to make sure I do the next day when I compete. I have a very regimented warm up routine involving mental and physical warm up as well. Not too many superstitions.

What passions does Tim Morehouse have off the strip?

I enjoy doing things that are challenging and that help people. I was a teacher for 3 years with Teach For America and worked another 4 years on staff training teachers to work in inner-city schools so I would say that education is my biggest passion. I also enjoy blogging, doing a bit of stand-up comedy every once in a while, meeting great new people and planning events.

Bonus Question:

If Tim Morehouse was a superhero, what power would he have and what weapon (if any) would he have and why?

The power to help people believe in themselves more. (including myself!) I think you can link back most successes to having confidence and belief in what you’re doing. Imagine what kind of world we could live in, if more people pursued their passions and ideas 100% and weren’t afraid to play it safe.