Hi!

I’ve been mad about smallsword since the nineties, and for the last five months I’ve been returned to my first historical fencing love, Domenico Angelo’s School of Fencing (1787), transcribing the text and preparing it for modern students.

Every martial art is a way of moving and a set of tactical preferences. The tactical preferences require safety equipment and a training partner, but you can train the way of moving alone, with little or no gear.

So I’ve decided to teach a live online class exploring the mechanical foundations of Angelo’s method. And yes, Angelo does have a chapter entitled "Method and Effectual Means to Render a Fencer Active and Firm on his Legs, and to Show Him How to Recover After the Delivery of a Thrust Either Tierce or Carte", and yes, we will cover it.

You can sign up below to get the 20 page class handout, which includes the relevant images and text from The School of Fencing, plus the links to the zoom meetings. I'll also email out the zoom links to all attendees on the day.

​Foundations of Smallsword: The Mechanics of Domenico Angelo’s School of Fencing​

This class is designed for solo practice. No partner is required (or previous experience: beginners are welcome!). You’ll need a smallsword, or a French-grip foil, but if all you have is a table knife, that’s fine. In fact I recommend you bring one, I’ll show you how to practise your smallsword guard positions while sitting at dinner.

We’ll cover all or most of the following:

• Who Domenico Angelo was, and why his work matters
• How to establish the guard position
• How to hold the smallsword or foil
• How to lunge
• How to step and pass
• Drawing the sword
• The guards of tierce, carte, and carte over the arm
• Angelo’s very swanky salute
• Thrusts in prime, seconde, tierce, carte, carte over the arm, quinte, and flanconade
• Angelo’s “Method and Effectual Means to Render a Fencer Active and Firm on their Legs”

The class will conclude with a live Q&A session.

Format:

• Live online class
• Recording included
• £50

To make the class accessible across time zones, I will teach it twice:

Saturday July 4th, 7pm UK time (Europe and the Americas)

Sunday July 11th, 8am UK time (Europe and Australasia)

Register once and attend either session or both. Or just watch the recording. Everyone registered will receive recordings of both classes. I’ve never in my life taught the exact same class twice, so while the sessions will cover the same basic material, there will be significant differences.

Places are available here:

I hope you’ll join me! it will be fun.

yours,

Guy