Hi!

Last June I flew to Kansas to shoot Fiore dagger plays with Jessica Finley. While I was there she asked if we could also shoot a course on Von Baumann’s wrestling plays, because they formed such a handy mini-system. A great introduction to German wrestling, and also useful to broaden the education of Fiore scholars. She had helped me with the Abrazare (Fiore’s wrestling) course the previous year, so she knew what it Fiore covered- and what he left out. And she thought Von Baumann’s Twirchringen plays would fill some of the gaps.

That was a very easy HELL YES! for me, and so we set to work.

I love Fiore, as you probably know. And I think his abrazare section, taken in context with especially the dagger plays, is relatively complete. But it’s not intended to be anything like a comprehensive wrestling method: it’s just the abrazare plays you need as a foundation for the entire knightly combat system.

Assisting Jessica on this course on the Twirchringen added a great deal of breadth to my own wrestling knowledge, and I think every Fiore scholar who doesn’t yet have a solid wrestling background (which includes me! My unarmed experience is mostly punching and kicking) will find this a really useful way to broaden their base.

I mean, does Fiore show us this?

I mean, it looks like a gambarola, but it is really not...

Check out the video here!

And here’s the obligatory reminder to go buy the course before the discount expires:

Remember to share that link, or this whole email, with your friends! And can we agree that this is a much better way to run a launch sequence?

If you’re not even a bit interested in Von Baumann’s wrestling stuff, then click on ​this link​, which will take you to a post about syllabus design for rapier fencing, and also tell my very clever email system not to send you any more of these emails about the wrestling course.

And if you are a Patron, or have bought the Abrazare or Hauptstucke courses, you should already have received an even bigger discount code. If that's not the case, reply to this email and I'll send it to you.

Yours,

Guy