This is Emma Rios practicing Destreza at 2013 in competitive play:
First, posting a video of your fencing is an act of bravery for a fencer or an instructor. If we are to believe what we read on the forums the internet is filled with super-ninjas who can readily find fault with anyone else’s practice even if they have never gotten out of their own chair to fence themselves. I don’t put much faith in the armchair-ninja crowd but I do appreciate it when someone practicing in a tradition I study shares their work and for that I thank her and the school she trains with.
I wanted to specifically talk about the Destreza that is working here and how I perceive the tradition in her practice. Because I have never met Emma, this will be speculative but I hope it will be informed by the primary sources and that my analysis will help someone who is unfamiliar with Destreza understand why her strategy is working and where it comes from.
The First Rule is to Defend
In Italian fencing there exists an imaginary line between two adversaries called the line of direction. It is the shortest path to the target.
In the True Destreza (LVD) there is the Diameter. The Diameter of the common circle is defined by the Medio de Proporcion which we might call the defensive medio. It is the balance point from which we transition to ‘out of distance’ into our first opportunity for offense but with an eye fixed on our defensive place. Ettenhard also tells us that it is the distance at which we can still safely react in time to form a defense. You can think of a medio as a beautiful balance point chosen by reason, knowledge, and experience.
The Medio de Proporcion defines the Diameter which also defines the Common Circle shared by the two adversaries.
You could also visualize the defensive medio as a bubble around you which defines the area you must keep clear to effectively defend yourself. Rada calls this sphere required for effective defense the Maximum Orb and the Medio de Proporcion defines the Radius of a personal safety bubble.
Rada’s Maximum Orb shows a defensive space defined by the Medio de Proporcion. The Maximum Orb is your personal space.
Consider the video and watch how Emma places her Italian adversary in the center of the fighting space (just as we see in the image above) and then she continually probes and pressures the edges of the adversary’s safe space to threaten. (I want to be very clear that Emma is walking the circumference of the Maximum Orb and not the Common Circle. Walking the Common Circle is akin to suicide without control of the blade or the time because you are closing distance.)
The Italian fencer seems absolutely baffled and doesn’t have an answer for the continuously changing place of the fight. Emma’s control of the place and her ability to gauge distance against a refused blade is key to her success in shutting down the adversary’s offense. When the attacks arrive, she has the training to receive them and respond with a defense-offense action. (Atajo and cut typically.)
Key Point – Defense by control of the Medio de Proporcion (MdP).
Key Point – Force the adversary into your strategy while denying them their own.
Key Point – Train to know your distance and how to gauge your adversary’s distance.
Spirals Control Threat-Space
Pacheco tells us that fencers that want to attack the hand will often keep their blade held well back which is what we observe here in Emma’s opponent. His answer is to circle the adversary and create spirals as if we were executing the General Treta of the Weak Under the Strong (a clockwise spiral) which forms a sort of invitation and time-thrust all executed as a circular blade action. Circular parries, envelopments, and other blade spirals control regions of space and working from the defensive medio (or just outside it) means that the risk for creating the spirals is reduced.
This appears (to me) to be Emma’s other well-trained strategy for frustrating the adversary. An Italian wants to find your blade with a gain and then lunge straight. Emma is refusing to stay on the line, keeps her distance well, and frustrates the attempts to gain (or even find position) by following Pacheco’s advice and creating spirals while circling with her footwork but she never gets so close that she loses the ability to defend.
Key Point – The further away from the adversary you are, the less risky it is to move your weapon.
Key Point – Spirals control or regain control of space.
Key Point – A continuously moving blade is harder to gain.
My personal favorite is the atajo on the outside line and medio tajo at about 35 seconds. Do I completely agree with every movimiento in the fight? No, but I don’t need to agree universally to appreciate the training. The tradition has space for lots of difference, diverse schools, and cultures. What is important to me is that someone shared their work in a tradition that I feel strongly about and I think the work was good. If more people were as courageous as Emma and posting their own videos of LVD in action we would create a world community of Destreza practitioners and that would be good for the art and the science.
Take a moment to realize that when you were a child your parents regularly carried you in their arms. It was a part of your life so common as to be unnoticed.
They picked you up and carried you into the house, they held you while you slept, and they laid you down in your bed.
Now realize that on one particular day, that neither you nor your parent recognized, your parent picked you up and carried you for the very last time. You probably do not remember the day when you last leaned your head into your parent’s shoulder as they held you but thinking on it today, you might wish that you did.
If you have a child of your own remember that your last time to carry them is coming and appreciate holding your child today.
There is a last time for everything so use what little time you have.
What is an Atajo? To understand the Atajo it is useful to understand the primary causes that make it work.
I’m intentionally going to present this from the perspective of a Pachequista (a follower of don Luis Pacheco). Pacheco literally defined the fencing master’s examination in Spain so in this regard his work is “canonical”.
The Advantage of Downward Pressure
If I extend my arm out toward you with the palm up and you press down while I resist you will probably be able to lower my arm. The Spanish call this the superior nature of the natural movement (descending) versus the violent movement (rising). Your own body also provides an advantage when you use your shoulder and body to assist in the motion to increase the downward force.
Principle: If all other factors are equal a downward force will defeat an upwards resistance.
When two equal adversaries resist each other, gravity lends a hand.
The Advantage of Degrees of Strength
I have already written an article about blade mechanics, but every swordsman worth his or her salt should already know that in contact between two weapons, the swordsman with superior degrees of strength in the engagement has an advantage of power both offensively and defensively.
Principle: When two swords oppose each other in an engagement, the weapon with greater degrees of strength is stronger and has an advantage.
Carranza's degrees of strength showing higher values as stronger.
For more on strength in engagements consider this article:
When two adversaries act against each other the swordsman who can finish execution sooner has an advantage in time. The Spanish use Movements as a tool for understanding time. When the adversary’s attack requires three movements, he can be defeated by a defense or counteroffense which uses a single movement. In addition an engagement that completely closes a line can limit the adversary’s offensive options to ensure that the time advantage is maintained.
Principle: A defensive action that requires a single movement can defeat an offensive action with more movements.
When the adversary attempts to strike with a circular reverse (3 movements) the defender answers with a thrust (1 movement). (Ettenhard Plate 11)
Principle: An engagement which prevents the adversary from attacking in a single motion provides a defensive advantage.
By closing the line, he forces the adversary into a time disadvantage. (Ettenhard Plate 15)
For more on Spanish Movements consider this article:
The Spanish fencer starts with the arm extended and the weapon pointed at the adversary along the most direct path to the target. Knowing that it is easier to push downward then to resist upward, I can use this principle to deny my adversary the shortest path to my body by pushing his blade down. Not only do I increase the distance he must travel to strike my body, I also ensure that my offensive path is shorter and closer to the target.
Principle: By starting with the arm extended along the shortest path to the adversary and then deviating the adversary’s weapon downward you ensure your own path to the target is shorter.
Note: Deviating the opposing steel laterally would be called a desvioor a deflection.
The advantage of the shorter path (Ettenhard Plate 9)
Atajo Defined
The Spanish Atajo unites all of these ideas into a single defensive action which can protect the swordsman while simultaneously providing opportunities and the place from which to strike with safety. Offensively, the atajo can be used to prepare a safe attack that controls the adversary’s weapon. (We would call this preparatory action “dispositive” and the attack “executive“.)
Pacheco in New Science p.365 (1632)
“Atajo, according to our definition, is when one of the weapons is placed over the other (not in any of its extremes nor with any of its extremes) and with equal or some degree more of strength subjects it and makes it so that the technique that can be formed must be done with more movements and the participation of more angles than those that its simple nature requires.”
~Translated by Mary Curtis
Pacheco in New Science p.368 (1632)
“Arriving, then, to the perfect formation of the atajo, it should necessarily consist of three movements: violent, offline lateral and natural. With the first the sword that should subject is placed on a superior plane to the other, with the second it is placed transversal over it, and with the last it subjects it:”
~Translated by Mary Curtis
Ettenhard in his Compendium and Foundations… p.154-155 (1675)
“I am very safely confident that one will have recognized with enough satisfaction that the Atajo causes its effects by means of a superior graduation and of the superior power of the Natural Movement and also that one will concede to me that if it were possible to beat and destroy these two causes, we would see dispelled the end of such superior effects…”
~Translated by Mary Curtis
Eric places an Atajo over Kevin's sword. (Click for larger image)
The Defining Elements of Atajo
Between Pacheco and Ettenhard we find these three items essential in placing Atajo:
Subjection with equal or greater degrees of strength.
The subjection is placed from above.
The subjected line is closed so that an adversary cannot strike with a single movement.
When Lorenz de Rada writes later, he adapts the atajo so that you initially seek the subjection from above and if you don’t find it or feel that the adversary is weak in the engagement you immediately spiral towards the opposing steel and closing the opposite line from below. Compare this to the classical transports of 3rd and 4th from high to low or the corresponding half-circular parries from high to low.
Conclusion
This information tells us that Pacheco’s Atajo should start by seeking the superior line with greater degrees of strength in the weapon. The defensive action subjects downward to lengthen the adversary’s path to the target while ensuring your own path is shorter. It might be tempting to equate Atajo with classical engagements but this violates the primary causes of Atajo. Likewise, by definition two swordsmen cannot both have an Atajo simultaneously.
This is a class I taught at the Western Martial Arts Workshop in 2009 based on Pacheco’s vulgar techniques from New Science.
Part I:
The introduction includes:
Blade mechanics
Stance
Movements
Part II:
Includes:
Three Universal Methods of Defense
Right Angle
Atajo
Conclusion
Footwork
Part III:
Includes material from Pacheco’s New Science
#17 Gaining in the Air (p. 621-624)
#3 Botonazo (p. 586-587)
The General Technique called “Estrechar” (Narrowing) (p. 450-454)
Part IV:
Includes material from Pacheco’s New Science
(Continued) The General Technique called “Estrechar” (Narrowing) (p. 450-454)
#4 The Passata Sotto (p. 587-589)
Line in Cross (p. 447- 450)
Part V:
Includes material from Pacheco’s New Science
#4 The Passata Sotto (p. 587-589)
Estrechar (Narrowing) (p. 450-454)
Final Notes:
There is another video available on YouTube From the SCA’s Known World Academy of the Rapier 2007 and I have a blog article for it here with comments concerning the techniques and the source texts.
