Swordsmanship

Swordsmanship refers to the skills of a swordsman, a person versed in the art of the sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. The formation of the English word "swordsman" is parallel to the Latin word gladiator,a term for the professional fighters who fought against each other and a variety of other foes for the entertainment of spectators in the Roman Empire. The word gladiator itself comes from the Latin word gladius, meaning "sword".

Types of Swordsmanship
Kenjutsu (剣術?) is the umbrella term for all (koryū) schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration. The modern styles of kendo and iaido that were established in the 20th century included modern form of kenjutsu in their curriculum too. Kenjutsu, which originated with the samurai class of feudal Japan,means "the method, or technique, of the sword." This is opposed to kendo, which means "the way of the sword".

The exact activities and conventions undertaken when practicing kenjutsu vary from school to school, where the word school here refers to the practice, methods, ethics, and metaphysics of a given tradition, yet commonly include practice of battlefield techniques without an opponent and techniques whereby two practitioners perform kata (featuring full contact strikes to the body in some styles and no body contact strikes permitted in others). Historically, schools incorporated sparring under a variety of conditions, from using solid wooden bokutō to use of bamboo sword (shinai) and armor (bōgu).:XII, XIII In modern times sparring in Japanese martial art is more strongly associated with kendo.

Korean Swordsmanship Since the 1970s, there has been a revival of traditional or reconstructed methods of swordsmanship (劍術 geom sul, or 劍法 geom beop) based on the Korean sword in the Republic of Korea (Korean Bon Kuk Geom Beop 본국검법 "National Sword Methods"), supplementing the practice of Kumdo (the Korean adoption of modern Japanese Kendo). There are historical sources on which such reconstructions are based, dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, notably the Muyejebo (“Martial Arts Illustrations”) of 1610, its 1759 revision Muyeshinbo, supplemented with 12 additional fighting methods by Prince Sado who originated the term Sip Pal Ki (“Eighteen Fighting Methods”), and the renewed revision of 1790, Muyedobotongji.

Korean sword practice entails the study and use of one or more of five sword architectures including the single-handed sabre (To), the single-handed sword (Geom), the two-handed saber (Ssangsoodo) and two pole arms; the Spear Sword (Hyup Do) and the Glaive (Wol Do).[1]

Any of these weapons can be studied following one of two disciplines. The study of Korean sword as a weapons system is commonly called Geom Beop ("sword methods") while the use of sword study as a form of personal development or sport is commonly called Geom Do (검도, 劍道) "Way of the Sword"). In either case, additional equipment and practices have been added to further the study and safety of the subject. These include but are not limited to body armor (Ho-gu), bamboo (Juk-To) and wooden (Mok-Geom) swords and a range of materials for piercing or cutting.

Indian Swordsmanship Soldiers in ancient India (in the historic sense including modern-day Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) are recorded as carrying a shield and spear in their hands while a sword, dagger and battle-axe were held at the waist. These included both straight swords and slightly curved sabres. The stout, straight sword appears to have been common and can be seen in early sculptural depictions of the epics. The hero Arjuna, for instance, is made to wield a one-handed sword with a bevelled point, a small handguard, and a large round pommel. Two-handed swords naturally had longer handles and were broad at the hilt. Curved swords are also known to have been in common use since at least the Buddhist era, including large kukri-like falchions. The most common type of curved sword is the katti, which still occurs under various names everywhere from the deep south to the far northeast. The handle in particular has changed over time, eventually incorporating a crossguard. The 16th-century Mughal conquests spread the talwar and similar weapons throughout the north, northwest and central regions. The talwar is still the most common form of sword in the martial arts of these areas, but the older katti is still used in some advanced forms.

The earliest extant manual on Indian swordsmanship is the Agni Purana, which gives 32 positions to be taken with the sword and shield. Indian swordplay is highly athletic, taking advantage of the weapon's light weight. Techniques make extensive use of circular movements, often circling the weapon around the swordsman's head. Systems exist which focus on drawing the sword out of the opponent's body. The attacking weapon is rarely used for blocking, relying either on a shield as a parrying tool or a second sword. Dual-wielding is thus a common and valued skill in South Asia. Sparring is done through an exercise called gatka, in which the practitioners fight with wooden sticks to simulate swords.

Chinese swordsmanship encompasses a variety of sword fighting styles native to China. No Chinese system teaches swordsmanship exclusively (as is the case with modern sports such as fencing or kendo), but many eclectic schools of Chinese martial arts include instruction for using one or two-handed versions of the single-edged sword (dao) and the double-edged sword (jian).

Many Chinese martial arts styles teach swordsmanship. Wudang Sword is an umbrella term for all sword styles taught in the Wudang chuan family of martial arts. Taijijian is the swordsmanship taught within Taijiquan.

Shuangdao (simplified Chinese: 双刀; traditional Chinese: 雙刀) is the Chinese term for the wielding of two dao simultaneously.

Classical fencing is the style of fencing as it existed during the 19th and early 20th century. According to the 19th-century fencing master Louis Rondelle,

A classical fencer is supposed to be one who observes a fine position, whose attacks are fully developed, whose hits are marvelously accurate, his parries firm and his ripostes executed with precision. One must not forget that this regularity is not possible unless the adversary is a party to it. It is a conventional bout, which consists of parries, attacks, and returns, all rhyming together.

Used in this sense, classical fencing is a style of historical fencing focusing on the 19th and early-20th century national fencing schools, especially in Italy and France, i.e. the schools out of which the styles of contemporary sports fencing have developed. Masters and legendary fencing figures such as Giuseppe Radaelli, Louis Rondelle, Masaniello Parise, the Greco brothers, Aldo Nadi and his rival Lucien Gaudin are today considered typical practitioners of this period.

Classical fencing weapons included the standard foil, épée (using pointes d'arret), and sabre (including both blunted dueling sabres and, beginning in the early 20th century, modern sporting sabres).

Fencing Contemporary fencing is the modern state of the western art of combat with the small sword. It is also called olympic fencing, and began in Italy in the 18th century. The Italian school modified the original Spanish, "classical fencing", and the French school later refined the Italian system. Modern Spanish fencing also became prominent in the 19th century.

Modern fencing uses three weapons, and is divided respectively into three competitive scenes: foil, sabre (spelled "saber" in the United States) and épée. Most (but not all) competitive fencers choose to specialize in one of these only.

Competitive fencing is one of five activities which have been featured in every one of the modern Olympic Games, the other four being Athletics, Cycling, Swimming, and Gymnastics.

Modern Swordsmanship The military importance of swordsmanship rapidly diminished with the advent of firearms. The last prominent battlefield sword to be used was the backsword. Although it was not a new invention, it managed to outlast other forms of war swords, being used by cavalry units and officers.

The power, accuracy, and reliability of firearms continued to improve, however, and soon swords had little place on the battlefield aside from ceremonial purposes. The preferred civilian dueling weapon shifted from the rapier to the faster but shorter smallsword, and eventually shifted totally away from swords to the pistol, following developments in firearm technology. The civilian affair of dueling was banned in most areas, but persisted to some degree regardless of law until well into the 20th century.

Duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.

Duels in this form were chiefly practiced in early modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period (19th to early 20th centuries) especially among military officers.

During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly fought with swords (the rapier, later the smallsword, and finally the French foil), but beginning in the late 18th century in England, duels were more commonly fought using pistols; fencing and pistol duels continued to co-exist throughout the 19th century.

Dueling largely fell out of favor in England by the mid-19th century and in Continental Europe by the turn of the 20th century. Dueling declined in the Eastern United States in the 19th century and by the time of the American Civil War broke out, dueling had begun an irreversible decline, even in the South.[1] Public opinion, not legislation, caused the change.[1]

The duel was based on a code of honour. Duels were fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain "satisfaction", that is, to restore one's honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it, and as such the tradition of duelling was originally reserved for the male members of nobility; however, in the modern era it extended to those of the upper classes generally. From the early 17th century, duels became illegal in the countries where they were practiced.

La Verdadera Destreza is a Spanish system of fencing. The word "destreza" literally means "skill." However, the full name is perhaps best translated as "the true art."

While Destreza is primarily a system of swordsmanship, it is intended to be a universal method of fighting applicable to all weapons. This includes sword and dagger; sword and cloak; sword and buckler; sword and round shield; the two-handed sword; the flail; and polearms such as the pike and halberd.

Its precepts are based on reason, geometry, and incorporate various other aspects of a well-rounded Renaissance humanist education, with a special focus on the writings of classical authors such as Aristotle, Euclid, and Plato. Authors on Destreza also paid great attention to what modern martial artists would call biomechanics.

The tradition is documented in scores of fencing manuals, but centers on the works of two primary authors, don Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza and his follower, don Luis Pacheco de Narváez. The system of combat is tied to an intellectual, philosophical, and moral ideal.

Italian school of swordsmanship The term Italian school of swordsmanship is used to describe the Italian style of fencing and edged-weapon combat from the time of the first extant Italian swordsmanship treatise (1409) to the days of Classical Fencing (up to 1900).

Although the weapons and the reason for their use changed dramatically throughout these five centuries, a few fundamental traits have remained constant in the Italian school. Some of these are the preference for certain guards, the preoccupation with time (or "tempo") in fencing as well as many of the defensive actions.

Of especial influence was the Dardi school of fencing with the spada da lato in the 16th to early 17th centuries, which gave rise to the classical early modern of fencing with the rapier, including Elizabethan Fencing in England and the French school of fencing in the 18th century (which in turn developed into modern sport fencing).