We’re heading to Sweden!
Fighting the Unknown
What is the most wonderful thing about fencing competitions? Of course, the glory of victory, money from endorsement deals, interviews on television, and the smell of the locker room on the second day of the competition. At least, that’s what every sensible and experienced fencer would say. However, there is at least one more noteworthy aspect – the opportunity to fight with opponents you’ve never fought before, or almost never, and who are a complete mystery. We don’t know how they have been trained, how they fight, whether they are beginners or seasoned veterans (even if in a young body), whether they are cool-headed strategists or self-driven killing machines. And within seconds, we need to devise the right tactics for combat and survival.
Fence4u
Every experience that allows us to learn about other schools, training styles, and preparation methods – especially sparring – is a tremendous learning opportunity that should not be missed. So you can imagine our excitement upon learning that we were invited as co-organizers of the international “Fence4U” meetings and workshops. This project involves, besides us as representatives of Poland, schools of modern classical fencing (Poland), historical fencing (Sweden), and Olympic and theatrical fencing (Spain) – the initiators of the project. The goal of Fence4U is to exchange experiences and knowledge regarding the methodology of training athletes and coaches, competition rules, and organizational challenges related to hosting such events. And sparring – lots of sparring! Soon, we are preparing for two fantastic days in Gothenburg, where the meeting is organized by the Göteborgs Historiska Fäktskola, well known for organizing the “Swordfish” World Championships and specializing in long sword, rapier, and saber. We won’t lie; we are overjoyed. The brave representatives of the Aramis Fencing School, Tomek Kostański from Wrocław and Marcin Nowak from Kraków, are now figuring out how to fit a rapier into the hand luggage of a budget airline. Keep your fingers crossed for our trip!
After Returning…
Adventures are an essential part of human life, especially one who love to put himself in new situations, thereby learning and experiencing new things. Surely you would agree that nothing enriches life like a good adventure. I had the opportunity to experience such an adventure in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the weekend of February 24-25, at the international “Fence4U” conference.
We began the first day of the conference by arriving at the venue, the training hall of our Swedish hosts. From the very beginning, it made a positive impression on us with its spaciousness, versatility, and equipment. Our curiosity grew as the meeting started. After setting up coffee and tea pots and settling comfortably on the sofas (yes, they had two!), we got down to business. It started with discussing the goals of the project, or why we were all gathered here. The first to speak were the Spanish – the initiators of the project – who explained that the goal is for different European fencing schools to get to know each other, to compare three different perspectives on the discipline: historical fencing, modern classical fencing, and Olympic and demonstration fencing. The goals our schools set, the types of weapons taught, and many other aspects that make up the school’s specificity. It was an interesting idea, especially when comparing schools from three seemingly very different countries – Poland, Sweden, and Spain. They come from different parts of Europe, with different traditions and preferences in weapon choice (differences that persist to this day).
But back to the topic. The host of the Swedish part of the conference was Anders Linnard – the head coach of the Göteborg Historiska Fäktskola, who had the task of inaugurating the event. He had the more challenging task of navigating a new idea without knowing what results to expect. However, he handled it excellently! The meeting was divided into two parts: a lecture and a training session. In the lecture, we learned about the history of the school, its basic principles, objectives, and what the training aims to achieve, summarized simply as: “We aim to become the best fencers. We aim to defeat anyone who stands against us.” It’s beautiful how something so simple to say can be so challenging to achieve.
The lecture lasted nearly four hours. It wasn’t a dull lecture of “listen to me, then go your separate ways.” In reality, we discussed, asked questions, and developed ideas. I must note that my colleague Marcin and I noticed many similarities between the Göteborg Historiska Fäktskola and the Aramis Fencing School, including in training principles, methodology, the role of the coach, and the need to understand human psychomotor principles. We were struck by the importance given to humanistic values and personality traits that have long been present in fencing. These include mutual respect, brotherhood, supporting the weaker, unity, kindness, healthy ambition, patience, humility, honesty, and many others that significantly contribute to building a healthy and well-organized society.
Anders aptly captured the need to nurture these values during fencing training, leading us to a great realization about the relationship between humanism and fencing. In short, we could express it this way: Humanistic values ‘shape’ fencing, and fencing ‘tests’ them. The lecture, or rather the discussion panel, was held in a fantastic atmosphere. We could have spent much more time there, but it was time to train! In the demonstration training, we skipped the general development part and went straight to learning. The Göteborg Historiska Fäktskola teaches three types of weapons: the long sword (the most popular weapon there), the cut-and-thrust rapier with a dagger, and the dueling saber. Since we were already familiar with the last two weapons, we agreed that the training would focus on using the two-handed sword. We went through exercises on stances, basic techniques – first using training dummy, then with a partner. We learned the rules of refereeing sword fights. Learning came almost effortlessly, so soon we moved to what all fencers like most – sparring!
The sparring went as we had anticipated. Rapier sparring was not easy, but we quickly outpaced our opponents with speed and agility. We dominated the saber, though not without difficulty. The sabers there were significantly heavier than ours and poorly balanced. As a result, attacks from the shoulder and elbow prevailed over wrist attacks. However, it should be noted that the Swedes present at the conference paid little attention to saber training. Additionally, differences in fighting styles were evident. Unlike us, they rarely used thrusts and relied more on attacks where the force of the cut mattered more than speed. Nevertheless, these fights were interesting for all of us. In sword fighting, the Swedes, led by Anders, undoubtedly outperformed us. The second day of the conference was entirely dedicated to further training fights and informal discussions and analyses of our fighting styles. We also improved in sword fighting, surprising many Swedish sparring partners with actions they hadn’t expected. This allowed us to deduce that younger trainees’ weakness is excessive reliance on techniques learned from treatises. As they gain experience, this problem diminishes.
And so the Swedish part of the conference came to an end! We parted in an incredibly positive and friendly atmosphere, delighted to have met new fencers. This can be considered the greatest achievement of the meeting – the exchange of experiences and confrontation with a completely new opponent with an unknown fighting style. There is probably no better way to update and test one’s repertoire of actions. Equally important was meeting new, fantastic people for whom fencing is a passion more important than life itself. Now we await the next stage of the conference, which will take place in Poland soon.
Marcin Nowak
Tomasz Kostański
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