DRAFT 1

The Zugadore is the club’s first rank and it aims to teach two key things to get you started with the art of Armizare,

• Safety
  • enabling students to train and spar safely with fellow members,
• Skills
  • learning the various techniques of the arts we study.

These are intertwined, as you will need to learn basic skills to keep yourself and fellow members safe, and once you have learned the basics you can move onto more advanced techniques with less chance of injury.

We structure the fundamentals course around gaining various sparring clearances, so when you have gained sufficient skills and proven yourself you will be free to spar with your fellow club members. The three levels of clearances we have are…

• unarmed,
• dagger,
• steel sword.

Course Structure

Each clearance has a set of skills you will need to acquire before you can be assessed for clearance. As you progress through the course and when your instructor believes you have acquired a specific skill, they will ask for a quick demonstration during class and either tick that off or suggest ways to improve that skill. This is a very informal and low stress assessment, you might even get a tick without being asked to demonstrate.

Once you have acquired all the necessary skills you can go for the sparing assessment, which is more formal. You will be asked to demonstrate a set of drills in front of the class, and then spar several bouts with fellow students to demonstrate that you are safe and you have acquired the basic skills needed. To be cleared, you don’t need to win your bouts, all you need to show is basic understanding and safety.

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Common Skills

These are the very basics skills you need to acquire for all clearances.

• footwork
  • advance, volta stabile, tutta volta, mezza volta, triangle steps
• stance
  • form basic unarmed stances on both sides and be able to move smoothly
• safe falling
• striking with a sword in one hand
  • either an arming sword, side sword or longsword
  • demonstrate the six cuts and the thrust
  • with true and false edges
• striking with a longsword in two hands
  • demonstrate the six cuts and the thrust
  • with true and false edges
• safety
  • understand tap outs
  • can control power
  • understands basic etiquette and respect for opponents

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Unarmed

Skills

• All the common skills
• name and form the four abrazzare postas
• unarmed strikes against pads
  • jab, cross, hammerfist
  • slaps
• basic grappling skills
• throws
  • thigh
  • arm bar
  • leg pick
  • fiore ‘pin and twist’ throw
• use the postas to…
  • strike from
  • cover
  • gain entry to come to a grip
• plays
  • plays 1 to 3 of Fiore’s abrazzare
  • [SELECTED PLAYS FROM OTHER SOURCES]

Assessment

• Equipment : as per unarmed sparring on our equipment list
• demonstrate safe falling (2 minutes)
• demonstrate posta and footwork transitions (2 minutes)
• demonstrate all strikes against pads (2  minutes)
• demonstrate all throws against passive opponents (2 minutes)
• light free play against several opponents (2 minutes each bout, 3 bouts)
  • demonstrating the basic unarmed plays

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Dagger

Skills

• Unarmed skills
• Form and name all the dagger guards,
• Be able to perform all the dagger strikes with appropriate footwork,
• Know and be able to apply Fiore’s dagger masters 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 (with dagger) and 9,
• Are able to do at least 1 play and one contrary from each master

Assessment

• Equipment : as per dagger sparring on our equipment list
• “Bear pit”,
  • for each of the following scenarios, you will be subjected to continual attacks by a rotating stream fellow students who are on for 30 seconds each, you will be expected to attack, cover, attempt remedies and attempt contraries depending on the scenario
    • both you and attacker are armed (2 minutes)
    • you are not armed and they are (2 minutes)
    • you are armed and they are not (2 minutes)
• light free play against a sequence opponents (4 x 2 minutes bouts)
  • 2 bouts with and 2 without your own dagger
  • demonstrating the basic covers, remedies, contraries and attacks

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Sword

Skills

• Sword in 2 hands
  • Postas
    • Donna L&R, Denestra L&R, Dente de Zenghiaro, Mezza Porta Di Ferro, Tutta Porta Di Ferrro, Breve and Longa
  • Cutting posta to posta
  • Understanding distance and coming to a bind
    • the difference between largo and stretto
  • Actions from the largo bind
    • thrust if you have the line
    • 3 turns of the sword if you don’t
• Sword in one hand
  • 3 postas (‘coda longa’, ‘breve’, ‘alta’)
  • cutting into to distance
• Drills
  • six cuts flow
  • beats, 1 and 2 hands
  • breaks, 1 and 2 hands
  • [need a new cover drill], 1 and 2 hands
  • [need a distance drill], 1 and 2 hands
  • posta flow, 2 hands

Assessment

• Equipment : as for steel sword sparing on our equipment list
• six cuts flow
• Demonstrate the sword drills in one and two hands
• Light ‘slow speed’ free play demonstrating understanding of the skills learned
  • 4 sets of 2 minute bouts with a range of opponents
• 3 judged sparring bouts according to club rules

 

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Prize Play

To be determined