Historical Fencing

Via Salle de Bernis—the historical fencing arm of the HFC and Benerson Little’s historical fencing salle d’armes—Ben teaches occasional clinics in smallsword, and intends to run clinics in other early modern swordplay, including classical épée de combat, English backsword and singlestick, late 19^th century Hutton and Radaellian saber, and naval cutlass. Starting 2013, we hope to hold one or two noon-to-two p.m. clinics and practices per month. These historical fencing sessions are designed to keep true swordplay alive, to introduce modern fencers to the swordplay from which their modern practice originated, and especially to demonstrate just how difficult it is to “hit and not get hit,” a practice sorely neglected by modern sport fencing and even by some modern historical practice, not to mention by some fencers of past centuries. This was a difficult task even when hitting and not getting hit was the obvious goal fencing in the days when fencers trained to use real weapons, and it has been made more so by a modern mentality that stops the action according to artificial conventions or after a 20^th of a second.