A Cadet's Journey

Ld Walter Robin
6th Insegnante, Shire of Mooneschadowe
Vormund, Canton of Rundel
Award of the Queen's Rapier
cadet to Don James Francis Navarre
Shire of The Wastelands
Comments welcome!

Pedagogy (14 October 2001)

A sometime SCA-colleague is involved with the The Midwest Historical Fencer's Project, which brings together historical fencers from different groups for cross-training and seminars. I attended their meet last February, and had a great time. It's good to play a bit with some of the other groups who have very different ideas about how things should be done. Anyway, because Jon knows me, he asked me to teach a Pallas Armata class at the workshop. I had put together a class for Gulf Wars in March, but it didn't actually happen, since everyone (myself included) was involved with the rapier fort battles at the scheduled time.

I eagerly accepted, of course, and began by reviewing my notes and the manual. Just days before the event, I hit the pre-presentation "Everything I know is wrong" realization that I remember from my college theses experiences. This was not a step backwards, per se, but rather a sudden flash of enlightment. It does mean, however, that my preparations would need revised.

To present the flavor of the manual I tried to present its unique terminology, its premier concepts, and some representative examples. I cannot say that the class was a great success for any of the students. Though they were impressed with my knowledge and energy, I don't think that I imparted much understanding to anyone. I tried to do too much, too fast.

I, however, learned much from the experience. My understanding and appreciation of the manual has grown significantly. Puck's comment that he understood the examples better once he began to understand the stringere, suggests that I should focus on that particular feature of the manual more before proceeding. In fact, this method is consistent with the original organization of the manual. So, I now conclude that the manual's own organization is the best, and I will follow it closely in the future. I now better understand the methodology of the manual. The concept of contra-posture, i.e. choosing your guard based on your opponent's guard, was lost on me before, but now answers many questions. I have a new theory, based on corollary reasearch, believing the Pallas Armata to be a condensed and timely version of the Italian fencing style published by Salvator Fabris in 1606, which uses a similar methodology of wrist positions, contra-posture, and opposition.

The free play portion of the event was confidence building since I was specifically trying to employ the manual's principles and was met with success. I was also able to hold my own against unfamiliar styles which use grappling and blade-grabbing, and was able to avoid any serious bruises by being sprightly.

Written: 26 Oct 01, Last edit: 26 Oct 01

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