The Western Martial Arts Workshop (WMAW) is a North American event for hands-on study of Historical European and American Martial Arts. I’ve been going for a few years now and it’s a fantastic event.
This year I was an instructor for a few classes, including “Spear, Sword, and Rotella: Homeric Combat Through Renaissance Eyes”, “Fiore’s Armored Spear: Technique, Execution, and Application!” and “Italian Sword and Rotella.” I also had a very rare privilege of conducting two mass combat actions, the “Hoplite Experiment” and the “Italian Experiment”.
The video above contains footage of the demo bouts, a wide range of period combat in a variety of styles. My bout was spear vs spear, starting at 7:45, against Davis Vader.
Deed Of Arms
I had the privilege of undertaking two deeds of arms at this year’s WMAW, the first (starts at 16:02 in the video above), was spears against Bill Grandy. The second, starting at 1:06:30, also spears, was against Shannon Hernandez.
But, please, I encourage you to watch all of the bouts – the video above is over 2 hours long and contains 25 bouts. Its fantastic stuff for any historical fiction or fantasy reader.
The Italian Experiment
This year, one of the focuses of WMAW was on mass combat. We had a unique opportunity not just to participate and learn a little about the way combat worked in the past, but to share our data with professional academics in the worlds of Classics and Renaissance warfare.
The late 14th century (trecento) and 15th century (quattrocento) show a sweeping evolution in arms and armour technology and an increased return to combined arms, as the once dominant heavy cavalry found itself challenged by improved archery, pikes and increasingly, gunpowder. Although Italy continued to make particular use of heavy cavalry, the constant warfare between the northern city-states and the dynastic wars in Naples, the use of professional mercenaries, and the growing influence of Humanist writers, put the peninsula both at the head of the late medieval arms-race, and one of the first places in Europe to look back to the Classical world for inspiration on how to train modern armies and use combined arms.
We conducted versions of late medieval infantry clash, with the front ranks in full late 14th or 15th-century harness and without shields.
Witness all of the chaos and excitement of an infantry charge in the video above.
Very interesting Christian, if life were easier I would be with you in a heart beat. It was always a dream of mine to own and train with Medieval weapons. I went to several societies when I lived in the Uk but always felt an outsider. Too many “elves” at one I went to and the other was a bunch of heavily bearded men in woolen chain mail bashing at each other and drinking beer. No high level of thought involved at all. Now that I’ve read read about Fiore and his science and study of different forms of combat I’m interested again. Work permitting I hope to one day say hello at one of these events and thank you for your work.
The fencing was interesting, although my own experience was only with foil. A bit disappointed with the Highland Broadsword bout. It was basically the same as fencing with sabre. Some bouts with broadsword, dirk and targe or broadsword and buckler would be interesting.
So Christian, what were you trying to achieve in each of your bouts? You seemed to approach each a little differently. Against Bill you seemed to be targetting the groin but didn’t cover the high line and against Shannon you appeared to be trying to come around his guard to catch him in the side of the neck but in doing so gave up the inside line. In both cases you seemed to be struck in the throat a few times… How much is your vision impaired by the helmet?
Cheers
Kristian
Thanks for sending this to me, Christian!
As a long-time SCA autocrat, I wonder, in fear of consequences:
The owners of the site let you fight on THAT BEAUTIFUL FLOOR?
I think the mass combat stuff is quite interesting in that from my watching it looks much of the damage is done out on the fringes. As those combatants out of the direct sightline of the centre can take opportunist strikes while not being as exposed themselves. Further the fringes seem t have more individual duels/fights breaking out.
Fighting with spears, I do not understand why the equivalent of hand a half sword breaks and beats techniques are not used. We hold our spear underhand and a simple repost to a thrust with a spear is to beat it down opening them up to a counter thrust.