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Staff, Spear, and Poleaxe Training Manual

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Staff, Spear, and Poleaxe Training Manual Triangle Sword Guild KdF Training Guide Staff / Spear / Poleaxe Contents About this Manual ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Our Approach to Spear and Staff .................................................................................................................. 3 TSG’s Curriculum ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Phase 1 Requirements .................................................................................................................................. 4 Phase 2 Requirements .................................................................................................................................. 4 Phase 3 Spear Requirements ........................................................................................................................ 5 Staff and Spear Basics – An Overview ........................................................................................................... 6 English Quarterstaff .................................................................................................................................... 10 English Staff Terms ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Some Basic Staff Drills ................................................................................................................................. 16 Some Historical Examples of the Quarterstaff in Use ................................................................................. 17 Talhoffer’s Spear ......................................................................................................................................... 20 Ringeck’s Spear ........................................................................................................................................... 24 Fiore Spear .................................................................................................................................................. 26 Attacking the Spear ..................................................................................................................................... 29 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 30 2 About this Manual This text is designed to be a training guide to spear and staff material for Triangle Sword Guild members. This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to all spear techniques, nor is it an adequate substitute for good in‐class instruction. The main goal of this guide is to give members a resource to help them start training on their own. Our Approach to Spear and Staff When designing our curriculum, we had to decide how much to emphasize spear and staff material. As a Liechtenauer‐based KdF club, it was tempting to only focus on the one or two purely Liecthenauer‐ influenced spear manuscripts, even though the material in these texts was fairly limited in scope. Had we chosen this route, spear would play a very minute part of our study, relegated to the position of a curiosity mostly. Instead, we wanted to give our members the ability to understand and train a deep and varied approach to this very ubiquitous weapon. So, we decided to incorporate focused training from a number of different sources, a variety that allows students to develop a flexible and effective understanding of the weapon outside the very narrow context seen in the Liechtenauer texts. Our choice of source material is primarily late‐medieval with one or two exceptions. For instance, we briefly use some of the English staff material to emphasize feeling from crossed staves since this nicely parallels the fuhlen we see in the Liechtenauer sword material. In general, our progression starts with staff, then moves to spear, then to poleaxe. To preserve some focus we avoid an emphasis on other, later medieval and renaissance polearms. TSG’s Curriculum Our curriculum is divided into three phases: Fundamentals, Core and Focus Classes. Phase 1, Fundamentals: At this phase, students start with an introduction to longsword, messer, dagger, and staff. The staff material here is fairly basic, focusing on staff handling, guards, thrusting, and striking. Phase 2, Core: This phase develops a core defensive competency in the four weapons introduced in Fundamentals. We build on the staff material from Phase 1, learning basic defense, binding, and other actions. We also introduce spear, primarily focusing on spear material from Ringeck. Phase 3, Spear and Poleaxe: At this phase students will focus on specific texts including Fiore Spear, Talhoffer Spear, Paurñfeyndt staff, Jeu de la Hache Poleaxe, Talhoffer Poleaxe, and others. 3 Phase 1 Requirements Overview Phase 1 is designed to give new students a comfort with the four Liechtenauer‐based weapons, longsword, messer, dagger, and spear. For staff, students really only need a basic exposure to the weapons, enough comfort level to know how the fundamentals work. See the Longsword and Messer Training Guide for full details on Phase 1 requirements. Only spear requirements are listed here. Knowledge Spear/Staff 1. Quarterstaff Guards ‐ English Staff 2. Half‐Staff Guards ‐ Talhoffer, Ringeck 3. Transitions a. Between half and quarterstaff b. Between guards c. Between left and right hand leading d. Between hand down and hand up grips Basic Thrusts Initiatory Prize Play See Longsword / Messer Training Guide. The first prize play focuses primarily on the Longsword. Phase 2 Requirements Overview After Phase 2, students are expected to have a core competency in the four basic Liecthenauer weapons, longsword, messer, dagger, and spear. They should have a basic sparring and skill competency with each and be comfortable defending against attacks from each. Knowledge Spear/Staff 1. Basic defenses against a thrust and strike 2. Basic binding work from quarter and half staff 3. Ability to defend against basic spear attacks in a near‐sparring environment 4. Armored spear basics from Ringeck 4 Core Prize Play See the Longsword and Messer Training Guide for full details on Phase 1 requirements. Only spear requirements are listed here. Spear Prize The spear prize involves two distinct pieces, the demonstration of ability in freeplay at the half‐staff, and skill demonstration at the quarterstaff. The half‐staff portion will proceed to significance, as other prize fights. For safety, the quarterstaff demonstration will involve on the demonstration of the ability to defend a variety of attacks and binding actions from a variety of opponents using a variety of grips. Phase 3 Spear Requirements Overview Phase 3 focuses developing a wide understanding of the kinds of ways the staff, spear, and poleaxe are used by focusing on specific staff texts. Knowledge 1. Staff a. Paurñfeyndt b. Peter Faulkner 2. Spear a. Fiore (including Defeating a man with a spear) b. Talhoffer c. Gladiatoria MSS 3. Poleaxe a. Talhoffer poleaxe b. Jeu de last Hache Phase 3 Prize Plays The phase 3 prize play for spear is still under development. Though the member should be able to demonstrate skills from each of the texts studies in practice including defending against non‐spear weapons, attacking a man with a spear, single handed spear material, armored spear, spear v. multiple opponents, and other skills. 5 Staff and Spear Basics – An Overview Holding the Spear English Sources o Held at one end (in the quarter) o Either hand forward o Forward hand may be palm up or down o Hand switching using the weavers shuttle method Fiore o Forward hand up o Spear held in center o Half masters have right hand leading, half have left o Hand switching not explicit Ringeck o Not explicit, but presumably from some descriptions it seems the staff is held in the middle o Not explicit, but left forward right back is the only hand position that makes sense given some of the descriptions o No hand switching o Forward hand position not explicit, but likely palm down, as with halfswording. Talhoffer o Held somewhat center o Either hand is shown leading o The lead hand may be up or down o No explicit instruction on switching grip Guards English Sources o Upper Ward: held like pflug at the waist, top toward your opponent. o Lower Ward: held like a hanging guard, tip toward the ground Fiore o Masters on the Right (dominant hand leading, dominant foot back) . Full Iron Door: Staff held fairly vertical, at the dominant shoulder Fiore calls this a good master to wait for your opponent in . Middle Iron Door: Staff on the non‐dominant side (feet stay the same) with the point extended or to the floor Perhaps the end position for a strike from Full Iron Door or the pulled‐ back position after a thrust . Right Window: Staff over the dominant shoulder, pulled back Not explicit in Fiore, but we’ve found this works well for a recovered thrust pulled back around the head and through this position to again issue another strike. o Masters on the Left (non‐dominant hand leading, dominant foot behind, facing a threat from that direction) . Boar’s Tooth: Similar to Full Iron Door, but on the opposite shoulder . True Cross: Similar to Middle Iron Door, but on the dominant side 6 . Left Window: Arms crossed, still over the dominant shoulder. Tip toward your opponent. Also functions
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