Lessons in Sabre, Singlestick, Sabre & Bayonet, and Sword Feats

Lessons in Sabre, Singlestick, Sabre & Bayonet, and Sword Feats - or, How to use a cut and thrust sword

In the pages of this Manual an attempt is made to give full and practical instruction in Sabre and Singlestick Play, and in the use of Sabre against Bayonet, and also to explain the course of practice that is necessary for those who wish to perform the difficult sword feats which require at once strength and lightness of hand. How far I have succeeded in what I have sought to do it will be for the readers of these pages to judge; but I may perhaps be permitted to say that the book which I now venture to offer to the public is the result of experience in the use of arms extending over an unusually long period, and that before I began to teach, some twenty years ago, I was so fortunate as to be trained by teachers of the highest skill. I learnt fencing from the late M. Prevost, Fencing-Master to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and to the Royal Family of France, and, as pupil and assistant, practised for many years with this admirable master of the small sword, who in his prime had been certainly one of the best vifencers, perhaps the best, fencer in Paris. To make me as thorough a proficient with the weapon as he was himself, my esteemed friend spared no pains. In the use of the sabre and singlestick I was first trained by Mr. Platts, who had learnt from the celebrated Bushman his system of broadsword play. I thus had the advantage of learning from those best qualified to teach; but when, after no short or easy period of probation, I became in my turn an instructor, and gained that knowledge which can only be gained by teaching and by constant combat with adversaries of all degrees of strength, it appeared to me that that part of the course I had gone through had been somewhat conventional, and though the system of fencing which I had learnt from Prevost could scarcely be altered for the better, the English method of sabre play, good as it was, could be considerably improved. Sabre-players, as a rule, have not been fencers, or at least have been fencers of trifling skill. Accomplished fencers have usually, from an exaggerated fear of losing their lightness of hand, not cared to work much with the sabre. The consequence has been that no attempt has been made to bring knowledge of the small sword to bear upon sabre play, and that little attention has been given to what is really the most formidable way of handling the latter weapon. Those viiwho have taught its use seem to have thought of little else than the cuts which can be given with it, and to have overlooked the fact that the modern sabre, essentially a cut-and-thrust weapon, can be used with great effect for thrusts, and that, when thrusting, a man exposes himself less and is more likely to disable his antagonist than when he delivers a cut. It is true that one or two thrusts have been taught, but small reliance has been placed in them, and several of the fencers methods of attack and defence which are admirably suited for sword play have been altogether neglected. Daily combats gave me every opportunity for putting my ideas to the rough test of practice, and I soon found that I was not mistaken, and that there were longes and time thrusts which could be delivered with the sword, and were formidable even to the most skilled opponents. I made it, therefore, part of my work as a teacher and sabre player to improve sabre play by adapting to it many movements used in fencing which have hitherto been entirely overlooked by sabre players, and also by copying the fencer to make the attacks, &c., in a closer and consequently quicker and more effective manner than they had before been made. These movements are specially described in this manual. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 67257
Author: Waite, J. M. (John Musgrave)
Release Date: Jan 26, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: Weldon & Co
Publication Date: 1880
Publisher Country: United Kingdom