Vancouver Swordplay International Symposium - April 5-7 2019

All info HERE

program includes:

Fiore Intensive

Vadi Intensive

Fabris & His Legacy

German Swordsmanship Intensives

In particular - Marco Quarta of Nova Scrimia will be presenting:

Grappling East & West – Armed vs Unarmed

Eastern Grappling and Weapon Grappling with Ellis Amdur

Ellis Amdur, a licensed instructor of one of the oldest close-combat martial systems of Japan, the Araki-ryu, will be presenting on grappling when knives are a consideration. He will use Araki-ryu kata (pattern drills) as a base to explore how the presence of weapons changes grappling, showing training methodologies that enable ‘live training,’ that maintains a focus on survival rather than sparring.

Experience: If you cannot function on your knees, class will be difficult.

Equipment: Stiff dagger/knife trainers are required. A limited number will be made available to attendees who do not have their own.

Day 1: Happo no Dan

This class will focus on one of the foundational sets of Araki-ryu. They start from an interesting perspective – a standing, unarmed individual attacking another who is on the ground (usually his knees). This simulates what surely happened in melee situations, where, weapons broken, one person attacked another who was stunned or wounded, trying to finish them off. The surprise in each form, however, is that the downed individual is armed with a knife. In the classic kata, the attack subdues the down individual with atemi (strikes), locks and chokes, and in some forms disarming him as well. At more advanced levels, the individual on the ground breaks the kata (form), draws his knife and counter-attacks. This creates a unique form of ‘live training,’ which doesn’t start at sparring distance, but unexpectedly, at combative range.

Day 2: Kogusoku no Dan

This set includes techniques where an individual armed with a knife attacks another who is unarmed. These are among the root forms of what later came to be called jujutsu. The defender is in a truly low percentage situation, learning what best to do when there is no other option. Classically, the forms are enacted on one’s knees, simulating grappling in a melee.

Day 3: Combining East & West The Japanese and Italian dimensions of grappling with and without weapons against one or multiple opponents. You will experience two parallel lines of martial arts that converge in the infinite non-dimensional space of combat. Similarities and differences between east and west will melt in a martial adventure of fighting unarmed against weapons, entering in a space where Japanese and Italian Martial Arts have no boundaries.

Western Grappling and Unarmed Grappling with Marco Quarta

Italian Martial Arts can be divided into Zoghi di Concordia (Games of Concord): which in modern terms we might call “combat sports”, and Zoghi d’Ira (Games of Fury or Games of Rage): the real combat. Based on ruthless efficiency, Abracar developed from the need of surviving in battlefields, as well as quickly defending in dark streets where people could attack armed with daggers at any time. Abracar (or Abrazar) can be translated as the “Art of Hugging”. It was described in the early 1400 by Magistro Fiore De Liberi, and it was common in the Italian peninsula as mentioned by several other documents. Compared to its combat-sport counter parts Lotta (wrestling), Pugilato (boxing) or Pancrazio, Abracar shares the use of strategies and techniques (Zoghi), speed (Celeritas and Presteza) and strength (Fortituto). However it is characterized by less elegant actions, focusing instead on quickly escaping, injuring and damaging the opponent and ending a fight.

This combative approach didn’t disappear at the end of the Middle Ages, but was maintained across the centuries – the XIX century schools of mani libere (“hands”) maintain the same principles, and also focused mostly on self-defense (like in the case of Master Luigi Carmine or Alberto Cougnet schools). Today, similar methods are preserved within southern Italian schools, such as “calci & schiaffi” (kicks & slaps), which is associated with knife fights.

We will explore the different elements of the unarmed Italian grappling, dissecting actions in the geometry that defines the Italian martial Arts. We will study the varieties of distances, ranges and timing. We will explore techniques, tactics and the dimensions of the Art, developed for more than a millennia in Italy to the current age. We will explore the art of unarmed Italian fight “in arme ed senca” (with and without weapons). After building the tools and the foundations, we will advance in the work concluding with the dimension of grappling with weapons, focusing on daggers and knives.

Experience: None

Equpment: Knife/Dagger Trainers. A limited number will be made available to attendees who do not have their own.

Day 1: Abracare The art of “hugging” is focused on a grappling dimension developed to defend in combat situation, such as the battle field or against an ambush. First evidence of this art comes from medieval and Renaissance Italian manuscripts (Flos Duellatorum of Magister Fiore De Liberi is the probably the most famous evidence). Across the centuries the art evolved without losing the main concept of the fencing structures, with the core built around the concept of “defending while counterattacking at the same time”. In particular, despite the “unarmed” approach, Abracar is practiced always assuming that you and/or your opponent have a weapon, for example a knife or a dagger, ready to be used against you. The peculiarity of Abracar and other related Italian martial arts, is that it is based on grappling techniques and tactics that combine also striking actions. The result is a flow designed to give advantages aimed to finalize the opponent as quickly as possible. This journey will conclude on how to transfer these skills in the defence against an armed attack (knife or dagger).

Day 2: Pugilato a mani nude Fencing is practiced with and without arms. Pugilato a mani nude transfers the same principles of fencing such as “modo, tempo and misura” (structure, timing and distance) in unarmed confrontations against one or multiple opponents. The use of striking flows in the use of open hands or closed hands (fists), as well as in the use of legs to kick, block and lock the opponent’s legs. This aspects of striking in Italian martial arts is synergistically used in combination with grappling to defend against unarmed or armed attacks. In the workshop we will see examples derived from the XIV to XX centuries, touching actions reported by authors such as Fiore de Liberi (1409), Luigi Carmine (1869), Alberto Cougnet (1922), to conclude with elements used in the contemporary forms of regional and academic styles of “Italian pugilato”.

Day 3: Combining East & West The Japanese and Italian dimensions of grappling with and without weapons against one or multiple opponents. You will experience two parallel lines of martial arts that converge in the infinite non-dimensional space of combat. Similarities and differences between east and west will melt in a martial adventure of fighting unarmed against weapons, entering in a space where Japanese and Italian Martial Arts have no boundaries.