Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

emphasized physical conditioning and fitness. Monte’s style advocated
counterfighting. Rather than direct aggressive attacks, he taught to strike
the openings made by the opponent’s attack, and he advised a calculating
and even temperament on the part of the fighter. He also stressed the importance
of being able to fall safely and to recover one’s position in combat.
Clearly, Monte’s martial arts invite comparisons to the Asian arts.
The illustrated techniques of Johanne Georg Paschen, which appeared
in 1659, give an insight into a sophisticated system of unarmed defense in
that the work shows a variety of techniques, including boxing jabs, finger
thrusts to the face, slapping deflects, low line kicks, and numerous wristand
armlocks. Similarly, Nicolaes Petter’s fechtbuch (fighting manual) of
1674 even includes high kicks, body throws and flips, and submission
holds, as well as assorted counters against knife-wielding opponents.
Similar unarmed combat systems can be found, among other contexts,
in Welsh traditions and in the modern wrestling arts of Glima in Iceland,
Schwingen in Switzerland, and Yagli in Turkey. Investigation into the multitude
of unarmed styles and techniques from surviving European written
sources is still in its infancy.
Obviously, then, the advent of the Renaissance only accelerated the experimentation
and creation of Western fighting arts. Swordsmanship continued
to develop into highly complex personal fighting systems. The development
of compound-hilt sword guards led to extreme point control with
thrusting swords, which gave great advantage to those trained in such techniques.
With warfare transformed by the widespread introduction of gunpowder,
the nature and practice of individual combat changed significantly.
Civilian schools of fencing and fighting proliferated in these times, replacing
the older orders of warriors. Civilian “Masters of Defence” in Italy, Spain,
and elsewhere were sought after for instruction, and members of professional
fighting guilds taught in England and the German states.
The art of sword and buckler (small hand-shield) was also a popular
one throughout Western Europe at this time. It was once even practiced as
a martial sport by thirteenth-century German monks. This pastime served
to develop fitness as well as to provide self-defense skills. Sword and buckler
practice was especially popular in northern Italy, also. Later, among
commoners in Elizabethan England, it became something of a national
sport. Similar to the sword and shield of the medieval battlefield, the sword
and buckler was a versatile and effective combination for war as well as
civilian brawling and personal duels. Its nonmilitary application eventually
contributed to the development of an entirely new civilian sword form, the
vicious rapier.
The slender, surprisingly vicious rapier was an urban weapon for personal
self-defense rather than a military sword intended for battlefield use,
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