Provocation Sauce: Understanding the Bolognese Approach to the Fight
In this entry we are going to look at the tactical system of Bolognese, and how it fits together to keep you safe while fencing. The main focus will be Dall’Agocchie’s 5 tempi to attack, and how they couple with his ideas on provocation, and we will look at Viggiani’s three advantages to help us make more effective provocations. I am leaning heavily on the thoughts of Greg Mele, and Rob Rutherfoord of the Chicago Sword Guild on the actual provocations, and also Russ Mitchell for thoughts on footwork and movement. 5 Tempi to Attack: Dall’Agocchie gives us a short list of appropriate times to attack. Something that we should look for in all our fencing.
There are specific drills to train a student how to look for these 5 tempos, but that is out of the scope of this blog post. Viggiani’s Three Advantages: In the interest of saving time and work for myself here is Greg Mele’s summarization of the three advantages from his work “Understanding Viggiani’s Lo Schermo” linked at the end of this document, my asides are in red: Through his cipher, Rodomonte, Angelo Viggiani details three types of “advantage”, each of which can exist from either the agent or the patient’s point of view; therefore these three conditions are relative to what each combatant is doing in the moment.
Provocation: Why we do? At the heart of the Bolognese tactical system is the idea of provocation. That is that your opponent is not giving you any tempo to attack, to safely attack you must control your opponent’s actions and trick/force them into giving up one of these tempi. I believe Dall’Aggochie describes the reasons for this best: “Said provocations, so that you understand better, are performed for two reasons. One is in order to make the enemy depart from his guard and incite him to strike, so that one can attack him more safely (as I’ve said). The other is because from the said provocations arise attacks which one can then perform with greater advantage, because if you proceed to attack determinedly and without judgment when your enemy is fixed in guard, you’ll proceed with significant disadvantage, since he’ll be able to perform many counters.” So we are starting on the assumption that if your opponent is composed in a nicely settled guard any earnest attack that you perform will be met with counter, possibly a single time counter, that is a thrust to face that defends against your attack. Or just as common, you just double and both die. Provocation: How we do? Dall’Aggochie gives a rather large list of provocations that can be performed from various guards, Marozzo throws in a provocation with almost every play, so this can seem like a huge subject. Here is an attempt to break it down into some base concepts to allow students to better internalize how to perform them and what makes a good provocation. In general there are three types of provocation, feint, beat, and invitation.
So what Tempo’s do we force them to give up when feinting? Basically every parry in Bolognese is seen as either a guard transition or a cut (kind of the same thing….) So we are looking at the fourth tempo. Changing guard without good judgement, or the second, that their blow has passed to the outside of our body.
This may seem like cheating a bit, but think of the tempo as being a forceful guard change. That is you straight up forced their sword into a crappy unnamed guard so that you can stab them. A note on measure here, is that we are starting in wide measure, where the tips can just cross, and stepping into narrow measure, or meza spada range, where we are crossed at the mids with the beat. If you are beating with a falso from the right the rules change slightly because it is difficult to thrust after that cut. You are thing looking to immediately follow up with a cut while their point is still out of presence.
Without going into examples of each one, you can throw blows that appear to be in range to draw out a parry or follow up attack, you can break range while staying in guard or changing guard, you can end cuts in wide guards. There are lots of options, but it all comes back to you have to give up one or more of the 5 tempi. For another look at invitation reading up on Meyer’s Provoker, Taker, Hitter is recommended. Notes on Footwork Keeping You Safe: In Aristotelian physics, time and movement are tied together as “Tempo.” This is an important concept to keep in mind, that often what makes a tempo longer or shorter is distance. This should make intuitive sense to a fencer. I can quicker stab a man 4 feet away from me than I can a man 8 feet away from me. If I hold my sword high above my head it might take longer to attack than the person with his sword a few inches from my chest. In this post I have talked a good deal about closing the distance, and positioning yourself closer to your opponent to make the follow up attack easier. If they do something unpredictable, or even just straight up outplay you, taking a step back to widen that measure is an option. As Viggiani says retire a couple of steps and make an invitation. This will increase the length of the tempo they have to take to attack you. Making it easier to respond. You will also see these repeated in Marozzo’s Sword and Buckler where he breaks range with a cut then pulls the front foot back to create more distance and wait for a parry. This requires that when you are stepping that you are balanced, and well connected to the ground without sinking like a ton of bricks with every step. How do we develop that type of footwork? Just step forward and back a lot as you do cutting practice, and focus on doing it fluidly. Understanding Viggiani's Lo Schermo https://www.academia.edu/11614404/Understanding_Viggianis_Lo_Schermo
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Will PhillipsInstructor at Dallas Renaissance Sword Guild, and co-founder of East Texas Historical Fencing. Archives
September 2019
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