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HEMA 101


Practical Destreza (Spanish rapier) - Part 2: Footwork and distance management
Basic footwork Footwork in Destreza is fairly intuitive. There are: Advancing steps: fight foot goes forwards, left foot follows. Retreating steps: left goes backwards, right foot follows. Traversing steps: if going right, the right foot moves to the right and the left foot follows. If going to the left, either foot can go left and the other foot follows. Compass steps: like traversing steps but you pivot on your right foot a little to face the opponent. Diagonal steps forw
HEMA 101 admin
2 days ago8 min read


Practical Destreza (Spanish rapier) - Part 1: Introduction, guards and attacks
Introduction This is a practical guide to Destreza, the Spanish art of fencing. There are a lot of articles online about the history of Destreza so I won't go into any detail here, other than to say that the La Verdadera Destreza (the true skill) dates back to around 1569 with two primary authors Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza and his student Luis Pacheco de Narváez. There were several other authors over the next 150-200 years. I am primarily working from the work of Francis
HEMA 101 admin
2 days ago6 min read
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