Stances – En Guard
When the fighter is not actively engaged in attacking or defending, he normally takes a position of readiness—usually beginning out of distance and then closing in to allow the blades to touch and slightly cross. These stances should never be stiff, but retain a feeling of fluidity, even when the body is still. The posture represents a readiness to either attack or defend, without having committed to either action.
All stances will have the same basics in common – a slight bend in the knees, weight shifted slightly forward towards the balls of the feet, the torso erect and resting directly above the hips (not bending forward at the waist), shoulders relaxed. The head is held back – an observer of the fight in which the body is engaged.
Put a sword in actors’ hands and they often goes into the standard Olympic fencer’s stance:
- Left foot turned out, directly behind the right
- Left shoulder turned away from the opponent
- Left arm raised behind the head
- Elbow at shoulder level
- Hand dangling loosely at the wrist”
– left foot turned out and directly behind the right foot, left shoulder turned away from the opponent, and the left arm held up behind the head, elbow at shoulder level, with the left hand dangling down loose at the wrist. The sword is held at solar plexus level throughout the fight, the hand merely moving from right to left, parallel to the ground. This is fine for competitive fencing where the target is only the front of the torso and the fencing area is limited to a long and narrow piste, or runway, which does not allow for any sideways foot action. It doesn’t make any sense for a historical duel or street brawl or theatrical fight, where side stepping and use of the left hand is assumed. (To be honest, it has been many decades since even Olympic fencers used this stance.) So, instead of this severely linear “sporting” stance, the stance for a sword fighter becomes more and more open as we move backward in time.
The smallsword of the 18th and 19th centuries is very close to the above competition stance, but the left hand, often gloved, is often held in front of the body near the face to protect the face or grab the opponent’s blade, so the left shoulder is turned in a bit. Alternatively, the left hand could simply be held behind the back at the small of the back. By all accounts, the fighters stood much more upright than have fighters in other periods of history. This would seem to indicate that the emphasis was in using the sword to deflect attacks rather than relying exclusively on the legs for evasions. The left foot was turned out but is not directly in-line with the right foot. This gives better sideways stability and allows for quick evasions and attacks to the left and right. Since the face is unprotected, a common variation to the solar plexus on-guard is to hold the sword with a straight arm pointing at the opponent’s face, but of course for stage this is modified to pointing no higher than armpit level.
Military sabre fighting in a duel is similar, which we would expect since it comes out of the same time period. But the weapon is completely different in weight and size and balance, therefore in the way it is used. The left hand, useless against the heavy hacking blade, is always held behind the back to keep it out of the way. Generally the weapon hand and lead foot would be opposite during an en-garde. This allows the fighter to generate momentum by driving forward with a strong crossing step. The crossing steps allows the hip to apply more torque, therefore more power, than can be generated by simply moving the lead foot forward in a standard advance. Because the sword is heavier, the arm tires easily trying to maintain a dueling position, so the weapon is held either low at hip level with the tip pointing up, or above head level with the tip aiming down. Simply moving the sword from side to side can affect the fighter’s balance, so the legs need to be bent and the feet at about a yard apart to provide a more stable base than is used in smallsword dueling.
The rapier of the 15th through to the 17th century is a brawling weapon. The strict formalities of the duel of this period have more to do with the etiquette of issuing, accepting or avoiding getting a challenge to fight rather than how the fight itself should progress. Since both hands are expected to be engaged in fighting, the stance opens up tremendously to at least shoulder width apart, often more. The shoulders and the hips stay square with the opponent, so the feet cannot be in line with but rather will be set wide, wide enough so that at any time your opponent should be able to roll a bowling ball between your legs. There are many variations to the en-garde stance, but most fighters tended to hold the left arm out straight while holding a dagger, and the right arm kept more closely to the body and holding the sword. The height of the hands will move from waist to shoulder level as the needs of the fight require, and most importantly the left foot rather than the right, will lead. The idea was to keep the tips of both weapons at an equal distance to the opponent, not showing a weakness to or preference for either side. Movement patterns were circular, with the look of modern boxers trying to find an opening to attack. Most fighters were trained to bat-away an incoming attack with the left hand and almost simultaneously thrust the sword at the opponent’s face.
The medieval broadsword was a battlefield weapon. So even in a knightly tournament the look here is of battering the opponent into submission rather than a show of elegant swordplay. The stance should be proportionate to the weight of the weapons, so that with the two-handed swords or with sword and shield we should see the legs in a full horse-riding stance, legs very far apart, the sword held at hip level. There is no preference for right or left foot leading. Indeed, leading strongly with either foot reduces the ability of the fighter to swing the sword from both directions.
For the earlier shortsword of bronze and iron-aged cultures, there is no studied posture to copy. The sword is light enough not to affect the stance, so the fight will have the look of brutal accepting and giving punishment until one person falls. If two fighters face each other, it is possible that one might take a defensive wide stance much like a boxer, left foot forward, with most of the weight on the right [back] foot.
Samurai warriors of Japan were the only group of fighters that developed a fighting style designed not only for war but also for dueling. The stance might at first be confused with that of the broadsword, but since the sword is so much lighter, there is no need for the deep stance of medieval European warriors. In single sword confrontations, the basic stance was the everyday normal stance, with either foot leading, and the sword held at a relaxed stomach height and slightly extended from the body. If two swords or sword and dagger were used, the stance looked more like that of the rapier. With elbows bent and the tip aiming up and toward the opponent’s face, the samurai was trained to look for the decisive moment to attack, and then to kill with one blow. Just as in European rapier fighting, most duels were over in two or three moves. A successful attack would need no further action, and a failed attack would lead to a usually successful counter attack by the opponent.
Distance
With the actors facing each other, have the taller of the two slowly thrust with the sword and take a half lunge with the lead foot. Adjust the foot placement so that the tip of the sword is about three or four inches away from his partner. Keeping the back foot where it is, recover back from the lunge, and this is the correct distance for stage combat. Memorize this distance and go back to it at every opportunity, for actors invariably shorten it as soon as they start moving.
Distance of course will change. A vertical head cut must start from much closer than a thrust to the torso, so adjusting for the demands of the fight is constant. But actors will always tend to end up too close rather than too far apart, for we all take shorter steps when walking backwards than we do when going forward.
The main concerns are not only safety for the actors but also for the believability of the fight. When the fighters are too close it sends a message to the audience that completely undermines the tension you are trying to create, namely that it is a battle of life or death. What the audience instead sees is that the swords must not be dangerous at all if the characters are so comfortable being within striking distance. The actors have to sell the concept of the tip of a blade being white-hot and instantly deadly to the touch in order to create an exciting fight.
But here is the wonderful thing. You and your partner can always take care of the distance conundrum with one simple trick: look at the attacking tip. Really. If you look at the tip you will automatically adjust so it is not behind you when you parry because your character wants to stay away from it, right? Looking at the attacking tip focuses on the story of the fight, re-establishes correct distance, leads to specificity of target, and actually makes the fight more believable and safer!