We worked through the canonical largo plays of longsword. There are six (plus two thrust defenses that we did not work on). For each of these, the tactic is to cut from whatever position you are in, into the crossing, and then react based on the nature of the crossing. The advantage to doing this, over e.g. parrying to frontale, is that the focus remains on attacking/hitting, and every feed/parry tends to build proper hitting dynamics.

The mentioned six responses follow, from most simple to most complex.

• Free hit – opponent was completely late or out of position and you just hit him
• Soft at crossing – you had to cross blades, but opponent is offline or soft and you can simply stab as follow-up
• Beaten aside – opponent’s sword is beaten aside either by your strong strike or because he is mistakenly attempting a pommel attack from too far distance – you angle out to the right, cut across the arms and then stab
• Crosses at tip – opponent is swiping at your sword instead of you, or is late, and crosses past your middle. Wind around, protecting, and hit around the other side.
• Crosses at middle – opponent strongly swipes sideways at middle and you cover and pommel strike
• Blade is in position of threat but there is no pressure – this is where you can grab the blade and fendente from the reverse side. A strong accressare to the left is useful here.

There are various ways to work these variations:

• Feeder delivers each in turn, nice and soft
• Feeder delivers each with more pressure / percussion
• Feeder delivers with varying speed/force
• Randomize the order

You can add the two thrust defenses to these:

• Beating aside the thrust
• The counter-thrust

The many plays of the Zogho largo branch out from these eight, and involve variations of the opponent pressing in or moving back.

It is my intent to work these eight sufficiently to reach some collective bar of competency among at least three or four of the group, so we can then move on to a similar survey of the canonical stretto plays.

Class ended with some 4th master dagger plays, followed by some reasonably strenuous calisthenics that were somewhat interrupted by one of the tire pells coming loose from the ceiling.