Montante: How to defend a breach in a wall - Swords of the Renaissance 2020

That’s great, then we’ll begin We thought to go straight into the action we won’t do mechanics or striking techniques or something like that just straight action :) Could you form up a crude line and count 1 & 2 for two groups please? Okay! We want to defend a breach in the wall! So imagine you are a member of a castle garrison the attackers dug a tunnel beneath the wall and the wall collapsed. By chance you were there and survived unharmed through a miracle. The enemy sends an assault squad of around 6 or 7 soldiers who are armed quite poorly in comparison to you: they just got rapiers (or one of our “beautiful” simulators). Take one, if you don’t want to sacrifice your rapier ;) Their task is to scout the breach and break through it. Your only opportunity to prevent that is to engage their superior numbers on your own, which is no problem at all, because…

01:14 - peace through superior firepower (laughing) That means, what do we do? We emerge from the breach. There is the squad of attackers What is our goal? We want to keep them away because we can count on our reinforcements arriving in about 1 minute. What is their goal? (attacking squad) They want to sneak around you to get in and open the main gate, which is not barricaded for some reason :) They shall not pass! If just one or two sneak around you, it won’t help them too much but if, lets say four make it through, you loose. So, it’s us, the Montantenero vs. a majority and we try to keep them out. How do we proceed? We have chosen one rule that fits perfectly: Godinho nr. 9 - broad street. The enemy is just in front of us, our back is safe.

02:11 - What does the motion pattern look like? I need 4 or 5 volunteers from one group to form up right here. A crude line suffices. Take one of our beautiful simulators. This is our breach, okay? I try to defend this breach. This means I move from one column - I have a lot of reach => don’t start to close to the column and move in a zig-zag-pattern forward and sideways Thus, I try if my opponents advance, try to subdue me or sneak around… 3 steps towards one side, than I switch my striking direction strike and move, strike and move 3 strikes suffice completely If I am over there again and stepped diagonally, I should have advanced enough. If I advance to much, it gets very easy to go around me okay? I have to pay attention.

If I concentrate on one side too much, the other is wide open. I need to keep them off the wall, but I mustn’t stray to far from the wall as well. Therefore, I’ll repeat the sequence. As I am over here, I switch the striking direction. If I have advanced enough, I can move back and up the ramp again - back to the wall. Back to my starting position. This is the whole sequence. We have two breaches / two gates and 2 groups. One group stays here, one follows Flo.

03:58 - Then everyone can try it for themselves with the Montante in a relaxed fashion. Then we’ll go for another round with a bit more intensity if the time permits it. And maybe even a third where we can focus on additional things. Let’s go! Try to move towards us, move diagonally to keep us of the wall. Use a zig-zag-pattern and advance. Yes, good! 3 steps to get from right to left. Okay, and now retreat back up - there is someone trying to sneak around. Very good Okay, that’s enough - thank you! If I start to work my way over there and move diagonally in the best case my opponents there will probably move back. If I notice, that someone on the other side tries to sneak around then I keep the momentum of my strike and start again on that side (his left). {don’t switch striking direction and perform a full turn of the body} This works on the other side just as well of course I notice that someone tries to sneak around me… bad surprise! Next! Start on your right side.

05:39 - So that you are nice and close to your wall. And wait for your opponents to close in. Preserve your strenght. Let them come. And now advance (diagonally). And now with backhand strikes. Nice! Chase them a bit backwards. Away from you Pay attention. Well done! Noone shall pass! (I smirk because hitting the historical floor is usually rewarded with burpees) (witty comment about flying walking frames) Okay, you hear your reinforcements slowly closing in, start to retreat. Back to the breach so they don’t overwhelm you. Nice, thank you! Next! Start on your right side, move from right to left. Stop, wait a second. Pay attention that you use your range Okay, noone will pass through this corridor anymore And then you start and move diagonally.

06:49 - If you are here, switch striking direction and advance towards your left. Then slowly retreat back to the wall. Strike nice and horizontally - not so vertically. Cover as much space as possible. It’s like a mix out of Krump- and Mittelhau. Okay, move sideways, sideways - yes! Switch, nice! Chase them back while advancing! (Montante caught in some straps) {I just left recordings with “unique” advice in this footage, so you don’t have to listen to the same advice over and over} So we have this nice movement pattern, back and fourth What is really important, you probably already noticed If you just stay right in the gate and just follow the same pattern over and over again, you get easily predictable. Therefore we added the option of these changes of direction and rhythm to be unpredictable.

07:50 - You can include these even if you don’t notice anyone sneaking around you. Another thing that can be really beneficial… get a bit closer. If I got someone here because I noticed he is especially cheeky. I don’t just advance on him half heartedly but a bit more serious. Then he looses his desire to pull anything on me. (Forever) I don’t think I am able to pull off that much drama :D Take position! 3.. 2.. 1… go! {We already stopped to clock to time the “reinforcements” / end of the round} RIP {If you break the tempo of the exercise, you are considered dead} Nice! Because you can easily loose your balance {Striking with power and abruptly switch directions} And just like that I have some space again. Careful! (Some tourists passing by) So I can start to work my way up here and move back into the Montante rule. (Regla) For beginners it’s really hard to keep your balance while striking and moving. Yes, indeed. That is the thing, we don’t focus on today. Body mechanics, yup Anyone wants to try this? Go for it! .