Glossary
Agent - The attacker of an exchange, or play. Equivalent to Swetnam's oppressor.
Awkward Strike - A strike
done by "pulling" on the staff rather than
"pushing." Usually done when the staff
has passed by the target or when both players have
turned and stand nearly next to one another. This term is the medieval
one, found in several texts, including a few of the Robin Hood ballads,
where it is often the winning blow. Silver uses
backward strike instead.
Back defence, back hand defence
- From Swetnam, warding to the outside of the body.
If, for example, your right hand is forward on the staff
and holding your staff slightly to the left of your
body. As your opponent attacks your center or right side, bring the staff
right across your body to ward the blow. Swetnam
warns that this is both weaker and less certain a ward
than the fore hand defence.
Backward strike - A strike
done by "pulling" on the staff rather than
"pushing." Usually done when the staff
has passed by the target or when both players have
turned and stand nearly next to one another. This term is a later one,
found in Silver and others. An earlier term was
awkward strike as found in the Robin Hood
Ballads.
Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defense
- Written by Silver in 1599, apparently as a clarification
of his Paradoxes of Defense.
It provides a more lucid explanation of the Four
True Times and the Four False Times,
the Four Grounds, and the Four
Governors.
Break distance - To move
close enough to an opponent that you may reach them with your staff
or they may reach you with theirs.
Defender - From Swetnam.
The defender of an exchange, or play. Equivalent to
Silver's patient.
Distance - The second of the Four
Grounds, or principles, of the True Fight
according to Silver. In general, this is the distance
between players. More specifically, it should be understood
as the distance between where you may stand safe from attack and where
you are close enough to offer offence to your opponent. Swetnam
follows this directly (as his 2nd Principal
Rule), whereas Wylde is concerned with keeping
"within distance." For him, this is just being able to reach
the other player with a thrust.
English Master of Defence OR, The Gentleman's Al-a-mode Accomplish
- Zachary Wylde's 1711 fencing treatise. By this
time the quarterstaff art has been even more influenced by the small-sword
fencing art, but Wylde still advances a solid quarter-staff
system. Many of his contemporaries worked only at the half-staff.
Falsing, False Play - A feint,
meant to draw your opponent's staff out of place,
to draw their space too wide or too narrow to defend
a following strike or thrust. A fake-out. Sometimes
found as "faining" a thrust, or strike.
Fly out, Fly backward - A quick
back-step to outside of distance (beyond where
one can be hit). The opposite of pressing in.
Fore hand defence - From
Swetnam, warding to the inside
of the body. If, for example, your right hand is forward on the staff
, hold your staff slightly to the right of your body.
As your opponent attacks your center or left side, bring the staff
left across your body to ward the blow.
Four False Times - Defined
by Silver as those moves in which you are moving
out-of-order, or where body mechanics will bring you into place
too slowly to successfully deliver or ward a strike
or thrust. They are:
The time of the foot,
The time of the foot and body,
The time of the foot, body, and hand,
The time of the feet, body, and hand.
Four Governors - Silver's
Four Governors are meant as guidelines to
a players movement during a bout. They are 1) Judgement,
2) Measure, 3) Being prepared to press
in on your opponent while at the same time 4) Being prepared to fly
out.
Four Grounds - Silver's
Four Grounds are designed to help develop a
successful fighting strategy in the player. They are
1) Judgement, 2) Distance,
3) Time, and 4) Place.
Four True Times - Defined
by Silver as those moves in which you are moving
in-order, where body mechanics will bring you into place
in time to successfully deliver or ward a strike
or thrust. Listed from the fastest to the slowest, they are:
The time of the hand,
The time of the hand and body,
The time of the hand, body, and foot,
The time of the hand, body, and feet.
Gerdle-stead - Swetnam's term,
modernly called "the belt line" in America.
Grip - The position of the hands on
the staff. More rarely, a technique in which one
hand leaves your staff and grabs your opponents staff,
as is found in Silver's Brief
Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defense.
Guard - Sometimes used interchangeably
with ward. When written of separately, the guard is
primarily identified as a position (stance) of the body/staff meant to
defend against certain strikes and thrusts.
The knowledge of a good guard(s) was Swetnam's
1st Principal Rule.
Half-staffing - A method of
play with the shortstaff where
roughly half of the staff's length was held between
the hands, which were placed equidistant from the ends. Half-staffing
was generally reserved for short-range fighting while quarter-staffing
was preferred (especially early on) for ranged fights. The St.
George Guard, to protect the head, is nearly always done from the
half-staff grip.
High Guard - From Swetnam,
the high guard is formed by holding the butt end
of the staff with the rear hand (rear footed hand
that is) and with the front hand a few feet further up. The hind end of
the staff is held above and slightly in front of
the eyes and the tip is pointed at your opponents knees.
Judgement - A term found both
in Silver's Four Grounds
and his Four Governors. In both cases it
is the ability to discern when your adversary can do you harm and when
he cannot, when you can harm him and when you can not, as well as to understand
the strengths and weaknesses of an opponents guard
and potential strikes and thrusts. Silver
further advises that judgement is the knowledge used to determine what
distance you are to take up in any given situation.
Silver's use of the term encompasses Swetnam's
true observing of distance, one of his Seven
Principal Rules.
Line, line of attack - Wylde
adopts this sword fencing term and uses it much as it is used in modern
fencing. The line (of attack) is the trajectory a weapon will follow to
its intended target. That is the line that must then be warded.
Low Guard - From Swetnam,
the low guard is formed by holding the butt end of
the staff with the rear hand (rear footed hand that
is) and with the front hand a few feet further up. The hind end of the
staff is held low and the tip pointed at your opponents
eyes.
Measure - The second of Silver's
Four Governors. Measure is the governor concerned
with putting your staff in the best place to defend
yourself against incoming attacks, neither too close in to the possible
attack nor too wide. See space.
Opposer - From Wylde,
your opponent in an exchange, or play.
Oppressor - From Swetnam.
The attacker of an exchange, or play. Equivalent to
Silver's agent.
Paradoxes of Defence
- Authored by Silver in 1598, this document outlines
his basic principals of the True Fight. It is more confusing and generally
less useful to the modern martial artist than his Brief
Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defense. It does, however,
outline Silver's idea's on the perfect length of
various weapons, including the short staff.
Patience - One of Swetnam's
Seven Principal Rules, it speaks not
only to having patience in the fight, but also as a call to not letting
one self become easily angered or lead to fight.
Patient - The defender of an exchange,
or play. Equivalent to Swetnam's
defender.
Place - The place, for Silver,
is the beneficial combination of time and the position
of both fighters that allows you the advantage, so that you may choose
to "strike, thrust, ward,
close, grip, slip or go back"
without fear of your opponent doing you harm. One of Silver's
Four Grounds, and the sought-after goal of
each play.
Play, Player - Found throughout Silver,
Swetnam and Wylde, play refers
to the use of the staff in combat, either mock or
real. It lacks our modern identification with frivolity and amusement.
A play can denote a single exchange or a whole bout. To "play at
staves" can denote the whole of the martial
art, and a player therefore is one who practices this art.
Practice - The last of Swetnam's
Seven Principal Rules, where he notes
that there is no better method of gaining experience in judging distance
than much practice, either with a friend or against a wall.
Press in - Moving in on an opponent,
usually with a step. The opposite of flying out.
Put by - To put by an
opponent's staff is to knock it aside so to carry
through a further attack. Similar to the modern fencing beat attack, but
with a bit more force.
Quarter-staffing - Silver's
preferred method of play with the shortstaff. Roughly
a quarter of the staff's length is held between the
hands, relatively closer to one end than the other. Quarter-staffing was
preferred (especially early on) for ranged fights, while half-staffing
was generally reserved for short-range fighting.
Scholar - In this context, a student
of martial arts, or of the "Science of Defense" as it was often
called. In some Renaissance schools this was a specific rank of student.
A bit more specific than a player, this is someone
who is actively studying the art and science.
Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence
- Joseph Swetnam's 1617 work on the science of
defence. It provides a goodly number of staff techniques
that compliment Silver's techniques and principals.
Seven Principal Rules
- Swetnam's follow-on to Silver's Four
Grounds and Four Governors. They are
1) A good guard, 2) true observing of distance,
3) to know the place, 4) to take time,
5) to keep space, 6) patience,
and 7) often practice.
Silver, George - An English Gentleman and
Teacher of defense at the end of the 16th century. Most importantly, the
author of Paradoxes of Defence
(1598) and Brief Instructions Upon My
Paradoxes of Defense (1599). Along with Swetnam's
piece, nearly all we know of staff play
in Elizabethan England comes from these two documents. He is generally
acknowledged as a conservative teacher and many of his techniques and
principles owe more to Medieval English forms than the up-and-coming Renaissance
styles. His fighting principles form the basis for the staff
play taught at Bellingham Quarterstaff Assoc..
Slide - A small shuffling step in
which the feet retain their relative position.
Slip - The best description is found
in Silver, where he describes this move as a slight
drawing back of the upper body and the front foot. This moves the patient
just out of reach of the agent's attack and so allows for a very quick
retaliation.
Space - The distance between the
patient's weapon in guard and the agent's weapon
or incoming line of attack. Making your space too wide means having to
move your weapon to far to ward an attack and therefore
putting yourself at risk. Yet, make your space too narrow and your opponent
can more easily go around your defense. Silver calls
the knowledge of making your space correct Measure.
St. George Guard - A guard
of the head. Performed in half-staff by raising
both hands level above the head, with both feet planted firmly and under
the shoulders, rather than the usual one-ahead-one-back position. Not
specifically mentioned in either Silver, Swetnam,
or Wylde in relation to staff
play, it is a received, traditional, guard.
Staff - staffe, shortstaff, balkstaff,
tipstaff, quarterstaff, halfstaff, stake. Staves (pl.) The English staff
can be roughly divided into the shortstaff (usually 6 to 9 feet long),
and the longstaff (usually 12 to 14 feet long). The longstaff was essentially
a headless pike and was not generally used in personal defense. The shortstaff
could be played at either quarter-staff
or half-staff.
Strike, stroke - Hitting an opponent
with the some part of the length of the staff, as
opposed to the thrust. Sometimes referred to as
a blow.
Strypes, stripes - a blow with
the staff. Sometimes given as an invitation to play
staves to a certain number of blows, as in "Have a play
to three strypes." Found in the medieval ballad of Robin Hood and
the Friar. "If he speake any wordes to me, He shall have strypes
two or three..."
Swetnam, Joseph - A English Teacher
of defense in the early 17th century. He wrote the Schoole
of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence. He is the second
acknowledged "Master" in the method taught at the Bellingham
Quarterstaff Assoc. as his solid quarterstaff techniques make good use
of the theories advanced in Silver's Four
Grounds and Four Governors.
Thrust - Hitting an opponent with
the end of the staff, as opposed to the strike.
Usually this is the forward end, but there are techniques which make use
of the butt end of the staff. A thrust double is
done with both hands in place on the staff. A thrust
single leaves only the hindmost hand in place, greatly increasing the
weapon's range.
Time - The third of Silver's
Four Grounds and the fourth of Swetnam's
Principal Rules, time here refers to
both the amount of time an action takes as well as the correct moment
in should happen in. Swetnam's"to take time"
also means to strike when the opportunity presents
itself.
Traverse - A side step. Added to Silver's pressing
in and flying back, all directions are available
for movement in English staff play.
True Fight - fighting according
to the principles outlined by Silver in his Paradoxes
of Defense and the Brief Instructions.
Generally speaking, this means following the principles of the Four
True Times and the Four False Times,
the Four Grounds, and the Four
Governors. Swetnam, too, has Seven
Principal Rules of a True Defense; namely, "a good Guard,
true observing of Distance, to know the Place,
to take Time, to keep Space,
PatiencePatience, and often Practice."
Wylde also speaks, in more specific terms, of a true
guard, and a true planting of a thrust.
In modern times, this term is used by Master Terry Brown, of the Company
of Maisters, London, as the name of his English fighting system.
Ward - Sometimes used interchangeably
with guard. When written of separately, the ward
is primarily identified as the movement of the body/staff
to defend against certain strikes and thrusts.
Wylde, Zachary - Early eighteenth
century English Teacher of Defense, and author of the English
Master of Defence OR, The Gentleman’s Al-a-mode Accomplish.