training books

[R.D.Metcalf]

I disagree with your premise that Fiore was/is some how superior to liechtenauer, "style"/"system" is a largely irrelevent term and in large part depends on the individual,as everyone will add or omit something to their personal repetoire and no two people fence the same way

That said, The Berlin sketch book c. 1510 shows unarmed dagger defenses that combine grappling with percussion, incidentally so does Talhoffer and Ringeck. However it should be noted that the audience these manuals were written for would be armoured so percussive strikes would not be as effective. However, no one should infer that a variety of both closed and open hand strikes as well as kicks are not included in the Kunst de Fecthen. There is a very good discussion on the HEMA Alliance forum, linked above, on this subject.

Benjamin Bradak also wrote a very good blog article on "systems"

[Hereward the Wake]

Unless they are doing it to you first....

[Duathen]

R.D., I think you're misinterpreting what I was saying. I never mentioned systems or Liechtenauer, so I don't know where you're getting that from. I was just linking Auerswald's manual on wrestling since it hadn't come up, and mentioned my personal preference for Fiore's interpretations versus Auerswald's pure grappling based on my own experience.

All that said, since this isn't a forum devoted purely to the study of WMA, I didn't want to delve to heavily into details, I just wanted to give folks more options.

[Duathen]

Unless they are doing it to you first....

And that's how you learn to defend against it!

[Hereward the Wake]

If you get the chance.... when the big guys plays the dirty tricks...then make sure you can get to something sharp and pointy first...

[Duathen]

I agree, that's pretty much always Plan A.

[R.D.Metcalf]

Unless they are doing it to you first....

"Those who are fearful should not learn to fence"