The early Days of Destreza - Workshop by Lorenzo Braschi
Channel: Schildwache Potsdam
Date: 18/07/2023

La Verdadera Destreza is a system that is usually associated with the 17th Century and the works of such masters as Pacheco, Ettenhard or Rada. But the coiner of “Verdadera Destreza” as a term was Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza, who published his magnum opus On the Philosophy of Arms and their Destreza and Christian Defence and Aggression in 1569, and he was already a practitioner of the fencing arts in the middle of the 16th century. In this workshop we will examine some of the concepts of this Early Destreza, in which the famous cup hilt rapiers of the 17th century were not invented yet, but the central tenets of the theory were already in place. This theoretical system can be used to understand fencing from any different schools, and examine their propositions to assess their “true” or “defence-based” value.

About the instructor: Lorenzo started out in historical fencing in 2011 in Madrid as a student of the Escuela Madrileña de Esgrima Histórica, where he learnt to use the rapier following the Verdadera Destreza style. He also practised intensely with the longsword and with sword and buckler at the same school. In 2015 he moved to Warsaw and, not finding any rapier school in the city, became an instructor at the ARMA-PL fencing school. He has been teaching there since then. He maintains a broad interest in Destreza as applied to different contexts, against different schools. Being an instructor for fencers with little knowledge of rapier (much less Verdadera Destreza) has allowed (or forced, depending on the view) to rely on sources which, as a native Spanish and Italian speaker, he’s lucky enough to read in the original form. He travels extensively, and has been doing workshops in Poland and abroad. He does not care much for tournaments, but he competes occasionally. In 2022 he won three silvers, in the Valkyrie tournament in Wrocław and in the Torneo di Spada 2022 in Potsdam (single sword, and sword and buckler).

In historical fencing or HEMA (for Historical European Martial Arts) we reconstruct sword fighting systems from historical sources. Our club focuses on Italian medieval and renaissance sources, fencing with the Spadone (Two-Handed Sword), Spear, Sidesword (One-Handed Sword) together with Shield, Cape, Dagger, you name it!

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