Hutton Saber
Alfred Hutton (1839-1910) was an English soldier,
antiquarian, writer, and swordsman. He,
along with friends Sir Richard Burton and Eggerton Castle, are credited with
the 19th Century revival of historical fencing.
In 1890, dissatisfied with the current military saber
practice, he published Cold Steel, a
lesson planned based on 18th Century backsword, combined with then modern
Italian style. In addition to the saber,
it was adapted for use with the single stick, sword-bayonet, and truncheon.
While being based on earlier English swordsmanship, it uses
French fencing terminology.
Weapons:
The Hutton saber was a light
saber, with a mild curve and bell guard.
For practice, the intended blade is a little more than a half inch wide,
and approx 31-34 inches long.
It's not necessary to have a saber to practice Hutton
Saber. All moves can be done with a
wooden stick approx 3 feet long, and 3/4 inches thick. The book even recommends this practice over
the saber itself.
(Note: all instruction below is written assuming both
student and opponent are right handed)
First Position: Stand
straight, feet and legs together, right foot facing forward and left foot at 90
degrees. Hold sword down along leg, in
front with knuckles toward leg. From
this position one salutes, then goes en
garde.
En Garde Stance:
The stance for saber is a fairly standard fencing stance:
Feet approximately shoulder width apart, right foot facing towards opponent,
back foot facing perpendicular, knees bent, back straight, head facing towards
opponent. The left hand should rest on
hip so that left arm is crooked. Right
arm will hold blade in a beginning guard, usually either tierce or middle guard.
Weight should rest equally on front and back foot.
Movement:
The primary fencing step used is the gathering step. To advance,
lead off with the front food, and once planted, go back to guard by bringing
the back foot forward. To retreat, do
the reverse; step backwards with the rear foot and once planted, follow with
the front foot.
At all times, keep balance.
Shoulders and back should remain straight. All movement should be from hips down, to the
greatest extent possible.
Other types of movement: the crossover (the Passing step in
Longsword terminology), the balustra, et cetera, are used in saber, and we will
cover those in future.
For now, we will be training with lateral movement and using
the gathering step.
The Lunge:
A proper lunge should consist of
1. Extend arm.
2. Lunge-by lifting right foot and bringing it forward. Front leg should bend no more than 90
degrees. Back leg should remain straight
and back foot should remain planted.
Don't zombie foot! (zombie footing is rolling the back foot so that it
drags behind.)
At all times the body should remain upright and not lean
forward.
3. Recover-push off
with front leg to recover back to an en
garde position. Arm should remain
extended.
4. Back to
guard-bring arm back into a guard position.
This lunge can be applied to smallsword, foil, epee, and
saber. For rapier, one should use the
same basic structure, but lunge more shallowly.
For saber, the attack combined with the lunge may be a cut or a
thrust. For the other weapons-thrust
only.
The Guards:
Hutton Saber guards are similar to guards in other fencing
forms, though it differentiates based on height, and includes a few unique to
it. The primary guards for defense are:
Note: 2 terms to remember with guards pronated and supinated. Pronated means knuckles up and supinated
means knuckles down.
Tierce: A right guard, with hands at approx. waist height,
pronated, with sword pointing towards opponents head, edge out and down.
Quarte: A left guard, with hands supinated at waist height
across body, with sword pointing towards opponents head.
Prime: A left guard, with arm across body, with blade
pointed toward ground, and knuckles pronated.
Seconde: A right
guard, knuckles pronated and blade
pointed toward ground
Middle or Neutral Guard:
blade held midway between a tierce and a quarte, sword point toward opponents
head, and edge toward ground.
Hanging Guard: A high
prime.
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