Fiore basic syllabus

Solo exercises

• Warm-up
• The guard positions
• Three turns: volta stabile, meza volta, tutta volta
• Four steps: passare, tomare, accressere, dicressere
• Four unarmed poste: longa, dente de zenghiaro, frontale, porta di ferro
• The footwork combinations: 1) accressere fora di strada, passare alla traversa, 2) accressere, 3 passi, with tutta volta.
• Stick avoidance drill
• Basic falling, solo

Unarmed pair exercises

• Testing the guards using pressure, grounding exercise
• Basic falling in pairs

Dagger

Actions

• 4 lines of attack: mandritto, fendente, roverso, sotto.
• The 5 things: disarm, strike, lock, break, takedown

Remedies

• First remedy master (against mandritto or fendente)
• Third remedy master (against roverso or fendente)
• Ninth remedy master (against sotto)

Dagger form work in progress

Longsword

The basic Fiore longsword syllabus is the most evolved of all the school's syllabi; it has been a work in progress for over ten years. At its core lie four drills, known as first, second, the exchange and the break; these represent the four most common variations on defence: against a cut, covering from right and left, against a thrust on the opposite side, and against a thrust from the mirror side. These have (usually) four steps to them: the attack, the initial defence (remedy), the attacker's counter (counter-remedy) and the defender's counter to the counter (counter-counter-remedy). These drills should be memorised in their basic form, as they become the foundation of the development of the student's skills. By doing all four drills as both defender and attacker, the student will cover defence from right and left, attacking from right and left, defence against cut and thrust, and attacking with cut and thrust. Using the standard variation multipliers, which include the four crossings drill, changing the starting guards, changing the counter-remedy etc., the student can find a rational way to recreate every play in the system, and connect that play in memory to one or other of the foundational drills.

• The salute

Guard positions

• tutta porta di ferro,
• posta di donna,
• posta longa,
• posta frontale,
• posta di dente di zenghiaro,

Blows

• Mandritto fendente
• Roverso fendente
• Mandritto sottano
• Roverso sottano
• Mandritto mezano
• Roverso mezano
• Punta

Drills

• Sword handling drill
• First drill
• Second drill

Remedies (defences)

• rebattere with true edge from tutta porta di ferro
• rebattere with false edge from dente de zenghiaro.
• Counter-remedy: turn to the other side, pommel strike.