Best fencing books according to redditors

There are two Italian masters from Florence that I know ofFrancesco di Sandro Altoni and Marco Docciolini

Marco Docciolini does have an English translation, I have not read this myself. From what I can recall hearing, it covers Sword alone, Sword+Buckler, Sword+Dagger and Sword+Sword. Here is another link to buy it from Lulu

I also highly recommend this book. It is aimed at people in your position.

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Italian-Rapier-David-Coblentz/dp/0985444134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537537462&sr=8-1&keywords=david+coblentz

IMO, the best book for beginners for longsword is Guy Windsor's https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-Arms-Vol-Longsword/dp/9526819322/ (and his older book https://www.amazon.com/Swordsmans-Companion-Guy-Windsor/dp/9526793404/ is good too). He does Italian longsword; for German, you could try Tobler's https://www.amazon.com/Fighting-German-Longsword-Christian-Tobler/dp/1937439232/

Of course, there is plenty of stuff online, too.

First of all, which book exactly do you mean? Guy Windsor has two books the titles of which include "Medieval Longsword":

1. The Swordman's Companion: Medieval Longsword
   https://www.amazon.com/Swordsmans-Companion-Guy-Windsor/dp/9526793404
   
   
2. Mastering the Art of Arms volume 2: The Medieval Longsword
   https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-Arms-Vol-Longsword/dp/9526819322
   
   It just so happens that both books describe several different kinds of footwork and different footwork drills on their pages 64-65 -- or at least they do in the editions I have. So you're going to have to be far more specific.

I've come to believe that there are two kinds of beginner foilists who actually win bouts against their fellow beginners.

1. Overly aggressive beginners who beat, "punch," and remise through everything (this type of strategy won't win in the long term). And;
   
2. Appropriately aggressive beginners who have learned to land their first action. By attacking from appropriate distance and by extending properly during their attack. (These fencers will continue to win in the long term).
   
   Foil novices who tend to lose their early matches against their fellow beginners tend to be too timid and hesitant to attack/riposte. (Beginner saber classes seems to do a better job than beginner foil at killing any timid notions).
   
   And while, I think it's important to drill the core actions (parry 4, circle-6, parry 7, advance-lunges, etc...) in order to progress, in general, I don't think beginners see much early progress by simply performing a textbook parry 4 (for example). And that makes sense ; this is a sport and not a martial art. (This is essentially the thesis of Epee 2.5, although it applies just as well to foil).
   
   I think after having a basic understanding of those core actions it becomes more important to develop an understanding of "THE GAME" ; to better understand the tempo of foil fencing, or in other words how the foilist attacks and moves on the strip. Getting better at the core actions should happen as your understanding of "THE GAME" improves. Realistically, a mastery of the basic actions won't precede your comfort playing "THE GAME." Although, the "old school" of fencing coaching used to think otherwise.
   
   So what does this mean that you (new foilist) should do? Prioritize drilling advances, retreats, lunges and thrusts ; so that you can move comfortably on the strip. And then, try to refrain from remising. If you drill with a partner do simple "attacking and distance" drills. For example:
   
   

• THE glove game: No gear, each fencer holds a glove by the cuff in their hand. Fencers go en garde at advance lunge distance. One fencer attacks and is allowed 2-advances and a lunge, the other tries to escape and is allowed 3-4 retreats. The fencers continue taking turns attacking and retreating (with no break) until one fencer scores a touch. The goal is to control distance.
  
• 1/3 strip attack drill: Fencers in full gear. The fencers stand at lunge distance on the back 1/3 of the strip ; the attack stands on their opponents en garde line. The attack holds the opponent's blade with their in 4. On the command fence the defender try to escape using only footwork. The attacker tries to follow (keeping their blade on their opponents) and score a touche with an advance-lunge (remise and failed attacks are counted for the defender), no parrys allowed.
  
• 1/3 strip beat-attack drill: Same as above however, normal en gardes (not "holding" the defender's blade). Attack scores by finishing with an advance-beat-lunge or a beat-advance-lunge only. Again, remises and misses count for the defender.
  
  For group footwork lessons, I think it's really important for beginners to just grind through the repetitions. You should be doing 30-min of mirroring drills which are led by a coach or advance fencer, every practice. Just to make the movements more comfortable and natural feeling.
  
  
• Mirroring: A coach (or advanced fencer) stands in front of the group. Fencers 'keep-distance' with the coach. If the coach advances, the fencers retreat ; if the coach retreats, the fencers advance. Same for "half-advances" and "half-retreats." And the coach should have some signal for when to lunge, advance-lunge, and fleche.
  
  Being more comfortable moving and attacking is the only way to progress at your early stage. And the best way to form a solid foundation for your fencing.

Hopefully it goes without saying that you can't learn something physical from the books.

But if you're the kind of person who likes to read a lot, and want to supplement your learning by reading about fencing theory, then here's what I would recommend.

First, read pretty much any general book about fencing. I've read quite a few books about fencing, but generally they're mostly all the same. Here's one that I've read that is indicative of most books, but there's loads

The only thing you're really trying to take away from it getting basic descriptions of the equipment, some basic nomenclature - "lunge", "fleche", "quarte", "disengage", "ballestra", etc. Maybe some basic history. You could also get all this stuff from wikipedia if you wanted, but maybe a book form might be presented in a nicer way.

A lot of these books will talk about mental game, perfect technique, and the great masters of whenever. This is mostly absolute garbage. Most of the history will be incorrect, and only semi-true 'factoids'. It often comes off as a bit of "mysticism". If you have any experience in the culture of martial arts you probably know what I mean.

So once you have a rough idea of what all the parries are, and what we call all the footwork movements, more or less, I would recommend reading Epee 2.0 (2.5 or whatever it's on now).

This book talks about a pragmatic based approach to fencing. No one makes a perfect lunge, and in fact, there is not even such a thing as a perfect lunge. Lots of moves that you learn aren't actually all that useful. etc. If you can internalize the themes of this book, that is very useful for approaching fencing in a way conducive to competitive success.

Then I would look at understanding fencing, which has a lot of very technical thoughts about fencing. E.g. Beyond just what is a step, or a lunge, he talks about different kinds of actions tactically speaking (e.g. pre-planned vs open eyes etc.).

If you read those three, you'll be in good shape

Ozawa sensei wrote a quite thorough book called Kendo: The Definitive Guide

I also reference this Japanese-English dictionary of kendo from time to time: https://www.e-bogu.com/Kendo-Dictionary-p/kok-pub-boo-kendictionary-.htm

Hi, where are you located? The nice thing about sabre is that it is still a living tradition, and there are a lot of people around that can teach it to you. Depending on where you are, you could probably learn quite a lot from a modern club. Ideally though, you'd probably get more out of a more classically-oriented group because sabre has changed a lot in recent years, and a lot of things that will be useful for heavier weight sabres (circular cuts, low line parries, expulsions, etc...) aren't really used anymore.

I was trained in classical Italian sabre, which is well documented and still has a living tradition. The earliest basis for this system comes from Radaelli, who method was written down by Settimo Del Frate and recently translated by Chris Holzman, who added a lot of his own material that would help someone get started. You can get it here:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dueling-Sabre-Christopher-Holzman/dp/0978902262

Masaniello Parise also wrote about sabre in his book from 1883, and while his book was chosen to be the basis of all military training, most people preferred Radaelli's method, and he ended up hiring a number of his students to teach at the newly formed Scuola Magistrale in Rome. Some of those students, Pecoraro and Pessina cowrote their own book on sabre which was basically Radaelli's system but with an organization more consistent with what was already being taught in Rome. Barbasetti, also did something similar. Unfortunately, Parise's and Pecoraro's and Pessina's book haven't been translated to English yet. Barbasetti's book is available in English (http://medievalswordmanship.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/the-art-of-the-sabre-and-the-epee.pdf)

My training came through Maestro William Guagler's (who trained under Pessina's son, Giorgio and was a graduate of the program in Rome) program which was based on this same method. The sabre in his book, The Science of Fencing (http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Fencing-Comprehensive-Instruction/dp/1884528058) , is very similar to Pecoraro and Pessina's book and is an excellent overview of the theory. If you look at this one, Barbasetti, and Chris's translation, you can get a pretty good picture of what 19th century Italian sabre would have been like.

I think Epee 2.5 is still considered very relevant.

I'm reading the Fantastic Four epee book now. It's interesting. The author was a good French international fencer. It's interesting to see what he says about primary target, etc. On the other hand, he says some stuff that seems to me to be nonsensical, or seems to be contradicted by stuff you can see international fencers doing in competition. So, I don't know. The "fantastic four" hook is not really clicking with me, I'm just reading it for the individual snippets.

Like others have said, try to find an instructor. If there's no one nearby you can get to regularly, think about making a trip for some private instruction, a special event, or even work at distance, exchanging videos and having chats and the like. A lot of instructors (including myself) offer this on occasion.

If you can't find an instructor, you 'll have to do your best with online material and books. as BLASPHEMOUS as it sounds, I recommend Fiore, mostly because Fiore has a ton of awesome supplemental material aimed at beginners that you can find online for free. Guy Windsor's Swordsman's Companion is a nice resource (which may be somewhat dated by now, but I'm not sure since I'm not a fiorist), and he also has a number of free videos on his youtube channel, and occasionally offers free introductory courses through his website. I've used some of his conditioning material before, it's fairly thorough. As I wrote this, I also stumbled on this page, which is a nice collection of Fiore-facing resources.

If you're dead set on German longsword, Keith Farrel's German Longsword Study Guide is a really great start, but it's best if used in conjunction to a text, and it's difficult to understand the body mechanics, especially if you've got a background in MOF.

Unfortunately I don't know of too many really comprehensive beginner-facing youtube channels for German sources out there that teach any of this in a way that I think is more beneficial than harmful. There's a translation of Danzig coming out soon, but since it's not out yet I can't really recommend it :/. Again, I think you ought to reach out to a well-known instructor for whatever system you want to study, and see what they recommend, especially if there's no club around.

If you haven't already, check out the HEMA Club Finder, and see if there's someone local. If there is, do whatever they do. Once you get down some basics, you can think about spending some time on your own with whatever source you are interested in. You might find that you change your mind on what interests you, too!

Here are two books by Aldo Nadi, a fencing great: On Fencing

and The Living Sword

The first is more instructional and the second is an autobiography, if I remember correctly. Neither of them alone are going to give you enough instruction on how to be a great fencer (you need a real coach for that). However, they will give you a good look into where fencing came from and they are pretty entertaining

I highly recommend Coblentz as the best intro for Italian rapier:
https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Italian-Rapier-David-Coblentz/dp/0985444134/

For extra cred with the HEMA mallninjas, buy this and use it as a coffee table book. Or read it or whatever, I’m not your mom: Cutting with the Medieval Sword: Theory and Application https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979910979/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GjVZCbY4ET8PY

There usually aren't schools that teach all of the arts you listed. I know of a place on the East Coast of the United States that teaches all you listed except jukendo/tankendo though and has a WMA group. It is going to take a lot more than 20 hours of practice to become competent at any of those weapons and some of those arts are kata exclusive, or predominantly practice as kata.

I was part of a club about 10 years back that used this as their text book, but I think it might be discontinued.

https://www.amazon.com/Kendo-Definitive-Guide-Hiroshi-Ozawa/dp/4770021194

The kendo reader might have some material applicable to your WMA practices: http://www.kendo.org.uk/files/KendoReader.pdf

I don't think you are going to get much out of practicing any of these arts. From my conversations with various HEMA people, the one thing you likely would get out of kendo that isn't as prevalent in HEMA is the focus on seme, but that takes years to develop.

Glad to help!

Dr. Gaugler passed away in 2011 and since then Science of Fencing has become a little harder to come by. You should still be able to find a copy on Amazon that won't cost you too horribly much.

My school is not affiliated with HEMA so I can't give much advise there but if you are have any quesitons about the Science or Classical Italian in general feel free to pick my brain and I'll do my best to get you the information.

Probably a toss up between Guy Windsor's A Swordsman's Companion and AHA German Long sword study guide. Windsor's book is more explicit about what you are meant to be doing whilst AHA's book is a more all encompassing work covering many things in not very much detail.

This is a good place to start for Italian rapier (It's mostly based on Capoferro)

https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Fencing-Rapier-Dagger-ebook/dp/B00XFIJ1CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537535295&sr=8-1&keywords=darren+di+battista

The problem with drawings, videos and photos is that it's not always clear which sides the blades are on in relation to each other. Some are better than others. Videos on & offline obviously have some advantages. They're more engaging, blade positions may be clearer and most importantly you've got movement. I bought a book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fencing-Techniques-Foil-Epee-Sabre/dp/1852231521 when I'd just started and it is quite nice to have a reference book pitched at people in their first few years of fencing (especially that first year) where you can just look up & check something. Fencing books can be very dry reads where your attention can wander (or is that just me?). Some fencing books can be pricey & I found a few in charity shops for peanuts.

One thing I noticed was that coach advice to new fencers can differ from things you see world class fencers do, or see discussed on a forum thread. That was a bit confusing at times, but it's basically about learning to walk before learning to run. Try to nail doing things the way the coaches say. Once you've been fencing for longer you'll have a clearer idea of when, why & how advanced fencers use variations tactically, building on a solid foundation.

You Tube has different kinds of fencing videos, which is helpful, such as armoury skills, kit reviews and promos, features on techniques (Variable quality & reliability, good, bad & mediocre), event footage, humour, etc. Sometimes it's HEMA or classical.

Link to the book

Seems to be cheaper from the uk amazon.

There is also the fencing based "One Touch at a time" for sports psychology based on fencing. It's quite good.

"Epee 2.5" also contains some sports-psychology, tactics and strategy from a fencing perspective.

I've personally done both classical fencing and HEMA/WMA and modern fencing (epee). Very little in classical sabre will be applicable to modern, at least from what I've seen. It has, at least for me, made me think more creatively and tactically in all my sword-sports.

In terms of where to start other than local clubs, I'd recommend two books: Gaugler's science of fencing (http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Fencing-Comprehensive-Instruction/dp/1884528058/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397083438&sr=8-1&keywords=the+science+of+fencing) and Chris Holzman's book on radaellian sabre (http://shop.swordplaybooks.com/product.sc?productId=12&categoryId=12). Gaugler is writing specifically from a southern Italian perspective, but he's good for general theory. Chris' book is nothing short of fantastic, and offers lots of insight into the dueling culture around fencing in 19th century Italy.

You're just starting out. As you say, some of your opponents literally have decades more experience. Some general thoughts:

• Fence as much and as often as you can. If you only fence a couple days a week, it's really hard to improve. The best way to get better at fencing is to fence.
  
• Fence people better than you are. Think about what is working and what is not working.
  
• Keep a fencing journal.
  
• Take lessons from a qualified coach. As many as you can afford. Also remember that just because someone is a good fencer does not mean they are a good coach.
  
• Are you in a class/camp at your current club? Group instruction is also good.
  
• Generally books aren't that useful, but Epee 2.5 ( https://www.amazon.com/Epee-2-5-Paradigm-Revised-Augmented/dp/0985444185 ) is actually quite good.
  

As a kendo practitioner myself, I like the following book https://www.amazon.com/Shambhala-Guide-Kendo-Philosophy-Spiritual/dp/1570629277 which gives a general idea of zen and shinto influence in sword schools and kendo, a topic which is most of the time not discussed in more popular kendo books.

Kendo was the first martial art that came to mind for me, too. There is definitely a spiritual/mental aspect to kendo, as well.

I would highly recommend, for instance, The Shambhala Guide to Kendo. I took a class with the professor who wrote it (really fascinating guy with a lot of weird stories). The book really focuses on the history of kendo and how it was influenced by various religious traditions (notably various forms of Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy). I found it really deepened my appreciation for the mental exercise that goes along with Kendo.

It's hard to describe. You want the swing to be firm when you strike someone. The goal isn't to smack them with brute strength or not use any force at all. Your strikes must be precise and controlled to allow the judge to determine that you had control over what you were doing and meant to do it if that makes sense. It's all about control and discipline.

There are several books that I'm sure you could find. I had this one while I was growing up and read it a bit. I think it was pretty good, but I can't remember because I was so young.

Here are a couple of modern secondary sources which might be of use:

https://www.amazon.com/Newer-Shorter-Easier-Method-Fencing/dp/0956487165/

https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Manual-Smallsword-Fencing-ebook/dp/B00TIWMIYM/

Here's a good list of original treatises:

https://smallswordproject.com/historic-texts/

Modern sport fencing will certainly teach a lot of what you need for smallsword fencing, but it will also teach some very bad habits. If you can't find any means of getting smallsword training then by all means take it up. Avoid "sabre" and pistol grips, and take a look at the foil section of Hutton's "The Swordsman":

https://www.amazon.com/Swordsman-Manual-Defence-Against-Uncivilised/dp/1845743652

Two years later... I still don't like this grip. The rest of his book is awesome though and I highly recommend it.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/steven-reich/marco-docciolini/paperback/product-12190678.html

https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Subject-Fencing-Marco-Docciolini/dp/1910462012

A Coach and Referee I know just published Journals to help you make the most out of tournaments for Epee Foil and Sabre