4-Hour Medieval Dagger Workshop

There is a long tradition of fighting with knives in the European martial arts. We will be looking at some of the skills from the old books In this class we will be looking at a combination of using the dagger in the forehand grip and the icepick grip. We will be looking at the similarities in different manuscripts such as Fiore dei Liberi, Joachim Meyer and Paulus Hector Mair and the practical changes from one grip to the other. In this class we will focus on the movements and use of the dagger in the high and low line attacks and shifting between the two grips in the fight. How is this class different than other dagger/knife classes in other martial arts? In this class we are looking at the knife as a thrusting weapon with cutting ability. The medieval dagger was longer than modern knives and was designed to go through thicker under armour clothing like gambesons and leather. We are looking at the use of the dagger as it was used in the medieval period for more thrusting than cutting attacks. These techniques would work with modern equivalent tools like screwdrivers, short sticks, broken handles of other tools. Dress of the day is sweats, a t-shirt and comfortable shoes.