The following is a translation of an article by Giuseppe 'Beppe' Nadi entitled 'How I teach fencing', published in the November 1928 issue of Lo Sport Fascista. In this article the legendary master gives an overview of his pedagogical method, which produced such champions as his sons Nedo and Aldo Nadi, as well as Olympic gold medallists Gustavo Marzi, Oreste Puliti, and Aldo Montano, to name a few.
- Students are always taught foil first
- All foil parries are taught with the hand supinated, as was common by this time
- Students do lessons and conventional exercises for over a year before they can start bouting, initially only with the master
- The sabre is taught to be 'guided by the forearm and not the hand'
- Great importance is given to thrusts in sabre fencing
- Beppe cares very little for épée fencing, believing that the best épéeists come from competent foilists
How I Teach Fencing
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| Beppe Nadi, the great Livornian master |
Fifty years of teaching, innumerable champions, two stars of international fencing—his sons Nedo and Aldo. Here, in brief, are the titles of Beppe Nadi, who here tells you simply, with the Maestro's frankness and competence, what methods he follows in his famous Livornian school. Advice and observations which equal the most voluminous treatise.
Here in my old age, after half a century with only the sword in hand, I reluctantly take up the pen to respond to the courtesy of Lo Sport Fascista, which asked me for an article on the only topic that I can discuss.
How fencing should be taught is, for many, easier said than done; for me it is instead the exact opposite.
What is needed to have good results is above all a spirit of sacrifice without limits.
It is not enough to live on fencing—living for fencing is necessary if you wish to create students. The method certainly has its importance, but all the methods are more or less good if you teach with passion. I now put forward, without going into too many technical specifics, what I make the student do when the student presented to me knows absolutely nothing about the art.
Whether they are a child or an adult, I place them on guard, paying close attention to the aesthetics, and as soon as I have managed to give them a harmonious position, I start making them do their first advances and retreats, continuing the movements for as long as necessary for their perfect execution.
When the student has already gained a certain confidence in the march, I teach them the lunge, which must be performed perfectly before beginning to study the hand positions. Experience has led me to remove everything that is useless, and the only parries that I teach (in foil, of course, since it is foil, the foundation of all fencing, which I am discussing) are: third, fourth, half-circle, and second. And all with the nails up, without ever turning the hand. From the four positions I begin to make the student perform the glides, ensuring the perfect angulation, then following with the disengagements, then the counter-disengagements, the counter-disengagements with a feint, and the counter-disengagements on alternating lines. The progression is very slow, and my general rule is to not teach the student anything new if they do not perform what has been taught previously with sufficient precision.
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| The two masterpieces of Beppe Nadi, father and master: Nedo and Aldo. |
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| The students of Beppe Nadi At the school of Beppe Nadi great champions have arisen who have carried the superiority of Italian fencing around the world. Here are a few of these students: left: Bino Bini, winner of the tournaments in Prague and Ostend, Olympian in Paris and classified third (1st of the Italians) in Amsterdam; top: Gustavo Marzi, winner of the Offenbach tournament and classified fourth in Amsterdam; right: Dino Turio, winner of the junior sabre tournament in Cremona (1927); bottom: Leo Nunes, champion of the United States of America in all three weapons. |
When the student starts performing all these actions with a certain speed, I take care to teach them the marching attack, and as soon as I manage to achieve the correct advance and lunge I add to this the most elementary actions, such as, for example, the direct feint and disengagement from all four lines. Progressively, all the offensive actions of fencing will be developed and repeated stationary and marching, paying the utmost attention to aesthetics and precise execution even at the cost of having to repeat the same movement a hundred times.
All this requires eight or ten months of conscientious lessons. In the meantime, the student has already assimilated the counters which he normally practises in the lesson, until the master believes they are the point to do the exercises in front of another more advanced student. The basis of these exercises is the counters. However, I believe it is essential that the master is always present, as the slightest defect must be immediately corrected, and in general the correction is so much more costly when the defect is less recent.
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| The foil team which won first place at the Antwerp Olympics. From left to right: Abelardo Olivier, Nedo Nadi, Aldo Nadi, and Oreste Puliti, the latter also an excellent product of Beppe Nadi's school. |
After about a year of work I normally begin what I would call the second phase of teaching, and that is the 'tempo' and 'controtempo', aiming to give the student simple and clear ideas on the topic, not so much with words as with example and practise.
As the student progresses in the execution of all the movements and in their fencing reasoning, I aim to bring them up to the level of the bout almost without making them realise its novelty. At first it is a few brief phrases of a silent lesson, then a surprise when performing any action, then the freedom of choice of an action, then the true and proper spratico.
Spratico is an old word which means the bout between the master and the beginner. In fact the master must always, in my opinion, be the first to fence with the student, and not once but for three months at least, until the new combatant is moulded in their position and has reached a technical level which allows them to cross blades with another opponent. In choosing this opponent, the master must once more intervene, always giving the beginner over to a strong and correct fencer. As the student progresses, the opponent will change. By now the novice is on the right path. Without neglecting the lessons and by continuing to bout they will gradually reach that fencing strength which all those willing can aspire to. Beyond this limit is virtuosity. Tenacity and talent open doors to the chosen.
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| THE STUDENTS OF BEPPE NADI The students of Beppe Nadi are uncountable; dozens of masters produced by his school are spread across the world and an imposing group of amateurs have been triumphant on all the pistes in Europe. Here are a few of these victors. Left: Giorgio Chiavacci, mayor of Cecina, European champion, Olympian in Paris and Amsterdam. Right: Carlo Anselmi, winner of the Grand Prize in Ostende and the Karlsbad tournament. Bottom: Baldo Baldi, in the winning Olympic sabre team in Antwerp. |
So far I have spoken about foil, but I will also mention the sabre, even though the lessons are at first almost perfectly identical. The important thing in all weapons is to give the student a foundation, and only when they have achieved that can they begin specialised study in the discipline they prefer.
The sabre parries which I normally teach are: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. The student must perform the thrust from all these positions. The cut is instinctive; everyone can perform it well more or less. What is infinitely more difficult, and also more profitable, is the thrust, which must be given particular attention from the student's very first lunges.
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| Nadi and the European sabre champion Sandor Gombos after their match in Budapest, won by the Italian 14 to 7. |
The greatest difficulty in placing the thrust on target is not on the attack, but rather on the riposte. Thus the necessity of insisting on the thrust before moving on to the cuts, which the student will perform with greater precision the better they have learnt to give thrusts.
The carriage of the sabre is a thing which is not taught with words; example alone gives the student a precise idea of how the sabre must be wielded, with lightness and vigour, guided by the forearm and not the hand.
When this blade carriage has been sufficiently achieved, after the student has carried out all the offensive and defensive actions in the lesson, stationary and marching, in tempo and controtempo, in both sabre and foil, only then can they be placed in front of another student who will proceed at the same rate in the lessons. This is not yet bouting, but conventional exercises which are rather difficult and which serve brilliantly to develop the attack, strengthen the parry, and give the beginners a precise concept of what sabre fencing is.
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| 18-year-old Nedo Nadi crowned winner of the fencing Olympiad (1912) by King Gustaf of Sweden. |
For these exercises I advise placing one of the two students at the end of the piste with their left elbow in contact with the wall, the other in front of them. The latter will attack in the simplest and fastest way possible, the other will try to parry without losing their composure, and then riposte while standing firm. Naturally the students will change places often and then change exercises, always in the presence of the master, who must be continually and relentlessly strict in correcting the two students, one of whom will initially have the inevitable defect of starting out of tempo and the other will have the equally inevitable defect of parrying much wider than necessary. Through this system, with time and patience, the two beginners will soon make progress.
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| King Albert of Belgium awarding a prize to Nedo Nadi, winner of the fencing Olympiad in Antwerp (1920). |
In sabre fencing, as in foil fencing, I believe in being able to give great importance to attacking speed, and therefore I cannot stress enough the importance of making the student try to achieve as much acceleration as possible at normal measure and even at a slightly extended measure. Also in sabre the procedure of leading the novice to the bout is the same as said previously for the foil: silent lesson, surprise, spratico with the master, first bouts with stronger fencers, and finally the real thing.
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I cannot and do not wish to talk about the duelling sword [épée], because it is better if I say straight away that I do not know exactly what it is. Very rarely I have seen it done well, but unfortunately the fencers on the piste were in this case two foilists; many other times I have seen it done very poorly, and then they have told me that they were the so-called pure épéeists. If this is an evolution of fencing, I confess that I have been left behind and I hope nobody will blame me.
Instead of speaking of what I do not know (but what does it say that I count among my students more than one exceptional épéeist?), it would be better if I now give a small self-examination.
As a fencing master it would be ridiculous if I were to act modest because of my results, but if I direct this praise on myself it is also right if I tell you that on the piste I am the strictest, the most annoying, the most fastidious, the most short-tempered of teachers. I have been blamed for this and I acknowledge my fault, but if there is anyone today who appreciates my uninterrupted work for over 50 years, including Christmas day and Easter, I must also be forgiven for my bad temper, which I acknowledge and am the first to deplore. However, without this trait, Italy—I say for the first time with a certain pride—would certainly have had fewer fencers.
Fencing has given me as much deep satisfaction as an art can give to an artist. In this city of Livorno, which I have been in love with since my childhood, every drop of my sweat has made a fencer blossom. My students have spread throughout the world and now that I am old, but thanks to God still strong and thriving, I continue always without even thinking that one day, alas, I will inevitably be interrupted.
This thought is sad enough to hold back my pen, but even when I will be forced to abandon the piste, the memories will give my mind the same joy which my industrious life has given. And my masterpieces—Nedo and Aldo—will even smile at my fatal passing.
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