La Verdadera Destreza
The Spanish school of rapier fencing, founded in 1582 by Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza. The fencer stands upright and moves along an imaginary circle.
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About La Verdadera Destreza
La Verdadera Destreza, literally the true skill, is the Spanish school of rapier fencing founded in 1582 by Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza with his treatise On the Philosophy of Arms and developed by Luis Pacheco de Narváez. It differs from Italian fencing from the stance onward. The fencer stands upright, the body not turned into profile, the arm extended and the point at the opponent. It does not look combative, but it is a calculation — from such a stance the weapon is furthest forward and the body behind it. At its core is the so-called mysterious circle. A circle is imagined between the two fencers whose diameter is the distance between them, and one moves along its chords and diameters instead of lunging straight. This changes the angle before the opponent can react. With it goes the atajo, controlling the opponent's blade by angle and leverage rather than force. What matters is how the authors understood themselves. Destreza is not a knack picked up in fighting but a science derived from Euclid and Aristotle; the manuals work with geometric proofs. Against it, ordinary fencing is labelled destreza vulgar, common skill. The school spread through the Spanish possessions and survived into the 18th century. Today it is reconstructed from period treatises within historical European martial arts.
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