Singlestick
English wooden-stick fighting with a basket guarding the hand. In the 19th century a training substitute for the sabre, at country fairs fought until blood ran from the head.
Quick Facts
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Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Singlestick
Singlestick is English fighting with a wooden stick with a basket guarding the hand. Victorian authors related it to the sabre. J. M. Waite wrote around 1880 that the stick is only a substitute for the sabre and is used in exactly the same way, and C. Phillipps-Wolley wrote in 1890 that singlestick is to the sabre what the foil is to the rapier. Green (Martial Arts of the World, 2001) states that the cudgel or singlestick was originally used to train soldiers in sword fighting and later became an art in its own right. At country fairs, games were played that Allanson-Winn calls cudgel-play and Hughes back-swording. Allanson-Winn (1890) writes that the aim was to break the opponent's skin on the head or forehead so that blood flowed, and whoever first drew blood won. Thomas Hughes in the novel Tom Brown's School Days describes that a player lost as soon as blood ran an inch anywhere above the eyebrows. In the 19th century singlestick was practised and competed in at London fencing schools. At the Olympic Games in St. Louis in 1904 a singlestick competition was held with three participants from the United States, and it was not repeated at any other Games. Green states that singlestick was played in English private schools until the thirties of the 20th century and that attempts to revive it continue.
History
Green states that the cudgel or singlestick originally served to train soldiers in sword fighting, later became an art in its own right, and was played at colleges, schools and county fairs. The English Wikipedia names as the original form of singlestick the waster, a wooden sword for practising backsword in the 16th century, and states that under George I and George II the game with sticks under the names cudgel-play and singlesticking was enormously popular.
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Thomas Hughes in the novel Tom Brown's School Days depicts back-swording as a game that came once a year in every village at the festival. His character Benjy, according to the novel, won his reputation with a pair of heavy sticks against picked men from Wiltshire and Somersetshire. Hughes himself writes that the game had recently sadly died out even in the Vale of White Horse. In the 19th century singlestick was taught at London fencing schools. J. M. Waite, a professor of fencing and former member of the 2nd Life Guards regiment, published around 1880 the manual Lessons in Sabre, Singlestick, Sabre and Bayonet, and Sword Feats. The book Broad-sword and Single-stick (1890), authored by Allanson-Winn and C. Phillipps-Wolley, has a chapter on singlestick written by Phillipps-Wolley of the fencing school Inns of Court School of Arms. In it Phillipps-Wolley stated that in England there are several separate schools of singlestick, differing only in the rules about where one may strike, and that in his view the English navy also has its own school.
How it differs
Allanson-Winn defines a cudgel as any stout stick shorter than two feet, such as a watchman's staff or a police truncheon, and devotes a separate chapter to it. Hughes describes the weapon for back-sword as a sturdy ash stick with a large basket, heavier and somewhat shorter than an ordinary singlestick. The sources relate singlestick to weapons differently. Green gives training for backsword as its original purpose, while Waite and Phillipps-Wolley relate it to the sabre. Waite writes that the stick is merely a substitute for the sabre and is used in exactly the same way, so everything that holds for sabre fencing holds for singlestick too.
Technique
Phillipps-Wolley recommended ash rods about forty inches long and thumb-thick, free of knots and unpeeled, soaked in a trough of water to last. The fingers, according to him, were always protected by a basket of wicker or buffalo leather, the leather being incomparably better because wicker chafes the knuckles. Green describes the players' stick as ash, about a yard long and as thick as a middle finger, with a basket called a pot, of wicker or leather. The left hand did not take part in the game. In guard Phillipps-Wolley put the left hand behind the back and advised beginners to tuck its fingers into the belt. Green states that the left hand was tied up in various ways according to local rules so that it could not be used unfairly. Hughes describes that the player passed the fingers of the left hand through a handkerchief or strap fastened around the left leg, so that the raised left elbow covered the left side of the head, and with the right hand held the stick across over and in front of the head. Phillipps-Wolley writes that singlestick combines both ways of fencing, the tip and the edge.
Training
Phillipps-Wolley listed the equipment of his day: a wire helmet with a buffalo-leather top and padded ear guards, a sturdy leather jerkin, a leather apron from the waist almost to the knees, and a flexible ring or glove on the wrist. The whole outfit cost a little more than a five-pound note. The old English players, according to him, used no padding or masks and covered the head with a raised elbow.
Competition
Allanson-Winn writes that cudgel-play was in many parts of England one of the main attractions of country fairs and was played on a raised stage. The aim was to break the opponent's skin on the head or forehead so that blood flowed, and whoever first drew blood won. He himself admits that he never saw such a match. Green states that under some rules the fight went on until blood ran from one of the players' heads an inch above the eyes. Waite lists cups of the London Athletic Club for singlestick won by his pupils in 1877 and 1878, and a prize of the German Gymnastic Society for singlestick from 1878. At the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis an individual singlestick competition was held on 8 September in the gymnasium of Washington University. Three men from the United States took part. The official report of the Games in Spalding's Official Athletic Almanac (1905) gives the order A. V. Z. Post, Wm. Grebe and W. Scott O'Connor, while Olympedia has second and third place in the opposite order.
Today
Green states that singlestick was taught in the army and the police, was played in English private schools until the thirties of the 20th century, and that attempts to revive it with padded jackets and fencing masks continue. The English Wikipedia writes that singlestick competitions in the British armed forces ended in the fifties of the 20th century and that the Royal Navy revived singlestick in the eighties of the 20th century. According to it, the rules that limit hits to the upper body apart from the back of the neck and to the upper front part of the leg are used today by the Association for Historical Fencing.
Did you know
Green notes that the literary characters Sherlock Holmes and Tom Brown also excelled at singlestick. Olympedia describes singlestick fencing as similar to sabre fencing, only with a wooden stick instead of a metal blade, and states that sailors learned sabre fencing with singlesticks. According to the English Wikipedia, more recent research found that the Olympic competition of 1904 was most likely a walking-stick fight, because singlestick was at that time a collective term in American newspapers.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the singlestick have a basket?
The basket protected the fingers. C. Phillipps-Wolley wrote in 1890 that it was made of wicker or of buffalo hide and that hide is incomparably better, because a wicker basket scrapes the knuckles.
Was singlestick an Olympic sport?
Once, at the Games in St. Louis in 1904. Three men from the United States took part in the individual competition, and A. V. Z. Post won. Singlestick was not held at any other Games.
How was cudgel-play won at fairs?
Allanson-Winn (1890) writes that the aim was to break the opponent's skin on the head or forehead so that blood flowed, and whoever first drew blood won. Thomas Hughes describes that a player lost as soon as blood ran down an inch above his eyebrow.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.