Singlestick
The English fight with a wooden stick fitted with a wicker basket at the grip. It arose not as an art in its own right but as a safe substitute for the military backsword.
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About Singlestick
Singlestick is the English fight with a wooden stick fitted with a wicker basket at the grip. It did not arise as an art in its own right but as a safe substitute for the backsword — the single-edged military sword, whose fencing could not otherwise be practised without crippling injury. Its form follows from that. The stick is about ninety centimetres long, the basket protects the hand, and the left arm was often strapped to the hip so the fencer would not use it and would hold the posture a shieldless weapon demands. At country fairs in 18th- and 19th-century England, above all in Wiltshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire, singlestick was a popular pastime known as cudgel play. Rules varied, but the classic condition of victory was harsh: to break the opponent's head, that is, to draw a bleeding cut an inch above the eyebrow. Men fought for prizes at markets, and it stood closer to a fairground brawl than to sport. In the 19th century singlestick moved into gymnasia and military training as an exercise in swordsmanship and endurance. It was even once an Olympic event — at the St. Louis games of 1904, and never again. Today it is returning through the historical European martial arts movement, which works from period manuals.
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