Technical Groupings

[S2H 12]–[S2H 25] (longsword); with the point-in-line rule at [S2H 1].

each guard is a sword-and-body configuration defined by point height, edge orientation, and weight; guards resembling one another are mutually counters, and guards "play one against another" according to how they are posted.

pulsative guards initiate blows; stable guards await and receive; unstable guards threaten by what they transform into (a thrust, a cover, a pass).

the three-way class (pulsativa / stabile / instabile), plus the point-in-line exception — Long Guard, Short Guard, Middle Iron Gate — where "point against point, the longer one makes its offense first" ([S2H 1]).

[S2H 8]–[S2H 11]; the seven-blow emblem at [Preface, "Seven Swords"]; dagger blows [Dagger 9]–[Dagger 12].

three cutting pairs organized by path — descending (crown to knee), rising (knee to crown, same line reversed), middle (horizontal, across) — plus the thrust up the centre. Edge is assigned by side: the mezano uses the true edge from the forehand, the false edge from the backhand.

fendenti break low guards and return "stride to stride"; sottani strike the hands and arms on the way up; mezani beat thrusts aside and redouble; the thrust runs the centre-line and dominates in armor.

a closed, symmetrical system — every line has its up, down, and across; every cut has a forehand and backhand form; the thrust is counted in five lines (two high, two low, one central).

wide-play crossings [S2H 27] (at the point) and [S2H 29] (at the middle); the close-play crossing [S2H 49]; the whole run [S2H 26]–[S2H 79].

the blades meet, and the Master names where along them the meeting happens. The wide play's two Masters cross at different places: [S2H 27] "at the point of the sword" (in punta de spada), [S2H 29] "at the middle of the sword" (a meza spada). From each, the Master turns, runs the sword over the hands, strikes, or thrusts.

from the wide-play crossings — exchange of thrusts, breaking of the thrust, false thrust, strikes to the openings; from the close-play crossing — binds, pommel-strikes, grapples, takings.

the crossing is the decision point from which a Master's family of plays issues.

[S2H 75] (high, soprano), [S2H 77] (middle, mezano), [S2H 78] (low, sottano), [S2H 79] (round-turn taking); counter [S2H 68]; cross-weapon at [Sword1H 10], [Mounted 18]–[Mounted 19], [Axe 12].

from a close crossing, the opponent's blade is seized and levered against the weak of his grip or the line of his wrist, and stripped away — the direction (over the top, across the middle, under) set by how the arms lie.

to end the exchange by removing the weapon, usually into a strike or a throw with the taken sword ([S2H 56]–[S2H 57], striking with his own sword).

three levels (high/middle/low) deliberately paralleling the three locks — the same lever applied to steel instead of to the arm — plus one universal counter that "breaks every sword-taking" by seizing the hilt first ([S2H 68]).

upper [Dagger 58]/[Dagger 85], middle [Dagger 19] (reference), lower/strong key [Dagger 54]/[Dagger 76]; imported at [S2H 64], [Sword1H 8], [Axe 11].

the opponent's arm is folded and shut against its own joint so it cannot straighten or withdraw; from the shut position come break, dislocation, disarm, or throw. The level (upper/middle/lower) names where across the body the arm is bound.

the finisher of the close and grappling games; also a holding position from which to strike a still target.

three named, fixed levels, each with a canonical reference play the rest of the book cites — above all the middle lock at [Dagger 19] ("the third play of the First Dagger Remedy Master"), named from the longsword and elsewhere.

[Grappling 1]–[Grappling 11] (the four guard-Masters and the plays/counters); dagger throws and ground-dislocations [Dagger 48]–[Dagger 50]; mounted grappling [Mounted 24]–[Mounted 29].

win a hold with advantage (presa avantazada), break the opponent's structure at balance and lever points, and put him down — with a break (rotura), a dislocation (dislogadura), or a throw. Thumb-to-pressure-point and elbow-turn recur ([Grappling 12/16] cited as thumb under the ear / into the eyes).

the base layer under every weapon; the destination when a weapon exchange collapses to contact.

advantage-first — "the holds are not gained if they are not with advantage" ([Grappling 1]) — and the reuse of the same balance-break and arm-lever mechanics with a weapon in hand.

defined at [S2H 1]; visible in nearly every play as the step-plus-turn that carries the action.

three turns of the body/sword — stable turn (in place, front and rear on one side), half turn (one step to change side), full turn (circling one foot about the other) — combined with the four steps: passare, tornare, acrescere, discrescere.

the pass (passare) drives most offensive entries; the full turn (tutta volta) powers the round-turn takings and the grappling throws; the stable/half turns manage line and side without over-committing.

an explicitly enumerated, closed footwork/turn vocabulary — "three movements of the sword" and "four things in the art" ([S2H 1]) — that Fiore treats as the atoms every play is built from.

[S2H 5] (half-sword introduced in armor); [SwordArmor 1]–[SwordArmor 3] (thrust-first armored guards); [Axe 7]–[Axe 17] (beats, disarms, visor-work, powder).

the cut is devalued; the half-sword grip (left hand at mid-blade) turns the sword into a short, precise thrusting and levering tool; targets shift to the gaps and the visor; the pommel and cross become strikers; disarms and locks rise.

control the opponent's weapon, open or remove the visor, and thrust into a gap — or lock/throw him where a thrust can reach.

half-swording, thrust-to-gap, pommel/cross strikes, visor manipulation ([Axe 10], lifting the visor), and — uniquely — the powder-filled axe and its recipe ([Axe 16]–[Axe 17]), a chemical adjunct rather than a mechanical one.

the citations that stitch the sections together — [Baton 3]–[Baton 4] ("from the Sixth / Eighth King of the dagger"), [S2H 69] ("from the First Dagger Remedy Master"), [S2H 64] (the dagger's middle lock in the sword), [Sword1H 8] (middle lock / under-hilt disarm), [Axe 11] (the strong lower lock), the spear Masters in the longsword guards [Spear 2]–[Spear 9].

one lever (the arm/blade folded against its joint or weak), one cover-and-strike tempo, one set of turns and steps, one family of locks and takings — instantiated with whatever is in the hand.

the book proves the unity by explicit citation across weapons, not merely by resemblance: the baton names the dagger's Kings, the sword names the dagger's Master and lock, the spear and axe name the sword's guards.

mechanically, learning Fiore is learning this substrate once — the guards, the six blows, the crossing rule, the three turns and four steps, the three locks and three takings — and then recognizing it, lightly re-specialized, in every section. This is the mechanical counterpart to the tactical one-art thesis in Tactical grouping §11 and the pedagogy in fiore - system.