Forrest’s Reviews > Iberian Swordplay: Domingo Luis Godinho's Art of Fencing > Status Update

I always wondered why those beefcake sword and sorcery covers had the hero standing and a woman kneeling or sitting at his feet. Turns out this was how people were trained to defend a woman from a crowd (royal bodyguards and such). When surrounded, you have to swing in wide arcs. If she's standing behind or beside you . . . well, it's bad optics to accidentally decapitate the person you're trying to protect.

Part Two: Sword and Shield, can be summarized: protect your hand, slash at your opponent's legs or stab him in the belly, and whatever you do, do it really, really quickly, like a snapping turtle.

Okay, now we get to the more interesting stuff: sword and shield, sword and buckler, sword and dagger (my favorite), sword and cloak, and two swords (where one learns how to clear a street - yes, that's in there).

Time to get serious about making my way through this, rather than picking at it for two pages every couple of weeks. It's a slow read (it's a step-by-step instruction manual, at it's heart), but I need to be reading this more often, and hence more fluidly, to integrate what I'm learning. I can come back and practice individual moves later on.