(a.) The stick is very light, and short smart hits can be made, which are impossible with a sword.
(b.) The hit with the stick is really a hit, and there need be no draw, which, as already explained, is so important in sword-play.
To these may be added a third reason. With the stick there is always the temptation not to cut with the true edge, and it is very hard to detect faults in this direction—faults which are hard to cure, and which may quite spoil good swordsmanship.
Remembering, then, that every cut and guard must be made with the true edge, and with the second or middle knuckles of the fingers in the direction of the edge, a navy cutlass may be placed in the beginner’s hand, and he may be gradually taught all the cuts and guards by means of the target, a sketch of which is here given.
Fig. 20.—The target.
In the manual on sword-exercises at present in use in the army, it is stated that there are “four cuts and four guards, so arranged for the sake of clearness, though practically there are only two cuts—from right to left and from left to right, high and low—and two guards, one a variation of the ‘hanging’ or ‘engaging guard,’ formed high or low, right or left, according to the part attacked, and the other the ‘second guard,’ where the point of the sword is necessarily directed upwards, to guard the right cheek and shoulder.”
This is very brief, and, to my mind, the effort to be concise has tended to somewhat confuse. It may, however, be well enough for the army, where there are plenty of instructors ready to explain the meanings of terms, etc. For ordinary beginners it is certainly better to take the old target and thoroughly master the seven cuts and three points, with the corresponding guards and parries, as by so doing the learner will more readily acquire a thorough appreciation of true edge-cutting. The general statement that there are two cuts—viz. variations from right to left, and variations from left to right—is correct enough, and a swordsman understands it; but it is bad for beginners to start with loose notions on the subject. Better far learn all the cuts, and learn them well, in the first instance. By this means a man and his sword become one, as it were, and the point and edge of the weapon are in time brought so completely under control that they can be directed as easily as the pencil and brush are directed by the hand of a skilful draughtsman.
As the reader will have surmised, the lines drawn through the centre of the circle indicate the directions of the cuts; but a little further explanation is necessary, for it must not be supposed that a mere following of these lines with the point of the sword is all that is required. The flat of the blade (or, more accurately, a plane passing through the edge and a line drawn down the centre of the back of the blade from hilt to point) should, throughout the entire cut, coincide with the plane intersecting the plane of the target at right angles in the particular line in which the cut is being made.