When I was young, I did not have access to a community of experienced historical sword fighters to teach me the lost historical arts of the sword. I did not have much money either.
There are a couple of things I wish I could tell the younger version of myself. Meyer’s dusack teachings and the concept of the dusack as a training tool would have ranked very high. In fact, if you only gave me 30 seconds to visit myself in the past, I would hand myself Meyer’s 1570 dusack book and say “cut you one of these out of board and do what this book tells you. Oh, and buy a used fencing mask and lacrosse gloves.”
I would want to teach myself longsword too, but that would take a lot longer than 30 seconds! The point here is that there is just something so accessible about Meyer’s dusack. You can eyeball it from the pictures, sketch it on a board, and literally just cut one out and start doing the guards and drills Meyer teaches in the starting chapters.
I have often wondered how historical fencing communities studied sword combat safely without all the plastic crap that we have today. Meyer’s use of the dusack seems to be part of the answer. The dusack is purely a training tool with application to “all one-handed swords”. It can be constructed in a way that permits relatively safe and controlled freeplay to be possible. It is an economical thing to make and it seems to be a really good historical starting place.
15 years ago when I first saw people training with the dusack I remember dismissing it. It took me a while to understand it and learn things I wish I had learned long ago. I can’t go back in time and slap myself and tell myself to notice Meyer’s dusack. But I would be happy to do that to anyone else out there who needs such a slap.