Swiss guard fencing

[Jay Vail]

This from Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351640,00.html about the Swiss Guards:

"Carrying on tradition, the selected recruits train to handle swords and the Guard's trademark weapon: a combination spear and battle-axe known as the halberd."

[Jaron Bernstein]

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/swiss_guard/index.htm

I wonder if they actually train to fight with the tools or if it is just ceremonial stuff like US military rifle and sword drill?

[Cheston_Keck]

They are fully trained to use both the Halberd and the sword. They learn it during the time that they spend training at the Vatican, and the ones that they carry during guard duty are real. Don't ask me what style they use, I have no clue. But they are proficient with modern small arms also, and depending where they are stationed depends on how close they have them.

[Jay Vail]

That the Guards continue to train in sword and halberd raises the question of whether this is a training program they have had in place since 1506? That would make it the only continuous, living European sword tradition. An interesting thought, no?

[Jaron Bernstein]

They are fully trained to use both the Halberd and the sword. They learn it during the time that they spend training at the Vatican, and the ones that they carry during guard duty are real. Don't ask me what style they use, I have no clue. But they are proficient with modern small arms also, and depending where they are stationed depends on how close they have them.

Wouldn't that be a sweet job? Official halberd and sword instructor for a government.

[Cheston_Keck]

They are fully trained to use both the Halberd and the sword. They learn it during the time that they spend training at the Vatican, and the ones that they carry during guard duty are real. Don't ask me what style they use, I have no clue. But they are proficient with modern small arms also, and depending where they are stationed depends on how close they have them.

Wouldn't that be a sweet job? Official halberd and sword instructor for a government.

That would be, most of here are from the wrong country though.
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[Mike Cartier]

I knew a fellow who was a member of the popes bodyguard
he never mentioned any weapons rtaining to me but firearms.
He told me they did jiujitsu and the like though.

i never grilled him specifically on the other weapons they might have used though so he might have never used it.

i would doubt it personally for 2 reasons.

1. it would be time spent training in long dead weapons that could be used on more immediatly utilitarian skils

2. actually using a halberd to stop a papal assaniation would be a rather nasty messy business that would make headlines. i can just see it now
"papal assasin beheaded in front of school children" or "papal assasin's head split like ripe watermelon as tourists look on"

I'll bet the training they do with the halberd is more geared towards its ceremonial use rather than its combative use.

[Mark Driggs]

Mike,
Was the former Papal bodyguard from Switzerland? As I recall, the prerequisites to joing the Papal guard were being Catholic, Swiss, Male, single and within a certain age group. Oh and being someone of outstanding character.

I think the extent of their halberd use is ceremonial, similar to sword carrying in the Marines and other military divisions nowadays.

[Corey Roberts]

I wonder if there is some sort of Public Relations contact for the Swiss Guards that could give more information on the nature of their archaic weapons training? It would be utterly amazing if the Swiss Guard had maintained a constant tradition that could be traced back to the past, although highly unlikely.

[Jaron Bernstein]

I wonder if there is some sort of Public Relations contact for the Swiss Guards that could give more information on the nature of their archaic weapons training? It would be utterly amazing if the Swiss Guard had maintained a constant tradition that could be traced back to the past, although highly unlikely.

I think the link I cited above has contact information for them if you want to ask....

[Stacy Clifford]

The contact page there has a link to the Swiss Guard's own website:

http://www.schweizergarde.org/

Interestingly if you look in the photo gallery, some of them carry more than just halberds:

http://www.schweizergarde.org/cfm/popup_quer.cfm?id=132
Caption: noncommisioned officer with schlagschwert

http://www.schweizergarde.org/cfm/popup_quer.cfm?id=169

http://www.schweizergarde.org/cfm/popup_quer.cfm?id=135

Wonder who makes their weapons?

[Derek Gulas]

Well, I wrote them an e-mail last week and they never responded to me. I guess they're too busy defending the Pope :p

[David E K Frischkorn III]

maybe in arma we should integrate modern weapons and be more like the swiss guard.

We could probably learn allot from the swiss guard.

[Jaron Bernstein]

maybe in arma we should integrate modern weapons and be more like the swiss guard.

We could probably learn allot from the swiss guard.

Modern WMA does exist. It is called an aircraft carrier and an infantry division. ARMA is trying to revive a craft that went away precisely because of, "the ignoble gun". Even in the period we study, there was a dialectic between tools of offense and defense. A sword fight in 1300 looked radically different than one in 1600 in terms of weapons and equipment.

[Gene Tausk]

maybe in arma we should integrate modern weapons and be more like the swiss guard.

We could probably learn allot from the swiss guard.

Yeah, right. There is plenty of discussion of modern weapons such as TEC-9's, AK-47's, Uzi urban combat submachine guns and RPG's in the Medieval and Renaissance fechtbuchs we are trying to study and interpret.

The function of the Swiss Guard is to protect the Pope and other high-ranking Vatican officials. To this effect, the SG studies and trains in bodyguarding techniques, CQB skills, urban combat and modern weapons. The function of ARMA is to ressurect the fighting skills of our Medieval and Renaissance ancestors by studying the fechtbuchen. Our paths do not exactly cross.