A.A. Podberezhnaya¹
Dr.Sc.Phil. S.B. Kulikov^1
1Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk

Keywords: artistic fencing, aesthetics, sport psychology, sport, ancient heritage.

Background. The Federal Physical Culture and Sports Agency Order #40 of 01.02.2008 ranked artistic fencing with the special competitive sport disciplines with cold steels and their analogues applied and competitive process designed as team competitions where the teams compete in stage (single, dual or collective) bouts assessed by referees and spectators. Special priority in this context in the training process needs to be given to the athletic training systems driven by the bout visualizing tools applied in the modern cinematography.

It should also be noted that influences of ancient fighting standards on the modern fencing styles should not be underestimated since it was in the ancient times that the basic standards of fencing techniques were formed and, what is even more important, the classical bout perception basics were developed. Gladiator fights may be interpreted as a climax point in the fencing art development process. In this context, different versions of cinematographic interpretations of the ancient fencing styles may be applied to advance the modern artistic fencing training systems.

As far as the artistic fencing training systems are concerned, modern research literature makes a special emphasis on the weapons development history [3; 6]; weapons application in different historical epochs [4; 5]; and the symbolic aspects of weaponry in societies and cultures [1; 2]. It is evident enough that such conceptions are unlikely to provide a basis for special practical training methods being developed and applied in modern artistic fencing with a special emphasis on the competitive training aspects. Therefore, we initiated a special study to find and offer such practical methods.

Methods and structure of the study. The study methodology included a comparative analysis as a tool to rate the existing artistic fencing training methods. Generally we proceeded from the hypothesis that the bouts staging process is driven by the logics and interpretations of the modern cinematography. The study was designed to verify the above hypothesis and analyse the relevant athletic training conceptions with due focus on the ancient/ classical fight control styles as visualised in the modern cinematographic industry. We specified the core trends in the cinematographic interpretations of the ancient fencing styles to formulate a few practical recommendations on how the artistic fencers’ training process may be improved.

Study results and discussion. In the study we identified and assessed impacts of the relevant ancient ideas on the evolution of the artistic fencing systems and applied the findings for improvement of the training models. Interpretations of the ancient fencing styles by the modern cinematographic industry demonstrate the above influences in the most expressed manner. We would emphasise the following key versions of interpretations of the ancient fencing styles in the modern cinematographic industry:

• Demythologization of the ancient heritage; and
• Glorification of the modern styles in the context of the Ancient Greek myths and their interpretations.

It was found that the above approaches are fraught with different distortions in interpretations of the historical events and the relevant fencing models. A critical analysis may help screen out the distortions in the ancient fencing style interpretations to come to the genuine models of the bouts. It was further found that quite typical examples of the above trends are given in the recent films “Hercules” (2014) directed by Brett Ratner and “Clash of Titans” (2010) directed by Louis Leterrier.

The core idea of the “Hercules” film in the context of the fencing bout logics may be interpreted as the desacralization of the hero’s image. As far as the modern fencing styles are concerned, a fighter may be also considered as an ordinary individual who faces an extraordinary situation as dictated by the scripted life situation. It should be noted that cinematography in the film shows a conflict of the “true life” on the one hand with its heroic and treacherous aspects and unemotional behaviour of Hercules on the other hand. Therefore, as offered by the study, a fencer’s training system design may be driven by the image of a severe warrior who is largely drained by battles and tries to avoid them. A special emphasis in this context needs to be made on the fact that the warrior considers bout as a clash of the most successful fighting techniques rather than spectacular albeit less efficient actions.

At the next stage of the study we demonstrated that the “Clash of Titans” film of 2010 directed by Louis Leterrier tends to visualise the bouts giving a top priority to glorification and archaic character of the filmed events. We believe that such a glorification trend must be taken into account in the modern artistic fencers’ training systems; with this conception being particularly important in the stage bouts of fictitious or even fantastic characters.

We offered the following grounds to substantiate the above idea:

1. A special emphasis in the visualising approaches in “Clash of Titans” is made on the ancient myths and poetry as still highly relevant for and perceivable by the modern audience, with the chain of ancient mythical events authentically visualised to involve the audience in the actions of mythological characters including titans, gods and heroes. Presentation of events in the context of the archaic tradition was used to challenge modern rationality. This toolkit made it possible to demonstrate the relevance of the archaic ideas to generalise them as eternal, with the ideas being intentionally severed from the real history of the ancient world.

2. The archaic context in the chain of events visualising concept gave the means to inspire the fencing bouts with the relevant senses and values close to those prioritised in the ancient theatrical art on the whole and tragedy in particular. As far as modern artistic fencing is concerned, we underlined the finding that a tragic emphasis in an artistic fencing bout helps engage fighters, spectators and referees in the staged historical context. It should be noted that actually the story may be fictitious or mythical; albeit the fighters and spectators, being engaged in the process, tend to leave the fictitious nature of the event beyond own consciousness to a degree.

The study found that practical benefits of the above-specified approaches may be attained in the context of the “Clash of Titans” script lines being interpreted as follows:

First, the study showed that the actual script lines of “Clash of Titans” are different from the genuine traditional narrative as reported in the historical research materials. Nevertheless, we believe that the modern interpretation of the ancient myth by the scriptwriter and film director helped incarnate the archaic traditions as presented by the verbal legends of Ancient Greece. The canonical forms of traditions as provided by Homeros and Hesiodos were applied in different versions of the verbal legends popular in different parts of the ancient world. The “Clash of Titans” film is designed so that the spectator must either accept the story on the whole – and become an active participant in the events, or reject it immediately and, hence, criticise and oppose them. The study found that the same applies to modern artistic fencing bouts as conflicts of fictitious characters, with the spectators optionally acting as parties to the mythical event fully accepting the mythological history, and referees acting as critics considering the weak and strong sides of the same myth.

Second, the study gave the grounds to believe that the inconsistencies in behavioural patterns, weaponry and fighting techniques of the warriors in “Clash of Titans” are not that important to prevent the film from being used for the modern artistic fencer’s training purposes. In the film designed for a mass audience the actual battles were naturally staged in an adapted manner to ensure due response from the spectator having no special background and driven only by the common experience in the individual perception of fencing bouts; otherwise the spectator’s emotional responses to the uncommon events and situations could be different.

Having discussed the study data and findings, we concluded that the modern artistic fencing art on the whole is presently different from the bout visualising ideas presented in the “Clash of Titans” film. Thus, spectators at the IX Russian Artistic Fencing Championship (of November 26-27, 2016, Saint Petersburg) were mostly knowledgeable in the stage bouts since the audience was dominated by former competitors and insiders in the sport. However, the spectators were still involved as participants to the staged conflicts and, consequently, the precious experience of fencing art visualising by the glorifying aspects of the cinematographic art should be taken into consideration in the modern artistic fencers’ training system designs.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses provided substantiations for the following practical recommendations on how the artistic fencers’ training systems may be improved:

First, importance of the ancient heritage needs to be acknowledged, duly visualised in the modern cinematographic industry and used as a practical concept in precompetitive training process.

Second, it is important to bear in mind that the fencing bout visualising tools applied in the modern cinematographic industry are generally driven by two trends, namely the de-mythologization and glorification ones. In case of the first trend, the fighter must give the top priority to the spectacular aspects of the bout at sacrifice of efficiency of the actions. In case of the second trend, a special emphasis must be made on the spectators being engaged in the historical context staged in the competitive bout. Ideally, the bout may evoke positive emotional responses in both spectators and referees, with the competitors’ performance being highly rated irrespective or how technically perfect it is, and the competitors may be more successful than their opponents.

References

1. Kulikov S.B., Podberezhnaya A.A. Kulturno-istoricheskoe vremya i vizualizatsiya fekhtovalnogo poedinka v teatre i kinematografe [Cultural-historical time and visualization of fencing duel in theater and cinematography]. Vestnik Severnogo (Arkticheskogo) federalnogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsialnye nauki, 2016, no. 4, pp. 72-82. DOI 10.17238/issn2227-6564.2016.4.72
2. Kulikov S.B. Teoreticheskie osnovaniya modelirovaniya kultury poedinka v artisticheskom fekhtovanii [Artistic fencing bout culture modelling: theoretical basics]. Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury, 2016, no. 7, pp. 55-57.
3. Amberger J.Ch. The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts. Burbank, CA: Multi-Media Books, 1999, 294 p.
4. Clephan R.C. The Medieval Tournament. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1995, 240 p.
5. Oakeshott E.A. Knight and His Armor. Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Editions, 1999, 128 p.
6. Tylecote R.F. A History of Metallurgy. 2nd ed. London: Institute of Materials, 2002, 219 p.

Corresponding author: young_be@sibmail.com; kulikovsb@tspu.edu.ru

Abstract

The study analyses the modern artistic fencing training system designed with a special priority given to the ancient bout visualizing tools applied in the modern cinematography. Artistic fencing means the fencing sport discipline with cold steels and their analogues applied and the competitive process designed as team competitions where the teams compete in stage (single, dual or collective) bouts assessed by referees and spectators. Special priority in this context in the training process is given both to the physical fitness and performance technique excelling aspects and the artistic taste development ones. Cinematography plays a special role in the modern artistic taste development process, with the appreciation of the base ideas of fencing art being largely driven by the ancient duel models. Due knowledge of and skills in the ancient fencing models help develop an aesthetic base for the modern artistic fencing training systems.