In the framework of expedition on Tenerife island (Spain) of Expeditionary Corpus lead by scientist and Grand Maestro Oleg Maltsev, there was a free training lesson with Maestro Anatael Palmero Ramos, the head of ancient chivalric martial arts school “Achinech” on Canary Islands, especially for the “Lies and Truth about martial arts” project.
The main theme of this training lesson was working with Spanish stick tolete, the weapon that is used in Spanish fencing. This training lesson involved different types of elements of working with tolete: work with both ends of a stick, “shield”, “topy”, strikes with “punta” (that is the end of a stick) and others.
Maestro Palmero Ramos explained different types of strikes combinations, opportunity to combine these strikes in the training of technical elements, and constant change from one strike to another. The damage area can include head, shoulders, body, legs, both separately and during combination of strikes. The strike can be delivered at one stage (attack), with two stages (first parrying and then an attack), three stages (parrying, transitional movement and then an attack) and with many stages (after parrying one can delivers different types
of strikes depending on what is the purpose of fighting an opponent). The trajectory of strikes can be from the bottom upwards, from top downwards, from the left to the right, from the right to the left, from the top downwards diagonally, from the bottom upwards diagonally, and in the form of a loop.
Maestro Palmero Ramos has also demonstrated how to hold a tolete in a right way, variations of changing a grip of weapon and shifting the weapon from one hand to another while striking.
Tolete is a dangerous weapon, work which requires discipline and carrying usage because the strike of tolete can badly injure a person. It is very important to remember this while training with this type of stick.
Obviously, we can talk about tolete technique for a very long time but it is not enough, practice is the main thing in working with this unusual type of weapon in Spanish fencing.
For now, we are glad to present you the training video lesson of working with tolete.
