Singlestick was an event at the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the sport was already in decline. Again recent investigation found that most likely singlestick was not present at the 1904 Olympics, but rather a form of cane fighting. Singlestick was very seldom taught in late 19th century United States until it was introduced for a short while in Annapolis, and most of the competitors came from academies where singlestick was unknown but French cane was taught. The use of the term "singlestick" in contemporary newspapers explains the confusion as it was an umbrella term at the time to refer to combat sports and games using a stick such as singlestick, cane, quarterstaff or even kendo.
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The men's singlestick was a singlestick event held as part of the fencing at the 1904 Summer Olympics programme. It was the only time the event was held at the Olympics. Three fencers competed. The competition was held on Thursday, September 8, 1904.
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Singlestick is a martial art that uses a wooden stick as its weapon. It began as a way of training soldiers in the use of backswords (such as the sabre or the cutlass). Canne de combat, a French form of stick fighting, is similar to singlestick play, which also includes a self-defense variant with a walking stick.
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The martial art of singlestick is more or less entirely derived from the use of wasters as practice weapons in place of broadswords.
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By the first quarter of the 17th century wasters had become simple clubs known as cudgels with the addition of a sword guard. When the basket hilt came into general use about twenty five years later, a wicker one was added to the singlestick, replacing the heavy metal hilt of the backsword. The guards, cuts and parries in singlestick play were at first identical with those of backsword play, no thrusts being allowed.
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With the introduction of the light Italian fencing sabre in the early 20th century, singlestick play became unnecessary and was subsequently neglected. In the UK, Singlestick competition ceased in the Services in the 1950s, although the skills continue to be passed down from one generation of fencing Professor to the next. The singlestick of the British Armed Services of the Great War period was passed to Scotland's National Fencing Coach in the mid-1960s, and thence passed on to the founders of many HEMA groups in the UK. Stickplay with wooden swords as a school for the cutlass remained common in some navies. The art, occasionally practised by a few fencing veterans in the United Kingdom, was revived by the Royal Navy in the 1980s.
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William Scott O'Connor (May 23, 1864 - January 16, 1939) was an American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal in the singlestick competition. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died in Manhattan.
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The singlestick itself is a slender, round wooden rod, traditionally of ash, with a basket hilt. Singlesticks are typically around in length, and in diameter , and thicker at one end than the other, used as a weapon of attack and defence, the thicker end being thrust through a cup- shaped hilt of basket-work to protect the hand. It bears approximately the same to the backsword as the foil to the small sword in being a sporting version of the weapon for safe practice. The original form of the singlestick was the waster, which appeared in the 16th century and was merely a wooden sword used in practice for the backsword, and of the same general shape.
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Styles of stick fighting include walking-stick fighting (including Irish bata or shillelagh, French la canne and English singlestick or cane) and Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at the turn of the 20th century). Some existing forms of European stick fighting can be traced to direct teacher-student lineages from the 19th century. Notable examples include the methods of Scottish and British Armed Services singlestick, la canne and Bâton français, Portuguese Jogo do Pau, Italian Paranza or Bastone Siciliano and some styles of Canarian Juego del Palo. In the 19th century and early 20th century, the greatstick (pau/bâton/bastone) was employed by some Portuguese, French and Italian military academies as a method of exercise, recreation and as preparation for bayonet training.
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In "Letters to his Children", Theodore Roosevelt writes in a letter dated December 26, 1902, "Late in the afternoon I played at single stick with General Wood and Mr. [Bob] Ferguson...We have to try to hit as light as possible, but sometimes we hit hard, and today I have a bump over one eye and a swollen wrist." However the use of the term in this context may be more colloquial than technical. It is very unlikely that Theodore Roosevelt or General Wood ever practiced the British sport of Singlestick; more likely, Roosevelt's use of the term refers to the French art of canne de combat. Indeed, their own fencing instructor Maître François Darrieulat was a veteran of the French Army, where singlestick was unknown but cane was mandatory for officers, and many other facts tend to point out that situation.
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Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also saber); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, singlestick, appeared in the 1904 Olympics but was dropped after that, and is not a part of modern fencing. Fencing was one of the first sports to be played in the Olympics.
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William F. Grebe (March 9, 1869 - June 29, 1960) was an American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. In 1904 he won the silver medal in individual sabre competition and a bronze medal in singlestick competition. He also competed in the individual foil event but was eliminated in the first round. In 1906 he won the U.S. national championship in dueling sword (now known as épée).
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Cobbett formed a close friendship with Windham, who became his patron and shared his anti-Jacobinism and his love of rural and athletic sports.Green, Great Cobbett, pp. 209–210.Cole, Life of William Cobbett, p. 71. The Evangelical movement was campaigning to reform the sports and recreations of the common people, intending to replace bull- baiting, boxing, singlestick, wrestling and racing with Sunday Schools and psalm singing.Green, Great Cobbett, pp. 218–219.
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The tournament includes longsword, singlestick, glima, and one rotating weapon which is changed every year. The location of the event changes every year, and has been located at Fort Casey and Pacific Lutheran University. Since 2011, a biannual event called the Vancouver International Swordplay Symposium, has been held in Vancouver, Canada. Hosted by Academie Duello, this event has brought instructors, authors and researchers from around the world for workshops, lectures and seminars.
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Albertson Van Zo Post (July 28, 1866 - January 23, 1938) was an American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and died in New York City. He was the son of Henry A. V. Post, an engineer and sharpshooter officer during the American Civil War. In 1904 he won the gold medal in the singlestick and team foil competition, silver in individual foil and bronze in individual épée and individual sabre.
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In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. He would also arrange on occasion for a wooden cask to be sent over the side so competitions could be held to see which crew could hit it and how fast they could do so. A game called 'singlestick' was also practised.
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They are rather contemporary regional sports that coexist with the modern forms of martial arts sports as they have developed since the 19th century, often including cross-fertilization between sports and folk styles; thus, the traditional Thai art of muay boran developed into the modern national sport of muay Thai, which in turn came to be practiced worldwide and contributed significantly to modern hybrid styles like kickboxing and mixed martial arts. Singlestick, an English martial art can be seen often utilized in morris dancing. Many European dances share elements of martial arts with examples including Ukrainian Hopak, Polish Zbójnicki (use of ciupaga), the Czech dance odzemek, and the Norwegian Halling.
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From around the early 14th century the backsword became the first type of European sword to be fitted with a knuckle guard. The term "backsword" can also refer to the singlestick, which is used to train for fighting with the backsword, or to the sport or art of fighting in this fashion. Being easier and cheaper to make than double-edged swords, backswords became the favored sidearm of common infantry, including irregulars such as the Highland Scots, which in Scottish Gaelic were called the claidheamh cuil (back sword), after one of several terms for the distinct types of weapons they used. Backswords were often the secondary weapons of European cavalrymen beginning in the 17th century.
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In the US during the early years of the 1900s, fencer and self-defense specialist A. C. Cunningham developed a unique system of stick-fighting using a walking stick or umbrella, which he recorded in his book The Cane as a Weapon. Singlestick was developed as a method of training in the use of backswords such as the cavalry sabre and naval cutlass. It was a popular pastime in the UK from the 18th to the early 20th century, and was a fencing event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Although interest in the art declined, a few fencing coaches continued to train with the stick and competitions in this style of stick-fighting were reintroduced into the Royal Navy in the 1980s by commander Locker Madden.
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The school also included fencing featuring both "singlestick" which used a cudgel or wooden sword for training, and broadsword, which used a two edged weapon used for cutting. Married to his wife Eve, also known as Elizabeth, at London's Bevis Marks Synogogue on 10 July 1818, he had a large family of eleven children.6th of Tamuz, 5578 Synagogual Marriage [10 july 1818] Bevis Marks Synagogue,Bevis Marks,London E3,England (source: Bevis Marks Marriage Records Part II to 1837 - # 1564 - 6th of Tamuz, 5578) (source: Bevis Marks Marriage Records Part II to 1837 - # 1564) He died on 27 January 1839, at the Portuguese Jewish Hospital, on Mile End Road, in Stepney, London, England, at the age of 61. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery near Bethnal Green.
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In the 17th century the game of running at the quintain was played on the village green. Singlestick matches were held on Blackthorn Hill in the 18th century but are said to have ceased by 1823. Stone Pits Farm in the parish is named after a quarry that supplied limestone for building. In the 1740s stone from here was used to build Ambrosden House for Sir Edward Turner, 2nd Baronet. In 1819 a brick and tile works was opened in the parish. Both the quarry and the brick and tile works were still in business by the end of the 19th century but were disused by 1957. There was a windmill on Blackthorn Hill by 1809, and Ordnance Survey maps from 1880 onwards showed two windmills on the hill. They were tower mills, distinguished as "East" and "West" mill. West Mill had a rendered exterior and a fantail; by the early 1980s its remains had been reduced to the lower part of the tower.
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