Jogo do Pau
Produced with the collaboration of Júlio Hopffer and his disciples
This documentary, more than a cinematographic work, intends to be a record of the classes of STAFF FENCING
As they were established after long studies by master Frederico Hopffer
This photografs from an old album, represent a teaching that allow us to better understand a time
when living in Lisbon was very different from nowadays.
The suburbs were not very similar to the city houses
this were fields and yards where the Lisbon men went horse riding on Sundays looking for better airs,
wine, and outside guitar playing
At this time, Jogo do Pau, exercise of the most useful for the health
because of its diversity of movements
powerfull educator of courage and virility, was the favorite sport
Still today we remember the old masters
Carlos Relvas
Domingos Salréu
José Dias
Domingos Miguel
master Frederico Hopffer
and his son
in the year of 1923, Jogo do Pau had a triumphal aura, blessing brought by the Ginásio Clube Português classes.
In a old shed near Campolide, today still existing but transformed in a garage
Frederico Hopffer gathered 7 masters and several disciples
Meanwhile in Ginásio Clube Português, the practitioners where almost as much as the club members
the staff fencing done there followed the Lisbon School
different from Minho and Ribatejo because the strikes were done at one hand
that gives more reach and obvious advantage
Founded by master José Maria da Silveira, and later reformed and regularized by Hopffer
the Lisbon school got its hight by that time. With the help of two masters,
one of them Júlio Hopffer, restless follower of the tradition imposed by his father
and the colabotation of Dr. António Jales, old practicioner of the sport
it is possible to demonstrate a small lesson, and what it is worth as dexterity and emotional spectacle
the sport that was one day the king of sports of Portuguese athletes.
First, the thrust to the chest and the corresponding parries
in all the parries, the body never stays in the place that is targeted
we have the the back stepped parry, then the exited from the left, from the right, the lateral parries left and right
and finally the forward stepping parry
and now, a vertical strikes with the same parries, with the different of the forward stepping parry, that is done from the left and the right
the oblique descending strike from the outside has the same parries, but the the staff oblique
still doing the parries exiting from right and lateral left with the crossed arms
we have now the round (horizontal) strikes from the outside to try to hit the torso
for this ones it is needed a parry to the point of the staff, that can be done with a back step, exiting from right or left.
lateral left and right, and yet the forward stepping with the oblique staff
also doing the back stepping parries from the left and right with the arms crossed
the ascending strikes from the inside or from the outside have the same parries, expect the forward stepping parry
and also the strikes to the ankle, also from the inside and the outside, with the same parries and the forward stepping parry.
finally the cutting counter attacks that work against any strike
the cutting can be done with step back, half step back, half step forward, lateral left of right
and then by antecipation
and in this formal assault by two disciples
for the lay man, all seems hard and a constant danger with every thrust
however, the boys of nowadays cannot forget that in this sport that is practiced
without any artificial protection, everything can be learned, and as the knowledge is aquired
the nervousness subsides, the confidence reborns and the enthusiasm springs
and so it will be easy to give Jogo do Pau the place it deserves
among the most virile and healthy sports
sport that we don't know well why, stopped having the legion of adepts
that had been generalized by Portuguese lands, the most Portuguese of the physical exercises
The End