Sword Fighting

Point extended, walking forwards. Held mid-height, elbow bent slightly, pommel in line with forearm
or your forearm is exposed. A Krump is used for defence (krump is preferred for mid and low attacks
rather than high). If a hard krump is used to the weak of the blade, then you use a pincer grip to
rotate sword loose in the hand, and step left foot (if right handed) and strike to neck. If close, to get
more cutting power, go low to the legs rather than doing a short cut to neck. To better protect
yourself, it is better often to hold the blade more vertically rather than fully horizontally during the
cut as it offers protection against a counter strike.

The counter to your rotating strike to the neck is for them to absentz. In other words, rotate sword
counter-clockwise, blade pointed at opponent. Can end with blade horizontal, back of palm facing
upwards. But make sure arm is extended and not too cramped. Block and stab simultaneously. With
a long sword, rather than grappling up high when you absentz and can’t get the strike high, you can
bring the angle steeply downwards and stab down to the lower body or legs. (I think.)

Disadvantages of walking with blade extended. They know your reach. You can’t strike. That’s why
we cock the arm slightly. Then you can add a thrust.

So you walk forwards, do a little feint to the inside body. Then as they flick their blade to counter,
you dip your blade under and extend. Step left (blade in RH) and extend arm. A longsword you hold
in the centre, so your body is smack bang in the middle. But a single sword you hold in one hand and
angle the body. So against a single sword you must step much wider to get out of the range of the
blade because the reach is actually longer with an extended arm and turned body. (I think.)

15 March 2018

Point extended pointed at head. Elbow is cocked but as you get near you feint by extending arm.
Then dip with the wrist and keep on walking forwards.

Partner krumps, and then rotates point forwards, flat upwards to stab. You use a paddle motion, so
you sweep your blade over your shoulder taking their blade with you and do a slice.

If they come at you on the outside line, you can step front leg to the inside while blocking to the
outside. It is a fairly flat arc. You start with blade pointing down ahead of lead foot. You swing it up
and end with the cross guard in line with your shoulder, elbow cocked. You can look down at the
cross guard.

Now, one of these sequences had me delivering a low stab and I think it was the one with the
krump. So they krump and stab. You then sweep them to your inside and then low, so you end up
with your sword hand at the low position and your blade pointed up at their midsection/pelvis. You
have your arm extended at 45 degrees (roughly) but your wrist cocked. Having your wrist cocked
ensures that your point is lifted and your strong is against their blade. A low point means less
leverage. I believe your upper body is leaning slightly forwards.
Shietelhau: They do oberhau. You swing down in Zorn but then rotate so the top edge strikes their
sword. Then you stab them in the face. But the counter is for them to sweep your sword to the
inside in a circular motion. Block your elbow with their free hand and step in close and drive the
pommel into your face. Keep arm extended, don’t be too cramped. And it is not a lateral block, it is a
downwards strike.

If they come at you in a straight line walk and are applying pressure, and only if they are applying
pressure, you can lift your point, which rapidly puts your strong on their weak. If they are not
applying pressure this is risky as it removes the threat of your point and leaves you open
underneath. You want to be in a situation where your hips are square to him but his are not square
to you, because then you can deliver power and he can’t.

Footwork. Stepping back foot forwards in front of lead foot on inside line. Swing from the hip. Don’t
use the leg muscle. You can also cross step forwards behind the lead foot travelling forwards.

22 March

Absetzen

Sword is held with point up in low guard. Can be to either side of the front knee.

Short step with right leg and extend sword. This draws their strike. They are in a high guard. You
drop sword at wrist, step with left leg and stab. Go for face. But you stab with an absetzen with your
thumb to ceiling on top of sword. This allows you to better protect your sword arm by dropping your
hand and getting sword more vertical if they try and strike your sword hand.

Sword point down at ground to the inside of front leg. Swing it up in an arc, a flattish arc (opponent’s
hip to shoulder) and strike their downwards blow with the weak end (near point) of your sword. You
keep the arm extended, don’t bend elbow much. You use the back foot on the toe to pivot. Their
sword is flung aside, and then you swing your sword around your head, keeping momentum, and
strike them. Clockwise movement. You start movement when they start downward strike. Not when
they are gathering. That’s the timing.

Absetzen to your left. Your back leg steps right to bring you around. You can absetzen to your right
from inside with low guard sword point up.

Footwork. Unless you are trying to draw their strike, step through with rear foot, don’t step heel to
heel. Also, the brain notices peripheral movement, which is also why you extend the sword and then
step.

29 March

Parry

Sword in low guard point up. They strike oberhau. You parry to your left. Remember to keep parry
low. Keep hilt in line with your shoulder because this is strong. If you raise to high, they can simply
go under your sword and slash you.
One handed sword, the centre line is their arm. You need to cover the centre line, which means you
need to cover the opponents weapon arm. You don’t want your weak on their strong when you’re
parrying or they’ll simply go straight through you.

They throw an under arm cut. So they start high guard, then step back foot behind lead and
forwards. They launch blade around the back of their head clockwise but in a flat trajectory. Then
blade whips like an underarm bowl but diagonally from right side to left side. The parry is to simply
parry the incoming blade with the point of your sword facing down. Pretty simple.

The feint. Begin oberhau. But do a cross-step with the back leg going behind the lead and go very
very wide and cut in a flat, not vertical trajectory. This draws them wide, so they are way off your
centreline. Then you go the other way. When you feint, you extend the arm but DO NOT drop the
point. The sword is vertical, wrist holding it vertical. Then you turn a doorknob to rotate the blade
and unlock the wrist to aid the blow.

All strikes (except a few) are done at moderate pace to allow the feet to keep up. This allows for an
effective second intention. Feints need to be done at moderate pace to draw the attack AND to
allow a counter. For example, if you feint and they occupy the centre, you need time to be able to
strike down with an zwerhau type blow.

With the feint, you can also cut under their blade on the second strike. If they do not respond at all
to your feint and do not occupy the centre, you can cut through rather than feinting. Going
moderate pace also allows time to make this effective.

With long sword, if you parry too high, the other guy can simply cut across your exposed wrists,
severing your hands. Ouch! This relates back to the first parry we did and not raising the hand too
high out of line with the shoulder.

When sparring, I’m not occupying the centre and so my parry’s aren’t working. I’m leaning too much
rather than using footwork. I’m doing suicidal attacks – I have to deal with an attacking blade first
rather than just trying to beat them to the strike.

April 5

Sniping. Low guard, point up. Body leaning forward as per usual. They do oberhau and you thrust at
their hand when they are coming in and about vertical. It is a relatively low risk attack for you.

You can read whether someone is going to bind weak or strong and adjust your attack accordingly.
The delay in feeling the blade can be too much and the fight can all be over. So you see how their
body tenses. So you are already winding just after contact if the bind is weak. Or you can do oberhau
and make it look strong. But in reality it is weak. So they push through. You put your hand flat to
their elbow – not on top of the elbow. So your left hand on their right sword elbow. Put their arm in
the pocket. If you grab the wrist it leaves them too much movement to stab you. Same if you go
above the elbow. You push with your back leg and get that sword arm down and across all the way.
Your left leg goes in behind, like in wrestling.

Or you can throw a weak looking cut that is strong. You do this by relaxing the shoulders but locking
everything in and tensing just before the hit.

Footwork: you can do little steps and then a sudden lunge. Mix it up.

Hanging guard. They attack oberhau. You raise sword on the horizontal. Blade up. You cross step
back leg across. If angle is okay and not too diagonal, they can be allowed to power through and you
simply hit them with an overhand diagonal to head.

When throwing zorn just remember to drop the arm and then extend sword and point to cover the
centreline. And when attacking in oberhau remember to go wide and then cut diagonal at head,
holding the centre.

If you attack with a long point it is easier to go strong and wind into a stab. If you attack with a short
point, it is weaker and therefore easier to go around on the outside if they are cutting strong.

3 May 2018

Footwork

Right leg forward. Left leg cross steps behind. Right leg jumps forward again in another step. But
then you must bring that back leg around again to line everything up on the diagonal.

Posture. Slight forwards lean. Keep the head and neck tall and head, back and neck in a line.

Stu prefers a thrust to a cut. (I think he is talking about second intention, but also possibly first
intention.) A thrust is more deadly. Also a thrust position controls the centre. The point is the centre
of the art.

Advantage of a thrust is it is fast. Disadvantage is that it is easy to parry. You can use footwork to
evade a cut. Not so with a thrust. But a cut means your opponent has to act to protect himself. He
must commit. It forces a certain response.

When attacking with oberhau, first move your lead foot wide. Preferably, you want to come right
around for a better angle. Controlling the centre after coming wide is much stronger than staying in
the centre. I am cutting too vertically. You can get more power with a downwards diagonal and it
keeps the sword in motion for the next strike. A straight vertical will hit the floor.
Thrusting is necessary for penetrating armour. You also don’t need to worry about edge alignment.
Edge alignment can be tricky. A soft cut with an aligned edge is far superior to a strong cut with a
badly aligned edge.

10 May 2015

Zornhau again. Get chest online with their weapon. Stu showed that if you’re using long sword and
go from right leg back to right leg forwards, you want the toe of the right leg pointing out wide of
the opponents body. Because if your toe is pointed at them it means your chest is not going to be
square presumably.

We krumped a lot. You can krump on the hands. But Stu says you only krump high cuts and thrusts,
never low. And the krump is a beat. You bash it down. But it’s not like you use the bounce to bounce
up.

They attack. You zorn strong. They come around the outside for second intention – remember to lift
off the blade, don’t drift your point backwards or you’ll be left open (I think). You krump by
swivelling sword to your right, thumb on the flat. You can use the short edge, but if the blade is
curved you don’t have to move the sword as far using the flat.

When I krump I really need to jump my front foot and back foot. I really need to jump my front foot
first.

Sparring: I need to work really hard at not being static when I strike.

After zorn, my second intent on a weak bind should be swivel up to the left. With your second intent,
you don’t want to move his point into a stronger position. So you don’t want to go come around if
his point is offline in the direction you’d have to come around. Or you don’t want to wind in such a
way that you’re pushing his point towards the centre.

17 May 2018

Krump: If they are coming in close, you can leap sideways rather than forwards. Use flat of blade
with Dussack, thumb on top, but blade with long swong and rapier. You’re stretched out a bit with a
krump. After you krump you want to keep moving and strike forwards if possible.

You want to krump with blade flat or it leaves an opening for them to stab or cut through

If they krump an ox, you simply use the strike momentum to spin the blade around and strike with
the short edge to the crown of their head. If they parry this, you then swing down to cut under
them, rotating mostly at the wrist.

Zierkhau. You haven’t got the speed of a longsword with a rapier, so you strike right and then you
can feint left strike and thrust instead, short edge to floor. When you do movement, you jump your
lead foot wide to draw their parry wide, and then leap forwards with the back foot, so your back
foot is now forwards. You go hard right, and then hard left.

Oberhau strike. You should start further out. So you gather rear foot, and then the strike uses a
much extended structure, front and back foot further apart than I’ve been using.

31 May 2018

Short edge parry from left side. Sword down and to the left. Lift up in a diagonal. Initially use
shoulder to drive movement, but then whip it with the elbow as you come around the back of your
head and cut left side to right side. If right foot is forwards you step left foot forwards and to the side

Short edge parry from point down on right. You can cross step left foot behind as you move right,
blocking right to left upward diagonal and then whipping around back of head to a right to left strike
to head. Try to hit with middle of blade to bounce their blade off.

But don’t use against a straight downwards cut. You can simply Absentz and stab straight forwards
without any danger. It will work but it’s not necessary.

Diagonal cut left to right. They parry. Don’t parry too close to the tip or the blade will go straight
through. Then go other side like you would with zwerc. Wind around back of your head, that is. They
parry again. Then wind so palm is to ceiling, and stab. If they parry the stab, you slash under their
parrying hand while stepping wide in direction of cut. So right foot as you slash right.

Sideways cut from right to left. They parry. Rotate hand so back of hand faces ceiling. Do not retract
hand or this will leave an opening for them to exploit. Dip wrist, go under their parry (their blade is
upwards) and stab. When you parry you should parry on diagonal lines. So not just left and right but
left and up or right and up. Also for parrying downwards.

Downwards diagonal strike. They parry. Put some force to get them to resist. And then wind your
blade around. Keep their tip close to your strong to get leverage. You circle anti-clockwise and end
up with your blade downwards and the back of your hand facing them. This is where you control.
And then you lunge and stab. Rapier is generally cut and thrust.

June 7

Go to long point. Step rear foot up then rear foot left. Sword comes back around head in diagonal
cut.

Use Zwierc against Zornhau guard. But do not zwierc too high on your wrist is exposed from below.

Their defence is to krump blade on second intention. Just parrying is risky because they are rotating
around your sword. But krumping stops their point coming around.

Against Ochs, use krump. Krump, and then rotate blade along a vertical line to hit the top of their
head with the short edge. Better to have left foot forwards so you can leap.
The defence is that as they lift up to do this you follow their blade and use your flat edge to fan it out
of the way – like a krump

If they are in Pflug. You are in Zorhau. Swing down and drop with short edge onto their blade and
stab.

If they are in alber. Two options.

Preferred is to come just into range and then do a low horizontal guard, a bit like a krump held low.
You can walk while holding this.

Or you can step just into range and attempt a zietelhau. So a high downwards cut. Wrist action. To
get into range you can use the sneaky left foot. Sneak it forwards while keeping your weight back.
This will give you more manuverabitlity for a big leap sideways and forwards.

June 21

You step forward and oberhau. They zorn, and then hang sword while stepping left leg to get in
close. Left hand pushes their sword elbow toward their opposite hip pocket. They can whack you in
head.

Defence 1: As they push your elbow you turn your blade horizontal and step wide to their inside line,
cutting across. But not too close to them. You’ve then got two hands to their one, their other hand
being pretty useless loose on the hang guard.

The defence is to barge forwards and pin their horizontal sword arm and whack them over the top
on the head. (I think.)

Defence is if they are barging forwards, you cross brace. Then you reach under your sword arm with
your weak hand, palm to ceiling but curled clockwise, grab their pinning wrist, and twist their hand
skywards. It’s an aikido type move. Then you swing sword at the back of their legs.

With these, I might have gotten the ordering a bit mixed up, especially concerning when to barge.

Absetzen. Can be used for vertical cut, but timing must be right. You just stab to head. So it’s coming
up from Pflug for example, to Ochs. Then you can stab.

But the other parry he showed tonight is like a C. You’re in long point or pflug and you deflect their
strike, aiming for a handspan from the tip of their blade. You slide your blade down their blade and
pressure it down. The C, I think, is to take the centre line. Good defence against a low cut that swings
upwards, like the one from Vexel.

Vexel cut: You step right foot right as you cut. Puts your hips more on line. Or you can twist right
foot (front foot) outwards while coming up on the toe of the back foot. This also brings your hips
around.
Retreating: Take one step diagonally (so right foot diagonally backwards) and then other foot
straight back. So stepping back with one foot off-line.

Sabre. The curved blade means slicing from horseback the slice continues as your ride the horse
past. A straight blade forms a lever that can get stuck.

Low cuts can be useful, especially back in the times when the lower legs would not have had as
much protection as that afforded by the breeches.

26 July 2018

Six cuts. Diagonal right to left. Blade then comes all the way around so it is facing backwards as if you
are sheathing it on the left side – hand to left hip, blade horizontal

Then left to right horizontal, watching edge alignment.

Then up diagonal right to left. Left diagonal. Then right to left horizontal and finally left to right
diagonal.

We also did I am in a low guard. Sword is on the inside, point down and long edge outwards. They
cut oberhau. I retreat one step. So front leg comes back, rear foot stays still. I parry high with blade
horizontal. I then step left foot forwards and come around their outside. I push their wrist with my
left hand and stab high.

2 August 2018

Cutting away: You are in high guard. They cut downwards. You cut down diagonally, your mid on
their strong. I think it is different because it knocks their blade aside, then allowing you to stab or
slash.

Upwards block from blade to left side, point down. Upwards and across to right. Front foot can step
to the left, a cross step. Rear foot up on toes to pivot. This then allows you to step deep with the
back leg on the next step to stab.

If you don’t step, remember to pivot front foot so arch is pointing forwards and come up on toes of
rear foot to allow rear leg to swivel.

If you do a straight downwards cut, they can absentz and simply stab you. So you step around and
slice diagonal to prevent this. You can also cross step back leg behind lead as if you’re going to step
right. So your blade is down by your right side. You circle it up and around your head in preparation
to cut diagonally down. Your legs are crossed, blade is high. You strike and lean right to feint. But
you don’t extend the wrist. Do it like a punch. Then you turn the wrist like a doorknob. Counter
clockwise. And you cut to the left behind their guard. Or you doorknob all the way down to your
blade pointing downwards. And then you cut under them. Or you can do the first strike feint and
then roll the hand completely in a circle and cut with the short edge to the wrist or forearm. If doing
this, remember to rely on your reach for that cut. Don’t be too close.

16 August

Zwierc

We practiced the feint. So zweirc to the head, feint using your head and body to the other side, and
then strike again to the initial side.

You can do zwierc – one, two, three, the third being back to the same side. The defender can parry
the first two and on the third they can raise their blade and do what amounts to a defensive zwierc,
hitting the attacker across the wrists on the attacker’s third zwierc. You don’t strike, so much as
parry into their wrists.

Attacker can do the second zwierc, and then move in for a grapple. You use a monkey grip over their
wrist and drag their arm down to your left pocket. You strike their face with your pommel.

Low defense. Blade goes opposite side you are moving. So you go left, your blade is pointing down
right. As you close, though, you angle blade more towards them. So more at 45 degrees rather than
90 degrees. Initially you are at 90 so they don’t realise you are defending or rather you’re not making
it obvious what your next move is.

Shielhau

Short edge, point forwards like pflug. Gives you better leverage to displace their blade. You can
simply walk forwards into them. You can also have the point off to the side, so not centreline, and
then bring it back to the centreline just before you walk into their chest.

23 August 2018

Pflug: But you angle blade out to your outside. Keep the hilt protecting the centre. If you have the
hilt protecting the centre you can still move the blade fast and the distance creates momentum. It
forces someone in long point to come around your inside. It halves their options and your centre is
still secure.

They will try and shielhau. This is a downwards strike and then a slide up the blade, terminating in a
stab towards the shoulder or chest. You can draw the shielhau with a strike. So you gather, back foot
to front foot while stabbing from pflug. But you keep the blade diagonally upwards. This is so you
have plenty of range of motion to dip the wrist and your blade under their blade as they attempt to
parry downwards. Then step with left foot, rotate from palm up to palm down and stab. You do the
rotate under and then change the hand from thumb up to thumb down.

You can also absentz a downwards cut. Blade comes up from pflug to the left and high, point
forwards. Your back foot can step behind lead or behind and to the right of the lead, so you are
almost crossing your ankles. If someone is point shy, you can come in, and as they change guards to
a high guard or as they step back, this is when you strike with absentz.
30 August 2018

Snipe the hand. Say you start with blade out wide and down to the right. First you align blade in the
vertical plane, so bring across. And then you flatten it, thumb on top, to widen your attack. Then you
stab at an angle upwards, because that makes it harder to get under your blade and makes your
hand much less vulnerable.

Four guards you need to know:

Pflug, Ox, Alber, Von Tag

Cutting at the hand. You start with blade out wide and down. As they go from Alber to Von Tag you
cut across from left to right at their wrist.

They cut from Von Tag and you parry. As they release to come around you quickly cut at their hands
and push hard into the cut to stop them coming through. You step at the same time. Same step as if
you were cutting to the body.

They cut from Von Tag. You step the lead leg back to the rear foot, body going vertical and then
strike at their head. It’s a simple dodge, really.

You cut at them. They parry hard. You release your hold and swing to a hanging guard. Step in close,
push their elbow into their pocket. Hit them in the head with your pommel.

13 September 2018

Stay relaxed. Now, when you are in posture, Stu did an example where he gets someone to push
against him. So you are pushing with the rear foot, and leaning slightly forwards.

Distance: When you are way far out and they bind hard, you can leave the bind by dipping hand with
palm up (moving the elbow not at all) and then thrust with the palm down while stepping to the left
if you are right handed. You bind their weak against your strong as you thrust.

Super close, you simply cut quickly down their blade into their head. If they are weak you fold their
blade down with your flat and then step left while stabbing forwards, palm down.

Middle distance: simply wind and stab. (Is this against weak and hard – I’m not sure.) If you’re close,
you definitely don’t want to leave the bind.

20 September

I need to stop taking shuffing steps in sparring and step with commitment
When I attack, I step wide keeping my foot outside their centreline. I cut the diagonal with my blade
angled out across my sword arm side. This protects me from him sneaking around with a second
intention after we bind.

The only drill we did was I cut, he binds, and then he tries to second intent with a cut and I cut him
across the hands or force through and hit his head. It is not a slice but more a downwards push. I
was a little hazy on it.

18 October 2018

Footwork

Retreat. Step lead back behind rear.

The diamond. Back foot comes forward and diagonal 45 degrees. So would be pointing right. And
you push the rear leg back when you replant.

Stepping forwards with rear foot. You swing it forwards.

Sword down by right side. Gather while swinging sword around head to build momentum. Then step
right leg forwards and strike. Strike goes all the way through because you are SLICING. Sword tip is
pointing backwards now. You step the lead back in a reverse gather while swinging short edge up for
a cut. Then rear leg steps back as you cut again to the right side.

Side step: Slide rear foot across to the right to dodge. With a weapon you would block at same time.
So raise it horizontal and cut to the left.

To avoid the awkward bend in the wrist, when sword is extended, cant the sword diagonal, so the
wrist is aligned straight while blade is still forwards.

25/10/2018

Footwork revision

Also did the sword down to the left. You step right foot left and pivot on rear foot as your block
across and right. Block a downwards cut. You can then stab forwards. Alternatively, you grab a half-
sword, do the same block, then step in behind their hip and use the short edge and your arms to
takedown.

8/11/2018

Winding: You lift your sword not from the hilt but you push up so your strong is on their weak. And
then you wind. So you go from the low hanging, which is essentially swords crossed, to what is
essentially OX but with the palm up. So from low hanging to high hanging on your left. Raise sword in
situ so your strong is on their weak, and then wind.
Daggers:

You hold the dagger high, high overhead. Too close to the neck opens you up for neck strikes.

If they are right handed: your weak foot – left is forwards. You want to step back initially as they
move in. If you step forward you’ll either expose yourself to the blade on the open body side or end
up on a two hands on two hands, and one of their hands has a weapon. So you step back and then to
the left. So to their outside. So to the outside of their weapon.

As they stab your left hand, fairly straight, hits their forearm/wrist with your thumb down. You grab
and rotate down and step behind their straight arm. You pull the dagger out of their hand and you
stab in the armpit, but not from the inside. They can block with their free hand. You stab from the
outside, around their blind side under the same arm that held the blade.

If your strong leg is forwards. You step in with the back leg. Your right arm blocks to your right with
the forearm. The left arm hits their tricep area. You pop the shoulder up and then rotate their arm
down. You step in close and push them left. Left is where they are weakest. They will fall.

If they do a sewing machine attack. You block down and to the centre. So right foot forwards.
Doesn’t really matter. Your right arm is diagonally down. You keep them down. Your left arm is on
your shoulder to stop them coming over the top of your downwards arm. The problem if you go for
the knife with both hands is that they can sweep your hands with their free hand and just keep
stabbing. You can hit them with a knife hand with your non-blocking arm. You step behind their knife
arm while yanking it forwards – in the direction it was stabbing. You bring both arms under the knife
arm. You use your upper body and hips to bring them down.

22 November 2018

Zwierc

Use the short edge. Because it makes it easier to get around their parry with the first cut, but you
sacrifice range. A taller opponent can strike you much more easily from overhead.

Whatever angle the first cut, you reverse it for the second cut. So you come in high, and then sweep
around low on the other side. You only want to parry if you can get an advantage. If you parry the
zwierc, you can then drive straight forward with half-sword, head protected behind the blade, into
their forearms as they sweep around for the second cut.
You parry using the middle part of the blade, but closer to the strong. Too close to the hilt leaves you
vulnerable to secondary attacks from underneath.

You can parry with the edge for the first parry, and then use the flat, turning a door knob and
pushing your whole arm down on the right. Blocking with the flat means less time to get your edge
right up into them as you sweep up for a strike. You can use this to block a cut coming in low to your
leg.

You can parry soft and then stab, or parry hard to knock their blade away.

You can zwierc, and then the moment they parry you go into a vertical cut. Short edge parry –
straight into vertical cut. If you wait too long they will just cut straight through you.

29/11/2018

Krump

You can go with your strong leg forward. The first step with the back leg is the most important
because it gives you the ability to change distance. Sneak it in. You can sneak it in as a cross step
behind the lead. Then when you krump, you throw the blade, extend arm fully, twist the doorknob,
and then drop the body. You hit the bottom third of their blade so they can’t come under your blade
afterwards and hit you.

You can krump from the other side. You move blade first on this strike. You can do it against an
overhead strike. Blade, then footwork. Krump on normal side, the footwork is more important first.
You also point your toe of the lead out at 45 degrees, so your hips are open and facing your
opponent. I think it’s a leverage thing.

Parry: Do a little knock as your parry. This stops him winding.

A taller, more athletic opponent will often avoid the bind and seek “separation”. A krump does this
well, because it knocks their blade down.

You can also krump against a wind. They zwierc, you parry, they wind, you krump their blade down.

My sparring: stay loose out of distance. Attack with commitment. Mix up your rhythm.

31 January 2019
If opponent and you are both weak leg forward, such as in longsword. You can cross-step lead leg to
the right, then jump back leg off-line so your toe is pointing roughly at ninety degrees (I’m guessing
with angles a bit here) and then you push the left leg back. You start swing as you cross-step.

Single handed sword with strong leg forwards, you cross-step back leg behind front leg and then
jump strong leg to the outside and push other leg back.

You don’t want to do a full cleaving blow, because if someone does a fishing rod cast type blow,
where they have their hands low and throw the point, they will control the centre and be able to
finish you.

Also, you don’t want your blade flat in the bind, or they can just come under.

7 February

Long sword

I need to fishing rod throw more.

Outside wind. You wind the opposite direction. Because they are committing across the centre and
you don’t want to push them back into centre. So you wind to the outside.

Generally a thrust is quicker because it has more velocity. (Inside distance, of course. Further out, it
all depends on who has the quicker footwork.) But…it won’t displace their blade as much as a cut.
Thrusts are generally better counters.

We just did the simple cut/zorn and then cut to the outside if they’re cutting strong. They can then
do a move similar to a krump. They smack your attack down and then cut straight for your head.
They must keep hands relatively low relative to their blade or you can cut under.

Krump hau

Krump by stepping back leg behind your lead and then hitting the strong of their blade with the flat
of your blade. You don’t want to bounce it by hitting their weak. You want to bind. You simply krump
and then flick the short edge around using your wrist to hit the top of their head.

On opposite side you want to krump their weak because you want to throw their blade away. You
don’t need to bind.

Zwierc
Throw zwierc on horizontal or first zwierc diagonally down and second diagonally up. This is harder
to block.

You can parry the second zwierc with a krump hau to knock it away.

14 March 2019

Shielhau.

(Long sword)

They are in long point.

You simply start with sword on shoulder and drop your hands first and then the blade. You put your
thumb on the cross guard and angle to the left a bit.

Shielhau to head. Just plant your left foot and leap your right while keeping your hands high. They
will have to defend high. Then you cut low after your bind. But it’s a twist of the pommel, not a
straight cut under. Your left hand rotates to the top.

Block from vexel on right side to left Ox. (I think this is right.)

Borg: So your right hand is forward, and your left foot is forward and the blade is back. As they cut
oberhau, you raise your blade to block while keeping your left hand raised behind the hilt. You grab
their left arm with a monkey grip (wrestlers don’t have elbows – keep your elbow tucked in for
leverage) and pull down to your pocket and hit them in head with pommel. They can defend as they
see you attempt the grab by crossing their other hand under their sword arm wrist and grabbing
your arm and pocketing it.

Dussack

Slapping attack. You gather rear foot to front and strike short. You use shoulder so that the blade
whizzes all the way down. It’s a slap on their extended blade. They’re in long point, for example. So
like a short oberhau done with the flat, and then you use momentum to carry the blade in a circular
clockwise motion around to strike their head.

Hanging guard.

Thumb on back of the hilt to make it strong. They bind, you step right and disengage and attack right
with a swing.

They stab at your hanging guard, you can sweep it to the side. I can’t recall which side we swept it
to. I think it was your outside.
Absetzen.

Simple. You just side block left or right. Remember when you stab to extend the blade and then step.

Low guard. They are in vexel. You lower your sword and hold it down diagonally for example to
protect. But you don’t hunt their blade. They will need to come up to you as you approach. Then you
can bind and thrust. You want to control the centre. Bind and thrust, for example.

Walk forwards against their long point. You don’t want to be square. Keep your sword extended
straight. Make a slight stab, and then slip under, turn palm down and walk point into them.

Scietalhau. They are in long point. You have your short edge facing down and drive left and forwards.

You oberhau and they zornhau. They bind strong. You could stab, but instead you step left and cut at
their neck/head from the inside. You do this if you are too close and a thrust would leave you open.

Throw an oberhau, but do it with your hand high and with the short edge so it arrives a bit quicker.
You want to threaten with it. Practice this movement by itself. Then circle your hand under their
block and cut at them. So you drop your hand left while rotating into another cut.

Sparring with dussack. More cuts rather than seeking the bind. Cut and withdraw your hand out of
range if they are looking to strike.