Ludwig von Regensburg's blog

Eleanor, Martuccio and Ludwig played at rapier to their mutual entertainment.  Martuccio over-stepped, leading him to complain later of a sore rear-end, despite that it was Ludwig's getting kicked.

I had great fun fencing at Cluain's Hastilude yesterday.  Attendance was good with myself, Don William, Don Martuccio, Cassia and new scholar Robert all having a play.  For William and me it was really our first chance to try longsword combat at speed.  It was great fun, but it will take a little while for the instincts to adjust to this weapon form.  I'm looking forward to doing a lot more.

In service,

   Ludwig

We've been a bit slack about blog updates, but we've welcomed a couple of new fencers (and welcomed back and old friend), so there's been a bit of repetition.

But this week we moved on to looking at some examples of Handtarbeit (Handwork) from Meyer.

Documentation for my brewing entries at St Sebastian's 2012.

Class: A closer look at some of the techniques from Ringeck we've already seen.

Warmup: Start in right Ochs (left foot forwards).  Cut a Zornhau, Mittelhau (left to right) and Unterhau (right to left), each with a pass.  You should now be in left Ochs.  Cut a Zornhau (left to right), Mittelhau (right to left) and Unterhau (left to right).  You are now back where you started (in right Ochs).  Repeat.

A pattern: Zorn, wind into Ochs (as if your opponent had block your initial cut), then cut around with an Oberhau to the otherside.

More Ringeck.

New postures: Alber (fool) -- point down in front.  Pflug (plow) -- hands at the hips, point at opponent's face.  Langort (longpoint) -- arms extended, point at the opponent.

Scheitelhau (vertex or scalp cut): A vertical descending cut with the long edge.  Tactical considerations: 1. The target can be easily and rapidly changed from left shoulder to head to right shoulder; 2. This is cut with the longest reach, so it is possible to "over run" the oppenent (ablauffen), hitting without closing the line.

First regular practice of the year!

It was great to see some new people, and some just new to Wednesday fencing.

Anyway, the first project for the year is German Longsword.  Sources: Ringeck, Mayer.

Parts of the sword: long edge (Langeschneide), short edge (Kurtzeschneide), point (Ort), weak (Schweke), strong (Stark).

Cuts: Oberhau, Mittelhau, Unterhau.

Stances: Vom Tag, Ochs, Zornhut.  Weight is generally forward, making it easy to move the back leg.  The odd one out is Zornhut, which is depicted in Meyer with the weight well back.

Meyer rapier and dagger: a first look.

Preliminaries: Meyer says that you can either defend with the sword and hit with the dagger, defend with the dagger and hit with the sword, or use the sword and dagger together (and the end he urges Germans to use the last tactic, as they get confused otherwise).  Meyer then offers some examples of increasing complexity.  In this section Meyer varies the footwork, sometimes standing left foot forward.

Mostly sparring, but we attempted the two grappling manoeuvres from Meyer's Dusack treatise.

Running in:  Both of these are responses to a Scheitelhau.  The defender blocks the cut above his head, stepping in on his right (unless the attacker rushes in).

One puzzle of Meyer's rapier treatise is that he frequently refers to a position called "Straight Parrying [gerade Versatzung]", especially in part two of the treatise, despite the fact that it is not listed as a guard in Chapter 3.  It is defined in the Dusack treatise as follows:

Stand with your right foot forward and hold your dusack in front of you with your arm extended, so that your long edge stands toward the opponent and the tip of your weapon is forward...