For a list of Ildhafn's upcoming regular practices and meetings, please see our Regular Activities page.
Last week we noticed that William wanted to get his point low very quickly to defend, and slice off from below his opponent's weapon; Ludwig and Katherina wanted to keep their hilts low, and slice off above. This week we'd all swapped technique! After much talking, we worked out why (thanks to Emrys for this expression of it):
Matt teaching beginners; David teaching this portion; Katherine's notes.
We revised the 8-part sequence we've been working on for the last few weeks.
Matt teaching beginners; David teaching this portion; Katherine's notes.
Back and forth across the room, making cuts instead of our usual thrusts / plain steps; first advancing directly, then moving off-line for each cut.
Katherine's notes; Matt and David teaching (mostly).
That's all so far: we worked through the first play in the second part of Meyer's rapier section. It's really long (about 8 moves each), and falls into two main parts. All the usual confusions apply: he tells you what "you" are doing, but not so much about what "they" are doing; we'd like more detail on the footwork; he often leaves out the instruction "while rocking back".
More detail later.
Revision of basics of Meyer's Rapier:
Matt teaching (Katherine's notes)
Meyer's Rapier - Book 1, Chapter 8
[2.70v-2.72.v; pp192-3 of Forgeng's translation]
Changing (Wechseln, Durchwechseln), Chasing (Nachreisen), Remaining (Bleiben), Feeling (Fuhlen), Pulling (Zucken), and Winding (Winden).
Changing (Wechseln or Durchwechseln)
Changing = avoiding your opponent's blade and attacking on the other side
Changing through = cutting under
Changing around = cutting over
(Katherine's notes)
Note to self: We have been reinventing the wheel again. We should keep
notes, put them here, and then check them (see Patrick's notes on this
material from May).
We revised several of the parries - absetzen, verhengen, and Ausschagen
mit hangender Kling - where I had some concerns that we'd drifted a
little from the source in the process of getting something that worked.
(Or I'd misremebered when I wrote it up - always a possibility).
(Katherine's Notes - Matt was teaching)
On the 1st we figured out how we think they go, slowly, unmasked, and with rapiers; on the 8th we tested them at higher speed with masks and shinai (using the instructions from the rapier section, but a longsword style, to test interchangeability of techniques - it worked pretty well; the next step would be to compare what we deduced with what Meyer actually says in the longsword section).
Meyer lists 8 parries:
(Sometime in August...)
Cross-hilts for our shinai finally arrived, so we now have cheap(ish),
light-weight training weapons that we can use to practice longsword
techniques at moderate speed with only moderate "armour". They're way
too much fun!
[Bit of a gap in our notes here - we were all busy with Coronation,
winter sniffles, etc - but we spent this period working on German
Longsword, using both Meyer and earlier sources.]
(Patrick's Notes)
Revised "Primary Stances" (Ringeck: Fier Leger) Drill: Start in High Vom Tag (Oberhut) with left leg forward. Cut to Alber, Ochs and Pflug, then thrust into Langort, passing to each position (remembering the intermediate Langort / Hangetort). Then swing via Nebenhut back into Vom Tag (now with right foot forward) and repeat.
New Horizontal Cuts drill: Cut from Ochs to Ochs using either Mittelhau or Zwerchhau. Leader can call to mix them up.
(Patrick's Notes)
Drill: Starting from Schluessel, perform a Scheitelhau passing forwards then Unterhau passing backwards to arrive back in Schluessel. First do stopping at each stance (Vom Tag, Langort, Alba, Eisenport, Hangetort, Einhorn) then do slowly but smoothly (no stopping).
Similarly practice Zorn, starting and finishing in Ochs (Langort, Wechsel, Nebenhut, Hangetort, Einhorn) on both sides.
(Patrick's Notes)
Revision:
Hitting (and intending to hit) during drills
Recovering in guard after the hit
Stringere
Practised: stringere - lunge, lunge into covered line, cavaccione, contracavaccione.
(Patrick's Notes)
Discussed the problem of left/right. Meyer only discusses explicitly
two left/right variants: Ochs and Pflug. In Ochs, it's left if the
sword is on the left (right foot forward), in Pflug, it's left if the
left foot is forward (sword on right). We decided to adopt the
convention (till something better comes along), that stances are
generally described by which foot is forward except for Ochs. So, for
example, Wechsel left has the left foot forward and sword on the right.
(Patrick's Notes) This is a list of the stances we practised:
From high to low
(Katherine's Notes)
Hands: Usually have both hands on the hilt, right hand closest to quillons
(for RH combatant).
1. Setting off / Absetzen
Meyer says: Setting off is when, from one of the four guards [High, Low, Irongate, Plow] you turn the long edge against his weapon, and turn into the Longpoint.
