Fighting from Pflug

Pflug. Plough. This one I can do.

At least that’s what I think when on my second sword fighting lesson Master Raske shows us attacks from Flugh and sends us off to practise in pairs. I grab Eliot, a mask and one of the Hanwei practise swords (which don’t look like Glamdring or Lion claw but are still epic cool) and prepare to be awesome. The sword is light and well balanced in my hands and I think how Eliot will be impressed as I bring the sword into Pflug.

She isn’t.

‘Not like that, Fitz.’ Eliot lifts her own sword and scowls at me down the blade. You’re getting it all wrong.

‘No, I’m not.’

‘Yes, you are.’

‘No, I’m not.’ I look down at my hands holding the sword in the position made famous by Obi wan Kenobi facing Darth Vader (at the beginning of the fight not the end when he’s trying to die so I don’t see what Eliot’s problem is). ‘I know how to do this.’

Eliot rolls her eyes in a gesture that is sufficiently clichéd it doesn’t need a particular movie to be famous. ‘Suit yourself, Fitz. You go first.’

She’s got the sword on her right hip and it’s not even angled across her body so I do an oberhau (overstrike) to her left side and for about half a second I think I’m doing well.

Till she beats my point down and smacks me in the face (with sufficient force that I’m very pleased I’m wearing a mask). ‘Told you it was a stupid guard.’

‘It’s not a stupid guard,’ I insist because surely five Star Wars movies (the last one doesn’t count) can’t be wrong. ‘Let me try again.’

Not ready to cut, not providing a threat, not ready to do anything really, but lightsabers are still cool

She shifts her sword to her left hip. ‘Okay.’

This time I try a stab and when she pushes it down I hold the point on line.

And Eliot grabs the sword.

‘What!’ I say.  ‘You can’t do that.’

Eliot keeps hold of my sword and hits me across the mask again. ‘I just did.’

‘But you can’t grab a sword.’

‘Yes I can.’

‘Yes she can,’ Master Raske confirms. ‘As long as she doesn’t mess about. Plenty of sources for sword grabs as well as all the half sword techniques.’ He gives me a look that has a bit too much understanding in it. ‘It’s a sword, Oliver, not a lightsaber.‘

Yes, you can grab a sharp sword. Just do it properly and don’t let go!

‘That’s what I told him,’ says Eliot but Master Raske silences her with his hand.

‘So are you still interested?’ he says to me. ‘Now you know it’s not quite like the movies.’

And even Eliot’s quiet while she waits for my answer.

But I feel how the sword in my hand moves and I look at Eliot who is four inches shorter than me (and I’m not tall) and who has just kicked my arse and I think about how this art of fencing is real and not just in someone’s imagination and…there’s only one possible answer.

‘Shit, yes,’ I say.  ‘So Eliot, how do I hold the sword in Pflug?’

Pflug

Pflug is one of the simplest guards, and yet it’s the most likely to be messed up – as per aforementioned the “hold it like a Jedi knight” pose”. Master Raske says that’s for people who care more about keeping the blade in the picture frame than fencing.

You should hold Plough on one side – the left or the right, by your hip, with the point held at the opponent’s throat. Later masters (like Meyer) will tell you to hang it by your knee, but that requires more flexibility and strength than I have at the moment. The reason we do this is that it only leaves one side open, so that makes defending your opening much easier.

On the left hip, we hold Pflug with a thumb grip. So you don’t get smacked in the fingers when you’re parrying.

Right Pflug

Left Pflug

Pflug from Joachim Meyer (1570)

Remember, keep the point up, because no one likes a floppy Pflug. (I still don’t know why everyone thinks that’s so funny.)

Attacks

The attacks from Pflug are pretty obvious. You thrust. Even if you cut, thrusting first is a good idea. You can also thrust up into an Ochs-like position, which I think looks pretty epic.

And like I said, it’s important to be able to flow off your thrusts into a cut. This is a nice compound attack because you can use it to fake out your opponent into covering a different opening. Any cuts are good – oberhau, unterhau, or even the master cuts. You should practise all of them.

The last attacking skill we’ll use from Pflug is changing through. This is just a little circle with the point under the blade, to thrust again on the other side. If you can mix up cutting and changing through you’ve got some good potential attack combinations coming along.

Defences

Pflug is a defensive guard. I mean, that it is both strong position to parry from, and a parry at the same time; It’s easy to raise up into Ochs to defend against a high blow, and you can use it to defend against a low blow. Solid.

Master Raske reminds us that Ochs and Pflug go together. What pulls a Plough (Pflug) – an Ox! So we use them together to defend our openings, against both cuts and thrusts.

One of the other defences we can use from Pflug is a Hanging, or Hengen. We learnt this last time with Ochs, and it’s even easier to do from Pflug. Just parry raising your arms and dropping the tip, swinging the sword in a circle to counter-attack. Make sure you step out nicely as you do.

Finally, there’s heaps of cool grappling moves you can pull off from Pflug. Like a hilt hook, a pommel, or using the neck to leverage your opponent down. Check out the video to see how these work.

See you again soon!

Hand Position, or Why a Lightsaber is not a Sword – Although it is Still Awesome

‘You wouldn’t hold a lightsaber like that.’

‘Or not necessarily like that,’ I say. ‘Because it doesn’t have an edge and therefore your hand position doesn’t need to…’ My voice trails off as I realise that not only is my friend Tony’s dad—comic geek extraordinaire and self-appointed expert on the Star Wars universe—staring at me but I have also attracted the attention of his two equally-expert friends.

‘Wouldn’t hold it like what?’ The biggest friend—currently holding a truly epic-awesome lightsaber replica—asks, pointing the sword in my direction in a way that would have been threatening if a) it had been turned on and b) he knew how to use it.

‘Like a sword.’ I say.

‘It is a sword, ‘says Tony’s dad. ‘An elegant weapon for a more civilised age.’

‘It might be elegant,’ I say. ‘And it is completely awesome. But it isn’t a sword. A sword has an edge and a flat and the edge is stronger than the flat (except in John Clement’s world) as well as actually cutting and that affects the way you use it. But a lightsaber can cut from any angle so it’s more like a staff or an extremely lethal stick or… I could show you,‘ I say. ‘If I could just borrow one of the lightsabers?’

Big guy pulls his lightsaber protectively to his chest (good thing it’s a replica and not turned on) but the other guy hands me his weapon and pulls out a second.

‘Okay, young Padawan,’ he says grinning. ‘Show us what you know.’

And though I intended just to show them the different hand grips—because Master Raske has been drilling us on holding the sword properly and being very scathing about what he calls ‘Oliver’s Jedi grip,’ which is where I hold it like a stick and try to cut with the flat—the other guy clearly wants to fight.

He extends his lightsaber and holds it directly in front of him in what must be the basic lightsaber guard because they all do it even though Master Raske says it’s not a real guard.

He then swings back (because he can’t hit effectively from that position which is one of the reasons it’s not a real guard) and goes to hit me.

I step sideways and cut his arm off. And I’m about to push his lightsaber down (because I against a one handed opponent I would have the advantage in the bind) and chop his head off when he wants to start again.

He swings back in a movement that’s almost identical—I guess like Anakin he’s a slow learner—and goes to hit me on the other side.

I cut his other arm off.

Then his head.

Darth Sugarloaf Strikes Again

Then we start again and this time he doesn’t bother with a guard but just comes in with a oberhau and we meet in the bind and because he’s twisted his wrist (instead of making a straight line as Master Raske says we must do or we’ll be both unnecessarily weak and/or risk breaking our wrist) it’s easy to push his lightsaber down a little and stab him in the chest.

And by this time Tony’s laughing and my other friend Jason is crowing and Tony’s Dad and Mr Big Guy are looking angry and I think it may not go well for me, even though I do think lightsabers are awesome and Master Raske says that in the right hands they would be unbeatable. But fortunately the guy I am fighting is a good sport about it and even says he might check out the longsword training.

Oh, and Jason distracts everyone else by asking the old question of why they didn’t just turn the lightsaber off in the middle of the fight and reactivate it next to their opponents head. And in the general groans, eye rolls and explanations, I am temporarily off the hook.

Though I continue to think that no matter how awesome a lightsaber is, it isn’t a sword.

BTW the answer to Jason’s question is

1. As Jedi (and Sith) have predictive power the ‘surprise’ of turning the lightsaber off wouldn’t be much of a surprise and they’d probably use your temporary defencelessness to kill you.

2. Lightsabers do not necessarily turn on that fast and the middle of a fight is not the best time for a tech malfunction.

3. There is a technique that uses this ability called Trakata but it isn’t canonical.

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How to hold a Sword

Ok, so if you’re using a real sword you need to pay attention to the orientation of the edge and the alignment of your wrists. The Basic rule here is not to “break” your wrists. Not actually breaking bones of course (although if you deliver a blow with a ‘broken’ wrist you could strain your tendons) but not having them out out of alignment with your forearm and the sword.

Broken wrist to the inside

Broken wrist to the outside

Wrist unbroken

This last one here is correct. There should be a straight line that runs down your forearm, through your wrist and down the line of the sword. This allows your sword to transmit energy using the structure of your bones. If it’s broken, your strike will be weaker, and it’s going to hurt your wrists. Even worse, a broken structure means your sword will be weak in the bind, and your opponent will be able to move it around easily and strike you. You’ll spend a lot of time over-compensating for weak structure.

We can see another picture of a strong structure below, which could exert or receive pressure through the blade.

A strong line.

So how should you grip the sword? That’s quite a big question. First, hold it firmly but relaxed. Don’t tense up or “choke the sword like you see in the first picture below. The second picture shows a more relaxed grip, with the handle of the sword cradled into the heel of your palm. It’s also an example of the Close grip – with hands close to each other on the handle.

Choking the sword

Close grip.

Regular grip

Pommel Grip

Reverse grip

As you can see, there are lots of ways to hold the sword. Which one you choose depends on personal preference and the techniques you’re using. The close grip allows the pommel to swing freely, which allows for strong strikes, but the pommel grip allows you to leverage the sword and pull it back from a bind sharply. You’ll need to use it if you’re doing techniques like the Zwerchau. The regular grip is a compromise between the two. And Master Raske says you even find the Reverse Grip in the historic fechtbucher (fencing books), as it allows for a remarkably strong bind, but that it’s probably not a very wise place for a novice to start.

In any case, your hands shouldn’t be staying static, but should be shifting grip as you use the sword – first pushing then pulling the pommel, sliding up and down, dependant on which plane you’re moving the sword in.

Thumb grip

So this is the thumb grip – with the thumb over the crossguard and placed on the flat of the blade. You never use this one with a lightsaber but you do need to use it on a sword for some of the guards and some of the master strikes (if you look back at the Krumphau, you’ll see it being used there). It’s pretty cool, as it helps us make strikes with both edges of the sword.

The Guards and Hand position

So now you know the basic guards, we can make sure that your grip is right in each of them.

Vom Tag

Ready to leverage the pommel, while still dropping the sword downwards.
Alber

See the line of the hands?

Pflug

Left Pflug

Right Pflug

Left Pflug uses the thumb grip, while Right Pflug does not. Notice the left hand coming almost off the pommel in right Pflug.

 Ochs

Left Ochs

Left Ochs isn’t too hard. You can see the left hand coming almost onto the bottom of the handle, ready to push the point forward.

Right Ochs

Without the right hand

Another angle

From your perspective

But Right Ochs is damned tricky, because of the crossed position of the hands. You need to reach through under your dominant hand with the hand on the pommel. You can see this pretty clearly in the second picture – held without the right hand. This can actually be a good way of forming the guard properly. In right Ochs, the hand on the pommel is doing most of the work – the forward hand is just guiding the point to its target.

So that’s about all for this week, but Master Raske says it’s about time you got some drills to practise on your own. Here he is demonstrating a few of them.

1. Transitioning from Pflug to Pflug (with and without the thumb grip).
2. Transitioning from Ochs to Ochs (much trickier, but it’s fun to do).
3. The Cone of Death – Moving in an arc through Ochs – Pflug – Pflug -Ochs, keeping the point on line.
4. A simple Guard drill

Happy practising!

Vom Tag, or Why You Should Never Try to Explain German Longsword to the Police

So it’s the last week before Christmas and I’m supposed to be practising for the end of year fencing tourney but instead I’m sitting in the Police Station.