The Wind Book—Masters of Play Fighting

An Oberhau is any cut from above, whether nearly vertical or more diagonal. A Mittelhau is a horizontal cut to the body; wide and easily parried.

An Unterhau is any cut from below. To Unterhau from vom Tag you start out like an Oberhau for the first six inches of hand movement to keep your intent secret and then drop the tip and strike from below with the true edge.

Masters of Play Fighting try to look dangerous by using empty (M–T) parries and swinging wide. They use wide, long strikes (a.k.a. exercises cuts) that are slow and often miss, creating openings. They fence out of measure, which is not real fencing but only school fencing. They say that winding is very weak and call it “of the shortened sword” since it is so easy and uncomplicated. They try and use all the strength of their body as they hold the sword with outstretched arms in order to look dangerous. All of this has nothing to do with winding or Liechtenauer’s art, since this art does not require strength.

Remember, if it was not an art and a skill that can be learned, then the strong would always win.

Just like marketing modern consumer products based on the number of features they have has resulted in many unused features, “feature creep” happened to longsword. Between the time of Johannes Liechtenauer’s Merchverse (written down by Hanko Döbringer in 1389) and Joachim Meyer’s Fechtbuch of 1570, long sword abandoned thrusting as too dangerous and evolved from a fighting technique into a sport. Many techniques and terms were added by masters who gave new names to slight variations in order to increase the number of techniques taught and thereby attract more students to their school.

Many of the extraneous techniques that resulted from feature creep are listed below, but remember...

The true art of Master Liechtenauer is not improved by feature creep.

When he strikes an Oberhau from his right shoulder, pretend as if you are going to bind against his sword with a Krumphau, but let your strike fall short, lead your point through under his sword and wind your hilt over your head and to your right side. Then thrust him in the face.

This is how you can break the Krumphau: If you attack him from your right side with an Oberhau and he displaces this with a Krumphau with crossed hands from his right side, then strongly hold your sword against his. And "shoot" (thrust) the point at his breast with your arms extended.

Another defense against the Krumphau: If you attack him from your right side with an Oberhau and he displaces this with a Krumphau with crossed hands from his right side and if he pushes your sword to the ground, then wind towards your right side, raise your arms over your head and thrust at his breast from above. If he displaces that, stand as you are, with the hilt in front of your head and nimbly work with the point from one opening to the other. This is called the "noble war" and with this you’ll confuse him so much, that he will not know how to defend himself against your attacks.

Here, you must deceive him twice while closing in. When you come close to him with the Zuefechten, jump towards him with the left foot and feint a Zwerch to the left side of the head. But then turn the blow over and strike to the right side of his head. If you have attacked him on the right side of the head as described, strike immediately at the same spot. Then go over his sword with the short edge and your hands not crossed, jump to your left side and cut through his face with the long edge.

If you strike an Unterhau from the right side and he falls on your sword (i.e., he pushes it downwards) so that you cannot lift it up, move the pommel over his sword and, with a snapping motion, strike him on the head with the long edge. Or, if he falls on your sword on your left side, strike him with the short edge.

Use Iron Gate if you are set upon by four or six peasants. Stand in Schrankhut with either foot forward, and then Krump to either side to shame the peasants and displace their pitchforks and shovels. Be careful not to let them get around behind you. Also remember, you don’t want to hurt the peasants since they do the hard work of farming on your estate. You can also use the Peacock’s Tail [Pfobenczagel] so that no one can remain in front of you. Drive them back with the Weed Hoe [Krawthacke].

There is no hurt or disgrace to run away from four or six. When you turn and start to run away from them, throw your sword across and run as fast as you can. This will spread out your opponents. When the first one thinks he has caught up with you, leap to the side of the road. If he is running quickly then he will be moving too fast to control himself and you can strike him down as you wish.

The serpent’s tongue, or “from the point”, comes from the changing through [Durwechseln]. Stand with your point forward as if you wish to change through. Then go with the point in over his hilt with thrusts. Repeatedly try and hit with the point (without stepping) and thus confuse the opponent so much that he does not know what to do against you. When you see an opening then charge in with a full thrust (i.e., with a step). Act quickly so that the opponent does not have a chance to defend.

The weed hoe comes from the Iron Gate [Eisenport]. Thrust your point straight up from the ground at the opponent, and then down again. This is a strong technique when it is done correctly with a step straight forward, and each time you thrust up you should step forward.

The Peacock’s tail comes from the point and it goes with the point around the opponent’s sword or in front of the eyes in a circle or like a wheel [rat/ader czirkel]. Keep doing this straight in front of your opponent’s eyes until you see where you can attack and defeat the opponent.

The technique with no name is derived from changing through [Durchwechseln]. Start with an Oberhau from the right side and then change through to the left with a good step out to the side. Then you do another Oberhau that goes straight at the opponent and hits him in the forehead or across the face.

Or you move as if you wished to Oberhau from the right side and the do a plunging strike [Sturtzhauw] to the same side and come around to the other side under the opponent’s sword with a step out to the side.

As you see, these techniques are only cheap tricks or minor variations given new names—proper technique is straight and true. Strikes and thrusts go directly from the guard to your opponent’s head or body by the shortest and nearest way possible, “as if you had a cord tied to the point or edge of your sword and this leads the point or edge to an opening” (Döbringer). Use one good strike instead of four or six which will again leave you hanging and giving the opponent a chance to hit you.