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Controlling Maneuvers

Wrenching:

Refers to any motion of forcing one’s opponent’s weapon or arms in some direction. The term overlaps with one of the words used for “slashing” (cutting through with the short edge), and like slashing, wrenching is often done with the short edge of the sword.

From a bind, to force through the opponent’s weapon.

 

Reversing:

This can refer to any technique in which the hand or hands are inverted relative to their relaxed position; this will of course reverse the orientation of the sword. In Meyer, this is often done after the swords are engaged, to turn one’s weapon over the opponent’s blade, thereby forcing it down and away. The term can also be used of inverting a single free hand. Meyer 54v characterizes reversing as a move that shortens the user’s reach. The early tradition mentions the use of this technique to “weaken” the opponent [Ringeck

30r].

Barring; Crossing Over; Shooting Over:

A variety of terms refering to an action that blocks off the opponent’s sword. Barring and crossing over refer to crossing one’s hands so as to place one’s blade perpendicularly across one’s opponent’s (the action typically happens from the right side). Shooting over refers to the action of sliding the blade over the opponent’s, ending forte to forte, typically as a followup to crossing over. As with reversing and the Crooked Cut, this is one of a number of techniques in which the combattant crosses his hands to in some way restrict the opponent.

 

Slicing Maneuvers

Slicing is one of the three chief forms of attack in the medieval German longsword tradition, along with cutting and thrusting. It would generally appear to imply an attack in which the blade is placed against some part of the opponent’s body, and gains its effect not from momentum, but from pressure and by the potential slicing action of a draw-cut. Like the thrust, the status of this kind of attack may have changed by Meyer’s time: in Meyer, is seems almost never to be used as an independent attack, but as a means of controlling the opponent’s hands, arms, or weapon by applying pressure through the blade, using one’s own forte (generally the long edge).

Slicing:

The slice can be done from above, the High Slice (ober Schnitt), or from below, the Low Slice (unter Schnitt).

The maneuver may be intended for occasions when the combatant is too close for a proper cut. It is often used against striking around.

Pressing the Hands 

A form of slice executed against the opponent’s hands or arms. It may have lost some of its meaning by Meyer’s time, where most slices were executed against these targets.

Blocking:

A “sticky-hands” use of the slice in Meyer, where one keeps one’s forte on the opponent’s arm or weapon until an opportune opening arises.

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