Giant Slaying 101
This workshop is about the strategies and training for shorter fencers. The concept of this class is to help show you your advantages, disadvantages, and ways to improve your skillset.…
Introduction
This workshop is about the strategies and training for shorter fencers. The concept of this class is to help show you your advantages, disadvantages, and ways to improve your skillset.
Physical Conditioning
Make this a part of your lifestyle, and look for creative excuses to train.
Are there stairs? Take them; if you can, take them two or three at a time.
Leaving or entering a room? Try doing a couple of pull-ups or chin-ups on the doorframe.
Can't do pull-ups yet? Then just hang or do an L-sit for as long as you're able.
These are only a few examples on ways to help keep yourself maintain your abilities. Keep in mind both your strengths and your weaknesses when devising a conditioning routine. Train areas in which you are weak to improve in those areas; train in areas where you are strong to enhance the advantages you already have. Also bear in mind your preferred style of fighting; choose exercises that will complement it. For smaller people, common areas on which to focus include speed and agility, plyometric/explosiveness, and endurance. Training a full range of motion/rotation instead of just moving in linear ways is very important for building well-rounded strength and preventing injury. Think about how you move with a sword; it isn't just an up-and-down motion like with a standard bicep curl. You wind. You press against resistance at several different angles when you strike or bind. You need to incorporate movements to support all of that when you're designing your conditioning routine. Training muscles most people neglect can help to give you an advantage.
Sample exercises
Dumbbell or plate halos
Wrist circles
Arnold presses
Push-ups with different hand angles and arm positions:
Windshield wiper
Traditional push-up
Wide-grip push-up
Close-grip push-up
Clap push-up
One-leg push-up
Dead-stop push-up
Eccentric push-up
Spider-Man push-up
One-armed incline push-up
Decline push-up
Incline push-up
Side to side pull-ups
Winding with dumbbells
Leg circles
Russian twists
Internal and external ab rotation
Rotating lunges
Dips
Flutter kicks
Mason twist with dumbbell or plate
Training without movement can also be beneficial to your structure, form, and endurance. Training static endurance in guards (especially high guards and longpoint) can give you an extra advantage, as these cover the primary targets that opponents are likely to attack. Practice whenever and wherever you can, and the improvements will build. But remember to start small and build so as not to burn out the muscles.
Example:
Take your sword or a light dumbbell and go into guard while you're watching TV; try to make it to or through a commercial break.
Set a timer for 1-5 min and try holding each guard throughout the time allotted.
Learn your body and how it moves; this will be different for each individual. The more physical literacy you have, the better you will be able to use your body to its best advantage. Why are biomechanics so important? First, they help prevent injury. If you have muscles overcompensating for lack of strength or structure, you can end up with a long-term injury (especially in areas like shoulders and knees) and can be overrun by someone who has both greater strength and good form. Second, as a smaller person, you have to rely on structure more and have less strength with which to compensate for improper form. Where a bigger, stronger person with bad form may be able to muscle his or her way through a technique, you will not have the same leeway. Small people can pick up big, burly people if they know how to do a Fireman's carry; if the same small people try to deadlift a giant, they're more likely to end up with a back injury and their buddy still on the ground.
Another demonstration of the importance of biomechanics and knowing your body comes from Harry Winter, IIRC. Pretend you're holding a knife in ice pick grip and stabbing down at your partner's head from above. Your partner blocks your strike, and you try to overpower him/her. Now, lift up your pinky finger about half an inch. Your partner should suddenly be forced to work a lot harder to stop your strike. Why? By the slight motion of lifting your little finger, you engage additional muscles in your arm and can suddenly apply more downward force to your strike.
Pell work is also great for getting conditioned to hit with good structure and for knowing how close you need to be to hit with your own blade, but since the target isn't moving, always bear in mind how your opponent is moving, and take that into account when figuring out how deeply you need to step. This is part of why controlling the distance and playing footwork games to manipulate the opponent can be so important; it allows you to cross the danger zone more easily. (The "danger zone" (a.k.a. "doughnut of death") is the range at which your opponent can hit you but at which you're still too far away to strike him or her). Practicing good footwork and biomechanics during pell work will greatly benefit your fencing. Don't be afraid to modify techniques slightly to work better for you. For instance, you may need to tweak the angle of a strike or the footwork you use to get a technique to work for you. Don't be afraid to experiment.
Maintaining an awareness of geometry and practicing proper mechanics are extremely important for smaller people who have less leeway for using strength to account for poor structure. Proper mechanics help prevent injury and help you to avoid being overpowered. Leverage beats strength.
Mental training
It's important to practice overcoming negative emotions. If you have to spend mental processing power controlling negative emotions (fear, annoyance, frustration, etcetera) in the ring, that takes away from the processing power you need to fight. You can still raise and manage your adrenaline levels without being hijacked by emotion. This should also be something you train as a part of your lifestyle; go out of your way to seek out your fears and face them. If there are people in training whom you find intimidating or annoying, take every opportunity to spar them until you're no longer afraid or annoyed. If you're scared of heights, start gradually desensitizing yourself until high places seem mundane. Part of this is just training willpower and continually challenging yourself, but there are some tricks to help make it easier. Pro-tip: it's hard to be afraid when you're tired enough.
Having faith in the techniques you use is crucial. Doubt translates to hesitation and collapse of your structure. Letting yourself get intimidated by an opponent or situation can get you killed. There are differences between aggression and assertion. It is harder to be assertive, but it will serve you better, especially as a smaller person. Aggression is taking space; assertion is holding space. Assertion gives you more calm control because you're essentially claiming your ground, like controlling the center of the board in chess, and forcing your opponent to take the space back from you. If you're aggressive, you are acknowledging that the space belongs to your opponent and that you have to fight on his or her turf, which is a disadvantage. Tactical patience will serve you better.
Learn to put a slider switch on your aggression rather than an on/off. There will be times when you need to move in and times when you need to hold your ground or make a tactical retreat; being able to consciously regulate your level of aggression and know when to apply it will serve you well. You will be able to take the Vor without becoming an easily-defeated Buffel, and you will be able to retreat safely after striking. It will give you better control of yourself, your space, and your opponent. Being in control of your mental state can help you deal with opponents who will try to overwhelm you. Engage on your terms. Psychology is a level playing field.
Key Techniques
There are three main issues you will face as a smaller fighter. These are:
An opponent who is bigger/taller than you are, a.k.a. the Bean Pole (overrunning, longer reach, larger danger zone) this describes the super-tall opponent whose head you can't reach but who, able to outreach you, can either clobber you over the head while you're still out of range to counterstrike or can use thrusting to hold you off and stab you in the danger zone before you can cross it.
An opponent who is stronger than you are, a.k.a. the Mountain/Boulder (being overpowered, facing someone who is seemingly immovable even if not particularly aggressive)
An opponent who is more aggressive (Buffels).
For taller people: go under; guard above; get in past the point; make use of provocation techniques; clear the line; control the space; try zwerch combos thrown from angles that allow you to clear the line; use techniques that allow you to safely traverse the danger zone.
For stronger people: go weak/soft; dance around them and work to the openings; be patient; use the whole sword and remember that it is a lever. Just like there are soft and hard styles of martial arts such as Aikido vs. Tae Kwon Do, you can use a soft fighting style in HEMA to defeat superior strength.
For more aggressive people: sidestep the buffels; practice getting offline quickly; fight smarter; use speed and agility.
Being able to change your stance can be helpful; if you are already short, there are times when dropping to an even lower stance can make it more difficult for your opponent to reach you or to counter attacks you make to low targets. However, take care not to get so low that your head becomes vulnerable. Likewise, taller people fighting shorter people can sometimes gain an advantage and take the shorter opponent off guard by dropping into a stance at the shorter person's height or lower.
Using nachreisen, by acting as a countering defender in response to a situation you have engineered (see the 7 up drill), allows you to stay a fraction of a tempo ahead and use that to claim the Vor. The opponent must transition to the next move, giving you the chance to take the initiative and interrupt his or her tempo/OODA loop. Attacking (specifically, utilizing nachreisen) while your opponent is changing guards or while their blade is moving away from you buys you extra time.
For smaller people, there are two safe places on either side of the danger zone. When you and your opponent are both too far away to hit, you are reasonably safe. When you move in close beyond the opponent's point such that you have a structural advantage, you are also reasonably safe. As a smaller fighter, one of your primary concerns should be effective ways to cross the danger zone without getting hit. A lot of the drills outlined here (deceptive and explosive footwork, hand snipes, provocations to draw in your opponent, testing your opponent's reactions and reading tells to give yourself extra time to move in, etcetera) can be useful in training this.
A couple of examples of ways to control space with footwork and to close distance surreptitiously are to use a cross-step as you are circling your opponent or to approach with your right foot forward, then switch feet without changing distance from your opponent so that you can take a larger step with your right foot on the attack. If you walk straight toward your opponent, their instinct will be to back up or to attack; if you incorporate offline steps in your approach, you can close distance more easily by changing the angle of your approach when it is time to attack. Ultimately, when you go to attack with an offline step, you will want your center line to align with the mother line that connects you to your opponent while taking his or her center line off of the mother line.
If you get close enough to grapple, you can wrench (or pommel strike from below). You can try a Talhoffer kick to create space, but then you risk losing contact with and control of your opponent's blade and/or kicking the opponent into a distance that favors them over you (i.e. the danger zone). Wrenching tends to work a higher percentage of the time, because it keeps control and works via leverage. Winding, doubling, and mutating are all good techniques that can be used when you must be weak/soft and rely on leverage; practice fühlen and know when to apply them. Also, practice using pressure and feints to prompt your opponent to react the way you want and thus to set up desirable situations.
The zwerchhau is also favorable for shorter fighters for many reasons. The benefits of the zwerchhau include: it closes the line. It starts and ends in ochs, which helps to keep your head defended when facing taller opponents. It can be thrown on many different lines. Depending on the line you choose, it can keep more of your body covered while still posing a threat to your opponent. Also note that, since unterzwerch counters zwerch, you have a greater chance as a shorter person of winning an exchange even if your opponent performs a zwerch to counter. - When clearing the line, remember that you can use your cross guard to shove your opponent's blade out of the way.
The quote on the zwerchhau from MS3227a ([45], [46], and [47] on pg. 91 of the compilation).
[45] This is about the Zwerchhau (transversal strike) Comment Here learn and know that of all fencing techniques with the sword, there is no strike that is as fair, forceful, perfected and good as the Zwerchhau. And this strike is done just across to both sides with both edges, the back and front edge, to all openings above and below. It also defends against any strikes from “vom Tag” which are all strikes from high above or anything that comes down from above, and this all is defended with the Zwerchhau.
[46] If one wishes to execute these well, the sword should be thrown across before the head to whichever side he wishes, just as he would intend to get into the hanging or winding positions, save that he turns the flats of the sword, the one upward and the other downward or below, and the edges across to the sides, the one to the right and the other to the left side.
[47] And with these Zwerchhau (crossing strikes) it is easy to get at the sword of the adversary. And as soon this has happened, it is difficult for the adversary get away and will be struck at both sides by the Zwerchhau…
Das Ander Theil des Newen Kůnstreichen Fechtbůches resembles an index of variations on my favorite zwerchhau combination; the sequences of failers follow a similar pattern. It also includes a bit of nachreisen at the end, lots of reliance on athleticism and fast, deep, offline footwork, and so on. In other words, it is all about how to cross the danger zone if you have a shorter reach and/or can't easily establish and work from a bind. The strategies it depicts are to hit a closer target and get out of the way without having to pass through the danger zone, in order to reach a deeper target (as in the fourth device) or to close so deeply that someone with shorter reach has the advantage (as in the sixth device). Also note the fifth device, wherein the attacker closes the distance after the first strike with a follow-on attack, as opposed to with it. Notice that many of the attacks depicted in this manual end in ochs.
The sword itself is not an equalizer. How you use it is; the art is more the equalizer. If you aren't able to overcome a threat, it means that you need to go back and take a look at your understanding of the art and at how you're applying it given your unique strengths and limitations. (See The Book of Martial Power for further explanation).
Workshop Content
Warm-up:
Triangle steps
Skating (stay low)
Gather x2, triangle step
Alternating jump squats and switch lunges (alternatively, prisoner squats)
Archer push-ups (typewriter push-ups and crucifix push up jacks were also demonstrated)
Seated leg circles
Russian twist
Internal and external rotations
Extended arm plank hold(s)
120 plus 80 (half with a dominant grip, half with a non-dominant grip)
Drills:
Footwork game: Place a jacket or other marker on the ground. Person A attempts to maneuver Person B onto the jacket and is allowed to tag Person B if the distance gets too close. Person B's goal is to maintain a reasonable distance from Person A and not get tagged or maneuvered onto the marker.
Peacock's Tail and Asp's Tongue (from Döbringer)
Observing opponent during guard changes (look for tells and for how they tend to respond to specific actions or positions you take during the fight- see if you can deliberately make them take a certain position by repeating an action).
7 up with nachreisen (Person A takes a guard; Person B throws the strike that breaks that guard; Person A, knowing what strike Person B will have to throw, has a tempo after B's strike in which to counter).
Ochs-focused Against the Wall: (put one foot against a wall/mat/other marker; pick either a left or right side ochs and defend all incoming strikes from that guard regardless of where the strike comes from).
Winding game with side changes allowed
Soft vs. hard bind (Person A and B strike to a zornhau bind; Person B then determines if the bind is soft or hard and responds appropriately; if the bind is soft, Person B cuts through to their left and strikes to the opponent's right side; if the bind is hard, Person B rides the momentum and snaps around with the back edge on their right side).
Dowel rod drill (Person A has a sword; Person B has a dagger or short dowel rod; Person A strikes slowly at Person B; Person B must be soft and counter by redirecting the momentum of incoming strikes with the dowel rod before throwing any counterstrikes; think sword Aikido)
Zwerch plays and openings game (see plays [66] and [75] from von Danzig, found on pages 106 and 114 of the compilation, respectively; for the openings game, the object is to strike to the four openings using zwerchs thrown at different angles, such as with unterzwerchs)
Variation 1: Person A is limited to zwerchhaus, Person B is free to spar normally
Variation 2: Person A practices striking zwerchhaus to the four openings, Person B parries
Variation 3: Person A and B take turns in the role of defender and attacker throwing only zwerchs such that Person A throws one strike, then B throws one, then A throws 2, then B throws 2, etcetera, up to a pre-agreed upon number)
Clearing the line (via streichen, krumphau, and other techniques)
Wrench and pommel strikes (for the latter, we discussed striking up from underneath with the pommel through the opponent's arms)
Miscellaneous Notes
Chapter 5 of The Book of Martial Power offers a helpful perspective related to the content of this workshop.
When practicing the ochs-focused against the wall drill, reference the following quote from Wallerstein. Pg. 18, plate 5 on length talks about staying low and "making yourself small in your body so that you are great in your sword".
We traded swords between drills; training with swords of different weights and lengths can help you get better at judging distance and allows you to double-check your own mechanics. When entering a fight, be aware of the length of your opponent's sword and how that will affect their range; also notice their body type, the direction of their feet, how long their arms and legs are, and so on.
Another good drill for judging distance when both you and your opponent are moving is Samurai Showdown; both of you walk towards each other and when you think you are in range to strike, throw an oberhau to the head. You each get only one strike. If you strike and miss, your opponent can still take his or her strike. In the first variation, you are both walking at a brisk pace and you cannot retreat nor change the tempo of your walk. In the second variation, you may use fencing footwork and may change the pace of your advance, but you may not retreat. In a third variation, you may add in retreats.
Recommended Reading
Weak and nachreisen techniques from Dobringer/Ringeck/von Danzig (I highly recommend checking out the gloss compilation, The Recital of the Chivalric Art of Fencing of the Grand Master Johannes Liechtenauer)
Das Ander Theil des Newen Kůnstreichen Fechtbůches (longsword devices)
The Book of Martial Power by Steven J. Pearlman
Recorded Lesson
This lesson was taught at the VCU HEMA club in 2019 and is a condensed version of the workshop for reference.
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