Sword Slash Saturday: The 4 German Stances
In part 2 of “Crossing the Distance” I discussed the Lichtenauer method, which is the German longsword fight manual method. Lichtenauer, works in fours: Four bodily quadradrants for attack and defense, and four basic stances. Today’s sword slash saturday I will go over the basic stances/positions which a sword is held during a sword fight. This is excellent for you artists and writers who wish to depict sword fighters!
1) Vom Tag (pronounced VAHM TOHG): this is the basic for holding a sword. this is a guard where you ready yourself. From here you engage your first attack or defense. the sword is shouldered and the feet are shoulder width apart diagnolly with the left foot in front, and the feet slightly angled out. The hips and torso are faced forward toward the opponent. The right hand is near the crossguard relaxed near the breast and the left hand rests on the pommel. This is often used as a reset or beginning position.
Though there are some depictions and practices (below) which place the Vom Tag above the shoulder and even the head, this can put your body open for a quick stab by the opponent and also end up swinging your whole sword around with your body and making you to slow to parry or react afterwards.
2) Pflug (pronounced FLOOG): This guard is great for blocking and relatively simple. For the right handed version, the left foot is pulled back and you step aside, and the sword is pulled down so the crossguard is at the left hip (the feet and side switch for the left/opposite side). the pommel is brought back and the end of the sword is pointed at the opponents face. Keep the knees relaxed and slightly bent for stabilization/shock absorbing when collecting the impact of the attacker.
You don’t actually need to step so widely, this risks falling over which makes you prone and you ded.
3) Ochs or Ox: Yes, like the animal, Ox, because it is like having defending horns on the head. This is one of the more complicated stances, it’s my favorite because you can use it as a defensive and offensive move, and it works against a lot of your opponent. For this stance, from fluge, pull the the pommel at the side and above your head. Your right hand at the crossguard will be at a slight angle with your inner wrist is up at the sky. The quillons should line up with your knuckles for protection. You can have the point at your opponents chest or head depending on their move or their height. For the “left” version (the sword will be on your right side), your arms will cross over halfway between your wrist and elbow. The right angle of your front arm for both sides and the bending of the other arm makes a great springy “cushion” for catching really powerful downward blows from your oponent, which as a tiny person like me I love to use often….
4) Tailguard - This is more of an Italian Fiore guard but also has a german version which splits the left and right sides into two different stances since tailguard is only a right hand stance. This stance the sword is dropped to the right side,with the pommel just above or at the hip, as if you were to drag the sword behind you (pls don’t!). Make sure your sword is up away from the ground! The right hand stance is known as Nebenhut or “near”. This position is used for rising cuts. Rising cuts go through the lower part of the torso when the opponent blocks high (like in Ox) or cut off the hands. The left side version, which is rarely used is known as Alber or “the fool”. Pretty much the sword is dropped in front of you, pointed down, between the legs and the pommel at the hip. Like Ox, the wrist is pointed up and the knuckles align with the quillons. This is used for quick counter attacks or rising cuts to approaching opponents. who might block in a fluge or even ox. This stance is not commonly used, but to throw off opponents.
Anyway that concludes my comphrehensive list of German Longsword stances. I like the German longsword stances because there’s really only four (mostly three), and the Italian longsword breaks it down even further to like 16? idk off the top of my head different stances, which can be basically broken back down to these four. Sheesh Italians trying to complicate things XD
Anyway stances are great for illustration, or writing; for actions scenes stances make you can imagine what the person would throw next based on how they prep themselves with a stance!
