#german longsword

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Yesterday i was pacing between spars thinking to myself "it's been a while since I've blogged anything but the trainings have been pretty average" then at the next spar I forgot to change gloves. We were alternating sword and buckler and longsword, I did not put on my Lobsters so of course I got decked on the right hand pinky. It's so fucking busted now there's the Big Tournament next month and now I can't spar fuck my alber baka life

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The spiel the instructor told over and over year after year about Lichtenauer's tradition Verboten Hawen. They are the 5 Forbidden Cuts, knewn by the Meisters and by their disciples, and you have the upper hand in a fight against a common sword wielder that is not in the know. They were also called Meister Haw because of that.

In just 8 months in our hall you go from never ever having had a (plastic) sword in your hands to getting told every trick in the Zettel! Isn't it great you now know way more than a peasant? Week after week we drilled the Zorn, the Krump, the Zwer, the Schietel and the Schil. You can do them all over again in the form the instructors cooked up. And you can try them in live sparring. Are you not doing it? That is to say, you try to force them to happen. Over and over again you start from your corner thinking how you are going to do The Thing, and whenever you are in striking distance you execute your plan and it flops.

I have been there and done that a lot over the years. It still happens to me when I am very tired. But more and more I can make tecniques work under pressure. For some time I tought the reason why they worked at the time was because the opponent was sloppy. They were fencing bad so I happen to win over them. My instructor said that it was mostly because I fenced good. Proposterous. Time after time I was getting lucky, was not I?

I am now aware that the less I am aware I am doing tecniques the better the outcome. The truth about Meister hau is that they work only after you have internalized them so much that you spot the right occasion to deploy them not really thinking about what you are doing. You need to drill and to spar and to get your ass handed to you over years before they happen. The truth about Meister's cuts is that you have to Master the cuts.

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Yesterday in sparring I went against a dude that's really bad at keeping form. He barged at me with a stitch and he happened to be the one getting stabbed in the chest.

The instructor asked point blank "what happened just there?"

Without missing a beat I described: "He came in for a stitch while his hips were facing away from me, so I did not bother to parry, I kept my sword on the line and he impaled himself on it while his point missed completely."

Of course the instructor knew, he wanted to check if we were aware of what we were doing. It wanted to be said out and aloud that you can't hit with your stab if you don't keep a proper stance just after it happened in live sparring.

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Yesterday we sparred against the instructor and with me he went for a cerebral study in which he destroyed me over and over again. Some stuff he did was not in any lesson we ever did. Outside the gym I said him "I didn't deserve that reinassance bs you did to me" and he laughed so hard. He told me he that the reinassance style was born to defeat the medieval stuff we study so he rather enjoys using it against me. Sigh.

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I'm not saying my tecnique is smooth I'm saying during a drill the instructor told me "can you do that again? Yeah keep everything the same, do it again. Ok right, now do it again but I'm filming you. Ready? Go. Ok. Again. Another take from here. Ok good thank you" in the "forbidden from taking pictures nor videos club"

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Super quick post about how much I sucked at sparring today. The whole day was bad and everything felt wrong, the gear on me, the energy exchange. Rotten rotten training sesh.

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Yesterday we did a lot of sparring because we were few of us, the instuctor used me as a pin cushion. So many stitches... My ego got a beating.

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My new year resolution for 2026 is to stop going easy in sparring. After the Great Lockdown Hiatus I had to transfer to a new hall with new instructors and newbie hallmates, and I was starting again after the treacherous forced downtime. The next year I had to transition from a student life to a fulltime job, and the hallmates that sticked to it were still green. The next year after the hall near me were I started my Hema journey opened anew, with all new hallmates, except for one guy. I knew the dance by now, it was not useful for anyone for me to try to play mindgames against people still finding their bearings, so I stuck to basics, not using meisterhau they haven't studied, making them take initiative, not upping the tempo, going after them for mistakes, and debriefing them on what to look out for. Now we are in the third year, the once new guys are very serious and studious, and after all this time, I don't have to go easy on my hallmates anymore. Mind you they are taller, heavier, and more fit than me so it was about time they could overpower me. I have years and years of drilling under my belt but very limited sparring experience because of the circumstance I've talked about. I don't care for competitions and turnaments, still I think my fencing needs to go to the next step.