Normally, you will find that most of the "four quarters" beloved by Lichtenhauer are fine as far as they go. Upper thighs, body.
That is all well and good, but you have limbs to worry about. As we all know, a kick by your opponent to your goolies can ruin a plan...like instantly.
Now, as we look at this picture, I question what is going on... a lot! Oh sure, he dropped his sword onto the other guy's arm...perhaps after a nice buckler stop. If I may say so...this looks like a target of opportunity. It would NEVER be executed as you see here. The fellow on the left will step forward with his rear foot...and step off the line of attack to the left. Only after doing this can he have the opportunity to drop the sword on his opponents extended arm. This illustration does not say that he does that, But he DID step right, and displace his foe's sword to the left.
I was wondering if this was a squinting cut...but nobody has stepped sufficiently aside to accomplish that very difficult cut. But if had stepped right, then his sword is not shown as passing his body.
I have been thinking hard about this illustration. I wondered if the fellow on the left simply draws his sword across his opponent's arm...and this shows him at the very beginning of a flamboyant draw cut. Or maybe it is a forward slice....which might be likely if he was to turn his feet around and step left. Moving left around a blade pointed at your belly, even IF you think you have control with your buckler is too daft for words. Don't do it!.
A cut to the leg. Very dangerous...yet often resorted to by people who just cannot resist an opening. Check out the illustration below...
Both plate 44 amd 45 show that you should not neglect targets of opportunity. The fellow on the right on plate 44 is clearly well away from his opponent...and may be moving in or moving out. I would not do such a move on the way IN, it is too likely to fail, spectacularly. On the way OUT, it is a very good move because of course, it doesn't matter if you miss such a spectacularly high moving target. The men in plate 45 are engaged in a very dangerous set of moves. The fellow on the right has stabbed at the fellow on the left, and missed. He gets a sword in his foot. Again, VERY dangerous since of course, the right hand sword is ready to take the left hand sword's head off!
Perhaps in plate 12 the fighters were binded at the crossguards and the kicker used the leg thrust to the midsection to cause a distraction &/or a body fold thus moving the target head closer into range for a snapping cut from the bind and this will now be the end of this run on sentence.
ReplyDeletePlate 239 is indeed odd footwork depiction. I'm thinking artist talent or perception skills are influencing things here. I would also think that if the left swordsman was doing a rear pass to deflect the stomach thrust his responsive arm attack would have his sword pointing towards the outside of the right swordsman's right arm.
plate 10 is perhaps showing that this attack is best attempted with your body really out of harm's way such as in executinga 90 degree shift
plate 44-45. I can see the first plate's opportunity presenting itself but I wouldn't try the second one unless i was positioned more like in plate 10