Joey Nitti wrote:great guide James. I never noticed that about Meyer, how it's divided into a kind of glossary and then practice
It's actually the core structure- glossary, then teaching pedagogy (and then commentary ala Lichtenhauer in longsword). It's an unfortunate thing that Mike Rasmussen's translation stopped just as things got good, as it took me a while to go back and reassess the structure. If you look at longsword, the devices (Chapters 9-11) follow this structure:
1) Basic intro (i.e. what is a device, how to break it down)
2) Attacking
- Basic attacks from one side to the other between the quadrants
- Using basic feints (pulling)
- More advanced feints (running off, changing through)
- Attacking the same side twice, with long and short edge
- Attacking from the bind
3) Defending and counterattacking
- Meyer carefully graduates his options from different guards, increasing the complexity
- First actions from Vom Tag: parry-riposte against attacks from above and below, followed by provoking an attack and countercutting
- Actions from Zornhut and Ochs: similar to above, but using the Hanging is introduced
- Unicorn: the Krumphau and winding
- Key: Winding
and so on, finishing with counters against opening. I've got a rough draft of an article covering this but I need time to polish it.
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