DRILLS DRILLS DRILLS [Read the rules before posting]

[Brent Lambell]

• Drill Number - 0031
• Drill Name – Zornhauspiel or Distance Game
• Type - Game
• Skills Trained – Distance/range, timing, angles of attack, footwork, Nachreissen
• Props – mask, longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – There is no real Agent or Patient in this drill as both participants are active in this drill. Both fighters begin in Zufechten and are limited to one guard – Vom Tag – and one attack – Zornhau. Both fighters are to avoid blade to blade contact and use distance, movement and angles to void an opponents attack and return with their own Zornhau. All three times – vor, in des and nach – can be trained her. Maintaining vor and regaining it via in des and nachreissen are trained as well.
• Remarks – This game is meant to limit techniques to allow participants to focus on fundamentals like distance and angles amongst others. This is a good game for newer students as it limits complications (like guards and cuts) while also allowing them to participate in a limited sparring capacity. We find that this game can get a little messy but we do our best to just keep going and fighting. We tend towards several two minute rounds, switching up partners to allow everyone to train against a range of body types and fighting styles.
  
  Drei Wunder Introduction - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/6/wkTiDjwkapw
  Longsword Drill 1 - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/5/gh4J8VeEI7U

[Brent Lambell]

• Drill Number - 0032
• Drill Name – Legerspiel or Guard Game
• Type – Drill/Game
• Skills Trained – confidence with Ochs and Pflug in Krieg, counter thrusting, cutting to different Blossen, distance, footwork
• Props – mask, longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – Begin the drill in Krieg. The Agent can assume any guard they want while the Patient is limited to Ochs and Pflug on either side. The Agent is limited to oberhauen targeting either shoulder and unterhauen targeting either hip. The Patient uses Ochs and Pflug to guard various Blossen as the Agent attacks hips and shoulders. The Agent should attempt to move forward and retreat as they attack forcing the Patient to gauge distance. The Patient’s ultimate goal is to guard the attack using their strong against the Agent’s weak allowing a counterthrust from superior leverage. As always, the point of the Patient’s weapon should remain online and in the Agent’s face to threaten attack. The Agent should try to honestly target and attack the Patient and not their sword. The Agent should be attacking various Blossen in combination, trying to attack in an unpredictable manner.
• Remarks – We discovered this drill trying to build confidence in the more defensive of the four primary German fencing guards. Ochs and Pflug have a tremendous defensive/counter attack potential that cannot be tapped until a fencer is confident in them and has trust in their tactical applications. Part of the goal of this drill is to train out the defensive flinch that is so common when someone is attacking your head. This should train a sound martial response in its place. We find that many Patients will constantly retreat as they guard, which is not terrible, per se, although we feel the ability to control range with these guards is a very valuable skill. After all, you can’t really threaten your opponent from Ochs or Pflug when you are Zufechten. We tend to train this in multiple rounds of two minutes. We like this as it allows fighters to train against multiple body types and fighting styles.
  
  Longsword Drill 2 - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/4/0XoApP-H-xo

[Brent Lambell]

• Drill Number - 0033
• Drill Name – Meisterhauspiel or Mastercut Game
• Type - Drill
• Skills Trained – in des, Meisterhauen, footwork, distance, timing
• Props - mask, longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – The Agent and Patient start in Zufechten with the Agent holding Langeort. In this drill, Langeort is a position used by the Agent to hold the drill momentarily while they move and assume a new guard. The Patient assumes Vom Tag for the entirety of the drill. The Agent takes any of the four primary guards – Ochs, Pflug, Vom Tag and Alber – and using dynamic footwork waits for the Patient to throw the appropriate Mastercut. The Agent can assume various guards in succession or use Langort to force a temporary pause and create space. The Agent should not move to the next guard until the Patient has successfully thrown the appropriate mastercut.
• Remarks – Now, this drill is probably going to bring about the most discussion and differing opinons. That’s okay, we are aware that with the entirety of the current HEMA community, the mastercuts might be the most controversial subject of which we are aware. That being said, please use this drill with your interpretation and application of the mastercuts and we hope it should work just as well. The idea here is to help train reliable and martially sound attacks as “go-to” techniques against the primary guards we see in the German tradition. Although there are many techniques available for any variety of tactical scenarios, we have found it helpful to offer students, and ourselves, cuts that have offensive and defensive potential.
  
  Longsword Drill 3 - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/3/6vv96X5XvWM

[Brent Lambell]

• Drill Number - 0034
• Drill Name – Hengenspeil or Hanging Game
• Type - Exercise
• Skills Trained – hangen with zornhau countercut, footwork
• Props - mask, longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – Fighters begin in Krieg, Agent in Vom Tag and Patient in Pflug. Agent strikes a Zornhau at the Patient’s shoulder and the Patient covers with Hengenort then follows immediately with a Zornhau to the Agent’s shoulder. This drill is then cycled in this way with a predictable cut-cover-cut rhythm. As fighters get more confident with this rhythm, they can use more dynamic movement with traverse stepping in both directions.
• Remarks – Although this is not the ‘alive’ sort of drilling we prefer and aim towards, we feel that this is effective for conditioning fencing movements. Because the timing and technique is limited, energy and movement can be emphasized. We train one minute rounds and try to get in two or three rounds of it. Despite the limitation of predictable timing, hand speed and reflexes can be trained here too as we conceive the Hengen position to be a brief but intercepting motion; encountering the opposing blade with force to cover and deflect offline. Waiting for the opponent to actually strike before moving into Hengen is helpful in developing this pressure and motion.
  
  Longsword Drill 4 - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/2/ONjXqJFSt4g

[Brent Lambell]

• Drill Number - 0035
• Drill Name – Bindenspiel or Bind Game
• Type - Game
• Skills Trained – Fuehlen, strong and weak, hard and soft, footwork, absetzen, timing
• Props - mask, longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – Fighters begin in Krieg with blade in a middle-to-middle bind. Both fighters wind their blades in an attempt to lay a point or edge on their opponent’s body. Fighters are looking for a sense of Fuehlen or feeling of anticipating their opponents actions through the blade contact. Fighters can practice hard versus soft and feel strong versus weak to better understand the mechanics of a bind in relation to sword anatomy. If fighters find themselves in a stron-to-strong bind, we recommend recognition of this position with a shoulder to shoulder bump in lieu of coming to grappling. Even when presented the opportunity, fighters should not leave the bind to strike, this game is designed to extend the moment of a bind into a longer training session. Specific techniques such as Mutieren and Duplieren can be practiced in this game as well.
• Remarks – This is an old drill most us have probably done before, but it is a vital part of our training. The manuals make it clear the value of good Fuehlen and bind techniques from the large number of plates dedicated to them. This is also a drill that can be used early on to help develop some fundamental skills like movement, blade awareness and the notion of single-time actions that defend and threaten in the same motion.
  
  Longsword Drill 5 - http://www.youtube.com/user/DreiWunder#p/c/3EA2D4060E7E453D/1/n71eoQ1DJPI
  Drei Wunder Conclusion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIoH-DwsfcI

[John P]

• Drill Number - 0036
• Drill Name – Robot Drill or game
• Type - Game
• Skills Trained – wards and guards and there Interaction
• Props - longsword simulator, armor to your comfort level
• Description – The ref picks pick 2 people to be the robots and tells them how far to stand apart. (close, in and out of measure ) Each robot gets assigned a programmer who tells them what ward or guard they are going to be in and what they are going to do from it. The only thing the robot is allowed to pick is footwork. The ref counts down 3, 2, 1 Go. The robots executes its programmed move at 10% speed and freezes. If no one has been struck the programmers step back in and issues the next command. repeat as necessary. If any one gets in to position for a grapple or pommel bash the first in proper position wins.
  
• Remarks – This is a drill that is perfect for people who are not ready to spar yet but want to get in on the fun. We use it as a way to see different guards and strikes interacting. The robot drill has been the most useful longsword training tool for me. We use it a lot with the high school group.

Video http://youtu.be/7d1Du_KYAfA

[william_cain_iii]

* Drill Number - 0037
* Drill Name – Clean Springing
* Type - Solo Lunging Drill
* Skills Trained – Physical Flexibility, Lunging and Thrusting Posture, Sense of Measure
* Props - Weapon Simulator, Pell/Stationary Target
* Description – Set up your pell, and then step out of measure. Advance into measure and do a thrust. It doesn't have to be spectacular, just do the thrust from where you're most comfortable. Practice thrusting from this position about ten times. Then mark where you had lunged from on the ground, step back out of measure, and approach again. This time, try to thrust from a bit further out, perhaps only a simple step's distance. Continue this cycle until you've found the distance that requires you to lunge to complete a thrust, and practice thrusting from this area. As you get comfortable at a certain lunging distance, try to increase it, although not past the point of martial reality (if you're having to stumble to recover, you've lunged too far).
* Remarks – Astute observers will see that this drill can apply to any weapon that has a thrusting component to it, it isn't limited to rapier or any sword in particular. While the lunge is usually associated with slender thrusting swords, having the ability to spring from across the mat and plant a bladetip in someone can certainly be useful in a messer fight.

[william_cain_iii]

* Drill Number - 0038
* Drill Name – Unterhalten Beta
* Type - Game
* Skills Trained – Ringen, Unterhalten, Grapple Control, Dagger awareness
* Props - Dagger simulator, a safe grappling surface of your choice
* Description – This one straddles the line between drilling and free-sparring. The two grapplers each have a dagger on their belt. The rules are that any grappling technique may be used to bring the opponent to the ground. The daggers may not be drawn until the parties are on the ground. The aim of the drill is to teach control of your opponent before going for your weapon - getting a clean kill without a counterblow is the goal.
* Remarks – This drill is of course mildly unrealistic. Daggers would come out immediately if they were available in most cases. However, there are some cases where someone might wish to subdue their opponent before pulling a weapon. Rare, but having the skill is valuable. This allows people to focus on grappling someone to the ground, -then- worry about daggers involved in the mess, without it turning into the knife fights from Thriller or West Side Story.

[jonying]

* Drill Number - 0039
* Drill Name – Circle of Death
* Type - Game
* Skills Trained – Covering, Striking, Counter, not be scared
* Props - Two longswords
* Description – A small circle is made, around 4 feet in diameter. Agent #1 is inside the circle and can not leave it. The agent #2 is free to move anywhere. Agent #2 is allowed to throw 3 basic strikes (nothing tricky) and Agent #1 has to defend, Agent 2# is trying to kill Agent #1. After the third strike Agent #1 can make the counter. Who ever dies first losses. Winner goes in the Circle.
* Remarks – I designed the drill more for beginners to prepare them for sparing. The two main problems I always find for beginning fighters is that one they run away, two they don't like to attack. Hopefully this drill over comes theses two problems as one is forced to not run away and be confident in his covers and the other is forced to initiate an attack and has to be confident in his strike to win.

[John Harmston]

• Drill Number - 0040
  
• Drill Name - Shadow Master Cutting
  
• Type - Drill
  
• Skill Trained - Master cuts
  
• Props - Longswords (steel or wasters)
  
• Description -
  Phase 1 (solo): Participants begin in a random guard. They advance, performing the same master cut from each guard, resetting between cuts. On each pass they pick a new master cut. This can be done from both sides.
  Phase 1 (alternate version): Performing each master cut in turn from a set guard, resetting between cuts. On each pass a new guard is selected.
  Phase 2 (partners): Agent and patient begin just barely out of range. Agent assumes a guard. Patient performs the master cut designed to break that guard. As the patient steps forward to make the cut, the agent steps back (maintaining the range) while transitioning to a new guard. The patient now must make the master cut that breaks the new guard from whatever guard they ended the last master cut. This eventually takes the form of a chase drill as the patient becomes adept at quickly recognizing the proper master cut to throw and instinctively knows how to cut it from random guards.
  
• Remarks - I designed this drill to help intermediate students quickly recognize how to break various guards and drill the meisterhauwen.