Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

there were three principal actions called drey Wunder (three wonders): the
thrust, the cut, and the Schnitt (a slicing or drawing cut). They taught that
the thrust naturally was used primarily at longer range, the cut at medium
range, and the slice more at close range.
Also, the German Fechtmeisters often divided sword combat into separate
phases and distinguished opportunities for an attack, for example, indes
fechten (attacking in the middle of the adversary’s attack). A fundamental
tenet of their style was the nachraissen (attacking after), in which
rather than taking the offensive, the swordsman invites the opponent to attack
first and then counterattacks, either in the middle of a cut or just after
a cut has missed. This is the familiar idea of the timed countercut.
The German grand master Hans Liechtenauer called these prized
techniques meisterhau (master cuts). These were techniques in which the
swordsman strikes in such a manner that his sword deflects the incoming
blow while simultaneously hitting the opponent. However, the grand master
Liechtenauer taught that a superior swordsman seeks the initiative by
going on the offensive. According to his teaching, passively accepting attacks
by merely parrying blows without responding was inferior and led to
defeat. The German masters also expressed the ideal of stuck und bruch
(technique and counter), the concept that every technique has a counter
and every counter a technique.
German fighting guilds also knew the technique of throwing the
point, or making a false cut that suddenly and deceptively turns into a forward
thrust. When used with armored gloves or gauntlets, the blade itself
could be gripped by the hand. This allowed for a wide range of offensive
and defensive actions known as halb schwert (half-sword). Italian schools
might have called them false-point blows. Using the left hand to hold the
blade allows the right to grip more strongly near the hilt, but some used the
right hand in order to grip the pommel in the left. These moves were suited
to plate-armor fighting, when gauntlets were employed and cuts were less
effective against the opponent, but the Fechtbuchs show them practiced by
unarmored students.
Techniques for infighting were detailed in the surviving manuals as
well. Attacks made while maintaining constant pressure on the opposing
blade in a sticking, binding manner were known as am schwert (on the
sword). Fighting close allowed the opportunity for striking with the pommel
or guard, or binding with the guard. It also allowed for throws, grappling,
and grabbing actions, referred to as wrestling at the sword (Ringen
am Schwert) or disarming moves known as Schwertnehmen (sword-taking).
They were sometimes known as unterhalten (holding down) in the
German systems of fighting. Italian masters labeled their methods of close
fighting and entering techniques gioco stretta (close playing). In the English
Swordsmanship, European Medieval 577