Much of European fencing has a number of patterns, which I refer to as “The Eight Cuts”, or “The German Eight”. The Eight Cuts form an asterisk.
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The Cuts
We will cover the different foci of where you may aim the cuts below, but to first understand the basics of the cuts, we will assume the focus is around the mid torse to the navel.
First Cut
I will focus on the first with lots of detail so that you can understand the breakdown for each part. All the cuts follow this same approximate formula.
TL:DR
The first cut is from your right shoulder, through their left collar bone, exiting out of their hip, passing through where you would sheaf your sword on your left, then rolling up to be over your right should.
Medium Detail
The beginning: Your sword begins from your right shoulder, handle pointed to the front, tip horizontal behind you away from your target.
The first part of the arc: Your right foot is behind, your left foot is in front. From your right shoulder, your sword tip travels an arc over your shoulder with a slight outwards angle to intersect with your opponents left shoulder (on your right), ideally at the collar bone. Just prior to the landing, this is the point where you tighten your grip. As your sword begins it’s movement, you step forwards.
Cutting the opponent: From your opponent’s collar bone, continue the cut down down through their solar plexus / navel and exit the opposite lower left hip. On exiting the body area, loosen the grip of your sword hand. At the point of contacting your opponent, your foot lands.
Hip the sword: If you continue the sword arc, you’ll likely hit the ground (depending on the length of your sword), so you need to start turning your hand outwards so that as the blade continues it’s arc. The sword continues with only a shallow diversion from the true curve until it rises back up to get to where you would have your sword in it’s sheaf at your side. At the point of exiting your opponent’s hip, your palm would be higher than the back of your hand, but pointed outwards. As you curve the sword tip from the natural arc, you turn your hand at the wrist (85%), elbow (10%) and shoulder (5%). Your hand should finish this arc with the palm to your own hip.
Reloading your sword: Your sword tip should be low compared to your hand, and as the tip rises to your shoulder, your hand will flex at the wrist, your forearm will rise and your elbow lift to your shoulder height. Your sword should now be tip behind you, handle pointed towards your opponent, your sword arm crossing your body.
Pedant Detail
Second Cut
The Focus
In the above description, we had the sword pass the centreline at around the solar plexus to navel. We can shift the focus of the cuts to other locations.
They most useful cuts can be focused on:
- the head
- the torso
- the groyne/knee
I have illustrated these foci below.
Your sword can begin its cuts from any ward that you have learned, however you’ll notice that if your hand is to your side or behind you, that there are 3 cuts that are very effective in timing (fastest temp), 2 that are generally a bit slower but still timely enough, 1 cut that is slow and usually 3 cuts that are not possible. Have a play with this concept and discover which are which.
Doing the above exercise will help you work out your more effective and efficient moves in attacking your opponent, or their sword. It will also help you work out what attacks your opponent may do from where their weapon and hand have ended up.
The idea of this is to create a feeling of how you can bring your sword to bear on the opponent in front of you from any ward, or wherever your sword has ended up after perhaps being deflected by your opponent. This creates the ability to flow with your blade.