The last post looked at third ward vs. half-shield. There are differences between this play and that one, with the key being that this play takes place from the left side of the attacker (the person who enters with reverse half-shield). This changes what each participant can do. The other big difference is that the defender will also form a counter-ward during the play. This means this play is beginning to teach that counter-wards can also oppose counter-wards.
To save time, this will have some copy-paste from the last post, and I will not describe techniques I've described before in as much detail.
As described in Part 2, a sword and buckler fight (or at least an exchange) is divided into (up to) 6 stages which describe a few 'what ifs':
Before the fight
The coming in
a) I attack, or b) They attack
I defend
a) I control and win, or b) They control and win
We grapple
In this context, 'I' am the one attacking, which means I am the one who enters using a counter-ward. The person in the ward is (paradoxically) the one who is defending. This is perhaps an artificial distinction, but it emphasises the use of the counter-wards fleetingly and offensively.
It should be noted that I.33 provides instructions on how to win for both participants, so you need to learn both sides of the fight for the times when you are the one defending!
Before reading this post, it is imperative that you read the previous posts, especially the post on reverse half-shield. Also remember what I wrote about the dangers of using half-shield on the left.
Stage 1 Before the fight
For every play we can assume that this stage is largely the same. Both participants are out of distance, meaning two steps away from each other. They are changing from ward to ward, trying to gain an advantage, perhaps taking 'pot shots' at each other that are easily parried by the buckler. At some point, I see that my opponent (the defender) is moving into, or is lingering in, Second Ward.
Stage 2 The coming in
Seeing my opportunity, I step in and slightly to the right, and 'strike' from whatever ward I was in into reverse half-shield. I pause for a heart beat to see what the defender will do.
Stage 3a I attack
If my opponent does nothing then I will take another step forward with my left leg and perform an attack. I could make several types of attack.
The easiest to do is a Scheitelhau, which is a downwards strike to the top of the opponent's head, made over the top of their buckler. Keep your buckler in front of your sword hand!
I could make a horizontal strike to the head from the right with the false edge of my sword (a Zwerchau, effectively).
Perhaps most effectively, I could step through and make a horizontal strike directly to their face, seizing up their sword with the tip of my sword. I 'run them over'. See the Guy Windsor video linked at the bottom of the page.
As I've hit my opponent, this ends this sequence of the play.
It is typical for students to practice each sequence of the play to its logical end, and then start again and do the next sequence. Now students will practice stages 1, 2, and 3b.
Stage 3b They attack
This is the first big big difference between second and third ward plays. The defender cannot make a Stichslach from the right hand side.
They could probably make a regular thrust to the right side of my sword. They may also decide to attack low, underneath my buckler to my ribs or left leg - this has happened to me a few times in sparring, so watch out for this (perhaps I was holding my counter-ward too high?).
The defender can probably counter attack reverse half-shield in a few other ways, but i.33 suggests that they form their own Reverse half-shield, as in the below illustration:
Now whatever I can do to them, they can do to me. They can launch their own attack as I did in Stage 3a. Basically, they can push my sword to their left and step through to their right with an attack to my arms, head or face.
In practice, I have found that this action is not really the opponent forming a 'position' against me. It is more that they are forming a bind on my sword. By turning their true edge to the left they form a stronger bind on my blade and can push it to their left, even pushing their sword hand over their buckler arm a little. Their buckler is then in place to maintain the bind while they step through and attack me with their sword.
This ends the second sequence. The sequence starts again, this time stages 1, 2, 3b (assuming an unsuccessful attack) and 4.
Stage 4 I defend
This stage is all about making an active 'parry' to 'bind' our opponent's sword. Since I was first to enter, I have the advantage as I can react to what my opponent did in stage 3b.
Assuming the defender has tried to attack and step through in stage 3b, I will bind my opponent's sword down to my left.
Stage 5a I control and win
In stage 4 I have bound my opponent's sword to the left, so I can now conduct a step through.
To step through, I step right and towards the opponent and attack the arm, head or face. This is shown in the Guy Windsor video at the bottom of the page.
The buckler needs to be used defensively, so try to maintain a bind on their sword with your buckler, or at least keep your buckler between yourself and their sword.
Here is an illustration from i.33 of the step through:
This is the end of the this sequence, resulting in me defeating my opponent. The play now starts again and the students practice stages 1, 2, 3b, 4, and 5b.
Stage 5b They control and win
Following stage 4, the defender is overbound on their right by my sword. We saw someone overbound on their right hand side in the last post, but didn't explore how they counter this.
To counter this, they need to disengage their sword to the inside.
They can't disengage under the sword when overbound on the right in same way as on the left (i.e. by collapsing their sword into a hanging-ward-like positon).
Instead, while I am binding their sword, they simply need to dip the point of their sword, and make a clockwise circle with it. This will bring their sword out from underneath my sword. This will be familiar to practitioners of sabre or rapier.
(Note: this way of disengaging can also be done from a bind on the left, dipping the point and making an anti-clockwise circle with it).
They could then either bind over my sword to their right and follow up with a shield-knock and Nucken, like in 5a of the play of Third ward vs. half-shield. Alternatively, as i.33 advises, they should simply go straight for a stichslach.
Alternatively, Guy Windsor suggests they move right and make a rising false edge cut to the bottom of my arms (if they are not protected by my buckler). This is shown in the video linked at the bottom of the page.
This sequence of the play ends and now the students start again, this time practicing stages 1, 2, 3b, 4, 5b and 6.
Stage 6 We grapple
As this is meant to be a beginner's guide, I'm not going to spend too much time on this stage. Grappling can be done at any stage if the opportunity arises.
In short:
Right: If the opponent's are in a bind on the right hand side of the person who intends to grapple, the grappler can turn right and wrap his/her buckler arm (if free) around both arms of the defender's to gain control of the defender's weapons.
Left: If the opponent's are in a bind on the left hand side of the person who intends to grapple, the grappler can turn left and wrap his/her sword arm (if free) around both arms of the defender to gain control of the defender's weapons. Alternatively, the grappler might be able to step forwards and wrap his/her buckler arm around the opponent's arms without turning, so the opponents stay facing each other.
The opponent can release his/her weapons to escape the grapple, but this leaves the opponent defenceless. This is illustrated in the image below.
That's it!
How well does it work in practice?
A few early observations from using this in sparring:
Reverse half-shield works very well as a parry, and is is easy to get into from second ward.
It is a little harder to strike from Reverse half-shield than half-shield.
When I entered in Reverse half-shield, the opponent has cut underneath my buckler to my ribs on a few occasions. I think I prevented their strike reaching me once by going into longpoint and thrusting them, but on other occasions I didn't react properly and their blow struck me. It is possible I had my Reverse half-shield too high, or it is possible that their strike simply took me by surprise.
Videos
I've only seen one video of this, from Guy Windsor, which is very good and fairly simple:
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