Holding the weapons
The buckler is held in the left hand (for most fencers) and the sword in the right. The sword is held with a hammer grip or a handshake grip, and held neither tightly nor loosely. The buckler handle is usually vertical, but can be turned clockwise so it is horizontal. The buckler is sometimes held close to the body, and sometimes the arm is held straight out in front to place the buckler closer to the opponent (covering more of your body from the opponent's perspective). Don't lock up your elbow joint.
The buckler is sometimes held 'straight' (i.e. with the flat facing the opponent), and sometimes it is held at an angle (around 45 degrees), with the inner edge of the buckler closer to the opponent - think of it like opening a door to let the blade of your sword past the buckler.
The stance
In I.33, the sword and buckler start separated, usually come together during offending or defencing actions, and then may stay together or separate depending on the situation while striking the opponent. In general, therefore, your stance should often be square on to the opponent, meaning that both shoulders and both hips are equally close to the opponent. From here, stretch both arms our directly in front of you and place your palms or thumbs together. Place one foot slightly in front of the other, and lean forward at the waist (while keeping your back straight) as far as you reasonably can (while being comfortable), flaring your back leg backwards to act as a counter weight (both feet on the ground). bend your front leg knee a little. If it helps, imagine you are trying to push away a child who is trying to kick you in the shins. : )
As you may have guessed, this forward-leaning posture places your centre of gravity lower to the ground, and keeps your legs and abdomen out of reach of the opponent (in theory, at least). This is at the expense of placing your head and shoulders closer to the opponent, but these can be more easily defended by the sword and buckler. The lower stance also means the buckler protects relatively more of your lower body than if you were standing upright.
Now, I said that your shoulders are generally square to the opponent. This is not strictly true in my interpretation. It would be more accurate to say that, when your sword and buckler are both extended (held with both hands together), your shoulders are square with your sword and buckler, i.e. your sword hand is not protruding past your buckler. However, you may be facing your opponent or you may be facing more off to the side. The key thing is that your sword hand does not protrude past your buckler. In reality, your buckler arm can be further forward than your sword arm when you are in a ward, but during extension of the sword and buckler, both hands go together.
What about your legs? Which leg should be forward? Since your hips and your shoulders are square, I say that it doesn't matter too much which leg you have forward. You should be able to walk forwards and backwards using either passing steps or gathering steps without 'swaggering' your shoulders back and forth. However, generally, treat it similar to longsword, meaning if you are in a ward with the sword held over on your right, your left leg is forwards, and when you strike your right leg passes forward (and vice versa for wards on the left). However, if you can strike from any side with either leg forwards, then that is ideal.
Wards
Ward is an anachronistic (old fashioned) word used by the translator of i.33. I.33 was written in Latin with some German words used for fencing terms. Wards are called 'custodia' in i.33 (think 'custody'), which has been translated into English as 'ward' (which means to take custody). 'Ward' was commonly used in the 17th century and earlier in England but was replaced by the French word 'guard' by the 18th century as French fencing terminology became popular ('ward' is just the English spelling of 'guard', which would have originally been pronounced as 'ward' anyway).
I.33 says that anyone using a sword and buckler, whether trained or untrained, will naturally use these 7 wards, which are numbered rather than named:
First ward is held with the sword under the armpit of the buckler arm, usually with the true edge up (but remember, this is a broad category of ward so the exact positioning is irrelevant - after all, you can't tell your opponent they are holding their ward wrong!). From here, a left oberhau (downwards diagonal strike) can be made by rotating the blade along the left side of the arm (with a clockwise rotation of the buckler arm to get your elbow out of the way). A left unterhau (upwards strike) can be made diagonally under the buckler, but is rare in i.33. Lastly, a special type of thrust called a stichslach can be made (more on that in a later blog post).
Second ward is held with the sword over the sword arm (usually the right) shoulder. From here an oberhau can be made from the right (the primary strike) or from the left. These can be turned into a thrust if need be.
Third ward is with the sword above the buckler (left) shoulder. The primary strike is a left oberhau, but a right oberhau can also be made, and likewise these can be turned into a thrust.
Fourth ward is with the sword directly above the head. For the strikes, see third and second ward.
Fifth ward is held with the sword at the hip, typically with the blade held down, off to the side or even backwards. Strikes from here could include an unterhau from the left, and a thrust from the left (which will need to pass through sixth ward). (The image is half missing and has been recreated - it doesn't really make anatomical sense. It is likely the sword is being held straight off to the right hand side and slightly backward.)
Sixth ward is with the sword held with the pommel at the breast, blade pointed forward. This is the starting point for a thrust.
Seventh ward is also named 'longpoint'. It is held with both sword arm and buckler arm extended, both hands together and the blade point extended forwards. It is the end point of all strikes or thrusts. It is also called longpoint regardless of whether the arms are held horizontally from the body (i.e. as if a thrust has just been made), downwards with the point at the floor (a sort of resting position, similar to 'fools guard' in Joachim Meyer longsword), or upwards.
The strikes and thrusts
I.33 does not really describe strikes or thrusts made from a ward, at least not in detail. However, they obviously exist because otherwise the wards would pose no threat, and we do see them made against the counter-wards.
Here are the strikes and thrusts that will be of most use:
The oberhau - made from the left or the right from wards 1, 2, 3, and 4. This is a diagonal cut from above.
For a basic strike, starting in your ward, push the buckler forward and have your sword hand follow it to a position called 'half shield' (with both hands together and the blade somewhat vertical), then extend both arms until the sword is in longpoint (with point slightly pointing upwards). The rule is that the buckler always protects the sword hand throughout the strike. The same is true for thrusts. Do not worry about making the strikes powerful. You will easily generate a good amount of power from the fingers and wrist in the last part of the strike, and often you may 'mutate' the strike into a more deadly thrust.
The normal thrust - made from any ward, this is a thrust made from the right with the buckler held on the left. Buckler hand and sword hand go together.
The stichslach (knocking thrust) - this is a thrust made from the left (again, it can be commenced from any ward) but where the buckler hand passes over the sword hand, and protects the sword hand from the right hand side. Again, both hands go together.
There are several other attacks that are made from counter-wards or following a bind, including the mittelhau or zwerchau (a horizontal cut made above the buckler aimed at the head), the sheitelhau (a vertical strike to the head, over the buckler), the sturzhau (bascially an oberhau that has turned into a high, plunging thrust from above) and the Nucken (a rising cut made from a bent over position following a shield-knock). Don't worry about these, we will describe them when we get to them.
Videos
I've done my best with the images, but nothing beats a good video. Here are some useful ones:
The 7 wards:
Guy Windsor showing some nice strikes and thrusts:
Practicing basic strikes:
In the next post we will look at the main counter-wards.
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