Vor means 'before'. In my last post I talked about exactly what this means, but in summary it refers to attacking actions. It can describe the status of the fencer who is currently attacking. The other fencer is in the Nach and is defending.
Often for new fencers, the first attack in an exchange is the hardest to make. When Fencer A attacks, Fencer B attacks at the same time, leading to double hits. This can be for a variety of reasons, including fencers having a flinch reaction, fencers not recognising when the other fencer is in the Vor, not knowing how to parry, being too close, etc. This can lead to both fencers becoming overly cautious (and can even lead to people quitting HEMA altogether). As fencers become more experienced, this tends to go away, with fencers recognising when it is their turn to be in the Nach - although double hits then tend to happen in the follow-up exchanges where both fencers try to attack from the bind, in Indes (but that's another issue).
In this post, I will explore several ways that a fencer can relatively safely 'seize the Vor' at the beginning of an exchange. This will not cover how they can keep the Vor or win the overall exchange.
What do the sources tell us?
Just hit the bastard*
(* As a fencing buddy said to me when I was going through my overly cautious phase)
In the Pseudo Hans Dobringer gloss of the Zettel, the term Vorschlag ('first strike') is used to describe the first earnest attack in an exchange. If the exchange doesn't end the fight and the opponents leave distance and prepare for another exchange, the Vorschlag would be the first earnest strike of the next exchange. This concept doesn't seem to exist in the other Glosses so it might be unique to Dobringer. However, it is a useful term as, logically, there needs to be a 'first strike' in any exchange.
Dobringer places great emphasis on 'seizing the Vor', i.e. being the one to make the first strike. The reason is fairly simple: if you are striking at the opponent in such a way that forces your opponent to parry you, your opponent is not attacking you. On the other hand, if you allow your opponent to attack you, then you are not threatening them; at some point their attacks will succeed. I'm not 100% sure the RDL glosses place quite so much emphasis on always taking the Vor, but they do seem to suggest that being in the Vor is the preferred option:
"Hear it like this: the Vor, that is that you shall always come before with a hew or a stab to his opening, sooner than he comes to you, so he must parry you..." Ringeck
We are told to strike to our opponent without worrying about what they can fence against us. The Pseudo Hans Dobringer text suggests to me that the strikes are made at the point when you think you can reach the opponent with a single strike. However, it muddies the water a little by talking about a follow-up strike called the Nachschlag. It also talks about making the first strike whether it lands or not, and about making the follow-up strike whether it 'goes well or not for the opponent'. It also says if the first strike is successful, quickly follow through (and this is made before the introduction of the Nachschlag). If it is successful, why would you need to follow through?
"Whether you land it or not, you will still succeed at dazzling and frightening them so that they don't know what to do against this, and cannot recover or come to their senses before you immediately do a Following Strike, and thus you continually force them to defend and cover, so that they cannot come to their own blows."
So from the Dobringer text, it looks as if the Vorschlag is to be made at a distance when it will hit and immediately is followed by a Nachschlag. Now, later on, Dobringer says that the Nachschlag is not made as a 'pre-planned' action, it is only decided upon at the moment your opponent has parried, meaning it is not made 'blindly'.
The RDL Glosses are a little different. They don't talk about a first strike as such. They do say (paraphrasing):
"When you approach the opponent in guard, perform whatever you want to fence against him with the strength of the entire body, and strike with it nearing to his head and to his body, and remain with the point in front of his face or his chest, so he cannot disengage in front of the point. If he parries with strength and allows the point to go out from you onto the side, give him a lighter hit onto the arm."
Later on, Ringeck specifically says of the Secret Strikes to "attempt to, if you may, land a hit with the first strike". Danzig and Lew do not say to attempt a hit with the first strike.
In the section on the four openings, i.e. where you attack to your oponent, Ringeck writes:
"Here you shall note the four openings on the man to which you should fence..", basically the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right. "In the on guard position, aim for whichever opening he open himself against you, artfully without danger, with shooting-in of the long point, with pursuit, and otherwise with all the movements, and do not regard how he bares against you with his movements. So you fence wisely, and throw strikes from them which you are likely to land, and do not let him come to his techniques with it."
There thus seems to be a little flexibility here as to whether the first strike is made at the opponent with the intent to hit, or whether it is made 'near' to the opponent, so you can then quickly follow-up by shooting in the point.
Provoker, taker, hitter
Towards the end of the RDL Glosses, we are introduced to the speaking window, which is the longpoint guard. To paraphrase:
"So you shall also now know the speaking window, that is also a guard in which you may well securely stand. And the guard, that this the long point, it is the noblest and the best ward at the sword. Whoever can correctly fence from it, he forces the man with it, so that he must allow himself to be struck against his will...
Assume the speaking window like this: When you go to him on guard, with whichever hew you then come to him, be it under or an over hew, always let the point shoot in long with the hew, to the face or chest. With it, you force him so that he must parry or bind to the sword, and when he has bound to you like that, remain strong with the long edge on his sword, and stand confidently, and inspect his play, whatever he wants to continue to fence against you...
If he then hews in above, rise and wind in the long above to your head..."
Fast forward 100+ years to Meyer. In Meyer's longsword section of his 1570 work The Art of Combat, he has a section on 'how to fight'. This introduces the Meyer's square diagram, which is a series of 4 cutting patterns, first starting top right, then bottom left, then bottom right and then top left (the other 3 patterns are the same but start in a different corner). We are told to practice this pattern, by first making some provoking cuts from the bottom left to longpoint, and then from longpoint we dip our point into a hanging-like position and cut into our chosen pattern - choosing the starting point of the pattern based on where the opponent is open. The opponent is forced to parry - so long as the cuts are made strongly to the body - and so we keep the opponent on the 'back foot'. We are then told to make our cuts more effective by 'failing' a cut if the opponent has moved to parry it, and before our blades clash move on to cutting the next cut in the pattern. Lastly, we are told to introduce even more complex actions, such as Duplieren and other handworks when our opponent parries.
Now, it is unclear whether this is intended to simply be a training exercise, or whether Meyer really wants us to fight like this, always opening the exchange with a provoking action. The provoking action does appear at the beginning of some of his plays in later chapters, but not all of them. However, given that in Meyer's Dussack and Rapier chapters, he introduces a new tactical concept, it is likely he expects us to apply it to longsword as well. This concept is called 'Provoker, taker, hitter'.
Provoker, taker, hitter is a really useful concept, but it does fly in the face a little of the 'just hit the bastard' advice above, at least at first glance. This concept is simple: your strikes (or parries) can be classed based on their intentions:
Provoker is a strike that is not intended to hit, but is to provoke the opponent into doing something, such as making a strike against you.
Taker is a strike that 'takes away' the opponent's strike, i.e. it parries it, beats it aside, etc.
Hitter is a strike that actually hits the opponent.
While there is no set order in which the strikes can be made, and one strike could serve more than one purpose (e.g. a strike that is made to the opponent might be both a hitter and a provoker), generally the 'provoker, taker, hitter' order creates a nice gameplan for us.
Now in the onset when your opponent positions himself in a posture, guard or parrying, and will not strike, and you cannot cut against his advantage at his opening, then do to him thus: extend yourself long before him and cut one, two or three times against his opening or through his parry [Provoker]. Meanwhile, diligently watch for him to go up, and then go out to the side and cut away his cut... [Taker] then cut at his nearest opening [Hitter]. [I've omitted some text here, which is about cutting several times to his cut if he is not weakened - this could refer to the opponent making several attacks against you].
Practical advice for seizing the Vor
Here are some tips for making a good first strike.
Do not worry too much what the opponent is doing. They may be standing still, they may be moving towards you. If they are moving towards you, do not wait for them to get too close to you before you act. This is what I believe is being referred to in the text above. It doesn't mean ignore them; it means do not let them press you otherwise you will give them the Vor.
Always make the first strike from the correct distance. If you make the strike too close to the opponent, you they will likely strike each other simultaneously. There are two correct distances.
The first distance is 'in measure', i.e. one step away from being able to hit the opponent. Your aim is to 'hit the bastard', although this itself could be a Provoker.
The second distance is that the strike is made one step too far way, so that it ends with your foot 'in measure' and the point in front of the opponent's face. This sort of strike is basically a Provoker (but could also be a Taker if your opponent strikes at the same time); you are using the strike to 'clear the space' in front of you as you step into measure. Now you briefly watch what the opponent does - do they flinch, do they retreat, do they attack - before you make your next action.
Make the strike to their nearest opening. This might be their hand or arm, it might be their leg, or head.
Do not worry too much what possible strike your opponent is planning, however do make your strike in a way that covers a possible simultaneous 'flinch' response from them. Your strike should always be made so that, if your opponent makes a simultaneous attack from their current guard position, you will catch this on your blade or cross guard. Use the Secret Strikes - particularly Zwerch, Zorn and Scheilhau - as this is what they do. Make sure your strike crosses the line, i.e. ends with your hands outside your body. A strike straight down the middle will not cover your attack, and is likely to result in your hands getting hit.
Move offline, and attack in a way that gets you an overbind. I use something that I call 'silhouette theory', which is a fancy way of saying 'move offline until their sword is no longer pointing at you'. When your opponent is in a point forward guard such as Ox, Plough or Longpoint, it is not safe to directly attack the person while the point of their sword is pointing at you. Move offline until the point of their sword is now outside of their silhouette and then strike in such a way that you gain an overbind on the opponent. This allows a simple oberhau to 'break' many guards. This might be a 'provoker' rather than a 'hitter', but you can follow up with a thrust. This works best if you can bind from their outside as they are weaker, it is easier to get an overbind, and your point is more likely to be online when you attack. You may need to point your blade offline to gain the overbind, so beware your opponent doesn't change through.
Make the threat real. Even if your first strike is meant to be a Provoker, make it real, make it powerful, and make it at the correct distance.
Strike in such a way that gets the point of your sword out first. This gets your cross guard in front of your hands. Do not bother trying to cut 'through' your opponent, always cut 'to' them, so that when your arms are fully extended your tip is pointing at their face or chest. In fact, always cut as if you are trying to get the point in front of their face or chest; this is as simple as pushing the cut out with your dominant hand, and simply allowing the non-dominant hand to drag behind.
If you are fencing someone for the first time, do not rush in with the first attack. Try some provoking actions (from a distance) first to test how they react.
Look for good opportunities to strike:
If you are circling each other, quickly circle in the wrong direction and strike - this will close distance unexpectedly.
If they are coming towards you, attack while they are stepping.
If they are obviously 'chambering' a strike, attack them while they are raising their sword but before they strike.
Try to strike from your dominant side, as this will be quicker and more powerful.
Don't always assume that your first strike is a 'hitter', it might be a 'provoker' or even a 'taker'.
If you have more advice for making the first strike safe and effective (or disagree with any of my suggestions), feel free to leave a comment.
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