Fechtschule rules and culture - rough
Channel: Lansing Longsword Guild
Date: 2019-04-09

a quick video describing some of the rules and conventions of fechtschule style fencing. It should be taken as a very rough draft of a later video which will explain all of this in better detail.

The common rules of a fechtschule are:

No use of the point or pommel
No valid target but the head
No grappling or einlauffen (running in)

Those restrictions are sometimes difficult to overcome if you're used to fencing without them, so this video is meant to give some training tips about how to deal with common problems, or to avoid them entirely.

A brief tl;dr: when the bind goes high (what Meyer would call Brechfenster), schnitt to the arms, durchwinden with the pommel, and use triangle steps to get at deeper openings.

A second admonition is to keep the fight at Handwork range, where the blades are crossed in the middle, rather than the weak or strong.

Lastly, what to do when someone uses their arms to defend their head? Again, use a schnitt, or use a steeply vertical zwerchauw to hit under the chin and force a new opening.