Kurtzhau! (Fighting within the system)
"Your martial art is all very well, but it's useless against somebody not fighting within the system...(Oof!)"
I've heard it many a time on the reenactment circuit - albiet without the resounding exhalation of breath as 4 ft of steel buries itself in the speaker's chest. It is, of course, bollocks for German Longsword and its cousins.
Granted, some duelling-orientated sword fighting systems may also reflect complex social customs and niceties, but the Medieval martial arts traditions existed and evolved in a brawling free market of ideas. If North Bratislavian Slugfechten got you killed, people would stop learning it.
In fact the truth is quite the opposite of the opening quote: it's a lot easier to fight people who don't know your system.
Generally, when we DDS "Marxbruder" face off, we each know what the other will try to do. I'm thinking: "I'll Zornhau and Take Off," and he's thinking ""He'll Zornhau and Take Off." What you end up with is a lot of smart ass moves, aborted attacks, and techniques jammed at half-cock before they go off.
Until tonight, that is.
The_Hat and I started with edgy tricks and counter-tricks, and collided doing some of the obvious moves. Then something clicked. We clambered to the top of nearly 3-years of study and plunged into an atavistic bath of technique, which is to say that towards the end, we flowed. Nothing was predicable because, at last, there were simply too many choices.
The_Hat fought like a dream, and together we wallowed in ersatz murderous play for what felt like hours, but was mere minutes.
And, the blades didn't dance like in some crap fantasy where each of charactyr namys sports a Y" and the races have a'postrophes. Nor did we probe for openings, see one and go for it - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.
Rather, the steel flowed and whirled, like nightmare leaves spiralling through a haunted ruin by the light of forgotten moons.
Oh, I scored a hit with a Kurtzhau. :)
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zornhau) wrote,
