Why so little winding in freeplay?

[John_Clements]

I agree with Casper, as long as you don't let them bounce off on contact, you can indeed wind with padded weapons, but they are clumsier at it.

I also completely agree with Jay in that winding occurs very very quickly in a fight and opponents who are too soft are beaten (but if too hard you exploit that too just as instantly).

JC

[Brian Hunt]

press drills with helmets . . . good idea, will have to start implementing that one.

Brian Hunt.

[Stuart McDermid]

Hi John,

I was referring to short German Longswords not to short swords in general.
Cheers,
Stu.

[Jake_Norwood]

Hi Stu.

Looking back I see I missread your post somewhat. Perhaps because you brought up the twitch--another patently German move tightly associated with binding and winding--I thought initially that you were saying that the shorter swords were better at winding/binding. I see that's not the case, but it's also true that Meyer's weapons--which appear to be greatswords--twitch constantly, as is likewise demonstrated in Ringeck, etc.

I do agree that a longer weapon paradoxically lends itself to more grappling, due to attempts to get past the point/inside range. On the other hand, Fiore grapples as much as Talhoffer, especially if you're of the mind that everything in the unarmed section is applicable to everything in the longsword section, etc.

So, in revision, I did misread your post (showing more agreement than before), but I also think that some of the base assumptions we're working on are flawed. Fixing that is the point of these discussions, however.

John-
I agree about fulen in masks entirely. As I focus on teaching and practicing more and more of Meyer, the more convinced I am of the need for a mask to safely practice most any technique he describes, whether in the bind or otherwise.

Jake