"Oar" grip

[Axel Pettersson]

Some time ago I saw a plate posted on this forum in this thread http://www.thearma.org//forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=virtualclassroom&Number=17311&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=93&fpart=1

(not the first one, the Meyer, but the other one)

To me it looked like the person to the left was holding his sword like an oar, I was not too sure though, and it seemed a bit weird (I had never seen anything like it before).

Yesterday though I stumbled on some movie clips on swordforum.com, in this thread http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63112&perpage=25&pagenumber=2

And it really seems to me that in some of the clips (number 17 in particular) the fencers are using an "oar" grip.

I just want to know if I am completely out of line here, as I said I have never heard of anything similar.

[Aaron Pynenberg]

Hey Axel, I see what you are saying now, it's not that big a deal I think while it has application, it would also seem to me, to tie the hands up a little. In other words maybe it would lead to a beat or setting aside action followed by a thrust, or even some half-swording applications, but i don't think you could set up your entire system of attack on it- but surely it seems to be historically valid?- Aaron P

[Jake_Norwood]

Hey Axel,

While generally I'm of the school of thought that "you hold the sword how you have to in order to do the thing that you have to" I think that the image you reference isn't showing that oar grip.

It's just a sloppy thumb, a trick of the perspective.

Or that's my take.

Jake

[Axel Pettersson]

I posted the same question on the swordforum thread, and if I understand his reply correctly the group he is in is some university research group performing an experiment on swordplay. He (the poster of the videos showing the oar grip) said that the oar grip is something you could use to bewilder your opponent, I got it to that it is not an actual technique from a manual, but rather a part of this group experiments (try your own stuff aswell as work with the manuals).

there goes, would have hated it if I had missed out on something like that, if it is just some invention of theirs I guess I could do without.

[Jake_Norwood]

Bewilder an opponent? Seriously?

Hah.

Jake

[Richard Strey]

Oh, I can see how a new and unusual configuration of weapons could cause confusion in a novice fighter. Once you are at the point where you just see everything as the "geometrical truth" beyond techniques and names, that won't happen any more. After all, it just comes down to ranges, lines, energy, angles and openings. And "newly invented" ways of fighting usually offer more of the latter to the opponent. <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Derek Gulas]

Those were some pretty funky false edge strikes they had going there. So, just out of curiousity, how would an ARMA fencer handle strange blows like those? Personally, I think void and Zorn.