French Head Parry

[Justin Blackford]

Hello, everybody. Been a while...

In a fight of longsword versus pole-axe, a colleague of mine has been performing a very strong maneuver against a few other colleagues of mine by deploying his pole-axe in the way of Alfred Hutton's "French Head Parry" (akin to the Kron for staff weapons in the German style of fighting) against vertical oberhaus, and then locking the sword behind the back in a bearhug-type hold and maintaining pressure until the pain from the pressure forces the recipient to either submit or until he gets tired of holding him there and throws him.
I personally have found several ways out of this hold ( ie, by pushing at his chin with both hands until the pressure forces him to release his grip, or by head-butting and then kicking him away, or by letting go of the longsword and locking my arms over his and hyperextending them as I push him away at his chest, etc.) but I was wondering just how dangerous the French Head Parry into a bearhug would be in a real fight if the opponent does manage to keep hold of one and maintain pressure on the spine as he uses his opponent's blade to create a bar along his back(thus increasing the pressure). At what kind of risk are the spine and muscles of the back?
Just curious...

Justin

[jeremy pace]

I use this same manuver when halfswording with the longsword. The timing is hard to get down, but from there i dont bearhug i just use their backwards momentum to throw them to the ground. I have tried this with a spear and it is much easier to perform the manuever but harder to get any results from it as you are more or less face to face with them and it is much difficult to adjust the spear from that angle without suffering a counterattack. Never thought of the bearhug though. I'm not sure what kind of affect it would have on the body, but your questions on it are good ones. I would try it if my opponent wasnt expecting the move, had never seen it, and i was wearing armour that helped protect those pressure points. Otherwise i think you are just setting yourself up for a knee in the groin or some such.

[Matt Bryant]

I agree with Jeremy here.(As a side note: Ran and I have also worked on doing this dagger versus dagger. It works really well there too.) If you execute the manuver and stay there you are loosing your initiative. What you described doing at this point (pushing the chin, kicking, even knee to the groin or clap his ears with both hands) would be the natural reaction of your opponent if you stop. I say that if you do the head parry, you need to keep that momentum working for you and bowl him over. And if you don't succeed you need to performe a take down or knee HIM in the groin etc...

My point is that I would not be concerned by what effects the bear hug might have because in a brutal encounter no one is going to allow a sustained bearhug to go "unpunished".

You seem to understand this with your practical reaction.

[Stacy Clifford]

Funny, I thought the French Head Parry was the reason I bought my first helmet.

[Justin Blackford]

I've also performed this maneuver with the longsword, but it obviously is only effective if the opponent is of equal or greater height, and has to be timed just as he is raising his weapon above his head.
With my friend, he's about 5 inches taller than me (maybe 6'2" or so), but build-wise, we're pretty evenly matched. The knee to the groin doesn't always work with me or my other partners, because the pressure of your own blade against your back as you're being held in place by a bearhug strengthened by a 6' long polearm forces the spine to arch backward, and can cause a signifigant level of discomfort. The only options I can do if he holds me stationary is to let go of my weapon and commence some mortstosse before I wrestle him. Otherwise, if he feels that his hold on me isn't strong enough to raise the pain levels and force a submission, he just quickly steps behind my legs and throws me back. Perhaps someone has seen a counter to this throw?

Justin

[Logan Weed]

Aren't his hands still above his head during the maneuver? Why doesn't he just pommel you in the head repeatedly?

[Justin Blackford]

No, he holds his hands high, but he's too far in to pummel strike, so he just drops his shaft horizontally on top of my blade coming up vertically and then locks the hold in place in what is basically a bearhug from the French Head Parry.

Justin