The purpose of Shrankhut

[Mike_McGurk]

During my first two years of WMA, I practiced the somewhat generic brand of longsword fighting detailed in Mr. Clement's Medieval Swordsmanship, but in the last year choose a decidedly German direction. I understand much of it, but some of it baffles me (as it rightly should), such as shrankhut. What is the purpose of shrankhut? I understand that it's a somewhat weak stance and that it results from krumphau, but what are its offensive and defensive pros and cons?

[Mike Cartier]

depends how you get there.
If it comes from the result of a krumphau your blade will be in motion and you can do any of the krumphau follow ups (winding cut, short edge cut or thrust) or if you go into the schrankhut as Meyer describes from a guard position you will be defedning your legs in which case you should be ending the guard with preparation to counter attack in some manner.

Its a tough guard to use really I prefer to use footwork to protect my legs which allows me to counter cut.

[Jake_Norwood]

Hi Mike,

Schranckhut--or at least it's right-side version--is one of my favorite positions by far. It's a weakness of mine, in fact. While from the left Schranckhut is transitional at best (Rector translates it as the "weak crosswise guard" in his Talhoffer book), the right schranckhut has several non-transitional uses.

It is a strong guard on the defensive--so much so, in fact, that Doebringer reccomends its use when fighting groups of 4 or 6 men (see that thread from a day or two ago).

It's a good "rest position" for that same reason. People might scream about not resting during a fight, but if you've been fighting long enough you'll be happy to have a stable, defensible position that you can catch your breath in. For that same reason I often use schranckhut when dancing around a new opponent, sizing him up while reserving my strength.

From the schranckhut you can quickly move into a number of techniques--cuts, thrusts, and binds. As you mentioned earlier the krumphau but comes from and moves to schranckhut seamlessly. There's also the weychmeister and krawthacke (from Doebringer), a series of quick upward thrusts from schrankhut, returning to the same afterwards. Schrankhut is itself nothing more than a lazy, low-lying hengen--it's too easy to just whip it up into hengen to cover against downward blows, deflecing and counter-cutting or binding and thrusting. This is even better because it encourages and invites oberhauen because of it's superior coverage of the lower legs.

If he does an oberhau: krump or go to hengen
If he thrusts: krump or counter-thrust
If he cuts from below: bind low and thrust to the foot (step on his blade like Fiore for good measure)

Hope that helps.

Jake

[Mike_McGurk]

Thanks, I'm going to have to try that next time I get some sparring in.

[philippewillaume]

Hello
Just to add to what have been said already
Ringeck tell us that it is a guard that you are using when you want to get close.

In the part of the manuscript about the pieces that are not in the verses but are useful to fight from.
He tell us that you can use any pieces from the streichen after doing a verkerer, strike a krump to the openings or do a the absetzen against the master from the krump.
(in ringeck and Von speyer, you do not necessarily have crossed arms when doing a krump)
Die stuck treyb vß der schrankhu°t also:
Item, hawet ainer dir oben zu° oder von vnden vff, so haw du im krump ein zu der blöß mitt ainem vßtrytt.
Item, oder haw im krump zur flechen; vnd alß bald es klützt, so (52 r) such die nach mitt der kurtzen schnyden.
Item, oder tryb den verkerer mitt dem ort zu sinem gesicht. Vnd wenn er dir anbindt, so sterck mitt der langen schniden. Vnd magst alle stuck tryben, die vor genampt sind in den strychen.

You execute the pieces of the schrankhut as follow
Item: strike he one at you from above or from bellow, so strike a krump at the opening with a step out.
Item: or strike a krump at the flat, and as soon as it clinks (kutzen=glucken) so search the nearest with the short edge.
Item or execute the verkerer with point at his face, and when he bind, so force with the long edge and execute the piece that are listed in the streichen


In the other (Von Dantzig, lew, Von speyer) you do not have that and the schankhurt is only used to stike the hands using a schrankhut to shrankhut via krump movements.


Ps
Lots of the pieces out of the streichen have a strong reminiscence of Dobringers others master sections.

[John_Clements]

I use to not value this position as much but then came to really appreciate it. You have to understand how it relates to both a lower iron door position and a higher hanging-point position. This is in the middle. Thus, you can ward, close-in, or cut short edge above or long edge under. Think of it as dynamic rather than static.

JC

[Jeffrey Hull]

I came across what is basically a half-swording variant of Schrankhut in Plate 9 of the armoured dueling part of the 1459-Ambraser version of Talhoffer (available at the members-only Armaria). The caption describes the picture in such a way as to relate the dynamic quality of the ward (as John indicated):

Der stat in der Nidern versatzung

And so that picture faces and links with the picture of Plate 10, where that guy does a sort of "morte-whip", described as:

Der schlecht im nach seim fuesz

And so we see that the one man is actively countering a powerful low strike from the other man; and probably he could do so against a variety of others within the low range using that sort of ward.

[Jeffrey Hull]

Oh yeah, on page 136 Mr Anglo's book *Martial Arts of Rennaissance Europe* he shows folio 78v of Marozzo which is interesting for its rough similarity to that half-swording version of Schrankhut in the Talhoffer plate, although Marozzo shows it for defense against staff weapons.