If you keep eating thrusts when you are in Plough and don't know why, then read on. "Your Pflug is open!" Huh? If someone says this to you, no, the Velcro on your breeches hasn't come undone - again... It means your plough (plow for my American friends) is crappy. Plough - Posta Breva, whatever you want to call it - is one of the best guards in Longsword. When your hands are safely tucked in, it is one of the few guards that doesn't expose your hands to a hand snipe, gets yo

"[This] Is actually allocated to the high guards. It is only used in the bind after you have come under your opponent’s sword. You should refrain from moving into this guard for as long as you see your opponent’s point and blade still in front of you, as you will not be safe from anything [in front of you] in this [guard]. However, as soon as you come under their sword, then this is one of the most exemplary guards, and you use it thusly:" Play 1 "When you have now come under

Everything fenced from this guard can more readily be fenced form other guards, but Meyer wanted to illustrate a few tricks... Play 1 # You Opponent 1 Right change guard Longpoint 2 Strike up from change guard with false edge 3 times 3 Hit from the right side with the flat to their left ear Move steeply upward, i.e. to parry 4 Release your left hand from the pommel and let your blade snap around in one hand upward from below toward their right. Set the front point on their ch

Mittelhut Meyer says he wasn't going to include this guard in the longsword section, but he has included it because no other guard can teach the roses. He doesn't explicitly say what the 'roses' are, but the best explanation I've seen is that it is basically the act of circling your opponent's blade, either below or sometimes above. Often this seems to be done as a sort of Krumphau from one side then a krumphau from the other back to your starting position, but it could pro