Meyer's longsword 101 - Chapters 1-4: Openings, guards and cuts
- HEMA 101 admin
- 14 hours ago
- 11 min read
Editor's note: this is a much abridged and edited/reworded version of Joachim Meyer's 1570 book. Its purpose was to a) force me to really get to grips with Meyer, b) reword in plain modern English, and c) curate the many videos on YouTube. Black text is a summarised version of Meyer's text. Orange text is my own. There is a limit to how many videos I can embed, so I've tried to choose just a small number that I think illustrate the technique effectively.
Contents:
Chapter 1: Concerning the combatant and his divisions
How a fighter’s body is divided is key to mastering combat. The body is split into four main quarters—upper/lower left and right—and the head is further divided into four zones for precise targeting, especially during close fighting. These divisions are the foundation for all techniques, helping you spot openings and defend or attack effectively. Everything from guards to strikes builds on this structure.
Chapter 2: Concerning the sword and its divisions
Just as the body has key target zones, the sword has specific parts used for different techniques. The sword is divided into four main combat sections:
Grip (pommel and quillons) for close work like grappling.
Strong (near the hilt) for control and defensive actions like winding and pressing.
Middle for flexible applications depending on the fight.
Weak (toward the tip) for long-range actions like snapping cuts and flicks.
The blade also has two edges—long (facing the opponent) and short (facing you)—and each has distinct uses. Understanding these divisions is essential to applying techniques effectively in combat.
Chapter 3: The guards
Combat has three essential elements: the fighter, the weapon (the sword), and the structure of the fight—divided into beginning, middle, and end. The guards are crucial starting positions for both attack and defense, helping you stay protected while setting up your own strikes. These guards are based on the four body divisions—high, low, left, right—and there are four primary guards (Ochs, Pflug, Tag, Alber), from which many others originate. Mastering them helps you control distance, exploit openings, and disrupt your opponent’s actions.
Primary guards
Secondary guards
Fencing is dynamic—guards aren’t static positions but transitional moments in motion. As you cut, counter, or recover, you flow through multiple stances along specific lines or paths, such as vertical or diagonal cuts.
For example:
A high downward cut passes through Tag → Longpoint → Fool.
A rising counter with crossed hands might flow from Iron Gate → Hanging Point → Unicorn.
Each cut naturally transitions between guards, often touching three per action.
The takeaway: don’t linger in a stance. Move deliberately and fluidly, not just to strike but to mislead, assess, and outmaneuver your opponent. Guards help structure these flows and signal likely sequences—both yours and your opponent’s. Thus, reading and changing guards becomes central to offense, defense, and deception.
Videos:
Chapter 4: The cuts
This section introduces the core subject of fencing: the cuts, which are central to the art. There are two main types:
Straight cuts: Performed with the long edge and extended arms. There are four:
High (Oberhau)
Wrath (Zorn)
Middle (Mittel)
Low (Underhau)
These are the foundational, or “principal,” cuts—everything else stems from them.
Inverted (or reversed) cuts: Use short edge, flat, or corners of the blade through hand rotation. Examples include the Squinter, Crosswise, Crown, Bounce, and Wind. These are considered derivative cuts, born from the straight ones.
From these emerge the five Master Cuts: Wrath, Crooked, Crosswise, Squinter, and Scalper. Mastery of these means mastering all key fencing sequences—they’re building blocks for advanced technique, not automatic proof of expertise.
Cuts are symmetrical – even if a cut is described only from one side (e.g., right), it can be performed equally well from the other. The author skips repeating both sides to avoid redundancy.
Many named cuts are variations of the core Master Cuts (like Squinter), meant to help students explore the art more deeply. These aren’t new fundamentals but alternate lenses for understanding technique more clearly.
In short: all cuts can be done on either side, and while the Master Cuts contain the essential movements, named variations exist to refine our understanding. The art is layered, and those layers help reveal its depth.
Straight cuts
High cut (Oberhau)
Cut from above with the long edge, straight down. "The High Cut is a straight cut straight from above toward your counterpart’s head at the skull, for which reason it is also called the Scalp cut [Scheitelhau]."
Wrath Cut [Zornhau]
A diagonal cut from above. The Wrath Cut is a powerful diagonal strike from your right shoulder toward the opponent’s left side—typically the head, face, or chest. It’s considered the strongest cut, channeling full force and intent, which is why older masters called it the Fighting Cut or Father Cut.
Middle Cut or Horizontal Cut [Mittel/Oberzwerchhau]
The Middle or Crosswise Cut is similar to the Wrath Cut in form and intent, but instead of striking diagonally, it moves horizontally across the opponent’s line—like a level slash from one side to the other.
Low Cut (Underhau)
Diagonal cut from below with the long edge. Start by cutting into the Right Ox guard (point high, hands near your right ear or temple). When you're close enough, step forward and deliver an upward diagonal cut from below, targeting your opponent’s left arm. Your motion should carry your crossguard above your head by the end of the cut—showing proper follow-through. It's essentially an ascending cut meant to catch the opponent off guard from below, ending in a strong, high position.
Inverted cuts
Squinter [Schielhau]
A cut from above with the short edge.
The Squinter is a high-line counter cut with a twist—literally. You start in Vom Tag or Wrath Guard with your left foot forward. When your opponent strikes, you respond with a counter-cut using your short edge (the back edge), turning your hands inward (inverted) to meet their blade.
As you strike, step with your right foot to their left side—this shifts your line and helps unbalance or bypass their structure. Move your head with the motion to stay safe and aligned. The cut is called "Squinter" because of its slight diagonal skew and sneaky angle.
Crooked Cut [Krumphau]
Basically, this is a cut performed by crossing the hands.
This describes a horizontal counter-cut from Wrath Guard: Start in Wrath Guard with your left foot forward. When your opponent strikes, step with your right foot diagonally toward their left side, avoiding their blow. As you move, execute a horizontal cut with the long edge and crossed hands, aiming at their hands or the space between their head and blade. Let the blade follow through, cutting past their arms. It’s a defensive counter that seizes initiative while displacing their attack.
I particularly like Jeff Tsay's version of the Crooked Cut, which is less of a 'windshield wiper' motion and more of a 'zorn from the wrong side'.
If you make a diagonal cut from the right but from the left shoulder, Meyer would consider this a Schielhau, so Schielhau and Krumphau are related.
Crosswise (Zwerch)
A horizontal cut with the long or short edge (short edge from the right side), made above the head.
This explains how to use the Crosswise (Zwerch) Cut as a defensive counter against an overhead attack: Start in right Wrath Guard—left foot forward, sword resting by your right shoulder. If your opponent attacks from above (e.g., from Vom Tag), step offline to their left as you cut upward diagonally from below, using the short (half) edge and keeping your crossguard high to protect your head. Your blade should intercept theirs mid-cut.
To perform this on your left side, reverse the footwork and guard: aim for their right side using your long edge. The key is meeting their cut with strong structure while shifting offline to gain control and safety.
Special instances of these cuts (or derivative cuts)
Short cut (Kurtzhau)
It is simply a Crooked Cut that lands short of the opponent's blade so that it becomes a Hanging Point, and the opponent's cut comes on top of your blade. (Whether or not you hit your opponent with the cut is more a matter of execution than of definition.)
This describes a deceptive upward attack called the Short Cut: When your opponent cuts down at you, pretend you’re about to bind their blade with a Crooked Cut using the short edge. But instead of actually binding, duck beneath their attack and step through underneath their sword. As you pass under, strike upward with crossed arms and your short edge over their right arm, aiming for their head. This move both deflects their weapon and lands your own strike. You end in control, with your long edge catching their sword.
Clash cut (Glitzhau)
A zornhau made with the flat. It can then hit with the false edge, a Schielhau.
This describes the Clashing Cut as a reactive counter to an overhead strike: When your opponent attacks from above, you respond by cutting with inverted hands (palms turned up), aiming at their upper left opening. As your blade meets theirs, let the flat of your sword slide down along their blade, maintaining the inverted grip. This guides your short edge to swing over and hit their head, passing just above their hands.
Bounce Cut (Prellhau)
A mittelhau or zwerchau made with the flat, used to bounce off the opponent's sword. In the video, it is the second strike from the fencer on the right.
Single Version
Your opponent cuts down at you.
You counter with a Crosswise (Zwerch) Cut.
As soon as your blade bounces off, circle your sword over your head and strike at their ear from the left, using the flat of the blade with inverted hands.
Let the blade rebound again and wrap it back around your head to deliver another Crosswise cut, this time from the left.
→ It’s like: bind → rebound → ear strike → rebound → finish with Zwerch.
Double Version
As your opponent lifts their sword to begin an attack, you're already in right Ox guard.
Swing your blade around your head and strike their sword forcefully from your right side, using the inward flat, so that your pommel makes contact low on their forearm.
Step with your right foot past their left side, gaining angle.
As the blades clash, whip your blade upward, then snap it outward toward your left, striking again at the same target with an inverted flat.
If it rebounds again naturally—you did it right.
→ This version is more aggressive and continuous: attack the blade → step deep → rebound upward → snap back for a second hit.
Blinding Cut (Blendhau)
Because of a suspected transcription error, there seem to be two interpretations of this, depending on whether you wind your hilt towards their left side or your left side. I suspect the second video below is the more accurate one, meaning this is a sort of Schielhau with crossed hands.
Begin by binding your opponent’s blade on your right side.
Then wind underneath their sword toward your (or their, depending on if there is a transcription error or not) left side, using your hilt to control the bind.
If they react by swinging after you, surprise them: flick your blade’s tip across and up at their head with crossed hands—a sharp, deceptive motion.
Finally, either wind back through or snap your blade out to the left using the short edge.
Winding cut (Windhau)
A change cut or rising hanging point that, upon forming an underbind with the opponent's sword, cuts an oberhau. I suspect its distinguishing feature is that it is properly made maintaining blade contact with the opponent's sword.
Here’s a simplified version of that Winding Cut sequence:
When your opponent cuts at you from above, respond with an upward cut from your left side, using crossed hands—your sword’s pommel ends up under your right arm.
As blades clash, immediately step out to your left, creating angle and distance.
Then, pull your pommel up in a circular motion on your left, bringing the long edge around to strike their head from behind or over their right arm.
Finally, let the blade flow out to your side and cut back the other way, through the centerline.
Crown Cut (Kronhau)
A cut with the short edge made from the parry of Kron (the Crown), which is a position with blade vertical so that you catch an overhead cut on your cross guard or Schilt (I like to have the blade and cross guard form a V shape).
Start in Plow guard (or any low position). When your opponent strikes down at you, raise your crossguard horizontally to catch their blade in the air, ideally on the Schilt or ricasso. As soon as the blades make contact, thrust your pommel upward, swinging your blade over and striking behind their sword onto their head using the short (half) edge.
Wrist Cut [Knichelhau/Kniechelhau]
A zwerchau or unterhau aimed at the hands or arms of the opponent, made from a bind.
This describes a precision counter targeting the arms—specifically the wrists or elbows—hence the technique’s name: After engaging in the first attack, you end up beneath your opponent’s sword, with both your hands raised high. If they’re guarding their head tightly between their arms, use a Crosswise (Zwerch) Cut upward, aiming under their sword pommel at their wrists.
If their arms are held higher than usual, adjust: still use an upward Zwerch cut, but target the elbow joint instead. The goal is to strike where their control is weakest and where their weapon structure opens a gap.
Change Cut (Wechselhau)
"The Change Cut is nothing more than changing, with cuts, from one side to the other, from above to below and back again, in front of the opponent in order to mislead them." From the description, I believe this is a pattern typical of Bolognese fencing, where I call it a 'ribbon cut'. From a right Wrath Guard, cut a Zorn down to the left Change guard. Now cut a false edge diagonal cut back up to something like a Unicorn guard and loop the tip above your head over to your left side and cut diagonally down with the true edge to the right Change guard. Come back up with the false edge and loop the tip back over to the right side. This forms a ribbon shape with the tip. Here is the Ribbon shape (left of image below) that the tip makes when you make the change cut from the right or left Change guard (taken from by sidesword blog posts):
This is a nice video about a use for a cut similar to the Change cut: aufstreichen (up striking, or sweeping up):
Plunge Cut (Sturzhau)
Basically a thrust or short edge cut made from Ochs, usually transitioning into an oberhau or zornhau. "Although this cut is a High cut, and because there is a small difference between the one [Plunge cut] and the other [High cut], this one is named the Plunge Cut, because in the cut through, it always plunges headlong from above so that the point moves toward the counterpart’s face in Ox, and is mostly used in the approach or in the onset."
Flick or Tagging Contact (Schneller oder Zeckrühr)
A quick flicking cut made with the edge or flat.
This passage defines flicks or tagging actions—they’re not full, committed cuts but quick, snapping motions meant to lightly strike or tag the opponent at opportune moments.
They usually happen:
Midway through an exchange, or
At the end, when your structure or distance doesn’t allow a full cut.
The blade snaps or whips from any angle—above, side, or below—using the flat or tip rather than the cutting edge. You can flick over or under their blade, typically in a swinging or whipping motion.
These actions are meant to keep pressure, score a hit, or disrupt without opening yourself up. Think of them as tactical “touches” rather than full-power blows.
More videos:
Here's a nice video showing lots of different cuts.