It definitely can! This was compiled for the video review series with James Reilly. I'll share the link when he posts it! We spend a lot of time talking about that style of movement and how you can make it work and what to watch out for. Thrusts are definitely allowed, they just didn't make the cut for the video.

It's more about thinking about controlling the center -- that nebulous space between you and your opponent. This lets you set up follow up actions at the same time you keep your opponent from making aggressive actions towards you.

It still looks good to me.... Sorry to hear it's not showing up though. I'll look into it more after work.

Blade contact is definitely not the intention, and can be caused by pressing out too far during the girata, or by the opponent attempting to track or follow as you move. Contact is fine, but shouldn't be looked for.

Not directly (that I can recall). With that said, that type of motion would lead to the primary girata plays, where the primary fencer does the girata. As the fencer moves to find, if the opponent takes the step offline with their cavazione, that step doesn't void / clear the line as easily as a girata does. This lack of motion leaves both fencers in danger, and the fencer could perform a girata to void their own motion and at the same time lock out the opponent's attack. See Plate 31, and possible Plate 37. Somewhere between those two the motions seem to match what you're describing.

@@HistoricalWeaponsGuild Thanks so much for the reply. Funny enough it also kind of relates to plate 48 which you just dropped as well. My answer in this plate, instead of a girata by Anreas, would naturally be to press more straight on still in 4th, and if they attacked to my off-side to make that a dagger parry. I think it's a matter of which movements at which measure make the most sense. I honestly don't know what it would do to the side step you are demonstrating. Thanks for all the content you've been posting, I'm looking forward to playing with it once the pandemic allows my sword community to rejoin and stab each other again.

I definitely rotate the left side shoulder out as I do it. You can see a similar position in the plate. The key to this is starting square and turning out as you make the parry. Don't start oblique and rotate further offline as you'll lose balance and position, not to mention make the parry harder as the blade will be closer to you before you can reach it.

Controlling the center-line is definitely more the latter - we're at too far of a distance to threaten the other person - an attacked aimed -directly- at them should be ignored by a competent opponent. Instead of thinking of this entry as swinging the sword, we're moving it into place. Yes, it can be done with a cut-like action, but as a means to an end, not because we're looking to hit someone with the 'cut'.

@@HistoricalWeaponsGuild Ok so you are moving the sword into a better position from which to attack not attacking as you are moving into this position?

That's an amazing compliment, thank you! We're planning on doing a similar dive into Fiore (which with my German background will be very interesting), and we've received an advanced copy of a new Hans Medel translation, which should be a lot of fun to dive into as well. Will either of those work?

@@HistoricalWeaponsGuild Ha, it's not a question of what works, I think they're all interesting and if you did any of them, I'd be thrilled. :) Fiore is a favourite because he's so early and so varied (including battlefield fighting, which is my main domain), and ventures into multi-weapon fighting (love the club and pole plates). But Medel has those detailed drawings which would be fun to go through, especially if you've got period outfits to match ... The brilliance of what you're doing is that direct fade into the plates, and then talking around what happens in them, like your comments in this video of how that left shift both deflect the attack and move you in for the blow. I find that people mostly have problems with moving their feet and body around, it's most fighters (even seasoned ones) weak spot. There's so much chatter around the darn weapons - especially the sword - in all of HEMA (and derivatives), the blows, the moving of the hands, blocking, strikes and so on, but so very little on how the feet and knees makes or break you as a good fighter. I just really love how that is talked about, so thanks! (I'm a Czech / Norwegian / Swede living in Australia, so I don't know where I fit in ... :) )

Meyer says the counter to Doubling (which is what you are doing when winding up to your right side after the zornhau) is the Squinting cut. With that in mind, that really solidifies that counter wind where you wind with the tip down when he counters with the squinter. I'm reading this book currently, and I believe in that situation after you double, if the opponent raises up into crown Jude Lew just does a thwart against the wrist. I enjoyed this video!

If you were, hopefully you won't be the last.

I did the same

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking. The body is literally leaning the opposite direction in the illustration and when he actually did it my mind went straight to Fiore.

I agree! Looking back at this, the leg turn out started out small but definitely became more exaggerated as the time went on. As noted above, the lean forward was slowly culled out in an attempt to protect my partner, and ultimately probably lead to the Fiore-like rotation. That said, I do feel like the body drop is there, but Poor body mechanics noted, and we'll definitely work to do better in the future. Thanks for the feedback - and I'll be sure to add it to the list for our next video session so we can get a better one up.

Honestly, it's a factor of doing this repeatedly and safely without excessively damaging the partner. The only thing that is really missing is the lean forward, but since there is already contact being made, I didn't lean in to avoid continually stabbing him in the ribs.