Oberhauw

Revision as of 12:08, 23 June 2016

The Oberhauw is a vertical strike from above accompanied with a passing step and is one of Meyer's principal strikes.

At a Glance

Summary Vertically downward cut Transitions Vomtag – langort – alber Advantages The oberhau has the longest range of any cut, the motion is the same no matter which leg is forward at the start. Comes in from a high position so can be cut “over” other the opponent’s cut. Disadvantages The vertical line makes the blade easy to evade or to deflect to either side

Execution

The canonical strike described in Meyer is carried out as follows:

• Begin in vom tag with an orthodox pommel grip.
• Casts the tip of the blade out and forward, making sure they don’t throw their hands too far out in front of themselves as they do so. The lead hand acts as the pivot while the left hand draws the pommel around, both of the hands structured “behind” the hilt as the blade moves forward for maximum control and edge alignment as we learned in the section on gripping the sword.
• As the blade passes overhead and moves out in front of the fencer, they take a passing step forward.
• The blade passes through the position of langort around the same time as the passing step lands
• The blade continues its motion down, stopping with the point toward the ground in the guard alber.

Stepping

While landing the step just as the long-point is reached ensures the strike has the maximum possible reach is achieved it may land slightly before or after depending on the needs of the fencer (an earlier landing, for example, allows for blade control if the fencer wishes to arrest the motion in long-point and carry on to other works.

Body Position

Throughout the course of the cut the hips and shoulders should be aligned toward the target and the step should be smooth and without bobbing. The spine should be straight with the body upright or tilted forward. Any tilting or bending of the spine, or hunching of the shoulders in the cut is to be discouraged as it leads to poor cutting form and can put the fencer out of balance. The elbows should not be pointing out to the sides during the cut; they should be kept in and behind the blade.

Notice that this cut doesn’t follow a strictly circular arc; in fact the arc is slightly elliptical because of the “casting forward” motion of the blade which places the blade at maximum speed and extension at langort.

Ending Guard

While the canonical description of the oberhauw ends in alber it is possible instead to bring the blade back to an on point position in pflug, or (as is more often the case in Meyer's treatises) to flow off from langort to one side or another only to cut around at a different opening.