Zornhauw

Wrath Strike

A powerful diagonal strike from above.

At a Glance

• Diagonally downward cut, attacking the upper openings.
• Guard transitions: Zornhut – Wechsel
• Advantages: Powerful, the 45 degree angle gives it good structure both horizontally and vertically, so it is difficult to set aside and also effective in cutting into the opponent’s strike as a parry & strike at once.
• Disadvantages: This is the most common strike seen in most exchanges, as such opponents are usually ready for it.

Considerations

The zornhau is the most powerful of the strikes in Meyer’s system, and also one of the most versatile. It is simultaneously a block and strike, and can be carried all the way through and around for follow on strikes, or may be halted “on point” with the opponent to threaten with the point. We will begin with the cut all the way from the guard zornhut to wechsel.

zornhauLine

Begin in the guard zornhut (wrath guard) with the left foot forward, cast the blade out and downward so it comes around with a downward motion at around 45 degrees. As the blade’s tip passes the shoulder begin the passing step forward with the right foot, landing it at the blade passes through an angled, somewhat shortened langort position. The blade continues its motion down and to the guard of wechsel on the left hand side.

The motion of the blade should maintain the same diagonal line throughout the strike, and the cutting line should be straight and not scallop downward to the vertical or across to the horizontal.

Body position should follow the same guidelines established for vom-tag and in the section on how to hold oneself while fencing.

On of the main benefits of the zornhau is that its cutting direction give it both a horizontal and vertical component to its momentum. This means that it can be used as a cutting parry to both vertical and horizontal strikes, relying on its greater horizontal component to parry vertical cuts (which have no horizontal momentum with which to oppose it), and likewise uses the vertical component to offset horizontal cuts (because they have no vertical momentum of their own). By the same reasoning it is more difficult to directly parry a zornhau with these single axis strikes.