S2/3 Siebenhaar's Sabre Inventory of Attacks

The following is an inventory of the bladework attacks for sabre used in the 3 sections in Christiaan Siebenhaar's Dutch Method sabre curriculum, incoporating 24 lessons (Reinier van Nort's translation).  To make the wording easier to understand in the translation, the word "cut" has been substituted for Siebenhaar's translated term "strike" and other simplifications have been made to the wording.  The actions in the lessons have been grouped and categorized first by simple or compound attack, second among the compound attacks by number of tempos in their execution, and finally grouped within these categories by the commonality of the order of the actions starting with the first action, and finally by the direction of the first action.  These attacks are delivered on the lunge or from the guard position.

Simple attacks:

• Head cut.
• Cut to the left cheek.
• Cut to the right cheek.
• Cut to the right thigh.
• Belly cut.
• Cut to the right foot.

Compound attacks in two tempos:

• Feint head cut, head cut.
• Feint head cut, cut to the right thigh.
• Feint cut to the left cheek, cut to the right cheek.
• Feint cut to the left cheek, cut to the right side.
• Feint cut to the left cheek, cut to the right thigh.
• Feint cut to the right cheek, belly cut.
• Feint cut under the arm, head cut.
• Feint cut to the left thigh, cut to the right thigh.
• Feint cut to the right thigh, head cut.
• Feint belly cut, cut to the right side.
• Feint thrust to the belly, head cut.

Compound attacks in three tempos:

• Feint head cut, feint cut to the right side, belly cut.
• Feint cut to the right cheek, feint cut to the left cheek, cut to the right thigh.
• Feint cut to the right cheek, feint cut to the left cheek, cut to the arm.
• Feint cut to the right cheek, feint cut to the right thigh, head cut.
• Feint cut to the left cheek, feint cut to the right cheek, belly cut.
• Feint cut to the left cheek, feint cut to the side, head cut.
• Feint cut under the arm, feint head cut, cut to the right thigh.
• Feint cut to the belly, feint cut to the right side, head cut.
• Feint thrust to the belly, feint head cut, thrust to the belly.
• Feint thruist to the left, feint thrust to the right, thrust to the left.

Compound attacks in four tempos:

• Feint cut to the right cheek, feint cut to the left cheek, feint cut to the side, head cut.
• Feint belly cut, feint cut to the right side, feint head cut, cut to the right thigh.

These are all offensive actions for the attack itself.  The curriculum does not include exercises with actions that are identifiable as counterattacks.  This may be a result of actions being conducted in turns and the requirement that the opponent's attack must be parried before a riposte would be allowed.

These are attacks used in exercises in a formal curriculum for fencers.  In tournaments attacks appear to have been executed from what we would term today lunge distance, the rules requiring the fencers to maintain a static position, moving neither forward or backward, relieved only by the lunge.  At that distance one and two tempo actions are practical.  The extensive range of three tempo actions (n=10 as compared to n=11 for two tempo actions), and the distance they travelled,  must have required a quick hand.  The very small numer of four tempo actions suggests these may have been training exercises only.

Note the common use of cuts to the thigh and the occasional cut to the foot.  At various times in the earlier years of the classical period history of sabre fencing as a sport, the thigh of the forward leg has been an accepted target, and this is the case with the Dutch Method. As late as the 1908 French Reglement d'Escrmie, for example, the entire body was target.  However, the foot as a target in sabre is, as far as can be determined from available sources, unique to the Dutch Method.  The Dutch Method was an active School of fencing in the time period 1858 to 1888. 

Sources:

France.  Ministre de la Guerre; Reglement d'Escrime (Fleuret - Epee - Sabre); [fencing manual]; Librairie Militaire Berger-Levrault & Cie., Paris, France; 1909.

Siebenhaar, Christiaan; Manual for the Instruction in the Art of Fencing; Third Improved Printing; translation by Reinier van Nort; [fencing manual]; The Heirs Doorman, The Hague, Netherlands; translated and reprinted by Reiner van Nort, Hagan, Norway; 1861 reprinted 2017.

Copyright 2020 by Walter G. Green III

Siebenhaar's Inventory of Attacks by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

S10.c. Deladrier's Sabre Parries

Maitre d'Armes Clovis Deladrier was a Belgian Army Fencing Master trained at the Belgian Normal School of Physical Education.  From 1927 until his death in 1947 he served as the Fencing Master at the United State Naval Academy.  His book, Modern Fencing, published in 1948, is a predominantly a representation of the French School at the very end of the classical period, although Deladrier notes that he incorporated certain elements from other schools that he found useful.  Perhaps because he was training fencers who engaged in intercollegiate fencing, he is notable for his belief that fencers could be trained from the start in any weapon, not just foil.

Deladrier included a wider range of specific parries than found in the evolution of sabre fencing at this date:

• Head parry (see discussion in another post in this blog)
• Left flank parry (prime)
• Right flank parry (although he does not number this parry, it appears to be essentially the second parry executed with the arm at shoulder height)
• Tierce parry
• Low tierce parry
• Quarte parry
• Low quarte parry
• Seconde parry (a low outside parry executed with the hand at waist height)
• Quinte parry (an inside low line parry similar to the foil fifth parry)
• High right cheek parry (outside line)
• High left cheek parry (inside line)

With the exception of the two cheek parries, Deladrier identified the movement patterns for the counterparry (circular parry) for all of these parries.

Deladrier divided the parries into two parrying systems, a point down system and a point up system. The point up system, operating from a guard of tierce, consisted of the following parries:

• Tierce
• Quarte
• Low tierce
• Low quarte

The point down system, based on the high guard (Deladrier did not identify which guard was the high guard, but it seems likely to have been the right flank parry), consisted of the following parries:

• Head
• Prime (left flank parry)
• Right flank  
• High tierce 
• High Quarte

Deladrier believed that the point down system was superior because it allowed parries to better exploit the strength of the forte of the blade, to take the parry closer to the body increasing the distance travelled by the attack, and to better protect the head.  In contrast the point up system was viewed as allowing foil fencers to learn about sabre fencing without having to change their style of fencing.  However, the parries were weaker and, especially in the low tierce and low quarte, were vulnerable to hits that simply overpowered the parry.      

Source:

Deladrier, Clovis; Modern Fencing; [fencing manual]; United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America; 1948.

Copyright 2020 by Walter G. Green III

Deladrier's Sabre Parries by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

S10.1.5.1. Deladrier's Head Parry in Sabre

There is some difference between the varieties of head parries used in sabre in the classical period.  Maitre d'Armes Clovis Deladrier in his 1948 text Modern Fencing not only describes a variant, but also provides a detailed explanation of its use and advantages.  Maitre Deladrier served as the Fencing Master of the United States Naval Academy, and his book was issued in multiple new printings through at least 1973, making it a long lived and influential book. 

The basic position:

• Weapon hand above the weapon arm shoulder at the height of the forehead with the arm extended forward for three-quarters of its length.
• Hand in pronation (described as thumb down and nails forward in relation to the downward slope of the blade).
• Forearm is protected behind the guard.
• Blade slants diagonally across the body with the cutting edge up.
• Tip of the blade is slightly below the weapon hand and just within the inside limit of the body.

In taking the parry, the fencer bends backward slightly to force the opponent to commit to a deeper lunge and, therefore a slower recovery.  The force of the opponent's attack is met either with a beat or an opposition parry, preferably with the forte of the blade.  The riposte is slightly slower than if the body is held erect, but, if the attacker attempts to deceive the parry, the lower point allows a shorter arc of movement to deflect the actual attack.    In contrast, the parry executed with the point raised and no backwards bend of the body has a faster riposte, but is more easily deceived.

If a thrust is executed under the head parry position, the fencer may use a counter head parry.  This is executed with the fingers and wrist as a very small clockwise circular movement.

Further coverage of Deladrier's sabre parries will appear in subsequent posts.

Source

Deladrier, Clovis; Modern Fencing; [fencing manual]; United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America; 1948.

Copyright 2020 by Walter G. Green III

Deladrier's Head Parry in Sabre by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

10.1.10 Siebenhaar's Dutch Method Parries

Christian Siebenhaar, Sergeant Fencing master of the Grenadiers and Rifles Guards Regiment of the Dutch Army was the father of a unique, and quite different, system of fencing, first published in 1858 and surviving until after his death in 1885.  This was an attempt to create a distinctly Dutch method of fencing that had Dutch language terminology and reinforced Dutch nationalism in a turbulent period in European history.  

Siebenhaar's system included seven parries in the sword (illustrated in his text with what appears to be foils).  

The Parry Left - in the normal guard (with the weight on the back leg, the point forward at eye height, hand slightly below the shoulder, the grip held in the full hand with the thumb on top) - the attack is parried down from above on the inside line, the hand turning to bring the nails a little up.

The Parry Right - the attack is parried down from above on the outside line, the hand turning to bring the nails a little down.

The Parry Low Left - the attack is parried by lowering the point, and collecting the opponent's blade to the inside with the hand is turned into supination. 

The Parry Low Right - the attack is parried by lowering the point, and collecting the opponent's blade to the outside with the nails turned a little down. 

The Parry Low Right with the Hand Inverted - the attack is parried by lowering the point, and collecting the opponent's blade to the outside with the hand inverted with the thumb down.  The illustration in Siebenhaar's book appears to be similar to the Italian first hand position with the pommel to the outside. 

The Parry High Left - the arm is extended upward above the level of the head to displace the attack to the inside, the hand inverted with the thumb down.  The illustration in Siebenhaar's book appears to be similar to the Italian first hand position with the pommel to the outside.  

The Parry High Right - the arm is extended upward at approximately the level of the head to displace the attack to the outside, the hand inverted with the thumb down.  The illustration in Siebenhaar's book appears to be similar to the Italian first hand position with the pommel to the outside.  

From the illustrations the little up and little down appear to be roughly equivalent to Italian third in fourth and second in third hand positions.

The Parries Left and Right and Low Left and Low Right are also performed as circular parries.

During the parry the point of the blade is aimed:

• at the chest in the Parry Left and the Parry Right.
• approximately the width of the palm lower than in the Parries Left and Right in the Parry Low Left and Parry Low Right.
• at the lower body in the Parry Low Right with the Hand Inverted, the Parry High Left, and the Parry High Right.

This maintains a threat for the direct riposte.

It is important to note that these parries were performed in a static position from what was essentially inside lunge distance.  In tournaments the rules forbade a fencer to retreat, and the only forward movement allowed was a lunge (a subsequent post will address movement in the Dutch Method).   

Source

Siebenhaar, Christiaan; Manual for the Instruction in the Art of Fencing; Third Improved Printing; translation by Reinier van Nort; [fencing manual]; The Heirs Doorman, The Hague, Netherlands; translated and reprinted by Reiner van Nort, Hagan, Norway; 1861 reprinted 2017.

Copyright 2020 by Walter G. Green III

Siebenhaar's Dutch Method Parries by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.