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.