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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Galloglaich" data-source="post: 5017978" data-attributes="member: 77019">Question from another forum:  Don't feel bad, Talhoffer is one of the most notoriously tricky to interpret if you don't already know the Lichtenauer system at least somewhat. Talhoffer has some of the most widely accessable and most clearly rendered drawings of the earlier masters, and he was very prolific writing several books, one of which was releasd in an inexpensive print edition very early on in the 'HEMA revival'. A lot of re-enactor groups you meet with a tentative interest in HEMA say they are 'studying Talhoffer', which usually means they look at the plates with bewilderment as you have. Talhoffer is intentionally cryptic, he doesn't explain much. To understand him, study an overview of HEMA or directly read Ringeck, Dobringer, Leukunker, and also later masters such as Joachim Meyer and Paulus Hector Mair. They are the key to the system. Ringeck spells the whole thing out in (written) detail, 16th Century guys like Joachim Meyer go into much more detail combined with technically precise wood-cuts and drawings. That said there are many Talhoffer interpretations online, for example these messer plays from MEMAG are very clearly spelled out in this vid. Their interpretation isn't perfect but I've done these disarms in sparring they work very well. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWISsk0cy74[/ame] That is I think something of a Ren-Faire myth. Very generally speaking, swords were sharp, sharper than you think. It's just counterintuive but true that you can grab a sharp sword without hurting yourself if you know what you are doing. Here is a good video demonstrating this quite dramatically with a sharp sword:[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4aSlLyBTo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4aSlLyBTo[/ame] It's again, kind of counter-intuitive but it can definitely be done from the bind (which I've done many times in sparring), but also at onset.  Half-swording in general and Mortschlag in particular are techniques seen much more frequently in Harnichfechten (fighting in full plate armor) but they do also show up in Blossfechten(fighting unarmored or in light armor)   Good example of transitioning to halfsword from the bind[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Pnw-9A8qQ&feature=fvw"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Pnw-9A8qQ&feature=fvw[/ame] Some videos of Talhoffer mortschlag plays:[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFTKfw1dum0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFTKfw1dum0[/ame][ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGA-Q0hlZxw&NR=1"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGA-Q0hlZxw&NR=1[/ame]There is also a bunch of good halfswording stuff in Reclaiming the Blade if you haven't seen that, the Wallers do a great segment on Mortschlag in particular where you can get a good idea what the transition would look like in a real fight (or a movie which you shoul be seeing more of in the next few years, since several HEMA people I know are now training Hollywood stuntmen and fight coordinators.). G.</blockquote>

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