...so where do you put your hands?

Phew...been a fair spell ain't it? Sorry 'bout that and my apologies to you all.

So I was chatting with StevieT last night and he asks me just that question. At first I thought he was referring to this thread over on the HEMA Alliance, but no, he had an altogether simpler and perplexing question.

In relation to the crossguard/quillions on the hilt of a hand a half sword...where is your dominant hand (although I'd argue that either hand can fill that role in this case)?

Is it cozied up next to the cross? Or is there any space between the two?

Frankly I'd not thought much about this really...however Stevie had indeed done so, and found that he received far less cuts to the hand if he didn't leave it jammed up next to the cross. "Curious" I thought..."makes some sense" I concurred. He then strengthened his theory with the possibility of documentary evidence...so when I have the free time I fully intend to look into that side of thing.

In the mean time let's put this theory to the test. Let's put our "little grey cells" onto this theory and experiment with modifying our grip next time we have a sword in our hands.

Back to basics

Its time to take things back to basics folks. A time to consider what we know, what needs work and what must yet be explored.

For the moment let's begin with how we hold a longsword (or any sword really). Recently I have noticed a tendency to grip far too tightly...we must loosen our grip, we need to relax.

First of all we must stop holding our swords in a “fist” grip. It is inelegant, overly tiring, leads to poor responses and reduces the effectiveness of your cut. A proper grip goes a long way to vastly improve your offensive and defensive skills. What we are looking for here is a kind of “handshake” grip with the top right hand, with bottom left hand mostly on the pommel. This allows the bottom hand to move as needed depending on position, allowing the pommel to rotate around yet stays mostly on the pommel.