Common Spear (Yari) Tactics - Binding & Levering The Weakness

Binding at the Weakness

The concept of the strong and the weak is sometimes used in HEMA to describe what is essentially a leverage advantage in a bind.  It comes (somewhat) from the German school of fencing which runs from the mid 14th to the mid 17th centuries.  Consider the following plate from Meyer:

You can see how each longsword is divided into segments.  It can be essentially divided into two, strong and weak, or several.  Here the weak is the pointy end and the strong is the hilt end, or if you like the weak (point quarter), the middle, the strong and the bind (handle).

These positions relate to a grappling sense rather than a striking sense ie the weak is the part of the sword you would cut with.  The reason this is important is in a 'bind' (a bind being when the weapons have clashed and are together - that is they have continuing contact).

In this case, if you have received an opponents blow with the 'strong' of your weapon and effected a bind with their 'weak' you have a severe leverage advantage due to the length of your lever on their hands being much more than that of theirs on yours.

Let us go to the internet for some German sword-fighting truth-bombs:

vor noch swach stark Indes / an den selben woertern leit alle kunst / meister lichtnawers / Und sint dy gruntfeste und der / kern alles fechtens czu fusse ader czu rosse / blos ader in harnuesche

"'Before', 'after', 'weak', 'strong', Indes ('meanwhile'), on these five words hinges the entire art of master Lichtenauer, and they are the foundation and the core of all combat, on foot or on horseback, unarmoured or armoured.”

The terms 'before' (vor) and 'after' (nach) correspond to offensive and defensive actions. While in the vor, one dictates his opponent's actions and thus is in control of the engagement, while in the nach, one responds to the decisions made by his opponent. Under Liechtenauer's system, a combatant must always strive to be in control of the engagement—that is, in the vor. 'Strong' (stark) and 'weak' (swach) relate to the amount of force that is applied in a bind of the swords. Here, neither is better than the other, but one needs to counter the opponent's action with a complementary reaction; strength is countered with weakness, and weakness with strength. Indes means "meanwhile" or "interim", referring to the time it takes for the opponent to complete an action. At the instant of contact with the opponent's blade, an experienced fencer uses 'feeling' (fühlen) to immediately sense his opponent's pressure in order to know whether he should be "weak or "strong" against him. He then either attacks using the "vor" or remains in the bind until his opponent acts, depending on what he feels is right. When his opponent starts to act, the fencer acts "indes" (meanwhile) and regains the "vor" before the opponent can finish his action.

Amongst the techniques, we find Winding: Winden: 'Winding' The combatant moves the strong of his blade to the weak of the opponent's blade to gain leverage while keeping his point online with the opponent's opening. There are eight variations.

(Please note I have lost the reference for the above, if you know exactly where it is from please let me know so I can attribute it correctly).

Levering From the Weakness

It is important to note with the spear there is a substantial weakness to be exploited because of the length of the weapon - if one can bind on the end the leverage advantage is extreme.  This means the opponent's weapons can be levered out of the way to create an opening.

Four Tactical Situations of the Bind

Using these parameters, at this stage there are four tactical situations you can find yourself in:

1. Your weak bound with the opponents weak (often a starting position in Kendo).
2. Your strong bound with the opponents strong.
3. Your strong bound with their weak.
4. Your weak bound with their strong.

You can, of course, consider this in an unarmed context as extended (isolated from the body) being the weak and retracted (united with the body) being the strong.

Body Position & Foot Position at the Bind

The foot and body movements used leading up to the bind with also result in you and the opponent each having a body and foot position in the bind.  Simply put the body will be either square or turned, and the feet will be either narrow or wide.

In the above example, both are turned but one is reasonably narrow and one is reasonably wide.

Tactical Possibilities

We therefore have at the moment three elements to consider for each person at the moment of the bind:

1. Body position.
2. Foot position.
3. Bind position.

If you were the person on the left in the above photo, we can describe the situation as:

You turned, you narrow, you in the strong, they turned, they wide, them in the weak.

There are 64 possibilities looking at only these three factors, which don't include sidedness (quite relevant for the spear).  It is for this reason you need to encapsulate principles in kata rather than every tactical possibility - the possibilities are endless, however we can capture many of them by understanding broad principles.