This drill was developed to teach several critical attributes necessary to the Meyer longsword combat. First and foremost it teaches the necessary discipline of the hanging point defense which is often lost on new students. The nanging point guard requires a quick instinctive use of the Shield of the sword, excessive point movement is counter productive and inefficient, essentially you should keep the point oriented at the opponent as much as possible and put all the movement in the hilt.
Another important attribute is footwork to keep optimum distance, during this drill keep form and slow down the pace of the drill so that you do not simply run in circles and wave your point all around, keep point discipline and keep proper footwork discipline. When you strike take a traverse step, when you defend step back.
Begin slowly with the hanging defense on one side and get comfortable with your partner going back and forth before you speed this up. Once you have the form work on the other side. Once you have sufficient form you can begin to insert the concept of INDES into the drill. Begin by using a verbal switch. As you do the drill loudly exclaim "Switch" which will the be the key for the opponent to prepare to switch the side you are doing the drill on. As you get more confidence you can do away with the verbal switch and go to a silent switch using a nice wide movement to give the opponent time to process the switch. As this becomes comfortable begin to tighten up your movements so that you telegraph less.
During the switch do not be concerned if you end up doing a Pflug type "oh shit" parry, while less desirable its better than a crack in the head and you are still using INDES, likewise if the pattern gets broken do not stop but try to gain back the pattern with control so that you do not hit your partner but still embrace the chaos which is a natural part of weapon combat. This attribute of retaking control of the fight tempo and pattern when it devolves into chaos helps to teach us to use the necessary INDES in freeplay.
"Everyone thinks differently from everyone else, so he behaves differently
in combat" -Joachim Meyer, Kunst des Fechten, 1570
"For as we are not all of a single nature, so we also cannot have a single style in combat, yet all must nonetheless arise and be derived from a single basis." -Joachim Meyer, Kunst des Fechten, 1570
"Who despises me and my praiseworthy craft,
I'll hit on the head that it resounds in his heart."
--Augustin Staidt, Federfechter
"The Truth in Combat is different for each individual.... Truth lies outside of All Fixed Patterns." -Bruce Lee
