Von Auerswald's wrestling manual (1537) in text and video

[DdlR]

http://chivalricfighting.wordpress.c...von-auerswald/

Really nice article, with comprehensive video, on some of the techniques described and illustrated in Fabian von Auerswald's Renaissance-era wrestling manual, Ringer kunst: funf und Achtzig Stücke (The Art of Wrestling: Eighty Five Techniques).

[Mordschlag]

This is awesome, thanks for posting it. Auerswald's manual is one of the more clear, concise Ringen manuals out there. Maybe next time the group should do a video with an older man doing the throws for historical and comedic effect.

[PointyShinyBurn]

Wow, that is super Judo-y. Was there a specific target rule-set or was it just general fighting instruction?

[DdlR]

Wow, that is super Judo-y. Was there a specific target rule-set or was it just general fighting instruction?

It's been many years since I read a translation of the Von Auerswald text, but I recall a few passages wherein he says things like "this is not gentle" or "if you throw like this, you may hurt your friend", which suggests that the context was at least mostly recreational wrestling within a rule-set (presumably, wrestling to a clean throw, which remained the standard in most forms of European wrestling right through to the late 19th century). OTOH many of his techniques have clear analogs in "serious" combat treatises from the same era dealing with dagger and longsword fighting and, obviously, wrestling was generally considered to be useful training for knights.

The "Ringen im Grublein" was clearly differentiated as a specific wrestling sport or game in which one wrestler had to keep one foot in a small depression in the ground and the other had to hop.

[robowimp]

Normally I stay away from most of the stuff that comes out from the CFAA. I don't want to get in to it. Those problems aside, that is some good wrestling. Thank you