This is Not What it Looks

No, seriously. It s actually a legitimate technique from one of the medieval fighting manuals. It s from the manuscript Codex Wallerstein, compiled by the German fencing master Paulus Hector Mair in 1556. There are plenty of grappling techniques in historical martial arts, and this is one of them. It s shown with longswords but could also apply to arming swords, messers, etc. MMA fighters and Jujitsu practitioners can recognize it as a d