Sorry for the old pictures here.  I will reshoot these at some point, but for now, this gets the points across.

Guard positions

In Elashvili's text, he documents 9 guard positions for Parikaoba, and those are a good base on which to build our reconstruction of Lashkroba. However, coming from a classical base, he numbers these positions, and the numbering system clashes with that of classical Russian Sabre, which he uses to describe his attacks. For clarity we are accordingly abandoning Elashvili's numbering for the guards, and replacing it with a system using letters of the alphabet. We will however classify the guards into two groups, the Closed Guards, of which Elashvili talks a lot, and the Open or Profiled Guards, which he describes and tells us what they do well, then never talks of again.

Closed Guard positions

The Closed guards are the primary guards that we will be using in Lashkroba. These all share certain characteristics. Primarily that the hands are held together with the sword hand touching the buckler hand and hiding behind the buckler for protection. These are held while in the common or the kneeling stance and are the guards you will use when parrying an attack. If you are not wearing forearm and elbow protection then it is important to bring your elbows as close together as possible to take advantage of the protection offered by the buckler. If you are wearing bazubands or similar forearm protection, then you can relax them a bit more. At the same time you should keep your shoulders square and not pulled forward in your guard stance, though this is tempting. Keeping your shoulders square will help prevent shoulder stress and injury, it will also allow you to pull them forward to gain a few more inches of reach if needed.

Guard A

This is the primary guard of the system. The hands are held together with the right hand behind the buckler alongside the left (the thumbs may be linked for strength) and the blade pointed roughly straight up and slightly inclined back towards the wielder.

 

Guard B

Like Guard A only the blade is inclined to the right roughly 45 degrees.

Guard C

Here the blade is held roughly horizontal and pointing off to the right. The sword hand is palm up beneath the buckler hand which remains oriented thumb up.

    

 

Guard D

Here the blade is oriented angled downward and to the right. The tip of the sword should be at the same height as the knee. As always, the buckler hand remains thumb up.

   

Guard E

This is the left leaning guard analogous to Guard B. The blade is held tilted roughly 45 degrees with the palm above the buckler hand but still hidden by the buckler.

   

Guard F

This is the left side equivalent of Guard C. The blade is held horizontally pointing to the left. This means palm down, but the right hand is held below the buckler hand. This and Guard G are rather like Prima custodia or underarm from M.S. I.33.

 

Guard G

Here the blade is held angled down and left with the point at knee height. Right hand under the left.

    

 

Open Guard Positions

The Open guards are held in the Profiled stance and have the hands separated. Here the buckler is extended and the body heavily profiled with the sword well withdrawn to protect the sword hand.

Guard H (high)

In the profiled stance, extend the buckler arm forward with the elbow slightly bent. The sword arm is either extended backwards or held slightly back from the shoulder at shoulder height. Think of this as chambering the sword arm for a very powerful blow.

 

 Guard I (low)

The buckler here is held exactly as in Guard H, but the sword hand is held back and down, roughly waist height. This is chambering a powerful rising or low horizontal blow.

Stance

Understanding the WHY of the stance used

In most fencing, the stance used has two main purposes. It serves to provide a stable base from which to make strikes, and it attempts to minimize the target area presented to the attacker. In modern sport fencing for instance the body is held highly profiled with the legs bent and ready to move. This provides only a narrow target area for an opponent's blade to strike as seen in the photograph of Jim Emmons below.  

 

Once you add in an offhand weapon however, profiling becomes less useful, as it leaves one shoulder much further back than the other and thus limits the reach with one arm. Many systems deal with this in different ways. For example, in Rapier and dagger, the body is often held in such a way that the different lengths of the two weapons help bring things back into balance while preserving the profile. Most relevantly perhaps, is the way that the body is held by the fighters depicted in the oldest known sword and buckler treatise, MS I.33. In this text, the fighters are shown with an interesting forward lean to their bodies.

In this stance, the shoulders are held at the same distance from the opponent, and critically, the upper thigh is withheld from being an easy target for a strike. Experimentation has taught us that with Lashkroba, like with MS I.33 the torso MUST be hinged forward at the hips, or else you will get hit in the thigh a lot. However, unlike I.33, the Khevsur often take a much squarer stance with their feet. This allows for very quick sideways movements which are reported to have been favored by Khevsurs over the in and out movements we see in modern HEMA or sport fencing. They also tend to crouch somewhat, further reducing the available target area.

It is also fairly common to see the Khevsur drop to a very low crouch, or even to one knee while fighting, as seen in this photograph of two Khevsur in a Parikaoba-esque duelling setup. Here, the left hand fighter is in a typical, if somewhat more hunched than usual stance, and the right hand fighter has dropped nearly to one knee.

 

The khevsur hold a stance like this for all guard where both hands are held forward of the body. Elashvili also records two guards positions where the sword arm is refused and held behind the body, with the buckler out in front. In these cases, the fighter adopts a stance more like a modern fencing stance and profiles the body sideways to allow the buckler to cover as much of their body as possible.

           

Getting into stance

The common square stance

To begin, start with your feet square under your shoulders, bring one foot forward, but no more than about one half of a foot length to one foot length. From here, bend your knees and sink down, hinging forward at the waist. Bring your arms in front of your body with your hands together while keeping your shoulders square. It is a temptation to pinch your shoulders forward, but resist it. While it makes it easier to reach the correct forearm position, it opens you up to shoulder damage.

The kneeling stance

Begin by entering the common square stance as above. From there basically bend your knees and lower your weight straight down till you are nearly kneeling. Commonly, the heel of the back foot will raise off the ground, and the glute on that side will rest on the heel.  You may also squat onto your haunches in the stereotypical "slav squat" position of internet meme fame.  But the low stances are a place where many people struggle in my experience.  These stances, and movement within them require more mobility in the hamstrings than many American adults are comfortable with.

Practice taking each of these stances with both left and right foot forward, as well as dropping into the kneeling stance and standing up into the crouching stance first slowly, and then quickly. Remember, traditionally the Khesvur were a mountain dwelling people, and had lower body strength in proportion to the terrain they spent their lives traversing.

The profiled stance

Here, stand left foot forward, in something akin to a fencing stance, but with the legs slightly less bent. The left (buckler) arm is held out ahead of you straight with the left hand a fist pointed at the opponent. The right hand for now hold back and slightly lowered, with a loosely bent elbow.

 

The pictures from Elashvili's text are a bit degraded, so for those who are interested in trying this out, here is a modern take.  Please excuse the ad-hoc nature of these.  The straps on this buckler aren't quite fully accurate, (I'll be talking about why and what you can do for yours in a later post)  and the buckler is my old crufty one which I had on hand when I took these.

Gripping the sword and buckler

Before we can look at how the sword is held, we'll begin with the buckler as it is simpler to picture and explain. The design of the buckler informs much of the way it is gripped and used. Because the gripping is done straps with wide anchor points, the hand grips these in a fist as if you were punching the buckler. One thing about this is that unlike Western dished bucklers with a solid grip, the length of the straps needs to be set within a distinct range to fit the hand size and grip of the person using it.

 

Another thing to note is that it was not uncommon for the Khevsur to grip a dagger with their buckler hand in an icepick grip so that it projected downward below the buckler. This provides some additional defense against low attacks, as well as some additional offensive capability to the buckler hand. It does this however at the cost of the ability to easily bring the sword blade around the bottom of the buckler to a position analogous to underarm or prima from MS I.33.

Unlike most western swordplay, the sword itself is gripped in what is basically a hammer grip. This is, we are told, to prevent being disarmed, and that the Khevsur retain this grip even when thrusting. Personally, I have found the best success with a grip which is roughly halfway between the hammer grip and a classical sabre grip.  (I need to take a new photo.  this one is old and not the best.)

For those who have been waiting so patiently, here is the basic translation of material from Elashvili.  It's rather confusing in many places, so I will be posting modern photos, video, and descriptions of the positions and actions, both those derived directly from Elashvili and those that come from other Georgian sources over the coming weeks.  Great thanks go to Niko Abazadze, Vakhtang Kiziria, Gotscha Lagidze, and გიორგი ლაცაბიძე for technical content.  In addition, Alex Maghlakelidze and Giorgi Khelashvili provided much background information and photographs that appear in some posts.  As always, many thanks to those who have helped make this translation and our interpretation a reality.  Jim Emmons and Alex Spreier first and foremost, but also, Richard Tillman, Sage Derting, Sean Hayes, Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani, Jose Amiel Angeles,  & Da'Mon Stith.  

http://nwarmizare.com/parikaoba-translation-direct.pdf

So recently I've come to realize that between work, family, The book is going to be delayed. But What we're doing is too important not to get it out there. Therefore, I'm committing to sharing the material I've been preparing for the book a piece at a time in this blog as I'm able to. The goal is a post a week, either something from the book or a video for you all. Once it's all out, I'll gather it up and take another stab at a book format. But this way we can get the translation and other info out there and improve it, chunk by chunk.

The most easily identified piece of Khevsur clothing would be the traditional Talaveri tunic. The Talaveri is in form constructed like a classic medieval tunic of a rather square design with a side neck closure, and heavy embroidered decoration on the front yoke, cuffs, and bottom of the garment. The highlanders of Khevsureti are recorded as far back as ~450BC as being excellent weavers, knitters, and cembroiderers by the greek historian Herodetus, who noted that their products would wear out, but never faded. Richly decorated with embroidered designs, often using a repeated cross motif, the talaveri is split from the hem to the waist at the sides to allow mobility in the legs, and is believed by many researchers to be the closest to the form of medieval Georgian garments.