Nicolaes Petter, 1674 – The 2nd Piece

08here’s the 2nd Piece given in the “Clear Instructions of the Exquisite Art of Wrestling” by Dutch Nicolaes Petter, posthumously printed in 1674.

B is the attacker, C the defender. Scenario: pushing against the chest with both hands.

B pushes against C's chest with both hands, thereby stepping forward with his left foot, stepping upon C’s right foot.

B pushes against C’s chest with both hands, thereby stepping forward with his left foot, stepping upon C’s right foot.

Nicolaes Petter, 1674 - The 2nd Piece (2)

C immediately seizes B’s arms or sleeves from below close to the armpits.Having thus seized B, C sets his left foot right in the middle of B’s body and throws himself backwards.

Nicolaes Petter, 1674 - The 2nd Piece (3)

Taking care that B, already being held under his sleeves, and with the foot placed on his mid-body, C is unavoidably going to fall.

Now, these fighting pieces were not just merely one counter technique to some attack, but had multiple levels. The descriptions continues, describing B’s counter in case he knows this “trick.”

Nicolaes Petter, 1674 - The 2nd Piece (4)

And in case B knows this “trick” by C, when feeling that C will fall backwards, then B strikes free his arms held by C, and seizes C’s foot, and then holds his right hand at the toes, and his left hand at the heel of C’s foot, and like this rotates C’s foot, or just wildly wrings it around, which causes great pain and helplessness on C’s part.

Even from here, the description continues and gives further counters of the counter, but I am going to leave it like this. The thing to note is that these were not individual pieces, but actually multi-level scenarios.

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