Prellhau

— bounce cut

A middle or crosswise cut made with the flat. The blade is meant to bounce off the opposing steel and come back.

Meyer describes the Prellhau as a chain: a Crosswise cut meets the opponent's blade, the flat rebounds, the sword circles over your head, and strikes again at the ear from the other side with inverted hands. Done a second time, the blade rebounds once more and wraps back into a final Zwerch. The cut is a teaching device as much as a technique — Meyer uses it to show how one action grows into the next when the blade is given its head, and how a fencer keeps initiative by riding the bounce rather than fighting it.