Oberhau

Oberhau, lit. "upper strike", in the German school is the term for any strike delivered downward from a high guard. This contrasts with Unterhau ("lower strike"), the term for any strike delivered upward from a low guard.

There may be special terms for specific strikes that fall under the general umbrella of Oberhau (such as Scheitelhau, Zornhau, etc.)

Note that some English translations of German manuals render the German hau (also haw, cognate with English to hew) as "cut"; this is misleading, as the German school distinguishes between hau (strike, impact with the edge), stich (stab or thrust, impact with the point) and schnitt (cut, cutting movement with the edge). It is true, and a physiological detail of proper technique, that even a "strike" delivered properly will include a cutting movement, and the "cut" translation may be motivated by a didactic desire to emphasize this for the student, but nevertheless the fact remains that the difference between the original concepts of hau and schnitt needs to be represented in translation.

Some English translations have also attempted the etymologizing hew (oberhau = "upper hew"); this avoids possible confusion with the schnitt, but hew does not exist as a noun in contemporary English (OED lists "† hew, n." as obsolete, with spurious use recorded only between 1596 and 1618; even the verb to hew is archaic, and carries misleading connotations of "to chop or hack away at", while the Early New High German noun hau was just the unmarked, generic term for "a strike").