The initiative; acting first so that the opponent must respond to you.
To be in the Vor is to be the one making the threats. The opponent has to deal with your action before they can do anything of their own. Liechtenauer's teaching repeatedly says to seize the Vor, attack first () and keep threatening so that the opponent is kept in the .
Being in the Vor is not the same as attacking recklessly: the point is to make threats the opponent must answer, then exploit how they answer.
Your familiarity
Sources and interpretation
- Nuremberg Hausbuch (MS 3227a), Wiktenauer transcription page Manuscript public domain; Wiktenauer article text CC BY-SA 4.0; translations as marked on the page The Nuremberg Hausbuch is especially emphatic about the Vor and the first strike.