Maybe, but like all Jedi she could use some actual European longsword training, which is not only more authentic but more interesting. (I was nominated for the Martial Arts Hall of Fame for studying this stuff, but didn't respond because it's a strange scheme to sell books listing winners of the award, as best I can tell).
For example, the only time I've seen a sword thrown over the back, hilt up to cover the spine, is in response to a passing attack as follows. Grab up a broomstick or golf club and work through this one.
You start off in Alber, the fool's guard (possibly related to the fool's mate in chess, but this has not been established). In this guard position you have the sword pointed at the ground in front of you, perhaps three feet in front of your toes. Your shoulders are pretty square to your opponent. You're facing him square on.
This is a natural ending position for downward strokes at your opponent, so in part it's a fundamental position because you end up in it so often. In almost all medieval swordsmanship you're pretty square on to your opponent (massive doses of adrenalin make you do this anyway), and your feet move pretty naturally like you're playing basketball or some other sport. Don't worry too much about your feet because you already know how to move them to change positions from every other sport and game you've played.
So, whether having missed with a downward strike or just standing there trying to suck in an unwary opponent into his own downward strike, you're in Alber, the low guard, with your hands near your waist and your sword pointed at the ground in front of you, like a hoe. Your opponent observes that you're entire upper body is open, so he strikes from above with his own downward strike.
You lift the hilt of your sword like you're doing biceps curls, then extend it so you hold your hilt over your head in a smooth sweeping motion. Your sword still points at the ground in front of you, you've just lifted it straight up by thrusting your hands to the sky. Due to biomechanics (for a right handed person) you can lift it with the hilt a little left of your head and the point a little to your right (and down), or the other way, crossing your forearms, with the hilt to your right and the point to your left. In either case the sword slopes down at about 45 degrees.
From the low guard or fool's guard (Alber) it's a free choice whether to lift the sword with the tip to the left or right, and the choice is based on which side your opponent's attack favors and which side you want to pass him on. The position you end up in, hilt high and point low, was called "hangen". It's a technique, not a guard, because you're a bit weak in the position if someone tries to displace your blade with force. But you're only going to be in the position for a moment because you're in motion.
So the opponent swings down very strongly (thinking the blow was a sure thing) and you pop your blade up, hilt over your head and blade sloping down, so his blade impacts and slides down like rain falling off a roof. Steel on steel in this situation has a very low coefficient of friction and the blades don't maintain good contact, so instead of stopping your opponent's blade you're making it slide away, using his own over-confidently powerful blow against him. Your opponent then has to stop his own blade instead of you doing it for him with a direct block. As it sweeps away, it's traveling at high-speed in the wrong direction, so you've created an opening in time. He's busy stopping his overstrength blow and you are in front of him with a sword in your hand.
Imagine he struck down from over his right shoulder (on your left), you popped your hilt up over your left, with your tip toward your right, so his blade skittered off yours and heads hard around on your right. His right side (on your left) is wide open and it's going to stay open until he can recover his sword from his overextended blow.
So you're going to rain hell down upon him.
First off, you're going to close the distance by passing him, going to his left or his right with a large diagonal step. If he swung from his right (your left) his blade is shooting to your right, so you surge past his left side, putting him in between his sword and your sword. That's a very bad place for him to be, like having his sword facing the wrong way when you have a dagger at his back. If he swung down from his left, your right, his sword is going past your left, so you attack by stepping diagonal to your right. In either case you end up beside him, heading past him in the direction your tip was pointing when you raised your arms.
Now for some enhancements.
With your hands in front of your face or head your blows are a little weak, but as you step forward keep your hand relatively still and high so your body and head pass underneath your hands. That puts you into something close to a baseball batter posture, hands near or behind your ears, for maximum power. So you're surging forward as your hands pause for a split second. That puts you beside and probably slightly behind your opponents open side in a Babe Ruth posture. You're going to split his spine in half as you go past.
If your opponent tries to stop his blade it's still on the wrong side of his body to provide any defence to him. He has only one option (seen in drawings as early as the 1300's). He doesn't stop his blade's motion, he doesn't slow his advance. He continues bounding forward to open up the distance, so you pass each other going in opposite direction. He continue's his swing around naturally until it ends up over his back (like the end of an overpowered golf swing) as his head pivots to track your blow. Your powerful passing blow at the back of his spine is thwarted because of his overswing, holding his sword over his shoulder, the point down near his hips, as your blade crashes into his.
Now you've exchanged positions, having passed each other.
He thought your upper body was open because your sword was low. He overconfidently pressed his attack and you simply deflected, passed, and swung at his back or the back of his neck. His only option, if he reacted in time, was to go in for all he was worth, protecting his back with his swing's follow through and continuing past you to open up the distance, running past you.
After you do this a couple of times, you don't use discrete motions, you blend it all together into Alber - Raise your hilt as you surge forward to one side or the other, converting your defense into a powerful blow all in one smooth motion.
Other than that, I can't think of a single instance of an image or instruction that intentionally has a person's back toward an opponent.
For example, the only time I've seen a sword thrown over the back, hilt up to cover the spine, is in response to a passing attack as follows. Grab up a broomstick or golf club and work through this one.
You start off in Alber, the fool's guard (possibly related to the fool's mate in chess, but this has not been established). In this guard position you have the sword pointed at the ground in front of you, perhaps three feet in front of your toes. Your shoulders are pretty square to your opponent. You're facing him square on.
This is a natural ending position for downward strokes at your opponent, so in part it's a fundamental position because you end up in it so often. In almost all medieval swordsmanship you're pretty square on to your opponent (massive doses of adrenalin make you do this anyway), and your feet move pretty naturally like you're playing basketball or some other sport. Don't worry too much about your feet because you already know how to move them to change positions from every other sport and game you've played.
So, whether having missed with a downward strike or just standing there trying to suck in an unwary opponent into his own downward strike, you're in Alber, the low guard, with your hands near your waist and your sword pointed at the ground in front of you, like a hoe. Your opponent observes that you're entire upper body is open, so he strikes from above with his own downward strike.
You lift the hilt of your sword like you're doing biceps curls, then extend it so you hold your hilt over your head in a smooth sweeping motion. Your sword still points at the ground in front of you, you've just lifted it straight up by thrusting your hands to the sky. Due to biomechanics (for a right handed person) you can lift it with the hilt a little left of your head and the point a little to your right (and down), or the other way, crossing your forearms, with the hilt to your right and the point to your left. In either case the sword slopes down at about 45 degrees.
From the low guard or fool's guard (Alber) it's a free choice whether to lift the sword with the tip to the left or right, and the choice is based on which side your opponent's attack favors and which side you want to pass him on. The position you end up in, hilt high and point low, was called "hangen". It's a technique, not a guard, because you're a bit weak in the position if someone tries to displace your blade with force. But you're only going to be in the position for a moment because you're in motion.
So the opponent swings down very strongly (thinking the blow was a sure thing) and you pop your blade up, hilt over your head and blade sloping down, so his blade impacts and slides down like rain falling off a roof. Steel on steel in this situation has a very low coefficient of friction and the blades don't maintain good contact, so instead of stopping your opponent's blade you're making it slide away, using his own over-confidently powerful blow against him. Your opponent then has to stop his own blade instead of you doing it for him with a direct block. As it sweeps away, it's traveling at high-speed in the wrong direction, so you've created an opening in time. He's busy stopping his overstrength blow and you are in front of him with a sword in your hand.
Imagine he struck down from over his right shoulder (on your left), you popped your hilt up over your left, with your tip toward your right, so his blade skittered off yours and heads hard around on your right. His right side (on your left) is wide open and it's going to stay open until he can recover his sword from his overextended blow.
So you're going to rain hell down upon him.
First off, you're going to close the distance by passing him, going to his left or his right with a large diagonal step. If he swung from his right (your left) his blade is shooting to your right, so you surge past his left side, putting him in between his sword and your sword. That's a very bad place for him to be, like having his sword facing the wrong way when you have a dagger at his back. If he swung down from his left, your right, his sword is going past your left, so you attack by stepping diagonal to your right. In either case you end up beside him, heading past him in the direction your tip was pointing when you raised your arms.
Now for some enhancements.
With your hands in front of your face or head your blows are a little weak, but as you step forward keep your hand relatively still and high so your body and head pass underneath your hands. That puts you into something close to a baseball batter posture, hands near or behind your ears, for maximum power. So you're surging forward as your hands pause for a split second. That puts you beside and probably slightly behind your opponents open side in a Babe Ruth posture. You're going to split his spine in half as you go past.
If your opponent tries to stop his blade it's still on the wrong side of his body to provide any defence to him. He has only one option (seen in drawings as early as the 1300's). He doesn't stop his blade's motion, he doesn't slow his advance. He continues bounding forward to open up the distance, so you pass each other going in opposite direction. He continue's his swing around naturally until it ends up over his back (like the end of an overpowered golf swing) as his head pivots to track your blow. Your powerful passing blow at the back of his spine is thwarted because of his overswing, holding his sword over his shoulder, the point down near his hips, as your blade crashes into his.
Now you've exchanged positions, having passed each other.
He thought your upper body was open because your sword was low. He overconfidently pressed his attack and you simply deflected, passed, and swung at his back or the back of his neck. His only option, if he reacted in time, was to go in for all he was worth, protecting his back with his swing's follow through and continuing past you to open up the distance, running past you.
After you do this a couple of times, you don't use discrete motions, you blend it all together into Alber - Raise your hilt as you surge forward to one side or the other, converting your defense into a powerful blow all in one smooth motion.
Other than that, I can't think of a single instance of an image or instruction that intentionally has a person's back toward an opponent.
