I agree at 99% with You Matt. Also for having a better hand protection generally i held my hand more "spread" in the end part of the handle, so i embrace it a bit more, I keep the right palm a bit more backward and so my thumb just sit on the side of the handle istead of the side of the blade. I lose just a bit of leverage (because well, swordmakers have always tried to let fencers put the hand a bit forward for a good reason) but i feel comfortable and safer. But this is also because I use replicas and they don't have the schilt.
At the HEMA place where I train (The Armoured Company of the Sword), we try to use all the longsword treatises. Whenever we do a technique like that, i.e. one that requires lifting the thumb, we often say to beginners, "If you do this, and you forget to move the thumb, it's a mistake you will make once." Anyway, great video.
Ofcourse you have static parries in longsword. We teach them in German longsword aswell. They are not in the manuals... why? CONTEXT! The manual was for good fencers who wanted to be better. So it does not show basic cuts or basic blocks... everyone was supposed to know them already! But there are techniques that do work with a static block. Why would they be there if noone blocked? As for the thumb: It is for guiding the blade mostly. If you are getting struck in the thumb, you should hold the sword a little lower. Why? Because the thumb is in the way of fast using the sword. It works really well with some cuts (zwerg, that is why we use it there) and it works terrible with others (oberhew). You should not keep your thumb there at all times. It should mostly not be there and the static blocks work even without the thumb being up. Cheers, folks.
Interesting, meyer specifically tells us not to parry in the conmon conmon fashion by letting your opponent simply strike against your sword, ie, static parry. He seems to prefer using longpoint or straight parrying, and turning you true edge against the cut and threatening face or body with the point
Probably my favorite parry. I do wish it was emphasized more as an option in the Nach since it has so many followups and requires little dedication of upper body and arm usage. Interesting tidbit about the thumb, thanks for that inclusion.
When you do another video on Fiore, can you discuss the politics of social status during his lifetime. I would like to hear more about his family and the "free" nobles of the period and the concept of imperial immediacy and all that entailed.
I think simple parry and cut into a cut both have their places(I study Liechtenauer). In some manuscript they advised putting your thumb under/behind your sword, basically thumb gripping your sword when in guard. Be it kron, pflug, or ochs. But mostly people now thumb gripping for quicker initiation for certain techniques requiring thumb on the flat.
Always a pleasure to watch. When I make it to the UK I hope to get to the club and learn some long sword, and I’d be honored to take a few passes in Rapier
I see the spear in the background, I see the bald head and face features, I hear the soothing trusty voice, am I the only one seeing him exactly like a real life look alike of Patches from Dark Souls?
I originally tried to get into your channel a year or two ago, but just wasn't feeling it. Your camera presence and presentation skill has improved significantly over the last couple of years, and I subbed with notifications awhile ago. Your passion for the combative arts is definitely inspiring!
I consider you a pro, as in professional. Maybe even a true expert. You're obviously no beginner or amateur. I haven't found a better person to teach and share me melee on the screen. I think the "nail' on German messers etc was partially to stop the thumb cuts to. Someone saw the repeated wounds and fixed it at the blacksmith level.
Would you ever have any interest discussing the tomahawk & point down knife fighting technique we see a lot in films like Last Of The Mohicans & The Patriot & video games like Assassins Creed 3? I’m curious to know how accurate that fighting style is and how practical it would be in real life combat.
I personally do a combination of those two, I found out that I can do everything I do quite comfortably and without changing the way I hold the sword too much with a grip similar to how you would hold a cooking knife, so I have my hand a bit down from the cross with the thumb touching it and hiding behind the blade. Haven't gotten hit in the thumb while blocking since I started doing it.
I started HEMA with longsword. It was definitely my preferred weapon to start with (I saw it as being somewhat more heroic than fighting with a sword and shield), but these days, after having trained to a greater or lesser extent with sword and buckler, dagger, sickle, rapier, messer, montante and various polearms... I can definitely say longsword is in my bottom two preferred weapons to practice.
Just a note: In the Novati Fiore illustrates Posta Frontale with the right foot forward as though one had passed. I don't think he means to imply that one should pass when parrying but I'd bet he wouldn't chastise a student for parrying frontale with the right foot forward :)
Right, but then it is not a gioco largo incrossada, because the options of what to do next with the other foot forward are covered in the gioco stretto section.
Very interesting, just a quick thought for you Matt: I do not know from what pose the end position originated from but consider posta di donna just for the sake of it, if it came from posta di donna, that creates a downward torque to the left. From my experience in my own practices, this is very similar to a certain japanese technique(the origin i have forgotten) that instead of statically and pssively blocking, actively redirects the sword down and to the defender's left, leaving the face open, right where the point ends. This is also very similar to what taichi practitioners call cloud hands, which actively synchronizes the movement of the defending hand with the attack and effectively redirects it. It is also similar (but with less clang) to what a upwards slash do to a mandritto fendente from boar's tooth. I will be visiting your club early July so hopefully we'll be able to discuss this further then.
Typically in the japanese arts, a straight downward cut intercepting the enemy's own straight downward cut and gently pushing it to your left while gaining the center line is called "kiri-otoshi" (from the Itto-ryu lineages but all the other big lineages do have it as well - Itto-ryodan in Shinkage-ryu for instance). Japanese also do the upwards strike from boar's tooth (well... gedan that is) against a downward blow, but it's a deflection or a control spine against spine since they don't have a false edge to slash with.
Yes they do, and this is why I find the 'rolling' block very intriguing, although it may just be me not knowing enough japanese styles, but this idea of actively yet gently capturing the opponent's cut is much different to the clash of skill that a center-line occupying cut possess. And may I add very similar to taichi(the only chinese martial arts I have some experience in).
As a reference this is what I was thinking when talking about this downward deflection with the spine: ruclips.net/video/X2A3HvOgvdQ/видео.html&t=149 I think it doesn't exactly work the same way that the clashing of downward cuts, but both requires very good skill at reading timing and controlling the amount of energy you use otherwise you don't "control" and the opponent can simply slip under or over (and this is one of the counter that the style I referenced teach actually). I don't know much about taichi but there's no reason to believe that it's different, it's not really a complicated thing to develop when you actively think about it.
Pompadour_Gagarin Of course I am not implying a lack of skill with cutting and gaining the center line simutaneously, quite the contrarary. However if you actually try it you will find the reason why I say they feel different, as with so many other things in combative arts the only way to actually underatand is by first hand experience
Oh I wasn't trying to say that you were implying such a thing. And I do experienced it, both by and against me... well perhaps without such a great skill coming from me but good enough I hope, and better tomorrow anyway!
I was of the opinion that the most popular weapon in the UK is the kitchen knife your chaves stab and slash in the streets with. A longsword is a huge thing, you must be very cunning and resorceful there to carry them around concealed from your police ;) A serious note: for last months I regularly see in my (pretty decent) neighbourhood a guy carrying something like a bastard sword across his back. Must watched to much fantasy ;) Since (despite some popular misunderstandings) it is perfectly legal to carry almost any bladed weapon in public (concealed or not) here in Poland, the police don't bother him, but I saw people taking photographs of him, he is kinda tourist attraction in a way :D
Please do more dagger stuff! I'd be soooooo into that! (Btw, just got a rondel from Tod, it's an excellent piece of kit, thanks for the head's up. I love it!)
Niemand Keiner My guess is that it's useful when discussing it with other people. Although you're right to remind us that the name doesn't matters as long as you like what you're doing
Niemand Keiner We could call it Modern Martial Arts, but “MMA” is already taken. It doesn’t really matter what the thing is called, except when it’s needed to know what is being spoken of.
Slinging was by definition a historic European martial art though. There's really no debating this. Slings were used historically during the entire classical period in Europe, and into the medieval period. Slinging as well as archery and even mounted combat with lances and other weapons would be by definition HEMAs. Anything used historically in combat should qualify.
In my club in Taiwan, we always choose to hold sword down. Maybe just because of we are used to it, we don't think this way is difficult to feel the edge.
Matt, in this case why not use the hammer grip instead of the thumb up? Does this grip ruin some sort of strike that is common with the longsword? Sorry if it's a silly question.
I'd like to know what Matt would pick up in a zombie apocalypse... he and a friend are in a room with a longsword and a sabre. Which dose he grab to hit the streets with ???
Rhe SPES Hvy are great, but the point of the finger gets injured if you are not careful... and it is a bit difficult to having it properly sticking with them, so not that easy.
Very interesting to see other longsword system than the German stuff. But I am surprised you didn't mention the Einhorn as one of the guards from I believe Mair or HS 3227a. In my club its the predominant "standard" guard.
I'd love to start doing longsword fencing, but not with that type of long thin rapier-like blade... Called a feder? I wonder if there are people fencing with older style longswords?
I learned this parry from people who do Fiore. I've experimented with this parry myself for a while and i must say i dont like it. It gives you a false sense of security. You feel covered on your entire left side but in fact youre only covered by the strong part of your blade. A heavy hit to the weaker portion of your blade can break your guard and hit you in the head. I've since reverted to the ochs parries, the zornhau and the schielhau as my go to parries.
Well there is fencing, and there is hedging, personally I find a long handled slasher and a billhook best for the latter, I expect a sledgehammer and a spade are good for the former. On a more serious point I have been interested in your postings about the Dane axe and the differences between an axe as a weapon and as something you can chop down trees with. Were you to be an ancient Dane who invaded my farmstead with your axe or whatever, and I came up against you with a slasher, who would have the advantage do you think? I rather think, and considering how it evolved into being a medieval pole arm, that the hook would be more of an advantage against your hauberk than an axe or sword given the point at the end of it. It is an interesting question, the Bible has it as swords into ploughshares but I wonder how often it was not the opposite way.
I just checked your channel because you haven't shown up in my feed for at least 2 months. Just letting you know that I haven't been getting notifications for your new videos.
The problem with modern gauntlets is also that the padding is thick and quite rigid, rendering putting the thumb on the Schilt rather cumbersome. If your feder features rings, it becomes even harder to put the thumb through there. Thus, better protection equals sloppy technique, to some extent. However, I like my thumbs and still am using gauntlets.
Argument against what you saying: the attack of the opponent who hopefully should be attacking looks EXACTLY the same. the only difference is that he has entered and so is right foot forward. Or is he blocking the incoming block. Imho Fiore states his cuts on one page and after that discusses solutions for the bind (and a few other solutions like overrunning etc)
Yep, that's the standard counter-argument. The thing is that we know the guy on the right is attacking and cutting with the arms bent would be stupid in every way :-) Equally, we know how Fiore shows Posta Frontale. There are various possible answers, but to me the most likely one is that the artist wasn't a fencer and showed the attacker in a more lazy position, or perhaps recovering to protect his face from the inevitable thrust from the bind. The bind is the important bit, being on the side of the lead leg, and doing that as a cut with the arms outstretched is (IMHO) far less preferable than a simple parry with the arms bent, which is what works best for us and for 90% of other fencing systems (and is like Frontale).
These Spes Heavies (at around 11:25), while nice, aren't a perfect protection. While sparring with longsword, once, I got myself into some stupid, weird kind of position. Not quite an Ox (or Ochs? I'm not too sure about the German spelling, and I've no idea about the Italian names) as it was too low, using a thumb grip, on my left side, with my thumb being on the top of the blade. Got whacked on the thumb. It swelled up, with the nail eventually coming loose and falling off. So, while good gloves (and a thumb grip) are good and protect well, they can't protect me from my own mistakes :P
Check out the movie "Alatriste"/"Captain Alatriste". Movie about Spanish soldiers in 1622 Europe, with Viggo Mortensen. Some kinda nice rapier fights... I think. 🤔💭 Review? 🤔 The movie is from 2006. I had just seen a couple of your bids about the claymore/broad sword when I saw it. And noticed one in a fight, it actually revealed a plot point in the movie. 😉😀 "wait, what!? Isn't that a claymore!?!" 😳🤔🤨😏 Watch the movie. Pretty brutal & very beautiful. Looks like old paintings from the 1600s,pretty much all the time.
Can you talk about why longswords meant for combat didn't have the feder's wide...would you call that a ricasso? The wide part at the base of the blade. Why don't longswords have that normally?
A quarter of an hour long video just to tell you where to put your thumb XD Anyway, a random question came to mind while watching this. HEMA is still a somewhat new sport and there are probably (?) less people doing it now than there were 500-800 years ago, but there is also easier access to training manuals now than back then. How do you think modern fighters compare to medieval ones? On average and the very best?.
Obviously it's impossible to be sure because we really have no idea at all how good people were back then, but I'd assume that on average, those who practiced regularly back then were better than today, but I really doubt that someone like Anton Kohutovic (I probably misspelled that...) would get trounced by even someone from the time when longswords were in regular use.
But Matt, don't you know that the vulnerable part of on the tip of the thumb of SPES heavies is how they work to protect you? By attracting the other guy's sword to that one spot you continuously get hit in one place while that rest of you hand remains completely protected!
So I have a question - which weapon is the easiest to simulate realistically in training? For example, I know that for longsword or arming sword, the issue is with lack of edge binds with training props.
Random question totally unrelated to this video: how effective were spike bayonets (ie. Brown Bess, Enfield Rifle-Musket) against armour? Any sources shed light on this? Certainly British and other colonial powers would have faced armoured foes in combat in places like India and China.
Matt I have a question - is longsword able to parry/deflect montante blow swinged with full force (torso/head/waist)? And what about deflecting montante full power blow aimed at his legs?
Laserowy Kuba you can parry descending blows from Montante quite easily with a longsword with good structure. Dont bother blocking leg cuts, just void. You can't really stop them and doing so leaves you in a horrible position to follow up. I train with the greatsword and longsword as my main weapons
Hmm. I dont know, people on youtube either dont use montante with full power for safety reasons or they use actual sticks like in SCA so I cant tell... I read on myarmoury forum that it's "almost impossible to parry with longsword a full power blow from 2.5 kg montante"
The montante is still a sword, not an axe. The point of balance is near the handle, not near the hitting end. So while it does hit harder then smaller swords, it doesn't hit nearly as hard as to prevent you from doing a static block with a longsword - and even less so with a deflect. You shouldn't try to parry something like a japanese kanabo with a longsword. But a montante is fine.
But people who did try it (did you try it?), described it as near impossible. If you have a link to video in which longsword user block FULL power swings from montante, I would like to see it
I think you are overselling your: "arms at the Gioco largo incrossare must be bent" to parry idea. While the arms are slightly bent in the Getty and the Pisani Dossi, they aren't more bent than the opponent, who is supposedly making a full diagonal cut. Furthermore, in the Morgan, the arms are pretty straight.
And those pictures were drawn by monks who most likely never even touched a sword. These are the types of details that someone who doesn't do martial arts would be very likely to miss. The crossings are all either frontale or breve, and both usually have arms bent. All in all, a block with bent arms and the sword close to your body is much more secure than having them out.
I guess the main thing against them is if your finger is in the ring but then you suddenly get into a melee it's possible for your hand to be caught and stuck in the sword.
Yeah those did come in later but the thing is that longswords fell out of favour after fancier hilts started to become a thing, in part because the nature of warfare also changed and made them less relevant. After a point we started to see a divergence between military and civilian-use weaponry, where the longsword was a sort of hybrid being the sidearm of the nobility which they would wear about in public during peacetime and use for their personal self-defense. Knightly dominance of warfare faded out with more modern cavalry and infantry formations taking over particularly after gunpowder became widespread and pretty much universal in the 1500's. So we see less longswords being made except for ceremonial purposes while at the same time better civilian self-defense weapons like the rapier and its precursors start to emerge and these become popular among the nobility as well as commoners permitted to carry such weapons (as any could in some nations but not others). War-swords transitioned more toward things like the saber for cavalry with infantry men or officers sometimes carrying other kinds of swords.
Missed opportunity to tell us to "be sure to give this video a thumb up."
4:35 a rare appearance by Gnat Easton.
lol
5:38 Sat here like a muppet swatting at a fly that was apparently in your shed rather than my room.
Don't feel bad, you weren't alone...
I agree at 99% with You Matt. Also for having a better hand protection generally i held my hand more "spread" in the end part of the handle, so i embrace it a bit more, I keep the right palm a bit more backward and so my thumb just sit on the side of the handle istead of the side of the blade. I lose just a bit of leverage (because well, swordmakers have always tried to let fencers put the hand a bit forward for a good reason) but i feel comfortable and safer.
But this is also because I use replicas and they don't have the schilt.
We need to see you fight Nick from Academy of Historic Fencing.
I've never actually fought Nick. My students have fought his quite a lot of times though. Nick and I are probably too old and tired to compete now.
scholagladiatoria send Pedro against Nick's champion
Sweep the legs
Cobra Ki 💀🤺
I'd love to see a video comparing Fiore and Liechtenauer longsword. Cheers from the USA.
At the HEMA place where I train (The Armoured Company of the Sword), we try to use all the longsword treatises. Whenever we do a technique like that, i.e. one that requires lifting the thumb, we often say to beginners, "If you do this, and you forget to move the thumb, it's a mistake you will make once."
Anyway, great video.
Cheers Matt, always good to hear your thoughts. As a Fiorist myself, I do enjoy vids that discuss these topics.
I was honestly questioning what a Florist needs sword techniques for
Ofcourse you have static parries in longsword. We teach them in German longsword aswell. They are not in the manuals... why? CONTEXT! The manual was for good fencers who wanted to be better. So it does not show basic cuts or basic blocks... everyone was supposed to know them already! But there are techniques that do work with a static block. Why would they be there if noone blocked?
As for the thumb: It is for guiding the blade mostly. If you are getting struck in the thumb, you should hold the sword a little lower. Why? Because the thumb is in the way of fast using the sword. It works really well with some cuts (zwerg, that is why we use it there) and it works terrible with others (oberhew). You should not keep your thumb there at all times. It should mostly not be there and the static blocks work even without the thumb being up.
Cheers, folks.
Interesting, meyer specifically tells us not to parry in the conmon conmon fashion by letting your opponent simply strike against your sword, ie, static parry. He seems to prefer using longpoint or straight parrying, and turning you true edge against the cut and threatening face or body with the point
Another great video. More Fiore videos please. I always enjoy them.
Probably my favorite parry. I do wish it was emphasized more as an option in the Nach since it has so many followups and requires little dedication of upper body and arm usage. Interesting tidbit about the thumb, thanks for that inclusion.
When you do another video on Fiore, can you discuss the politics of social status during his lifetime. I would like to hear more about his family and the "free" nobles of the period and the concept of imperial immediacy and all that entailed.
That is the first thing I was taught in fencing longsword. Keep your thumb on the shield
I think simple parry and cut into a cut both have their places(I study Liechtenauer).
In some manuscript they advised putting your thumb under/behind your sword, basically thumb gripping your sword when in guard. Be it kron, pflug, or ochs.
But mostly people now thumb gripping for quicker initiation for certain techniques requiring thumb on the flat.
You should do a movie-fight-review on the last fight in "Master and Commander"!
Always a pleasure to watch. When I make it to the UK I hope to get to the club and learn some long sword, and I’d be honored to take a few passes in Rapier
I have waited so long for another martial arts video from you and not another history lesson.
Thank you Matt!
I see the spear in the background, I see the bald head and face features, I hear the soothing trusty voice, am I the only one seeing him exactly like a real life look alike of Patches from Dark Souls?
Giovanny Linares FUCK YOURE RIGHT
THUMBS UP for this video!
I originally tried to get into your channel a year or two ago, but just wasn't feeling it. Your camera presence and presentation skill has improved significantly over the last couple of years, and I subbed with notifications awhile ago. Your passion for the combative arts is definitely inspiring!
Yay, more coverage on the topics most fencing schools got hard on for.
Even if I don’t always agree with some of your interpretations it’s always nice to see you talk about fiore
I consider you a pro, as in professional. Maybe even a true expert. You're obviously no beginner or amateur. I haven't found a better person to teach and share me melee on the screen. I think the "nail' on German messers etc was partially to stop the thumb cuts to. Someone saw the repeated wounds and fixed it at the blacksmith level.
Would you ever have any interest discussing the tomahawk & point down knife fighting technique we see a lot in films like Last Of The Mohicans & The Patriot & video games like Assassins Creed 3? I’m curious to know how accurate that fighting style is and how practical it would be in real life combat.
Armoured Productions oh cool! I didn’t even know what that style was called. Thanks for the info.
He made a movie fight review about a fight in The Patriot including a tomahawk and knife
Video begins at 5:37.
THANK YOU!!
yeah, totally nothing like Matt. he never gets sidetracked
Stoner 63 No, the video began at the start.
JohnyG29 deep
no
The thumb placement you show is often seen on Spanish/Italian sail guard main gauches. There is usually an oval dip on the lower ricasso of the blade.
I personally do a combination of those two, I found out that I can do everything I do quite comfortably and without changing the way I hold the sword too much with a grip similar to how you would hold a cooking knife, so I have my hand a bit down from the cross with the thumb touching it and hiding behind the blade. Haven't gotten hit in the thumb while blocking since I started doing it.
13:35 ah yes, the famed kylo grip...
wow thats a huge fly
quite distracting
SOOOOO Fucking huge!
fly? thats a bird!
I started HEMA with longsword. It was definitely my preferred weapon to start with (I saw it as being somewhat more heroic than fighting with a sword and shield), but these days, after having trained to a greater or lesser extent with sword and buckler, dagger, sickle, rapier, messer, montante and various polearms... I can definitely say longsword is in my bottom two preferred weapons to practice.
"Informal spar meetups" - I will now refer to brawls, street fights, and other such unscrupulous fighting activities in this manner.
Just a note: In the Novati Fiore illustrates Posta Frontale with the right foot forward as though one had passed. I don't think he means to imply that one should pass when parrying but I'd bet he wouldn't chastise a student for parrying frontale with the right foot forward :)
Right, but then it is not a gioco largo incrossada, because the options of what to do next with the other foot forward are covered in the gioco stretto section.
To quote Sword's Path, "Fioreists are human too, barely, but human." LOL
Very interesting, just a quick thought for you Matt: I do not know from what pose the end position originated from but consider posta di donna just for the sake of it, if it came from posta di donna, that creates a downward torque to the left. From my experience in my own practices, this is very similar to a certain japanese technique(the origin i have forgotten) that instead of statically and pssively blocking, actively redirects the sword down and to the defender's left, leaving the face open, right where the point ends. This is also very similar to what taichi practitioners call cloud hands, which actively synchronizes the movement of the defending hand with the attack and effectively redirects it. It is also similar (but with less clang) to what a upwards slash do to a mandritto fendente from boar's tooth. I will be visiting your club early July so hopefully we'll be able to discuss this further then.
Typically in the japanese arts, a straight downward cut intercepting the enemy's own straight downward cut and gently pushing it to your left while gaining the center line is called "kiri-otoshi" (from the Itto-ryu lineages but all the other big lineages do have it as well - Itto-ryodan in Shinkage-ryu for instance).
Japanese also do the upwards strike from boar's tooth (well... gedan that is) against a downward blow, but it's a deflection or a control spine against spine since they don't have a false edge to slash with.
Yes they do, and this is why I find the 'rolling' block very intriguing, although it may just be me not knowing enough japanese styles, but this idea of actively yet gently capturing the opponent's cut is much different to the clash of skill that a center-line occupying cut possess. And may I add very similar to taichi(the only chinese martial arts I have some experience in).
As a reference this is what I was thinking when talking about this downward deflection with the spine:
ruclips.net/video/X2A3HvOgvdQ/видео.html&t=149
I think it doesn't exactly work the same way that the clashing of downward cuts, but both requires very good skill at reading timing and controlling the amount of energy you use otherwise you don't "control" and the opponent can simply slip under or over (and this is one of the counter that the style I referenced teach actually).
I don't know much about taichi but there's no reason to believe that it's different, it's not really a complicated thing to develop when you actively think about it.
Pompadour_Gagarin Of course I am not implying a lack of skill with cutting and gaining the center line simutaneously, quite the contrarary. However if you actually try it you will find the reason why I say they feel different, as with so many other things in combative arts the only way to actually underatand is by first hand experience
Oh I wasn't trying to say that you were implying such a thing. And I do experienced it, both by and against me... well perhaps without such a great skill coming from me but good enough I hope, and better tomorrow anyway!
Interestingly, in the Giocco Largo picture, neither the attacker nor the master have their elbows extended.
I was of the opinion that the most popular weapon in the UK is the kitchen knife your chaves stab and slash in the streets with. A longsword is a huge thing, you must be very cunning and resorceful there to carry them around concealed from your police ;)
A serious note: for last months I regularly see in my (pretty decent) neighbourhood a guy carrying something like a bastard sword across his back. Must watched to much fantasy ;) Since (despite some popular misunderstandings) it is perfectly legal to carry almost any bladed weapon in public (concealed or not) here in Poland, the police don't bother him, but I saw people taking photographs of him, he is kinda tourist attraction in a way :D
Please do more dagger stuff! I'd be soooooo into that! (Btw, just got a rondel from Tod, it's an excellent piece of kit, thanks for the head's up. I love it!)
Have you seen the new split version of the spes heavy glove? I really like it. Great Improvement!
3:02 had me giggling! Nice suit of armor btw!
Do you think archery and slinging are a part of HEMA? I've been doing a lot of slinging lately and I love it.
Yes, slinging is a Historic European Martial Art. So is archery, of course.
Niemand Keiner My guess is that it's useful when discussing it with other people. Although you're right to remind us that the name doesn't matters as long as you like what you're doing
Niemand Keiner We could call it Modern Martial Arts, but “MMA” is already taken. It doesn’t really matter what the thing is called, except when it’s needed to know what is being spoken of.
Slinging was by definition a historic European martial art though. There's really no debating this. Slings were used historically during the entire classical period in Europe, and into the medieval period. Slinging as well as archery and even mounted combat with lances and other weapons would be by definition HEMAs. Anything used historically in combat should qualify.
cattraknoff D No one is debating the legitimacy of slinging or archery. The debate is if “HEMA” should be called “HEMA”.
Armingsword + Armingsword/Shield/Buckler also exists!
In my club in Taiwan, we always choose to hold sword down. Maybe just because of we are used to it, we don't think this way is difficult to feel the edge.
You should do some videos on HEMA wrestling and hand to hand combat. RUclipsrs rarely talk about it.
Lovely video to finish off the weekend ^^
might just be me but sometimes I think we get a little too hung up on this or that grip, it seems like one can (and should?) easily swap between them?
Matt, in this case why not use the hammer grip instead of the thumb up? Does this grip ruin some sort of strike that is common with the longsword? Sorry if it's a silly question.
Thumb on the schilt? You're getting dangerously German there!
I'd like to know what Matt would pick up in a zombie apocalypse... he and a friend are in a room with a longsword and a sabre. Which dose he grab to hit the streets with ???
13:49 - Fly Easton? Bug Easton?
CherryCherryChairman :3 someone else said gnat easton, which is perfect
Insightful, thank you Matt!
I just glanced that fly and was wondering if it was in his room or mine, lol.
Rhe SPES Hvy are great, but the point of the finger gets injured if you are not careful... and it is a bit difficult to having it properly sticking with them, so not that easy.
Very interesting to see other longsword system than the German stuff. But I am surprised you didn't mention the Einhorn as one of the guards from I believe Mair or HS 3227a. In my club its the predominant "standard" guard.
I'd love to start doing longsword fencing, but not with that type of long thin rapier-like blade... Called a feder? I wonder if there are people fencing with older style longswords?
I learned this parry from people who do Fiore. I've experimented with this parry myself for a while and i must say i dont like it. It gives you a false sense of security. You feel covered on your entire left side but in fact youre only covered by the strong part of your blade. A heavy hit to the weaker portion of your blade can break your guard and hit you in the head. I've since reverted to the ochs parries, the zornhau and the schielhau as my go to parries.
Well there is fencing, and there is hedging, personally I find a long handled slasher and a billhook best for the latter, I expect a sledgehammer and a spade are good for the former. On a more serious point I have been interested in your postings about the Dane axe and the differences between an axe as a weapon and as something you can chop down trees with. Were you to be an ancient Dane who invaded my farmstead with your axe or whatever, and I came up against you with a slasher, who would have the advantage do you think? I rather think, and considering how it evolved into being a medieval pole arm, that the hook would be more of an advantage against your hauberk than an axe or sword given the point at the end of it. It is an interesting question, the Bible has it as swords into ploughshares but I wonder how often it was not the opposite way.
That guy standing in the middle, in full armor at 3:02 seems to be saying: "Come on guys, you're not even doing it role-play"
I just checked your channel because you haven't shown up in my feed for at least 2 months. Just letting you know that I haven't been getting notifications for your new videos.
The problem with modern gauntlets is also that the padding is thick and quite rigid, rendering putting the thumb on the Schilt rather cumbersome. If your feder features rings, it becomes even harder to put the thumb through there. Thus, better protection equals sloppy technique, to some extent. However, I like my thumbs and still am using gauntlets.
dagger video i need it.
Talk more about "Ringen"
And edge angle measures.
Argument against what you saying: the attack of the opponent who hopefully should be attacking looks EXACTLY the same. the only difference is that he has entered and so is right foot forward. Or is he blocking the incoming block. Imho Fiore states his cuts on one page and after that discusses solutions for the bind (and a few other solutions like overrunning etc)
Yep, that's the standard counter-argument. The thing is that we know the guy on the right is attacking and cutting with the arms bent would be stupid in every way :-) Equally, we know how Fiore shows Posta Frontale. There are various possible answers, but to me the most likely one is that the artist wasn't a fencer and showed the attacker in a more lazy position, or perhaps recovering to protect his face from the inevitable thrust from the bind. The bind is the important bit, being on the side of the lead leg, and doing that as a cut with the arms outstretched is (IMHO) far less preferable than a simple parry with the arms bent, which is what works best for us and for 90% of other fencing systems (and is like Frontale).
These Spes Heavies (at around 11:25), while nice, aren't a perfect protection. While sparring with longsword, once, I got myself into some stupid, weird kind of position. Not quite an Ox (or Ochs? I'm not too sure about the German spelling, and I've no idea about the Italian names) as it was too low, using a thumb grip, on my left side, with my thumb being on the top of the blade. Got whacked on the thumb. It swelled up, with the nail eventually coming loose and falling off.
So, while good gloves (and a thumb grip) are good and protect well, they can't protect me from my own mistakes :P
Check out the movie "Alatriste"/"Captain Alatriste". Movie about Spanish soldiers in 1622 Europe, with Viggo Mortensen. Some kinda nice rapier fights... I think. 🤔💭 Review? 🤔 The movie is from 2006. I had just seen a couple of your bids about the claymore/broad sword when I saw it. And noticed one in a fight, it actually revealed a plot point in the movie. 😉😀 "wait, what!? Isn't that a claymore!?!" 😳🤔🤨😏 Watch the movie. Pretty brutal & very beautiful. Looks like old paintings from the 1600s,pretty much all the time.
Can you talk about why longswords meant for combat didn't have the feder's wide...would you call that a ricasso? The wide part at the base of the blade. Why don't longswords have that normally?
A parry like that makes me worry my elbows would buckle - it doesn't look as solid. Fitness of the combatants might matter more in that case?
Can you recommend any channels by people who DO compete regularly?
A quarter of an hour long video just to tell you where to put your thumb XD
Anyway, a random question came to mind while watching this. HEMA is still a somewhat new sport and there are probably (?) less people doing it now than there were 500-800 years ago, but there is also easier access to training manuals now than back then. How do you think modern fighters compare to medieval ones? On average and the very best?.
Obviously it's impossible to be sure because we really have no idea at all how good people were back then, but I'd assume that on average, those who practiced regularly back then were better than today, but I really doubt that someone like Anton Kohutovic (I probably misspelled that...) would get trounced by even someone from the time when longswords were in regular use.
But Matt, don't you know that the vulnerable part of on the tip of the thumb of SPES heavies is how they work to protect you? By attracting the other guy's sword to that one spot you continuously get hit in one place while that rest of you hand remains completely protected!
Is there a RUclips vid of the melee comp mentioned?
My local club does german longsword but truth be told I dig all kinds of swords....
So I have a question - which weapon is the easiest to simulate realistically in training? For example, I know that for longsword or arming sword, the issue is with lack of edge binds with training props.
_"I always stick my thumb up behind the back."_ - Matt Easton 2018
what about swords like the shashka that don't have any form of guard?
Random question totally unrelated to this video: how effective were spike bayonets (ie. Brown Bess, Enfield Rifle-Musket) against armour? Any sources shed light on this? Certainly British and other colonial powers would have faced armoured foes in combat in places like India and China.
are the SPES sparing gauntlets good for putting the thumb on the blade, when i look at their bulkiness I assume they wouldn't be..
Not great, not the worst.
That fly around the 14:00 mark haha.
Speer also exists
What on earth is that type of sword.. I seen it in more recent vids in the background... And thought it is the wierdest thing???
Got to learn more about this Juggaloincrosseyedher.
Matt I have a question - is longsword able to parry/deflect montante blow swinged with full force (torso/head/waist)? And what about deflecting montante full power blow aimed at his legs?
Laserowy Kuba you can parry descending blows from Montante quite easily with a longsword with good structure. Dont bother blocking leg cuts, just void. You can't really stop them and doing so leaves you in a horrible position to follow up. I train with the greatsword and longsword as my main weapons
Hmm. I dont know, people on youtube either dont use montante with full power for safety reasons or they use actual sticks like in SCA so I cant tell... I read on myarmoury forum that it's "almost impossible to parry with longsword a full power blow from 2.5 kg montante"
The montante is still a sword, not an axe. The point of balance is near the handle, not near the hitting end.
So while it does hit harder then smaller swords, it doesn't hit nearly as hard as to prevent you from doing a static block with a longsword - and even less so with a deflect.
You shouldn't try to parry something like a japanese kanabo with a longsword. But a montante is fine.
But people who did try it (did you try it?), described it as near impossible. If you have a link to video in which longsword user block FULL power swings from montante, I would like to see it
myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25648&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100 here's post 2nd from the bottom
Stick the thumb up......the back? Would that be an accurate description of where to put the thumb?
Yes pls more Fiorè
now, marozzo DID flatten his thumb unto the blade in guardia di testa...
Indeed
2:57 Is that you in the suit of armour?
Yes
or you could put your hand a bit lower on the handle and your thumb would be safe
FLY EASTON!
So, if you nick a longsword, Matt will fence it?
long swords are that popular because they are easier to use than 1 handed weapons.
Something that can't happen with a Katana.
I think you are overselling your: "arms at the Gioco largo incrossare must be bent" to parry idea. While the arms are slightly bent in the Getty and the Pisani Dossi, they aren't more bent than the opponent, who is supposedly making a full diagonal cut. Furthermore, in the Morgan, the arms are pretty straight.
And those pictures were drawn by monks who most likely never even touched a sword. These are the types of details that someone who doesn't do martial arts would be very likely to miss. The crossings are all either frontale or breve, and both usually have arms bent. All in all, a block with bent arms and the sword close to your body is much more secure than having them out.
A thumb up the back, eh?
Are you betraying us sabreurs Matt? Or have you been a secret double agent this entire time...
Where in West London is your club?
Ealing - www.fioredeiliberi.org
Is there a reason ring guards aren't more popular? I feel like that would really add some protection with not much downside.
They significantly reduce the freedom of the hands to move about the hilt, which is required for alot of techniques.
I guess the main thing against them is if your finger is in the ring but then you suddenly get into a melee it's possible for your hand to be caught and stuck in the sword.
cattraknoff www.kultofathena.com/images/AH0243_8_l.jpg this is the sort of guard I meant, not sure if we're talking about the same thing.
FinStabilisedDiscardingSabot Any specific treatises / techniques that come to mind? I guess there's a reason they're only ever on one handed swords.
Yeah those did come in later but the thing is that longswords fell out of favour after fancier hilts started to become a thing, in part because the nature of warfare also changed and made them less relevant. After a point we started to see a divergence between military and civilian-use weaponry, where the longsword was a sort of hybrid being the sidearm of the nobility which they would wear about in public during peacetime and use for their personal self-defense.
Knightly dominance of warfare faded out with more modern cavalry and infantry formations taking over particularly after gunpowder became widespread and pretty much universal in the 1500's. So we see less longswords being made except for ceremonial purposes while at the same time better civilian self-defense weapons like the rapier and its precursors start to emerge and these become popular among the nobility as well as commoners permitted to carry such weapons (as any could in some nations but not others). War-swords transitioned more toward things like the saber for cavalry with infantry men or officers sometimes carrying other kinds of swords.
New camera?
👍🏻
LONGSWORD NUMBA WAN
What's the flag? That looks kind of like a papal key.
County of Surrey.
There was actually a whole video about it.
Pompadour_Gagarin cool. Know which one? I don't watch every single video. Obv.
ruclips.net/video/MjZpQDzb5zs/видео.html
"flag" in the search engine does wonders, you should try it.
And why on earth would you not want to discuss dagger? Perchance because it makes the internet froth at the mouth?
Yeah... that. Quite a lot.