Post: #201

Hit the trees with your bare fists, that will teach your wrists to behave! Seriously though, hitting hard surfaces is mandatory among many eastern martial arts for strengthening fists, forearms and wrists.

Post: #202

@Dalaran1991

Currently I'm just using a pell my buddy made and we hid in the woods near my house. I'll start designing a rotating pell ASAP.

Regarding cut vs thrust: thrust obviously makes the most sense in armor, because that's the only way to get into weak spots. I still practice cutting primarily though, as I am unlikely to encounter anyone wearing armor that wouldn't be several hundred yards away with an AR-15.

Give it a few years though, and just maybe we'll all have to go back to swords and armor

Post: #203

Sparred today. Did ok. Beat one of the founders of the club easily. Did not use a glove on my shield hand for sword and shield, got rapped across the knuckles. Foolish mistake.

Post: #204

I have realized that if you only choose to have armor in 1 place, it's gotta be the hand. I dont care if you are a master swordman or Musashi resurrected, if your hand is unarmored then you are fucked (funny cause katana have no guard, but samurai prefer decapitating strikes to quick slash). Unless you are extremely lucky or the other guy is a complete idiot.

Hand / finger wound are the most common damage in HEMA circle and apparently in the battlefield too. Funny, during sparring today one of the senior guys got his thumb bruised and bloody. The sword strike tore through the plated mitten ON THE UNARMOURED SIDE.

The head might be fatal, but it's actually not that easy to hit, while the hand is the closest thing to your opponent.

At the worst at least wrap a cloak around your hand:



SIDE NOTE: if you haven't heard of it, buy and play the PC games Battle Brothers. Medievalist's dream comes true.

Post: #205

^^^^^

Oh yeah. My thumbnail is still black from a month ago, and I was wearing gauntlets.

Edit: 2,000th post. Of course it's about battle wounds

Post: #206

Video about sword of Goujian, an metallurgical and swordsmith wonder.

Post: #207

Sparred a couple days ago, forgot to report.

We're organizing a tournament, and are finalizing the rules. My buddy and I sparred to an even 0 points each time. Settled it with a wrestling match which I lost. Gotta work on my flexibility.

Also, got a Kevlar vest I'm using as armor for now. Works great.

Post: #208

Yeah but not against arrows haha! Seriously it is really interesting how useless kevlar body armour would be in middle ages.

Post: #209

(12-01-2017 02:36 PM)sterling_archer Wrote:  Yeah but not against arrows haha! Seriously it is really interesting how useless kevlar body armour would be in middle ages.

I shudder to think what would happen if I was suddenly beset by a squad of archers in this stuff!

Post: #210

Won every single shinai match yesterday! Even against a similarly trained gentleman who is at least 3 feet taller than me. Feeling like a fucking boss.

I'm getting really good at the "battement" i.e slapping the opponent's guard to the side immediately before a thrust. Done right it's very hard to defend against. Couple it with a feint and you're guaranteed to hit. Unless the opponent knows his trick too and remove his forte away and striking you during the battement.

I tried several strategy but in the end the only thing that works is my old school "attack, attack and attack again". It overwhelms the newbies and put the veterans on the backfoot. So long as you have a plan just keep attacking. Especially since I'm the smallest of the club.

Actually, being aggressive and kamikaze is historically proven to work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfcpyMdEwzM

This applies so well to womanizing. You need to attack, attack and push until she really gives you a shield bash to the face, or until your thrust goes inside her

The other week there's a tiny chick who's on rage steroid or on her period (probably both). Every time I beat her she got so angry and wanted to try again, then I beat her again. So she wanted to go dual wielding. Ok fine. Beat her again but it was a carnage and the referee couldn't see shit with 4 swords flailing around. Then she wanted to go to light buhurt. Geared up in sword and shield and gave her a proper bashing, but bitch fought like a wild rabid wardog. She has to yield because of stamina. Heh

The funny thing is that she won a lot of matches because other guys are just afraid of hitting or beating her. I for one was pretty set on teaching women that there aint no such thing as shieldmaiden or woman going to battle. Girls have no business poking people with swords.

@YB: how's the tournament going? Fun?

And the kevlar vest works against full steel sparring? If we're talking about the type that riot police wear it's way too stiff, might as well get a milanese breastplate.

Post: #211

Where is YB lately?

Post: #212

He is last seen battling a monstrous creation of the Devil. I hope he doesn't return as OldBlade

Post: #213

I'm back, battle brothers.

So, two things I have worked on over the last four months are speed and edge alignment, as my strength was already beyond what was necessary. Now all the hits I score actually count, as opposed to only a quarter of them actually being with the edge of the blade. Another practice I've been doing is 2 v 1 duels. Very much fun, and fits better with the German style I practice. I've also been learning Fiore's Italian method, which is more duel oriented, but also has a shitload of unnecessary nonsense for flourishes. I do prefer the Italian "Boar's Tusk" to the German "Fool's Guard."

Keep fighting.

Post: #214

I started to think you were bisected with a zweihander. Where were you?

Post: #215

Have been dealing with some personal stuff, but I'm moving to a point in life with more responsibility and weirdly more free time, so I'm returning for now to aid and learn from fellow men where I can.

Post: #216

Gentlemen, Im proud to present to you one of the proudest moment of my training:





At 0:41 is me against the 14th best swordman worldwide. I scored a beautiful hit without eating a riposte.

Ended up 6-10 against him but incredibly proud of myself. Thats an opponent thats much more skilled, stronger, faster and taller than me.

As you can see I stick to my motto, atack and attack again. Works incredibly well.

Raw agression is a great force equalizer.

Post: #217

(04-01-2018 02:07 PM)Dalaran1991 Wrote:  Gentlemen, Im proud to present to you one of the proudest moment of my training:





At 0:41 is me against the 14th best swordman worldwide. I scored a beautiful hit without eating a riposte.

Ended up 6-10 against him but incredibly proud of myself. Thats an opponent thats much more skilled, stronger, faster and taller than me.

As you can see I stick to my motto, atack and attack again. Works incredibly well.

Raw agression is a great force equalizer.

Joyeuse! Well done!

Post: #218

Sparred yesterday, mostly sword and buckler. One handed feels very natural, but I'm still getting used to the tiny size of the buckler.

Post: #219

Would you say that buckler is ideal hand defense aside from regular size shield? This is what I was thinking lately when watching and researching combat of medieval / renaissance era. Also, do you watch Scholagladiatoria on youtube and Dreynschlag? You should check them out if you haven't already.

Post: #220

Buckler is decent. Basically a fist extension.

I've watched both. Scholagladiatoria more than dreynschlag. I find scholagladiatoria has more schola than gladiatoria. Dull.

Post: #221

I know, but his clubs are probably best European HEMA clubs. I watch him mainly because of his personality and topics he discusses.

Post: #222

Got to spar with spears yesterday. Very fun, easy to win, just don't let them get a hold of it.

Post: #223

I asked that question before, what are HEMA spears exactly? Nylon tipped, more bending shafts?

Post: #224

Wood shafts, rubber tips. We have two, a long pike and a shorter boar spear.

Post: #225

Today did cutting tests, like the fat kids on youtube. Good fun. Hanwei Tinker was the most surprising sword. Made of good steel, and cuts well when sharpened, but very poorly constructed.