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Poleaxe Fight Accident

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Ian:
This was posted on facebook, but I know not everyone uses it, so I wanted to share here as well.  The following is a video clip of an accident that took place during a one-on-one combat.  The fighters are using steel poleaxes with ball tips on the top spikes. 

Video Clip

The injured gentlemen has been identified as Yuri Galilov by one of his instructors. He sustained an injury partially to the eye, tear duct and other structures around the nose, and had a successful operation to repair the damage. His eyesight was luckily unaffected. Apparently thrusts to the face were not permitted in this combat, but unfortunately mistakes happen.  Sometimes in the heat of things control takes a back seat to reflex and training.

I think the important lesson here is that even when the rules are designed to promote safety, human errors occur. The safety equipment is the last line of defense!  I think we can all see that using steel poleaxes with rigid steel spikes may not be the wisest choice when the ball tip is smaller than the oculars of your opponent's helmet.  Even then, a steel spike on the end of a haft with a ball tip to any part of the body not covered in plate could be devastating.

From a historical perspective, this should definitely give anyone a healthy respect for the poleaxe.

Sir Edward:

The link didn't work for me. I'll have to look on FB and see if I can find it.

Yeah, in most of the HEMA circles, it's becoming pretty well accepted that the Poleaxe requires extra special care, since it's hard to make a "safe" version of it. If it looks like a poleaxe, it's a poleaxe. If the head is made of rubber, it only helps a little, and otherwise it still hits like a full blown poleaxe. The potential of going through the eye slots with a capped steel spike just makes it worse.

At WMAW a year and a half ago, Sean Hayes broke a finger doing poleaxe in the armored deed, with rubber-headed simulators. He took a blow to his hand, and despite his hourglass gauntlets, the impact still broke a finger even though it looked like there wasn't much energy involved at the time. That's relatively minor in comparison, but it illustrates just how dangerous it can be, even with rubber heads.

Ian:
Try this:

https://www.facebook.com/augusto.boerbront/videos/10206060537974393/?pnref=story

Ian:

--- Quote from: Ian on 2015-05-05, 21:40:42 ---Try this:

https://www.facebook.com/augusto.boerbront/videos/10206060537974393/?pnref=story

--- End quote ---

Unfortunately for the non-facebook users, I can't see to get the direct link to the mp4 working anymore.

Ian:
Arne Koets sheds some more light and offers his perspective:


--- Quote --- i was there, meters away... it was a flat strike.
he seems to have joilted with his haft due to the strike he was trying to parry.

the sand was extremely deep, so the footwork is extremely hard, hence the fight slows down, as you cannot cheat with your footwork in armour with pollaxes as we see in HEMA longsword tournaments all the time.

welding mesh into the helmet has been tried and just gets penetrated, fencing mask mesh does not stand up well to pollaxes.
grand bascinets designed for competative pollaxe combat in the period are effective but cost about 1500-5000€ each... on top of the rest of your armour.

thrusting at the weak points has been a common occurance in these kind of combats for decades, in fat some events onlyy count those strikes that hit the soft parts, unlike here in moscow where thrusts were allowed, jsut not to the face. (and groin)

but hooking, levering, wrestling, throwing, striking and thrusting were allowed and done.

the pollaxes here have rondels so shifting grip was pretty pointless.
they were war axes, which are heavier (originals range form 2500-3500 grams total)
--- End quote ---

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