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Great longsword videos

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Sir Edward:
These guys not only do some very interested longsword techniques, but also have a very interesting video style.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4Ng6DBfrg[/youtube]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4Ng6DBfrg

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=HC5FIyfI8TA[/youtube]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HC5FIyfI8TA

Sir Brian:
 :o

I always suspected that the longsword was an often under appreciated weapon
that was too easily dismissed as crude and clumsy.
Seeing what I can only assume are some of the techniques of Johannes Lecküchner,
it truly was an eloquent and versatile weapon in the hands of someone who knows
how to use it!

WOW!

Sir Edward:

Yeah, what they're doing isn't precisely the same as what we're learning at VAF, but very similar. Some of the techniques are executed a little differently. But this is basically what the period European longsword fighting looks like... or I should say, this is what the techniques can look like when executed properly under perfect conditions, since they're demonstrating rather than fighting. :)

I like to point people to these videos so they'll understand why I love longswords. :)

Sir Brian:
You know Hollywood has done a real injustice to the longsword and sword fighting in general.
Remember those 50s and 60s era films that portrayed medieval fighting and the actors used the
longswords like rapiers. Even more modern films take a lot of liberties. The only recent film that
even “hinted” at the real potential of the longsword was Kingdom of Heaven and that was pretty
much the one scene with Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson.

I guess you could call Hollywood’s contributions to historic reenactment a double edged sword.
On the good side it sparks interest in an otherwise oblivious general public but on the other hand
it gets almost everything completely wrong.
  :(

weird, I had to edit my post...seems like I was repeating myself!
weird, I had to edit my post...seems like I was repeating myself!
Oh cut that out! ;)

Sir Edward:
No kidding. I know a lot of my interest in swords, knights, armor, etc came from a variety of sources, including movies and games. It's good that it gets people interested, but it's a shame that there is so much misunderstanding out there. It reminds me of a comic strip I saw once, where a young kid is in a karate lesson, and asks the teacher when they'll get to do the slow-motion stuff. :)

Because of the way Hollywood does things, it's no surprise that there's this preconception out there that Japanese katanas and samurai are the "ultimate" in swords and warriors. In actuality there's very little difference between the medieval European knight and the samurai. Similar sized swords, similar techniques, similar amount of weight of equipment and armor. They even had a similar ethos (Bushido vs Chivalry). The culture and styles differ the most, and as a result the weapons and armor fill slightly different niches. So I just chuckle when I see "samurai vs knight" arguments on message boards. :) (IMHO, it's just as worthy as all of the other "holy wars", such as Kirk vs Picard, Emacs vs vi, Aliens vs Predators, etc) :)

The western martial arts are quite beautiful to watch, and fun to learn. They're simply more scarce, since they were allowed to die out as gunpowder took over, unlike the eastern arts that were kept alive as a living tradition. Anything that's done today with western sword arts is being revived from the surviving manuscripts (German fechtbuchs in most cases), and there are only a handful of groups out there doing so. But this revival movement is gradually growing as more people learn that it does exist, and that it's actually pretty cool. :)

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