Great longsword videos

[Sir Wolf]

hey now, a pear and oval are a shape too!

[Sir Edward]

I'm the guy who teaches Sir Edward and Sword Chick how to beat each other senseless (but with style, of course).

And you do it quite well, I might add!

[Sir Griff]

Since Das Bill is an instructor when it comes to swordsmanship I'm assuming he has better than average knowledge on the subject. Now, I sometimes like to practice fighting with swords with a friend of mine and, in to that end, I've made myself two wooden swords complete with make-shift cross-guards. Now, whenever we spar we use a point system, wherein the first guy to touch his opponent gets a point and it all stops there then begins anew. Who gets three points wins a hypothetical 'match' though we always spar beyond three points.

Now, I feel that I'm somehow getting the short end of the stick since I tend to get touched more often than he does, though I tend to move around more than he does. It's all pretty annoying since we're both untrained and we're basically pulling moves out of our arses, though his arse seems to be offering better moves than mine. I always dismiss him telling him that's he's lucky, but we both know how faint my arguments hold.

I'm both taller and heavier than he is, so technically I should be winning more often with my advantage of reach.

Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?

[Sir Wolf]

Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?

buy a bigger gun? I'm sure Bill can help you out here

[Das Bill]

Any pointers that might help both of us (read: me) improve?

I know you're going to hate this answer, but here it is nonetheless: Stop sparring. I'm serious. First of all, its dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Second of all, you will only get worse, and it gets harder and harder to fix habits that are ingrained. YouTube is a perfect example of how awful you will get by sparring without an instructor helping you... it is littered with really terrible free fencing videos.

Second thing: If you can't find an instructor, then get some books. I highly recommend Christian Tobler's Fighting with the German Longsword. It will give you a broad overview of the Liechtenauer tradition of fencing. If you want a more immediate solution, here's a very generalized article I wrote a couple years ago:

http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_arms_gls.html

It isn't perfect, and it is only a "teaser" article, but it can at least give you a taste of some of the core actions of the system.

And then you need to start drilling the actions with your partner. Not just once or twice, but over and over and over, until it becomes part of your muscle memory, so that when you see "X" attack you automatically respond with "Y" counterattack without thinking. And after it become second nature, then *maybe* it is time to start pressure testing it by doing free fencing.

But I'm serious: Without an instructor, any free fencing you do is likely to result in you using techniques that work to "get the point" as opposed to actually using realistic martial techniques, let alone the risk of injury. The analogy I like to use is learning a foreign language: At some point, yes, you need to start conversing with another person. But if all you've done is memorized a few words, and you never learn the theory, the structure, how to form tenses, etc, and if the only person you ever talk to is equally ignorant of the language and says, "Let's just learn as we go," then all you'll get good at is learning to speak gibberish. Which is exactly what will happen to your sword technique.

Understand that I'm not saying this to give you a hard time: I'm saying it because its what I see constantly, and then I see people online acting like experts just because they've spent the last few years beating up their friends with sticks in the back yard without ever having learned a single thing about an actual martial art.

[Sir Griff]

Thanks a dozen for the link! As for the book, where I live it's pretty hard to find English books on such obscure subjects as swordsmanship. There are no Romanian books on the subject, let alone English books. And I would really love to train with an instructor, believe me. I know that what we are doing now is basically a hazard to both of us and we are both untrained as hell. But there are no such instructors in Romania that I know of. And if there are, there are none in city.

And I have a manuscript from the web on sword fighting by Paulus Hector Mair. Might that help?

But there's one thing about what you said that somehow surprises me. If you learn to counter set moves from the same repertoire, wouldn't that make fighting someone who is untrained a bit dangerous for the trained swordsman? Since he wouldn't know what moves to expect or how to counter them. And we do use protection for both our heads and our hands. We're not that reckless. And we don't hit each other devilishly hard. We're lifelong friends who have known each other from the cradle (literally) after all.

And I think you can see that I've never had any pretensions of being an expert on historical swordsmanship. What with my backyard-expertise, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to claim such a thing. Anyway, your link is of great help. Thanks again!

[Das Bill]

Thanks a dozen for the link!

You're welcome!

As for the book, where I live it's pretty hard to find English books on such obscure subjects as swordsmanship. There are no Romanian books on the subject, let alone English books. And I would really love to train with an instructor, believe me. I know that what we are doing now is basically a hazard to both of us and we are both untrained as hell. But there are no such instructors in Romania that I know of. And if there are, there are none in city.

Understood. I hope as time goes on, this material becomes more and more accessible.

And I have a manuscript from the web on sword fighting by Paulus Hector Mair. Might that help?

Its better than nothing, but I don't think Mair's treatises are the best to work from if you don't already know what you're doing. It has a lot of weird things in it. If you can get a copy of Christian's book that I mentioned above (or even his first book, Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship, which has a translation of the Sigmund Ringeck treatise), things will go much easier for you.

But there's one thing about what you said that somehow surprises me. If you learn to counter set moves from the same repertoire, wouldn't that make fighting someone who is untrained a bit dangerous for the trained swordsman? Since he wouldn't know what moves to expect or how to counter them.

If your opponent doesn't know how to counter, then you just hit him. There is this strange idea that people have that an untrained fighter is somehow unpredictable... most untrained fighters are *incredibly* predictable. There are exceptions, but not that many. The thing is, there are an infinite number of counters... but that's not actually the point. Understanding a martial art isn't about learning a rigid set of predictable rules. Its about learning to be flexible enough apply the rules to match an infinite number of situations. Just like painting: There are rules to how to paint. You can either throw on a bunch of colors and hope to get a semblance of a picture, or you can follow the rules of color balance, form, light and shadow, etc. Some people can do this more intuitively than others, but the artists who can consistantly produce quality work (as opposed to someone who made a masterpiece by luck but never made anything good ever again) are the ones who understand the underlying rules and theory of what makes good art.

And we do use protection for both our heads and our hands. We're not that reckless. And we don't hit each other devilishly hard. We're lifelong friends who have known each other from the cradle (literally) after all.

That's good. I still stand by what I said, though. I'm not trying to come down hard on you, I just keep hearing stories about how some friends were whacking away at each other in their back yard with sticks, and one slips and ends up injuring a friend for life, and I wouldn't like to hear about it again. But of course, its up to you whether or not to take my advice.

[Sir Griff]

I've found a reenactment group here in my very city and they plan on expanding to medieval reenactment. Currently, they're doing 1877 reenactment together with WW1 and WW2 reenactment but once they start the medieval segment, I'll join in. What excites me is the fact that they train with sword, spear and bow according to the way fighting men in my country would do so back in the XV-th century.

So, I'll finally learn to swing a sword around properly.

[Sir Brian]

Congratulations Sir Griff! I know you will excel !
 

[Sir Griff]

Thank you my good sir.

Physically speaking, I see no reasons why I shouldn't do so, what with being 1.84 metres tall at 16 years of age. I've also been through many a rugby practice session and several matches, so I'm also of some worth when it comes to endurance, which I think is also quite important.

I can't wait to start practising, to be honest.

So now I won't be Sir Griff, but Griff Viteazul!

(The term "Viteaz" was used to refer to a knight in medieval Wallachia, and means "Brave" in my language)

[Todd Sullivan]

Sir Griff,

 Come to Chivalric Weekend this summer and you will recieve a wealth of training and knowledge   Das Bill will be there teaching as well as Christian Tobler.

 Hopefully I will be able to take class or two. I'm diffently taking Das Bill's classes and hoping to pull him aside at the end of the day for some rapier 

 There will be intruction in longsword, messer, sword and buckler, german dagger, wrestling and pole arms.

[Sir Griff]

I would gladly do so, but I don't live in the US, Todd.

In Europe I lie, in the Eastern half. Romania, to be exact.

[Das Bill]

There will be intruction in longsword, messer, sword and buckler, german dagger, wrestling and pole arms.

Who's teaching messer, Todd?

[Todd Sullivan]

There will be intruction in longsword, messer, sword and buckler, german dagger, wrestling and pole arms.

Who's teaching messer, Todd?

Christian.

[Todd Sullivan]

These are other videos I enjoy watching. Bill what is your thoughts on these? http://www.gladiatores.de/Movies.html