Armoured Sword and Shield sparring Damien vs Nick 

+quelin1 Thanks! Spread the word, share our videos. More popular it is the more we are encouraged to make even more content!

+Matthew Abbott They are really good. Flex well without being too much and handle great. The only limitation is the same that comes with any relatively simple sidesword, is that you need the glove to match. A lot of glove types don't work well when the finger has to wrap the quillion, as the base of the thumb protection can interfere. The Red Dragon gloves work reasonably well, and with a few mods can be made to work perfectly.

Police riot. We now only use these as loaners for beginners though, as they are too light, both in terms or realism, and durability. We now use steel ones of realistic weight.

+Michael Haneline Largely yes. As armour became more substantial in protection and coverage, the shield did become redundant. This was a gradual process, mostly reaching this point in the 14th century. The much more substantial armour not only provides the protection and more than the shield did, but you also then expect to have to face similar armour yourself, and will want the leverage and power of two handed weapons to defeat it. This is when you see the use of all manner of billhooks, poleaxes, glaives etc becoming really popular. The shield came close to dying out in many regions because of this. But, as armour once again decreases in coverage in the very late 15th and early 16th century, once more the shield becomes useful.

I think the marginal bonus is easily off set by the experience difference

Were we watching the same video?

+Caledonian Music I teach Capo Ferro and have taught rotella from his treatise. Though in this fight Damien hadn't been taught any shield work, we just did it for a little bit of fun. When it comes to a more unusual setup like this though, we would just bring everything we know to the table for a bit of fun. We do some Meyer Rappier, which is the sort of sword I am using, as well as a lot of sabre work.

+Merlinose You will see some buckler/shield hits in out fight sometimes, the masks are fine providing you don't go all out. It's a legitimate strike, but often can be dangerous to make, as at times you can lose a lot of visibility in doing so, and also expose a lot of lower openings. You will see some attempts in this fight to do so, but I don't think any of them landed as they were parried off by sword or shield.

Academy of Historical Fencing thx for explaining! Dont know how i could forget that the shields actually block you from seeing stuff.

+Kaleb H Yes it does. The biggest problem when it is left vs right is that it is very difficult to cover the lines of attack with the shield. With a smaller buckler or dagger you can cross parry over and under your sword, which counters this problem. But with a double strap shield you barely can at all. The sword also has to do a lot more work generally in defence as you oppose each others flanks. Covering afterblows is also much more difficult. Also the way you step offline is different, as typically you will want to step off to the opposite side of the shield.

Ah, I can definitely see where it would be more difficult. Perhaps someone left-handed would be better off using a two-handed weapon, like a longsword. Would handedness be significant with fencing, where no shield is used?

+Kaleb H Well it is equally a problem for the left hander as it is the right in many regards because they are mirrored. I will make a video about left handers at some stage. Bear in mind everything we do is fencing, hence our club name. Fencing is just to practice the art of defence, mainly with swords. Yes handedness makes a massive difference in swordsmanship. Overall, being left handed is an advantage, simply because of experience. Only one in ten people is left handed, and that means left handers get a lot of experience against right, but right handers usually get little experience against lefties. Fighting on the inside line against lefties is usually very difficult and some blade domination techniques leave you very exposed. It's also harder to snipe their lead arm because of the difference in angles from hand to shoulder.

I didn't think about left-handers having an advantage, that's good to know - especially as a left-hander myself! Would there be a significant difference, for handedness, between using a double-edged sword like a longsword, or a single-edged sword like a sabre? I would think the double-edged might neutralize the differences in handedness, but I'm not sure.

+Kaleb H Indeed, with longsword it matters less. This is largely because in longsword either foot can be in the lead, and the sword usually matches up to foot positioning. On the other hand, sabre has the lead foot (matching to lead hand) out in front all the time.

+TheEnneagram I hate it :-) Lefties present all kinds of difficulties, just like you see boxers come unstuck by southpaws so often. They also typically have much more practice against right handers than right do against left, because of the proportion of left to right (about 1 in 10). He placed a thrust into the side of my chest (at the arm hole of the armour) in this fight that I would never expect a right hander to land. With companion weapons like dagger, buckler or shield it is easier. Single sword the worst.

+Robert R In this video yes. However we will soon be putting leather top protectors on that combined with the back of the head protectors, will accurately represent the sort of typical helmet in use of the time, burgonet or morion. With those two on a fencing mask they even weigh about the right amount (2kg approx.). This will mean no cutting to the head. Only thrust to the face as they were open faced helmets.

+TheExplodingMorons They are police riot shields, usually available through army surplus dealers and eBay. They are not strong enough for this though. We have broken one every sparring session lately. With some kind of edging they could be made more durable though. They are ideal for rapier and rotella though. In the US there is a company making tougher plastic ones, but shipping and duties make them expensive for us. Can find a link if that is of use to you.

+Academy of Historical Fencing yeah, im based in the US so that would be appreciated!

+TheExplodingMorons I have not tried them personally but I would expect them to be good and there is a link there for buying the parts to do it yourself. I would recommend having one strap and fitting one solid handle rather than having two straps. www.southcoastswords.com/38-shields/36-scs-sythetic-rotella.html

+Aspie Sean I have to agree with you there....I missed Count Gemini's class when is was just over the border, but watched the youtube video posted.......in this combat I wonder what is next....glaring at each other?..lol

+Aspie Sean Go and look at renaissance rotella styles, the shield doesn't face the opponent, the edge does, and there are a great many reasons for doing that. Advancing behind the cover of a shield loses you most of your visibility, something can cannot afford when you are predominately unarmoured. There is plenty of defensive work with the shields done here, and in a way which is trying to represent how the shield was actually used in documented styles.

+Aspie Sean ..... also read the description, they were really tired and one of them had never used the shield before!

+PalookaD Apparently I missed that.

***** I'm going to go with "How about no" I've been a sword & board guy for 17 years now. Have you watched my sword & shield vid, Duke Tomuki's vids, or Count Gemin's Shield Class?

Thats the game i play with you Mum

Thats what I tell your mum when Im done