Some additional context: Depending on where and when you lived, sword-violence was not intrinsically a lethal affair. Most of us are familiar with the notion of dueling to first blood in an organized fashion, but disputes could also be a bit less formal at times yet still constrained by rules of conduct. Like in a highschool scuffle where you don't go for the groin, you don't cut a fellow's hands in a spat. My keen interest is on the burghers of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century. I highly recommend anyone interested in their sword culture to check out The Martial Ethic in Early Modern Germany by by B. Ann Tlusty. For these city dwellers, an affront to honor was legally equivalent to bodily assault. If someone called you a rogue, they may as well have just punched you in the face. While the dueling was illegal, it was also seen as a manly obligation. Conducting a duel where everybody got to go home at the end with all their limbs intact was an ideal outcome. The insult was answered, both men demonstrated their bravery and willingness to risk their lives, and both get to go home and continue to contribute to their guilds and society at large. To that end, certain target zones and kinds of attack are more okay than others. Slapping eachother around with the flat means everyone is probably walking away from that fight and the crowd is satisfied. Try using a thrust, however, and suddenly you've committed attempted murder. Additionally, the fact that they're settling this dispute with swords is important. For these burghers, citizenship, manhood, and sword-carry are all intrinsically linked. A man settles his honor with a sword, not his fists, not a barstool, and certainly not a knife. Thus, having the capacity to non-lethally use a sword to defend one's honor in these performative displays of masculinity was critical.
Interesting how manners seem only to have deteriorated. We went from dignified fights with lethal weapons to undignified fights with the way less lethal weapon: our fists. Very dialectical
Makes me wonder if maybe the Burghers were leaving their blades a bit more dull than they needed to be, since few people actually want to kill someone. And from what I've seen on textile armor testing videos (Skallagrim did one years ago that comes to mind) even a slightly more dull blade will be increasingly less effective against any sort of thicker clothing. I imagine getting your sleeve cut through but not actually wound you might be a sign of you losing the duel as well for the manly men involved
@@l.o.b.2433 another way of looking at it is that a sharper and more cut focused blade would have been easier to inflict a sufficient non-lethal wound. A dull blade could kind of "automatically" tone down a more powerful cut, but I imagine having the confidence that a snap cut to the ear or slice to the face will do the job would have been desirable.
Oh, I like the idea of testing deliberately less harmful attacks. Funny timing too, I was just thinking about making a video on the topic of non-lethal ways to end a sword fight earlier today. With these skulls the goal is usually to ramp it up gradually to get as much out of them as possible anyway, but this was interesting because you started even more "gently". Particularly the slight cut from the flat strike was neat. I was actually wondering if it's even possible to slap with the flat without at least brief partial edge contact. Nice cuts when you went to finish it off too.
It's certainly a subject that deserves more discussion! My initial impression was that my flat strike had caught the cheekbone and cut it by a pressure-split of the flat-to-cheekbone. On rewatch, I'm pretty sure the cut came from the edge scraping the cheek while the flat made most of its impact on the mandible. I'm curious to see your own conclusions if you get around to making that video! In retrospect, I'd have liked to spend more time on the flat and flicks. Meyer's Schielhaw and Zirkel are both actions I'd like to see applied in a non-lethal context too. The Zirkel in particular makes me wince thinking of severed ear tips.
@@robinswords Yes, and I'm also wondering about how single-edged blades would fare in Prellhau type flat slaps, consdering how much more rigid they generally are.
Idk why but I like to imagine he filmed this right before work and showed up to his job all sweaty and covered in bits of bone and blood without giving any context
I like how well this demonstrates a few things beyond the main thesis: 1. The importance of treating an opponent like a human being rather than a target. 2. How easy it is to accidentally be lethal with a sword, even when you're trying not to be. 3. How gruesome a sword fight could get irl. This would be incur some serious mental damage on the sword wielder.
Yeah, people romanticize the middle ages, but don't realize Romeo and Juliet was more or less how stuff went down if you were in the city. Anybody important always had to run the risk of some asshole picking a fight with them, and twonsword swipes later someone's dead shouting for plagues on the people who hired him to be a street soldier in their gang war.
This made me realize just how dramatically I underestimated pommel strikes. I thought of it as an inelegant improvised non-lethal attack that could kill with the right applications; but no, it's a very significant blunt alternative on a weapon that you need to be actively trying to not kill with, and even then it's extremely easy to do by mistake. It has all the lethality of a dedicated blunt weapon, and at most it's just usually less practical than the blade or a blunt weapon in a life-and-death scenario. Some guard bops a drunk on the head to get him out of the tavern & that dude's not getting knocked out with a concussion; homie's getting knocked out of this mortal coil.
Imo, the force of a pommel strike is harder to regulate than that of an edge blow - at least with a longsword. With the push-pull leverage of two hands, you can arrest the longsword's blade very precisely. There's also less mass moving at the tip of the sword. The pommel meanwhile has more mass and thus more momentum you'll then have to reverse once accelerated.
I don't knownif these ballistic heads are realistic for demonstrating a body absorbing blunt force, because the skull and flesh of the head absorb a lot more. Of course striking with a very narrow pommel point will concentrate it on one point, but the fake skulls (in my unexperienced opinion) seem relatively more brittle than living bone. Also it looks practically designed to shatter on impact with anything harder than a punch. I used to have a conspiracy theory/joke that whoever makes these ballistic gel dummies deliberately make them weaker than advertised to make people feel better for landing a cut or "busting open" the head.
Bro is such a polite fighter. Like imagine you’re on the battlefield and this guy does the most sophisticated sword move ever and makes a little “oof” every time every time after when he sees the damage. Legend behavior.
Really goes to show that these skulls are quite accurate representations and that tests from them are pretty valid! I'd assume the same of the torsos, too!
I guess, in a live fight, most strikes don't land cleanly on their target. A lethal strike which partially lands must look similar to a non-lethal strike which perfectly lands.
Really like the analog heads, I'd definitely recommend some eye protection though. I've unfortunately learned through experience that shrapnel flying into your eye is not recommended by doctors.
As a Dungeon Master these types of explorations are very intriguing to me as it is useful when describing the results of attacks in combat. Needless to say, I enjoyed the video
man seeing these tests i can not imagine how difficult it might have been to be a soldier back in the days. the ptsd from watching your enemies turn into gargling mush and chunks of bone by your hands must've been some hell not to mention the constant stress of the same happening to you and your allies. this feels so much more taxing and unpleasant to a regular human than shooting a gun from or blowing things up from a distance.
fun fact There are some medieval texts that talk about PTSD and how to deal with it Of course it isn't called PTSD, but rather "God testing your faith" But symptoms are the same as in case of PTSD
Disagree. Men lined up for war then. Now, nobody wants to be killed by a drone or an artillery shell. There's a big difference between fighting until your army retreat and facing the chance of being cut down, vs. fighting with the permanent risk that an enemy sniper or shell might turn your brain to mush and end your existence before the sound of the shot reaches your ears. It could happen now. Or now. Or now. Or now. Or now. Or now. Or now. Or now. And when it happens, you won't even know. That's why nobody was really talking about shell shock until WW1. The trauma of turning your enemy to mush is probably not that worse than butchering something you hunted, and can be seen as normal in some cultures.
@@ncrranger6327 it is in various historical sources, so it's hard for me to point at specific one, but from quick search you should be able to find more about this topic
this i think is a perfect demonstration on why you would sometimes have a really hard time recognizing/finding bodies let alone identify them on a field of battle. Better hope you have some recognizable colours on you.
I feel like a good investment for future videos like this would be a large tarp to catch all the little fragments the go everywhere, unless the bone is made out of something biodegradable.
I will now live in fear of the theoretical man with broken teeth, a broken nose, a severed cheek, a cracked skull and a brain that's vaguely shaped like a scrambled rubicks cube
The non lethality of push cuts as demonstrated here is extremely interesting when viewed in comparison to that being the main type of cutting mechanic used in Kendo, much to the chagrin of the average swordsman. The practice became widespread in the very early 19th century where most people would be training for non lethal civilian fighting, resulting in a push cut centric style of training that was often at the time combined with grappling to subdue rather than slay opponents. Very very interesting video, thanks for making it.
Hey Robin, have you heard of a game called halfsword? It's a physics based medieval fighting game where the characters have varying levels of armor from naked to fully armored. The sword is swung by moving the mouse in the direction you want to swing. You can also accomplish blocking this way. I think someone like you could provide really good feedback for the devs! It's in the testing phase right now, it'd be cool to hear your thoughts.
This is fascinating and an excellent demonstration. I guess the thing is that with infections and a lack of modern medicine almost any of these could end up being fatal in the long term.
The pomel strikes were impresive in how little wind up was required for nssty effects. If you have time for a test maybe more pomel strikes with both hands to gauge the effects. Also impressive cutting power there with beautiful edge alignment.
Yeah, and I was still aiming for a restrained blow with those. Still trying for the stop fighting me now please and not this turns your lights off for good. Really goes to show why we're so careful with pommel strikes in sparring even with our masks.
@robinswords I would really be interested in seeing the power of a Mordhau. The amount if leverage a sword gives just boggles the mind. It seems like far more damage than when I did bayonet training.
I'm unsure how well the ballistics gel represents skin and muscle, but that nose break looks like it separated a good chunk of his facial anatomy from the rest. That one could be life-threatening. Filling your sinuses and stuff with blood is definitely a wreck-your-day type of wallop.
If you check out the sword wounds compendium by Ravaton, you'll find that the snap cut on the skull at 1:30 is actually very much potentially lethal. Most lethal sword wounds to the face and skull were not caused by deep, but by shallow cuts into the skull. Ravaton (a surgeon who handled many saber-dueling wounds) explains this with a cut that goes into the skull shallowly and not through it blasting shrapnel of bone into the brain, while cuts that go through the skull but not into the brain were very survivable. So, perceived safety can be misleading.
After having so many people try to argue that sword cuts to the head would be less than effective due to it's shape, something I always thought as foolish unless you have fairly substantial armor, I'm glad to see someone very plainly demonstrating not only how to use a sword to deescalate (something MUCH harder to do with a gun. American here, sorry) but also disable without killing! Thanks for the informative, and entertaining video!
“You have to respect the sword” As someone who owns the same sword, you should do more than respect it, that thing almost removed my finger once, and it was still half way in the scabbard
Looking at this, I was thinking it would have been a really unpleasant move to gouge the face with a quillon. I don't mean mordhau-ing him in the skull, but just, with a normal grip, driving it into the target's face. It's an angular, jutting piece of metal (in this particular case; hard to imagine most kinds of quillons being much more pleasant), and you could almost do a "punching" motion to drive it home from many angles. It's very likely not as inherently damaging as a solid pommel strike, but it could be interesting to see what sort of damage it'd do.
5:50 pretty sure the skull died there when you cut his temple in half You also may have cut open his superficial temporal artery with the earlier joker cut (hard to tell how deep that cut was but it need not be deep)
Suggested Read: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society - Dave Grossman Humans have a natural aversion to killing one another. This is greater in melee and goes down with range between subjects. So all these strikes make 100% sense; as wounding is more acceptable. However this also shows the difficulty in accomplishing that... Explains why some non-lethal duels ended up with kills.
Hello, have you considered ever making a video about your style? Your outfits are always impeccable and I'd be interested in learning more how you put your fits together and where you source your clothes from.
I would love to see a video like this on hand hits. people who do not train seem to think they "don't count" would love to have a video to show them so they can see what happens.
Also goes to show you that the fast, accurate cut can potentially end the fight better than a full power, big wind up strike that is slower. At the very least, it can stun the opponent leaving him vulnerable to a follow-up.
That'll teach him to look in your general direction lol. It's amazing to see how much damage one can do even when you pull back those hits. The starting cuts themselves were already pretty gnarly.
I appreciate the inclusion of the staff, I've always liked it as a weapon! I feel like it doesn't get used in a martial sense very often in media. (But I get it since swords are cool.) As an aside, slo-mo shows how many dummy shards get flying, you might want some protective eyewear for this!
The first ten minutes is a testament to how lethal a sword really is, the last two are a testament to why people wore family crests: so they could be identified in some manner because they sure as hell ain’t being identified by their face after a mace hit
3:35 pommel strikes always gave me the heebie jeebies. I can remember playing Super Smash Bro: Melee and Adult Link has a grab where he smacks the opponent in the mouth with his pommel several times. 💀 💀
Even seemingly light pommel strikes to the head were no joke. The pommel of most European broadswords was several ounces of solid steel, so there was considerable mass behind what was intended as a light strike meant to discourage further aggression. I feel that broken jaws and cracked skulls were a quite common outcome even when not desired as a combatant or a guard.
It's interesting to see less than 100% strikes demonstrated. In a fight many cuts are opportunistic or just generally rushed/suboptimal (off edge alignment, short cuts, slices etc), so it's interesting to see the results of those sort of strikes.
Been enjoying the ballistic tests! I might suggest some eye protection since you really get the pieces flying when you uh...stop trying to be civil about it in the later cuts. 😂
A great showcase of the forehead tap cut is in that famous The Deluge duel. Regarding actually breaking the front of the skull, I have my doubts that a human skull breaks this easily, as the forehead is the thickest part. Other parts, sure.
4:48 I think he'd survive that injury there. It reminds me of Cyborg Santos' injury when he ate Michael Page's knee right in the forehead. You basically broke his sinuses, but the brain case itself is still intact. In fact that's a feature of the human face: lots of soft bones on the front, meant to break to absorb the impact and spare the brain, just like the front of a car is designed to crumple to protect the passengers from the sudden stop.
Maybe this would be more for shorts but I'd be curious to see a follow up where this is done with an uchigatana and maybe the tachi as well since it has a different kashira. And I am namely interested in the pommel strikes. I've heard people say that it wouldn't be as effective as it is with longswords. Whilst I'm not going to argue against that, I'm curious how effective it would be regardless. And hey, maybe bring in an arming sword, saber, and etc. as well to see how you have to adjust your approach for comparison.
I think it’d be cool to have a scene in a movie where the hero gets in a small scale fight with just some dickhead or something and the hero instead of killing him just styles on him in the sword fight and just slaps him with non-lethal strikes to humiliate the opponent in front of a crowd.
i can see the best approach being flat-slaps to the arms or legs. avoids organ damage or concussions but still leaves a pretty nasty bruise and makes the opponent really think about their choices when it hurts to move their arms for the next week
I find it interesting how many bone shards exploded out with each (full) strike, no such thing as a "clean cut" really, especially when you're hitting so much bone
I’m new to your channel and I really enjoy your content. I’ve always been a nerd for old weaponry. I have bought my first sword (carolingian) and shield (round shield) recently and was wondering If you haven’t done so already, if you could cover fighting styles for those?
In other news, skip to the second half for zombie demolishing techniques. Seems like, once the structural integrity of the skull goes it gets easier and easier to shatter it further - though that mace and staff could clearly do serious damage even before that.
I'd be interested to see how bad the cleanup is after these types of videos. I've been wanting to get one of these heads for a while but I am afraid of how much of a mess it would make.
