Longsword techniques: Zwerchhau, absetzen, nachreissen 

Same.

You mean like the commenter above complaining that this couldn't possible be realistic because the swords are too light to be "historical" lol

+lancer D I don't see that guy on top for my phone.

Exactly, some people think World of Warcraft is a historical source. While we're on video games and fantasy I've realised that bows use agility and swords strength as their main state. The realistic way would be the opposite. Bows need strength and swords agility, primarily.

the one's these guys are using are nowhere near the weight and balance of a real medieval one.

depends on whether you're using a system that emphasises single time or double time actions, and what you mean by effective. Single time fencing tends to be better offensively, double time is usually better defensively. Single time fencing also takes a lot more training and experience to use properly.

@@lancerd4934 I think what he meant was that a parry is linked to a riposte. A good example is from table tennis (I used to play it before I started HEMA). We were tought that the strike starts with the end of the last strike. So even getting your bat back was regarded as a strike. So I guess you could say a parry is best tought with a riposte after it. So it is one fluid motion to get from parry to the riposte and not just a static block. The attack starts with a parry yone might say. And I don't say there is no time for static blocks, but parry riposte is more effective.

@@nicopetri3533 if hema kids actually understood the old fencing masters, they would know that there are no blocks in actual fencing( not with weapons nor without weapons)... there is only the attack which has to be answerd indes with your own attack. only thing that can save you in a defensive way is actual fencing footwork (not the forward-backward shit olympic fencers do) have a good one :)

@@dennit1221 Well, completely defensive parries do exist, but they're a desperation move and actively discouraged

HEMA for the Olympics? yeah I'm down

BigBoysClimbOnBigRing look up dog brothers, they don’t do HEMA, but as a practitioner of FMA, I find their videos very entertaining and realistic.

I'm all for that too. Sadly the sport is respectively still in its infancy as far as regulation and standard practice, but I am honored and hyped to be a part of something that is being rediscovered. I would love to see HEMA have both sporting pursuits(i.e. similar to Kendo, Olympic Fencing, etc.) as well as its current experimental archeology pursuit.

Medieval knights were big on capturing and ransoming their foes. Imagine if they counted kidnapping holds like the thumb-knife grab as victories

Why everybody is so obsessed with the Olympics? Look what they did to Judo: No thanks, keep HEMA what it is now, Olympics will ruin it.

+Chrominance87 The Phoenix Society is based largely on Fiore and do very well in tournaments. Their founder placed 4th at Longpoint two years in a row.

That's cool, in the end it's all just longsword to me.Kunstdesfechtens

Chrominance87 Me too. I think "it's all just longsword to me" was the original lyric in the Billy Joel song "It's still rock n roll to me". Or it should have been. :)

Kunstdesfechtens Richard Marsden is a beast 😁

This is not free play

Yep, their speed as same as Kendo masters (note, kendo use bamboo sword, not metal sword). Not slugging like Hollywood movies.

Yep. I do this martial art as well and we can move quite fast.

Well if you train your choreography long enough...^^ (At the end you also need some "reduced" swords/blades, to handle it like that)

@@MW-lw5mn what is a "reduced" sword ?

@@frenchgalloglass5204 A longsword for training, with blades reduced in width and weight. At least that's how I heard it in German.

It's called indes for us.

Urban Cohort some of those strikes from the bind come super fast it’s one of the cool things about the longsword is the torque you can create is incredible.

You're right and it stems from the dual use of the weapon as a shielding device too. Receive/ shield/ bind then unfold to the strike. 2 edges to strike with double the fun! If your brain compute it naturally you should really start training HEMA. You'll love it👊

Keep in mind that a single wound of almost any kind was extremely rarely lethal by itself, so fights would naturally go on a bit longer than shown here.

EmperorLjas Well immediately lethal anyway.

I disagree. This stuff would be perfect for heroes mowing down mooks. With fights between Big Damn Heroes and the Big Bad they could find some creative way of drawing it out without reverting to stale stage-fight/wire-fu bullshit (realistically-portrayed effective armor being a simple and easy choice).

It could fit in fantasy films like the lord of the rings where everyone is just slaying hordes of enemies. Why not giving these "fights" a little more impressing techniques like this, rather than simply cutting down those obviously helpless orcs?

Alexander Bürger While some of these techs will work in the melee, the truth is in battle you cut it down to the barest tactics and use group work more.

I agree. Very few mistakes.

Bill the sword guy If any :o. They probably spent lots of time trying to do each swing correctly, until they had a very clean technique demonstration.

***** Likely correct, but regardless of this its a clear demonstration of them being bloody good.

Lars L Yep!

Game of thrones yes it looks like kids fighting but ..... they have armor these methods are designed for people with out armor to cut them nothing like game of thrones in there they are armored so setting up a hit can take more time especially as some one keeps charging at you. Although in game of thrones half of what they say is bullshit about fighting. Anyway take it or leave it there's the truth ( I do sword fighting myself and teach it) :)

What I meant wasn't the techniques per say, as much as the actual brutality and speed of combat.

Agreed. That with some proper build up, blood and make-up would be pretty damn noticeable in a film. I'm surprised it's hardly been done, considering how much love samurai-flicks have gotten all over the world. Other then The Duellists (1977) I'm hard pressed to think of a good film featuring even remotely realistic European fencing. Though, I remember being thoroughly entertained by Bessons Joan of Arc (1999), realistic or not.

Bo Leth How about Alatriste and Rob Roy? I haven't seen The Duellists but these two are mostly not bad in terms of realistic fights.

Patryk Pospiech You can do cartwheels and what not in full plate. It's lighter than a modern soldier's kit. It's tailored to each individual person. It's range of movement is greater than the human body itself. Stop with the misconception that plate armour restricted movement, because it didn't. If you're a sword fighting trainer, you should know this.

Yes, the clashing helped cause friction and made some sparks.

Hiraeth Ephemral Yeah I know how sparks are made just U don't see them very often... At least I dont but hey Im watching this on youtube

Really late, BUT it can also come from the oil used to lubricate and protect the blades

+ahhaboom Yeah, but I've had my blades make sparks without oil.

ahhaboom You haven't even BEGUN to understand late...

Try the HEMA club finder: www.hemaalliance.com/club-finders/ If you're out of luck, there is always the possibility to pick up a source material, a couple of synthetic weapons from quality manufacturers and train away with your buddies.

you didnt at some point ?

​@@DwarfElvishDiplomacy One reason I never did was due to the needless complexity in learning, and thus making it harder to master and keep up with. From the Italian side, I was taught that crossing your arms invited wrestling/grappling and was very weak; I was told it was a very foolish thing to do; never cross your legs and rarely ever cross your arms. Angling down your blade from on high was flimsy and weak, and so crossing your arms while angling the blade down was, to me, 100% pointless and stupid. The early demonstrations I got from a German teacher visiting us was slow and methodical, and as he the presenter shifted and changed to show us some basics, my instructor at the time gradually reflected defensively with Fiore's postas, making the German swordsman look awkward and hilariously complex. Further, our instructor shows us counters and pointed out in context the German manuscripts were of little use to us, and our visitor seemed a bit dumbfounded with no counter discussion. His only response was that there "was still a lot to be learned". I carried that first impression with me for many years. Eventually I loosened up and began looking into other martial arts around the world with less bias and came back to HEMA. This video demonstrates the German approach better at full speed. Complex it may be, but its foundation handles exploitation of timing, distance, and facing much more efficiently and gracefully.

@@AR-GuidesAndMore Looking back I don't think he meant that kind of offense, only that he was a master of the Italian practices at the time and one of the only-known better men available with a study in the German manuscripts was not, IMO, a man with a sense for instruction and teaching. He might've also been trying to provoke some discussion about the differences on purpose, just to share that there were different approaches to martial arts, even HEMA so close together on the same continent, and the visitor was simply unprepared. It could've also been my POV observation was intaking things from a personal bias. Our instructor was a very soft-spoken gentleman. This instance was, the time of this comment, about 20 years ago. So maybe over the course of time things had developed and knowledge/experience gained from interpreting the treatises? I am not sure. I just know I can pick out German influences with some users when I observe or engage sparring, with a bit of respect and fear, now, with relative frequency.

Makes sense because the sword's material and the speed that they are moving is enough to produce enough friction to make some sparks.

***** Does not require sharp tip for friction.

Sparks from swords happen all the time when you are striking with intent. It's pretty cool, as well as the sound. Sharps just notch up more but I think they would still spark from all the sliding. I believe it depends on the metal combo too when when you're high carbon against high carbon non-stainless steel, sparks do happen.

KyoBladezen if any of you have a spare old high carbon steel sword properly tempered and gardens that you don't really care about, take it outside and hit the concrete with a medium swooping strike so the tips flat glides along the ground, you will see tons of sparks, do it at night time I've got a few blades I don't care much about and I swipe them over the concrete sometimes, it gets addictive I think I have a problem, its just nice to see the sparks erupt from the slash arch at night.

I will never let you join the fire brigade! ;o) Seriously though, that is very interesting, thank you.

Venza it is the witcher soundtrack

Come to the Armoured Company of the Sword. Or a thousand others "nearly" as good.

There are hundreds of HEMA oriented sword classes in the US now. Even Anchorage has a bunch. Google your area and I'm sure you'll find some.

Hi, 1: we are Fencing guild in Trnava 2: We live in Trnava, Slovakia, EU 3: There are others more or less similar fencers in most major cities.

***** hemaalliance.com/?page_id=686 the HEMA Alliance club finder is awesome. There are different types of Historical European Martial Arts schools around the world, with more starting up all the time with increasing interest in our arts. I hope you find one close by you, if you're interested :)

***** I agree, the only vital skills in todays society are learned by playing hockey.

+Frederick Hardy Being physically active is always handy. Obviously, learning a sellable skill (like plumbing or electrician) is well more handy than participating in a sport.

+Anton Kohutovič Could you tell me the brand on the swords? I'm looking to get into hema and am wondering what sword to get? Thanks

Katana is actually a bit awkward to use compared to a longsword.

​@@AR-GuidesAndMoredepends, hard to be nimble with a katana because of the forward weight

Anton Kohutovič can you please give me references for the helmets worn in this vidéo? Im looking for the same

There are a few clubs in Asia (though admittedly they're spread pretty far apart). www.communitywalk.com/map/index/915490

Thi Kieu Oanh Le I don't need to go there in digital era, show me your video then. And hope you don't show me Vietnamese swordfighting with Chinese sword.

+Thi Kieu Oanh Le ha ha, you fear to show your Chinese-copy sword dancing like crap to the world, right? That why Vietnamese martial arts just be known as Chinese martial arts's shadow. Now, prove it your Vietnamese sword fighting is superior than Medieval European Sword Arts with video or nothing. Anyway, which tyle of Vietnamese sword fighting you want to prove? Like this one? watch?v=f4jZdXzYNx0 ? If not, then give anyone your video of sword fighting to prove that Vietnamese Sword Fighting is superior than the bullshit in this video.

Thi Kieu Oanh Le ha ha, just a wall of text without any evidence by video of your superior Vietnamese sword fighting. Just bunch of theories of Chinese Martial Arts and Chinese weapons name lolz. Vietnamese has proverbs "One hundreds of hear is nothing to compare to one time see it" . Right? You can talk billion times, but nothing for everyones to see, you're just failure, got it. Want to prove that your Vietnamese with Chinese swords fighting is superior than this? Stop talking, give me your video of your martial arts, also name your school, or it will never happen and never prove it except from your big mouth, because with any mouth, every martial art of their will be the best martial art in the world and can beat other martial arts easily in one seconds lolz. Or, you just don't have any videos to prove it? Right, ha ha.

Thi Kieu Oanh Le yeah yeah, still avoid to prove your evidence, because you have no evidence, just admit it. Oh, when I look up to Vietnamese history, post Le Loi era, Vietnamese master archery and firearm, up to Tay Son Dynasty, they able to build 50~66 cannon ships and master of sails v.v.... But not used your Chinese sword to slash cavalry, because they use halberd to hook riders down instead slash the horses, halberds become famous in Vietnames history and even has a dance for it, called "Bat Dat dance". And, still where your video of Vietnamese sword fighting arts? Still can't googling it to give it to here?

+Semiotichazey It's authentic. It's based on medieval fighting manuals. These particular techniques are from the Lichtenauer tradition of German longsword.

+Graidon Mabson more like interpretations

The problem is that if you put something like this in a movie you can't see what's happening. It's simply too fast if you are not ver well trained in sword fighting yourself. And after all, the point of a movie is to *see* something :P Of course, lots of movies are really bad in this regard. But I think a lot of them actually make some good compromise. After all a movie is not reality. It's a distorted, interpreted projection of reality that should also be fun to watch (without slowmos, those are so ugly).

+TheMasturCheef But by putting in realism, they can impress us into enjoying it. Most directors, particularly of Medieval European stuff, barely even try :(. I mean, Star Wars for one example is pretty fast. Martially practical, maybe, maybe not, but fast and enjoyable to watch. Can the same not be done with conventional swords?

Natasel I suppose that's true. Even so, there's been at least a few pieces of media that did it pretty well. There's that one 100 Years War anime that came out recently, the Virgin Witch or whatever. Even Skallagrim praises that.

Natasel I suppose, but remember, I'm only talking about media in general. Animation still counts. Even so though, I think something of this sort could be at least attempted in live action.

Natasel Like I said, I see your point. But I'd really like to see somebody try at least. There's too few of those attempts that go without reaching into audacity.

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If you've seen HEMA tournaments a lot of it is distance, timing and adjusting stance to match the opponent's stance. Competent HEMA tournament fighters rarely ever "react" and bring their sword to block the opponent, rather they solve the problem by having their blade already in a very favourable position for a defense. Obviously Anton is the world's greatest swordsman and has amazing reflexes and can react, but the need to "react" is taken away when you are already in a good stance with blade ready to intercept the opponent's line of attack.

X-RHODEN-X very interesting insight, thank you for the reply!