I really like the technicality of the fighters, especially the Zwerchhau sets of the fighter in brown. But this video clearly shows the path where modern HEMA is developing. The desire for dominance in competitions leads to the fact that feders change the balance point with thinner and softer blades (the manufacturer says this is for safety, but guys, let's be honest) For now, we can understand what happened without the slow-motion video. But when will the day come when we can't? Are we going to use the blade's flexibility to throw it behind our opponent's blade? Now some of the strikes are more like a game of tag than a fight. How much time is left before this will be completely a game of tag, as has happened with other types of fencing before? I don't want this to sound like complaining, but this thought just suddenly came to me. I just think we should remember why we love HEMA more than the Olympic sabre
Thank you for your comment. Yes, my partner is very good at stopping a first strike and continuing with a set of Zwerchs. A couple of points on the swords themselves as I had my fare share of scepticism previously. A lot of fencers don't really care about competitions. From the people I personally know and their clubs - perhaps 1 in 5 at most goes to competitions and maybe 1 in 20 with the serious intent of trying to actually win. Most going are just doing it for fun and to travel and fence with other people. There are certainly those that do focus on tournaments but for most people it is at most a 2-3 times per year thing, while training is 2-3 times per week. So having safer lighter tools for us to do more and safer repetitions in the training halls is much more of a concern than getting some advantage at the occasional event. If HEMA will turn into a sport with lower hit quality requirements is not that connected to the swords themselves. Plenty of places even now have lower expectations of what is a valid hit than I do, but that doesn't necessarily produces bad fencers. As a direct example are the Slovaks where SIGI swords come from. Their competition have very low hit requirements but I have played with enough of them to know that they absolutely stomp me and many others as it has created very good fencers. Their ability to play a lot with safe tools has given them a training "edge" that we have to chase for years to get close to. So in short, I am not particularly worried that the game will change into a thing I will not enjoy doing. And the good thing with HEMA is that even if the tournaments become some unbearable game of tag, I have no need to go to them anyways.
Blades are not softer - in fact, they have less wobble than some regular sized feders. They also would have clear disadvantages against heavier blades in competition. Whether a sword touch around the blade from flex is counter as valid depends on judges. Many of them have a hard time dealing with it with heavier blades too. I can assure you that the vast majority of strikes here were quite hard, and had they been done with a sharp blade, would've led to some devastating damage (excluding deliberate flat hits, like the one I throw at 1:36, because I see it might hit the back of the head). Define "a game of tag" more precisely.
@@borislavkrustev8906 >Define "a game of tag" more precisely. bruh.. you know what I mean, literally the first hit in this video, and you definitely would get a point for that in any comp I don’t really want to argue, to be honest, this is a beautiful sparring with good technique. I just had an thought and I voiced it, maybe we should just practice chopping more so as not to become too sport-oriented (at least for many of those I met at competitions in Russia)
@@druzhoksapozhok Yes, I would get a point, it's a good hit. Have you done the same hit with a sharp? Do you know the kind of damage such a hit does? Get a longsword, sharp, buy a pig leg and try it. Then tell me it's "too sport oriented" :) Dude, I am not arguing - arguing implies there is a discussion to be had.
@@borislavkrustev8906 can you rank their blades in terms of the wobbleness if you have handled them all? I've only handled a few models, old or new, a ranking would help me understand better...
![Protective Gear for Military Sabre [HEMA]](/img/n.gif)
What a great looking place for a sparing!
Yeah it’s really nice looking. It’s in the inner yard of a Teutonic fortified church in Romania
Very interesting sparring ⚔️
Glad you think so!
I really like the technicality of the fighters, especially the Zwerchhau sets of the fighter in brown. But this video clearly shows the path where modern HEMA is developing. The desire for dominance in competitions leads to the fact that feders change the balance point with thinner and softer blades (the manufacturer says this is for safety, but guys, let's be honest)
For now, we can understand what happened without the slow-motion video. But when will the day come when we can't? Are we going to use the blade's flexibility to throw it behind our opponent's blade? Now some of the strikes are more like a game of tag than a fight. How much time is left before this will be completely a game of tag, as has happened with other types of fencing before?
I don't want this to sound like complaining, but this thought just suddenly came to me. I just think we should remember why we love HEMA more than the Olympic sabre
Thank you for your comment. Yes, my partner is very good at stopping a first strike and continuing with a set of Zwerchs.
A couple of points on the swords themselves as I had my fare share of scepticism previously.
A lot of fencers don't really care about competitions. From the people I personally know and their clubs - perhaps 1 in 5 at most goes to competitions and maybe 1 in 20 with the serious intent of trying to actually win. Most going are just doing it for fun and to travel and fence with other people. There are certainly those that do focus on tournaments but for most people it is at most a 2-3 times per year thing, while training is 2-3 times per week.
So having safer lighter tools for us to do more and safer repetitions in the training halls is much more of a concern than getting some advantage at the occasional event.
If HEMA will turn into a sport with lower hit quality requirements is not that connected to the swords themselves. Plenty of places even now have lower expectations of what is a valid hit than I do, but that doesn't necessarily produces bad fencers. As a direct example are the Slovaks where SIGI swords come from. Their competition have very low hit requirements but I have played with enough of them to know that they absolutely stomp me and many others as it has created very good fencers. Their ability to play a lot with safe tools has given them a training "edge" that we have to chase for years to get close to.
So in short, I am not particularly worried that the game will change into a thing I will not enjoy doing. And the good thing with HEMA is that even if the tournaments become some unbearable game of tag, I have no need to go to them anyways.
Blades are not softer - in fact, they have less wobble than some regular sized feders. They also would have clear disadvantages against heavier blades in competition.
Whether a sword touch around the blade from flex is counter as valid depends on judges. Many of them have a hard time dealing with it with heavier blades too.
I can assure you that the vast majority of strikes here were quite hard, and had they been done with a sharp blade, would've led to some devastating damage (excluding deliberate flat hits, like the one I throw at 1:36, because I see it might hit the back of the head).
Define "a game of tag" more precisely.
@@borislavkrustev8906
>Define "a game of tag" more precisely.
bruh.. you know what I mean, literally the first hit in this video, and you definitely would get a point for that in any comp
I don’t really want to argue, to be honest, this is a beautiful sparring with good technique. I just had an thought and I voiced it, maybe we should just practice chopping more so as not to become too sport-oriented (at least for many of those I met at competitions in Russia)
@@druzhoksapozhok Yes, I would get a point, it's a good hit. Have you done the same hit with a sharp? Do you know the kind of damage such a hit does? Get a longsword, sharp, buy a pig leg and try it. Then tell me it's "too sport oriented" :)
Dude, I am not arguing - arguing implies there is a discussion to be had.
@@borislavkrustev8906 can you rank their blades in terms of the wobbleness if you have handled them all? I've only handled a few models, old or new, a ranking would help me understand better...
Nice sparring!
Thank you Martin :)