Parrying with the Longsword in Historical Martial Arts
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- In this demonstration we're covering the basics of how to parry and different types of defense (blocking, deflectional parries, counter cuts), and discuss the old flat vs. edge parry conundrum.
A great source for medieval and renaissance fencing manuals: wiktenauer.com
How to search for HEMA schools in your area: www.hemaallian...
Where to find practice swords, sparring gear, etc: www.woodensword...
Where to order reproductions of arms and armor (worldwide shipping):
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Thanks to Erik Bailey, the head instructor at Blood & Iron Victoria, for helping out with this video!
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"He's threatening me with the tip, I'm really very intimidated" lol the look on Skall's face. Good video tho :)
Damn, you're ugly.
4:24 For whoever doesnt wanna look for it
skalls like "comments, behave"
Sexually
4:33
Erik seems like a cool guy, would love to see him in more of your "instructional" videos. :)
Its like chess but with deadly outcomes
Chris G i like how u put that
Overhand to G5. Crossparry to G5. Sidestep to G6....
Me thinks you've been playing chess wrong!
High speed death chess
If you’re not good with losing and carry a gun when you play...
Easier to clean up your edge than your brains that ended up on the floor.
Bryan Schmidt right and if u got a good made blade the edge wont be that bad granted u know what u doing as well
Even if your edge is beyond repair, if you are alive you can buy another sword
Intestines.
My mace, your face!
Axe Brah AXEEEEES
This video is actually EXTREMELY good, nice work skall
I really like the input of Erik. He adds just something extra too the video which makes it more enjoyable, this is for me personally, would love to see him in more of your videos but love everything you do, Cheers!
Nice dynamics and entertaining, you should do more of this type of video.
As someone currently researching sword fighting for something I'm writing, this was very informative. Thank you!
The look on Skall's face when Erik says he is really very intimidated ...
GREAT video! And it all makes sense mechanically, what works best works best. Your weapons edge is not your concern in a real battle. That can be dealt with later.
Excellent Video and thank you for the historical anachronism and realistic swordplay. VERY educational from historical viewpoint about swordplay and parrying.
Yeah, thank you, this was very useful stuff from a writer's point of view.
I appreciate the nuances depicted here; the way that both ways have their advantages and disadvantages, and can each work better in different situations.
I learned and taught oriental martial arts from continuing traditions across 4 decades, so when I see you HEMA participants doing what you do -- analyzing your stances, movements, ranging, body mechanics, and leverage work, I would say... ... ... ...
..."Huh, you're actually really good!" It's interesting, how well the raw physics of Nature can re-teach what once seemed lost, and so such long-past arts are effectively redeveloped by thinking people who are experiencing it anew.
Of course, you don't need my approval or endorsement, but you have it nonetheless. Bravo and rock on!
Cheers!
One advantage of parrying with the edge is that sometimes one's blade will hack itself into the wooden staff of the opponent's spear or halberd (or whatever, maybe even into softer steel) and not only damage their weapon, but perhaps even give you some grip over it. It's not as relevant for sword duelling, but more for battlefields where one would be facing a multitude of different weapons. That is why in CMA defensive techniques with edged weapons often have a spiralling motion to them - as though pulling an opponent's weapon into a vortex
Parrying just looks so damn cool and works so well
Yes I agree. Parrying is something quite similar to what you do in Aikido, which is essentially moving along with the oponent's flow of movement in order redirect the force to destabilize, or moving straight out of the line of attack.
I'm so stoked because I just found somewhere to take HEMA lessons. It's not a proper school yet as they only have two proper teachers and they "only" do longsword, but both of them really know their shit and have done this their whole lives. They've sparred and interpreted manuals in small local groups for years and years and then decided to start this thing 3 years ago. The secondary teacher (a super-nice but absolutely terrifying woman) apparently did well in longsword at the most recent Swordfish (which I'm told is like the WC's of HEMA) just a few weeks ago. They regularly visit and get visits from other clubs, with Göteborgs Historiska Fäktskola (in Gothenburg) among them, which sounded healthy for something like this. We can only do 2 days a week of about 1-2.5 hours each during the sub-arctic northern swedish winter. I've been to two practices and I'm already in love.
10 minutes of sparring with someone like-minded (albeit vastly overpowered) VS crying yourself to sleep whilst grasping your brand new sabre or cutlass or whatever it is, well... the second one got my blades rusty quickly, so that's nice to be rid of.
To understand why ANY of this is noteworthy at all is the fact that I live in northern Sweden. They have a few decent schools but they are very, very far between. Like villages-on-the-north pole-far between level.
Again: northern ^ Sweden
What school?
I would move to Canada simply to go to this HEMA club.
Great video, Skall! Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy the videos on techniques and theories of historical fighting. It's absolutely fascinating.
This is phenomenal. My appreciation of you grows more and more. Thank you for the time and effort put into every video, Skall.
Thanks, and you're welcome.
"Because they are... somewhat dead."
It's always surreal to see people at a tournement, and then see them on your channel, Skal.
Notice also with the "pure flat parry" he defends himself with distance as well then steps back in to deliver a riposte. You can do many different deflectional parries with flat or edge but if you're doing a static block, using the edge is far stronger.
I have no experience with HEMA nor any means of practice but oml I'm slowly falling in love with swordsmanship it's so intricate and their is some much cool things.
That was both really cool as a topic to hear about, and simply to watch the motions going through with the variety of parries and whatnot. While I really enjoy your weapon reviews, seeing stuff in action like this is also awesome!
Wouldn't mind seeing more videos where you colaborate with Erik, he seems like a chill guy
Get him on the channel more. His side bits of info and commentary are fun.
Your protection suits look amazingly badass!
love those kind of vids
I'd love to see more HEMA videos
I love this format, it conveys all the information well and it really helps to see the moves actually in action between two people. Great video.
Much appreciated to both sirs !
Erik seems to be a pretty cool dude.
I like this guy, hopefully we shall see him some more.
Since Erik is my instructor he has been and will be in quite a number of videos. :)
Charismatic fellow this Erik, can't wait to see him end you aptly.
what a professional video!, loved it
Excellent video, Skall. And I agree. Parrying edge on edge = better defense but more damage on your blade. Parrying flat = less defense but longer blade life in combat. Though I suppose flat parries get more useful with different fighting styles which involve parrying the weapon and sliding/dodging to the side just after, changing your position altogether and attacking your opponent from another angle. Since there won't be as much impact when the two swords connect. But for straight-up parries and counters, which is how most sword combat is, edge parry is definitely the way to go.
You mentioned the terms parry vs block sometimes being used interchangeably, from my knowledge, the key difference is that a block is just that, stopping a blow from making contact, as you demonstrated. A parry is knocking aside a blow so that it does not make contact, followed then by your own strike, known as a riposte.
Loving the Skall and Erik team-up videos! :)
I started in iaido and aikido (based on sword fighting) and I was taught to block or perry at an angle, like your first demonstration shows. Of course, Japanese sword fighting does not have as much information available as HEMA either. Plus, there's only a few types of swords in Japanese material arts. HEMA is far more vast with it's availability to adapt to more uses and techniques with a wide variety of weapons and styles.
wow, understanding HEMA series now have a new host
Excellent video👍 Good, clearly explained tutorial on how to parry with a longsword.
8:03 that exchange of blows is amazing!
Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but edge vs flat i have found comes down to style used. In my years of study, i have noticed eastern arts of china and japan focus on flat parrys and avoid edge parrys. This also may explain why much of their blade tend to be thicker and definitely explains the developement of the round disc guard. Due to the construction of those blades, typically not monosteel and have much higher hardness edges which are more brittle, an edge hit may crack the blade enough to force retirement of the blade. Where as in the west, the monosteel swords seemed to use both types of parrys, and an edge hit isn't as destructive to the blade. Due to somewhat more consistent temper through the monosteel blade, any knicks could just be filed down or ground down enough to remove them, and the underlying material is still pretty much the same. This explains the cross guard being much more common. This is just my observations, not sure if this is the entirely correct, just what I've noticed.
Also interesting is how Japanese went from Euro-straight blades to curved ones by the 1100s era.
Awesome video! It is better than 80% of hema lessons, although this video is not a lesson.
Big fan of the educational video slash visual debate.
-insert “end them rightly” joke here to annoy Skall to no end.
using this video as a reference for a sparring scene in a story im writing, was very confused on what parry meant in sword fighting so this video helped a lot!!
We want a HEMA duel between you and Matt Easton.
Very nice ! Thank you Skall !
Thank you skallagrim for making more of these videos.
Enjoyable and informative. It would have been helpful if some of the jargon had been explicitly explained (for example, I had a pretty good guess what "point forward" position was, but I wondered if there was more nuance to it than just "holding it with the point forward"), but everything was still clear enough to follow.
Excellent video. Thank you
Thank you. Very educational.
4:19: "Stops it nicely"?
I think he meant "Ends it rightly".
4:29 priceless look on skalls face
One of your best vids, very helpful. My favorite swords are longswords and war swords
It was really interesting and descriptive video, thank you very much, Skull.
love it-proud of my celtic heritage
Been watching your videos for two months now. I have forsaken most of my asian style training and taken up european style. Thank you
That video was great
The old discussion... :-) And i don't know what is right or wrong. But during my training i realized, that it's mostly not necessary to hit edge on edge. I think the trick ist the movement of the sword in a flat angle with a little turn of the Hand. And sometimes it's also possible, to hit his flat instead of his edge.
Holy hell that exchange between Eric and Lianna (spelling) was insane.
Away from the whole skilled swordsman thing;
If someone is charging me with a sword and I have one in my hand you can bet your ass that I'll try to parry with whatever part of the sword, not really caring what side I hit it with.
In a battle with life and death at stake I don't think little things like "did i parry right" or "my footwork was poor" are considered as long as you make it out alive.
Awesome video I love these sparring like videos.
Love your content, plenty of infomation in such a short film. I really appreciate your work and passion realization. Greeting from Poland! :)
Really awesome and interesting video
Somehow I don't believe the guy twice the size of Skal was intimidated.
That being said, I have to say I like these instructional videos, seeing as both you and Lindibeige have uploaded videos like this I hope this will be a new trend. They might not make for great training videos, but they are great as a writers resource.
I'm REALLY quite intimidated! ;)
man gotta love thumb grips
Love it!!!
On the battlefield can you pick up a weapon from someone who is totally dead or is it just the somewhat dead you can take from?
Nice explanation, tq very much
Skall I'm not too experienced (mostly everything I know is from you and a few other channels) but theres one thing wrong with practice swords is that the edges don't bite into each other which makes a small but important difference
Doesn't actually matter for this demonstration. It's most relevant in binding and winding, and even there the effect of sharp edges tends to be over-estimated.
Thanks skall
And another thing skall sometimes I watch your vid in places where people don't want to hear about swords if it not an inconvenice can you try to provide subtitles to your vid or have them be available
This was very informative. That is why I am a subscriber to this wonderful channel.
The way we define it at our club is: Parry = block; Riposte = parry + counter
You should do a video about a full power strike Vs very precise and good strike
Man, this stuff is so cool. I’d love to see a movie that actually implemented proper technique, it looks cooler than the sword dancing we see in movies and TVs today.
If you have a support ridge going up the center of the blade like in old greek swords, you can parry with the flat.
Dude you guys are awesome!
Thanks Skall! Now I know there's a HEMA group down the street from me :^)
Best video yet. :) More like this please.
Great video!
What you're supposed to do is parry with the correct part of the blade and draw down so it actually sharpens the blade.
What people want is a simple answer: "Only ever do this, and never ever do that." No, do what works. Whatever style you follow, even if your instructors say "Never ever do this:" and you find that that works? Do that, because it works. Really the only rule you need to know when it comes to fighting in general: "Figure out what works, for you, and do that." ~B. Lee.
8:20 That was actually a pretty cool looking exchange.
I would say whatever is efficient and defends you is good. and that relies on context and personal preference.
For me, I try not to over think it. Any block or parry where you don't get killed is a good block or parry. IMO training a certain way can help but in full speed full contact situations I can imagine times where you're just happy to get metal between you and the opponents sword any way you can.
makes sense in sabre or broadsword parrying with the strong with the more complex guard.
basically deflect and immediate counter strike.
Came across your vid for research.
You should do more vids with him
Very nice!!! Thats why im subscribing!
From what I understand, a sharpened sword also has some grip that an unsharpened one otherwise doesn't.
The guys who say you should only parry with the flat aren't looking at the way that a cruciform guard is mounted on the sword. I say use whatever keeps the other guy's sword out of you, but the edge makes more sense mechanically in most cases.
How do you block with a axe, a mace, a pole arm, ect.?
(Can you parry with them too?)
On the parrying side: I think you have to parry in a way that lets you end up with your blade further in the strong than your enemys, so you have more power than him. If you catch the tip of his blade, the center is fine, but if you catch the center, parrying two thirds towards the hilt is safer in my opinion.
If you're going for a static block, yes. If you're going for deflection you only need enough power to change the path of your opponents blade enough. Depending on the situation it might be sufficient to slap the middle of their blade with your tip to throw off their cut enough.
It's more complex than that and even though I don't usually think about it too much in a duel or tournament, relying too much on a force game isn't that smart if Your ringen isn't better than Your blosfechten. :-D
Swordplay based on force against enemy's tip makes him turn to duplieren, make a swift "circle" under Your blade and thrust forward against Your guts. Overall usage of strenght based blocks diminishes deeper you get into fencing because using too much strenght telegraphs your intents too early and there are dozens of advanced techniques that use that fact for oponents advantage.
You should do an ASMR vid just you and your trainer sparring no commentary just 2 hema experts sparring (with steel of course XD)
Allow me to channel some Matt Easton: It's all about CONTEXT!
You should do a video on a new for honour character that hasn’t been done yet
Very interesting
Skall, there is a consideration that you did not make but i observed viewing you video. Not only the blade is stronger at the axis of the edge, the hands postioning in a long sword also is stronger. With a edge parry the sword rotates backwards, having the upper hand as an axis of rotation and the lower hand holding the movent, applying force backwards. With a flat parry (?) the sword rotates lateraly and the lower hand has to apply force either outward or inward, a movement pattern we are weaker.
That or one has to keep rotating the sword grip in one's hand deppendig if attacking or defending.
Also some random pommel joke
1:28 just paused it there to appreciate that face