How do you INCAPACITATE someone WITH A SWORD?!
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- Опубліковано 17 бер 2022
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How do swords most effectively incapacitate someone and remove them as a threat?
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The fact that Matt has been sponsored by Raid for like 2 yrs and I still can't tell if his enthusiasm is entirely satirical or not is pretty astounding.
I think he's enthusiastic about the money ;)
@@MrPiotrV oh of course. But you know what I mean.
@@MrPiotrV if there’s anything I can commend raid for is giving the majority of their money to creators
He might actually enjoy playing it. I know people who do. It's way too expensive for my tastes. But there is a reason why there is so much money in mobile gaming.
@@asraarradon4115if you're suggesting the main reason mobile games are successful is that the games are good, I could suggest a number of likely alternative explanations...
I've heard many, many, times that an arrow to the knee could end an adventurer's career.
Former combat medic, Afghanistan veteran. And I've been doing HEMA for about as long as Matt.
I don't think this video could have been done better unless someone did it with a 3d virtual human body. I got a piece of shrapnel in my ankle and didn't even know it, but it was an arterial bleed, and.. Well, I had to patch myself up in a Humvee. Would have killed me, but in no way debilitating short term.
Cuts? The sheer psychological effect can debilitate someone, or blind them with blood.
Technically, I'd say the inside of the thigh is one of the best targets, but I'm sadistic and go for... Hands and arms with cuts - not killing blows, but effective - I've got a few broken knuckles et cetera, so I definitely know that from personal experience just sparring with friends and blunt steel. Not fatal, but debilitating.
Psychology has alot to do with it, too. I've seen people completely freak out over minor wounds that were superficial and just bloody, and I've seen people get shot and not know it for minutes - and get shipped home in a body bag with a flag.
There's my 2¢ on this topic. Excellent analysis.
Thank you for your service. To add a point, while I'm not a veteran, I used to work a job where being involved in street fights was quite common, and I took a pretty fair number of hits in defense while I was there. From that experience, having been struck in the nose, having my glasses knocked off (It is exceptionally hard for me to see without them on), having been struck in the side of the head - The adrenaline has always made all of those things fade into the background, until they hit that much harder after things are settled.
I won every fight I was ever in, because I was determined, and because I had backup - but many (even a majority of) people I fought didn't realize when they had lost and just kept coming, just kept on trying to get up. Crazy people are crazy strong, and Matt was totally right - Kamikaze people are very difficult to deal with.
On the other hand, I've seen wannabe thieves crumple when showed the slightest bit of resistance. Psychology plays a huge role not just during and after the fight, but also before. You never know what's going to happen.
This reminds me how good a target the femoral triangle and brachial plexus are for thrusting attacks.
@@Helxas I worked as a bouncer when I was a student. One night an idiot pulled a knife on me. I got a pretty serious & bloody wound to the heel of my hand defending myself. The sight of the blood actually put my opponent off. Don't think the young idiot had realised what a knife could do until then. He certainly didn't expect me to keep going. I did explain to him while waiting for the police that if I wasn't such a nice person, once I had the knife off of him that would have been his blood. Hopefully shocked him out of doing stupid things.
On the getting hit in the nose thing. When I used to spar my usual partners learned not to hit me there as it gets me really angry & makes me see red.
But yes, psychology very much plays a part. Especially with untrained people, you can often take the fight out of them & win before it all starts.
What's your thought on quick thrust to the abdomen, twist, and withdraw?
In the extant Chinese straight sword system, we're taught that the primary technique is slicing the wrist tendons, potentially elbow if facing basket hilt, and ankles if you can get them.
Quick jabs are also used extensively to pick the opponent apart, but jabs are not assured to debilitate, unlike slicing tendons while pressing the blade into the flesh.
In Chinese broadsword (saber), we're taught to press the blade into the opponent by putting the off-hand on the thick, unsharpened back of the blade, so you see more practice of disemboweling techniques.
Essentially, when I'm fencing as if for real (as opposed to sport), it's all setting up the opponent for a tendon slice (gentle) or inserting the point into the abdomen, without impaling, avoiding contact with bone (not gentle).
We also have techniques for getting the sword out of bone after chops, such as chopping into the shoulder with straight sword and "sawing" forward to free it from the bone.
In my albeit limited experience getting cut, the chop or jab seem to numb the area, slices you don't even feel, but getting jabbed, even with a hypodermic needle, you feel.
So I'm assuming puncture wound to the abdomen is pretty effective at shutting someone down, even if you haven't caused sufficient internal bleeding to kill.
@@itinerantpoet1341 As someone who has had two emergency bowel surgeries in the last eleven months (and a third exploratory abdominal surgery during the same time frame), I can attest to how debilitating abdominal wounds can be. The intestines have a surprising amount of pain receptors (thanks evolution), and as both a military veteran and life-long martial artist I can attest to gut injuries being among my most exquisitely painful experiences I've even had.
"What about their legs? They don't need those"
A wound being a dice roll is very true, it seems random at times. I worked in an emergency department for 3 years seeing all the worst traumas that came in, and it was amazing how minor an injury could kill a person, and how incredibly resilient people are. Tripping just right can kill you in hours. Flying 40 feet out of a car in an accident and fracturing your skull can be survived.
There are so many variables. A good friend of mine in his late seventies but in excellent condition was in a car wreck that shattered half of his skull. Five years later he retains full function including good vision (except the reconstruction surgeons didn't quite get his eyes lined up properly, but he's adapting). He wasn't ejected but he did get out of the car afterward and was walking around trying to figure out how to get the car out of the ditch it had come to rest in! Statistically he should be dead, but as you imply there are always surprise outliers.
Also witness Bob Saget, who may have fallen and hit his head on a carpeted floor, and subsequently died from it. You really do not know what any injury may end up doing to you, ultimately.
What does a surgeon say when treating a person who was stabbed 80 times? "Amateurs"
If the wound is random, it's because the person who dealt either doesn't know what they're doing, or hasn't put in the time.
Real fencers are more like surgeons.
And yes, what you're mostly seeing out of historical European is random-people who don't know what they're doing clashing, striking simultaneously, or getting random hits.
@@itinerantpoet1341 "What's the difference between God and a surgeon? God knows He's not a surgeon!" LOL
Police officers in Sweden, up to the 70's, carried swords and used them with the flat-edge to disable people due to to the immense pain it caused.
Similar principle to the belly flop in a swimming pool. I'm guessing they trained to hit hard, but it still sounds crazy for cops in the 70's to be carrying swords!
Many years ago, I talked with Max, who was the assistant District Commissioner Sudan in the 1920's. According to him. the Native courts counted cuts to the outside of the limbs as mere wounds, and to the inside of the limbs as intent to kill. Fines and compensation were adjudged accordingly!
Good point. Best current advice against knife attacks seems to be taking slashes to the outside of the forearms in exchange for getting inside debilitate with strikes or possible grapple (if you're a true grappling expert.)
I was lightly nicked by a steak knife on the side of the rear of my head during a knife attack I thought I successfully defended myself but the knife clipped an artery and I almost bleed to death. It really is the location of a cut as to how critical. I dont recommend fighting against someone with a live blade, I didn't have a choice. My point is even the smallest cut can kill. Life is precious and I love your channel...💖🇦🇺🤺
On the actual injury side, in my Criminology education I got to see a lot of pictures from prison fights. Slashes can lay a person open to the bone, with the layers of skin and fat looking like a geology text, but the guy is sitting up in the infirmary getting treatment. Whereas the "sewing machine" stab attacks to the chest can have the victim walking and talking, until they just drop from internal bleeding. Living a life designed to keep foreign objects, for whatever reason, from getting to my squishy innards is a constant goal.
Avoiding foreign objects in squishy innards sounds like a good life goal.
Yeah. I had a buddy who did hard time and he saw someone get stabbed though the back of the spine with a long shard of glass while playing cards.
But let me ask you this-the walking, talking people with the stab wounds, are they in shock? (My guess is they are.)
@@itinerantpoet1341 Some cases may be shock, but there are many cases of people having been stabbed, or even shot, who, not seeing the weapon, simply thought they had been punched until they passed out from blood loss, or saw the blood and then had the normal physiological reaction. Humans are simultaneously incredibly tough and incredibly fragile.
Sewing machine stabs to the neck are best ,Gut second , intestines , kidneys and liver , chest last
Matt is a natural teacher. His students are lucky to have him. I really enjoyed this one. I'm reminded of the importance of shot placement with firearms, pistols in particular. When combat shooting, the target area is pretty much the same for thrusting a sword.
Good luck thrusting a sword through the breast bone, and, assuming you have a heavy, stiff weapon capable of doing it, good luck getting it out again.
Center mass for sure-that's why I'll take the abdomen over the throat, even though I can put my point where I want it 100/100, but I was trained in sword by people who aren't guessing.
A sword is not a bullet and avoiding contact with bone is critical for a number of reasons, chiefly not getting your sword stuck, and also edge preservation.
But I only teach sword, I don't teach firearms.
I work for a fairly large Police Department in an evidence management capacity and as such have seen photos and video from literally hundreds of assaults and homicides. I can say that in most cases the psychological effect of a blow to the face by any weapon is more disabling than anything short of massive trauma to the central nervous system. For instance, I saw video of an individual who was pistol whipped in the face. They instantly crumpled to the ground and covered up, despite the injury being superficial and the victim never losing consciousness. Conversely, my department recently had an officer involved shooting in which a suspect was struck in a lower extremety and had round pass through their chest - entering near one shoulder and exiting above the opposite hip. He was able to continue fighting, then run and hide for the better part of 5 minutes or so - until his body just completely gave out and he collapsed. He survived the trip to the nearby trauma center and lived for at least another half hour before passing away from severe internal bleeding. I would guess based on point of entry and point of exit, the round punched straight through a lung and several major organs.
I can speak from personal experience (Glass Door accident) that cuts to the wrist can be immediately incapacitating. Nerves, tendons, artery. Imediately non-functional hand and lots of blood loss.
The inside of the wrist has lots of important 'wiring' unprotected by bones.
Despite four hours of reconstructive surgery four decades later I am typing this whilst only using two fingers on my left hand. Nearly didn't get that far due to the lack of reaction of those around me - VERY grateful to the Medical Student who intervened, got the First Aid kit opened, stopped the bleeding and ensured I got to hospital.
Agreed. I had a buddy who severed the nerves in his hand by putting his fist through a glass windows as a teenager. (In this case, he wasn't entirely unhappy with the result b/c after that, he could punch as hard as he wanted and not feel a think. But he also was happy to admit he wasn't right in the head;)
But there are people out there like that, so people who spar full contact, even with blunt swords, better be physically fit and prepared for the occasional psycho.
Speaking of the blunt trauma aspect: I read a news article a few years back of an armed robbery on a jewelry store. The owner and his two sons pulled out machetes, but said they felt sorry for the guy and only used the backs of their blades on him. They still caused serious damage to the bad guy.
That level of empathy and responsibility is admirable.
I don't doubt. Still a lot of force applied to a very narrow area.
@@JanetStarChild
What a naive comment
Guarantee that won’t be the last time they’re robbed. Word gets out. The crooks will soon learn it’s a soft target.
@@totallyfrozen "place where you get clobbered with metal bars" isnt a soft target
I think the important but unsaid point is to hit them wherever you can without getting hit yourself. Anywhere you hit them will lessen their ability to fight, making it easier to hit them a second time and less likely that they will hit you.
And the thing that seems to be completely lacking from most European historical at this stage of it's development is the part about know how to not get hit.
(Hint, it involves neutralizing the opponent's blade before commiting to a determinative strike, or any strike at all. If you haven't neutralized their blade, attacks need to be probes, with the expectation of a parry.)
There's a reason real fencers need to be able to think several moves ahead, like Chess players. So, great comment, Joe.
I think the important but unsaid point is to avoid fighting-because ANY injury can be your undoing.
Hey Matt I'm a fight director in the US with 36 years of experience with the sword. I really enjoyed this episode. I have spent much of my time creating fights for 15th, 16th and 17th century events plays and films. Over the years I have had mishaps which were quite educational in the concept of effects of wounds in fights. On one occasion many years ago, easily half my age ago, I was working out a fight with my fight partner. Our bldes (Rapiers & Daggers) were locked together in a corps-`a-corps. From my vantage point it looked as though I could let go of my rapier reach over the crossed weapons between us and grab his hilt and twist all weapons away from him. What I did not see was my own dagger as I was looking directly down the blade making it virtually invisible to me. As I did this it not only surprised him it also surprised myself, as I thrust my forearm onto my dagger. Yes I came away with the blades... no I was not happy about it. I felt the blade(a blunted stage piece) pass into my arm, graze one bone, and jam into the other sending a shock wave through my arm and shoulder. I quickly extracted my arm from my blade and dropped all the weapons. The muscles in my arm instantly contracted locking up my forearm against my upper arm in a praying mantis sort of position. As this was my dominant arm my fighting was done for the time being. Had it been a life or death situation I could have continued with my left hand but it would not have ended well I think. It actually took me 6 months to get full use of that arm again very debilitating. I look at a fight like in the Princess Bride where he is stabbed in both biceps and keeps fighting and I question that. The human body does not like having foreign objects thrust into it...it complains loudly and protests with great vigor. LOL I do not recommend getting stabbed but, having been I have found it to be an excellent teaching moment on multiple levels. Not the least of which is safety, always know where your tips are and every blade is lethal even blunted stage weapons. Not wasted in this experience is teaching actors about the act of being stabbed and stabbing someone. There is a moment at the point of contact for both when the blade connects with the flesh...a moment of hesitation as as the flesh is somewhat elastic. You can feel the body try and absorb the impact. Then that hesitation gives way and the blade is welcomed into the body driving forward with a zeal all its own. For the victim a sensation of surprise, as you feel the blade passing into you, the realization of what has happened, the instant calculation of options for resolution, the desire to withdraw, the act of doing so, more sensation of steel moving within you, followed by the presentation of blood, involuntary muscle contraction, a cramping sensation, pain, followed by a creeping feeling of shock wanting to overtake you. Now add to that...which all happens in a few seconds, the man on the other end is trying to kill you and seemingly getting his way. There is a lot to play there as an actor a lot to add to a scene like between Tybalt and Mercutio.
Excellent comment. From what I've seen, the European choreagraphic art is far advanced compared to the sport fighting.
This reminds me of the realities of street fighting or even legal fighting. Something the average person has no clue about. Things might just go real bad for you, even in a seemingly harmless situation. You have to be aware of real escalations when you see them.
Agreed. If you're in a dive bar, and the overly friendly drunk next to you is build like Temura Morrison in Once Were Warriors and has scabs on his knuckles, be ready for things to flip in an instant. Things can go from 0 to 1000mph in the blink of an eye.
Hey Matt, you should react to the fight in the Polish film Born for the Sabre
Thanks I'll have to check it out.
Amazing film/documentary.
Best authentic sword fight scene ever made.
Spent three months out of commission and a few thousand dollars on tendon repair after an accidental cut to the hand behind the thumb. Can confirm it was hampering to activity both in the short and long term.
As someone who has been seriously injured, it’s interesting to notice how much most people shrug off the idea of injury. The idea that either you die or you recover; it might be unpleasant for a bit, but before too long you’ll be fine again. The reality is that surviving a physically traumatic incident is far from a guarantee of anything except survival: it’s far more likely and far more significant than most people think that an injury doesn’t kill you but still severely and permanently changes your life
Once, while fencing with one of my sons, I was hit with a shinai on the outer side of my forward knee... where the tendons are. That was thirty five years ago and it still hurts. It taught me to keep that forward leg in. There is no doubt in my mind that if that had been a real sword I would have lost the leg from the knee down!
Pain is a good teacher. I took a shot in the chest from a beast mode fist once, without "emptying" like I was taught, and I felt it for several months.
I think hellish quart does a good job of what I think injuries would be like. It really believably simulates damage depending on how and where the sword hits. And, it has effects on the fight.
Like, since you can go for leg hits depending on how well you hit the leg it can either work like sweaping the leg bringing your opponent to the ground or just cause the opponent to limp for rest of the fight.
Same with head hits. If you do a quick slash to the head, if it hits the top of the skull it makes a think sound and doesn't always win the fight. But if you stab through the face it pretty easily kills them.
ua-cam.com/video/vO-RaxBGkRQ/v-deo.html
lmao
Hellish Quart?
@@DioBrando-jm7uf It's a sword fighting game Skallagrim has featured a bit. Has very realistic moves and mechanics for a game of that type.
@@DioBrando-jm7uf Quite possibly _the_ most realistic swordfighting game. Uses a mix of 16th-17th Century swords/styles from Europe/Mid-East. Was created by a Polish HEMA practitioner.
A think sound? Like you nick the top of the skull so the sounds of the thoughts inside can get out?
When I first saw the notice, my brain decoded it as, "How do you DECAPITATE someone WITH A SWORD?" What the hell is Matt Easton up to now? The rule of first touch, only, counts is so unrealistic. I hated it in Tae Kwon Do/Tang Soo Do/Karate tournaments, both as a competitor and an official. Stopping the match to assess a point for every touch was maddening. It also led to BS training methods that were geared to only go for the fastest point touch possible. Complete bollocks. I much preferred the system that used rounds and total points after so many rounds. Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) rules. Enjoyed the video. Very good overview of vulnerabilities and how to exploit them.
I guess the distinction between sport and martial art could stand to be widened. I think there is a place for combative sports but I get what you re saying.
when I trained in taekwondo, only trembling shock hits counted. frequently fights had only one point scored in 3 rounds with lower ranks.
I'm glad you mentioned the "kamikaze" mindset. Hoping that fear and pain will incapacitate your attacker is foolish. You're going to have to remove lots of blood, destroy load-bearing bones, or take off a limb to stop a determined man.
Just look at how many handgun shots it takes to drop really aggro perpetrators. Gunshots CAN make people psychologically want to stop and give up immediately, but that is more a matter of the person's level of commitment to the endeavor in the first place than a measure of the severity of the injury. Handgun bullets typically make very small holes which individually lead to very small blood loss. This leads some to the conclusion that multiple such injuries would be called for. Others conclude that higher quality wounds must be the goal rather than relying upon emotional shock or eventual hypovolemic shock from blood loss. Hitting the central nervous system becomes the prime goal, with the heart and lungs coming up as secondary.
@@texasbeast239 because of body armor they started training the Mozambique…2 to the chest and one to the head. Understanding that the head was a small target they went to the reverse Mozambique, 2 to the chest and one to the groin!
Even if you cut a limb off they will claim "tis but a scratch" and keep fighting.
@@insane_troll 😄😄😄
How much effect does determination having in stopping shock? I expect nobody knows since it's impossible to really measure it (ethically) gather the data.
Extreme emotions like rage seem to make a difference based on accounts but that is different from determination.
I think another thing to mention about the effect of leg hits is that the legs tend to be mich more of a solid target with less “give” compared to an arm or even torso.if you hit an arm, the arm will likely “go with” the blow a decent bit. while your full weight is on your legs so it will “absorb” the energy of the blow more fully.
From personal idiotic experience I'd say any cut, no matter how small, into a load bearing muscle such as the outer thigh is going to debilitate you pretty quickly. Think of it like "muscle fibres = puppet strings". Adrenaline will only get you so far.
People forget just how taut skin and muscle are.. an incision through the skin into muscle does funny things to a leg.
Good point, and this is why one should never attempt such a strike until *after* they have neutralized the opponent's blade.
It’s bad when you have had enough injuries that you find yourself laughing at the descriptions.
There's also no telling what that wound will do to you over time. Even if it heals, trust me, later in life you're going to feel that thing.
As Indiana Jones once said, "It's not the years, Honey. It's the milage."
Please do one on risks of using a sword for "non-lethal incapacitation" and how dangerous that can be. Apparently a lot of people playing D&D think they could just wack someone with the side or back of a sword to incapacitate without some kind of disadvantage.
Well, it works in games and non-interactive fiction. But there's a reason "non-lethal" is more and more replaced by "less-lethal" and other terms as they're more accurate.
@@AnotherDuck it would put a damper on a James Bond movie if he wakes up after being knocked out and suddenly can't move his legs. 🤣
Tendon slice is gentle. Stab to the gut is ungentle. Safety of various applications can depend heavily on skill differential.
@@itinerantpoet1341 stab to the gut can still be fatal and both can still be life altering. Entertainment treats it like you can just poke someone until they fall over and they will always fully recover when the person wakes up as long as you didn't intend to kill them.
@@jacobstaten2366 Word. They're also fond of the "one punch knockout" on TV, even when the punch is a slap.
And I want to again reinforce that what I'm recommending comes from duelists who actually had experience doing this stuff not more than 100 years ago, and in the 1930's with single-edged hacking blades during the war.
It was highly problematic to me that Matt didn't even mention interaction with bone, or different targets and strategies for different swords.
As someone who's experienced gout before, I will say toe injury can be VERY incapacitating
As someone experiences gout regularly, I'd rather let Matt stab me in the toe than have another flare up. By far.
:)
Is different kind of pain. Jon jones broke his toe off almost completely and didnt even feel it.
Sometimes I have to fence on a bum ankle, so a toe injury is not going to slow me down much.
@@itinerantpoet1341 his toe was broken off and barely connected to his foot. The bone was visible.
good thing I wear steel-toed work boots
Hi y’all. Thanks for this video, man. It will be really helpful in my story writing.
Fun story about shin strikes: Back in the 1990s - era of the Ninja Turtles - a friend and I decided it would be fun to build some wooden nunchaku and teach ourselves to use them. (Kids, do not try this at home, haha.) We thought we had gotten pretty good with some basic spins, swatting snowmen into their component flakes and so on - and we began some of the more showy maneuvers.
My friend tried to do a basic diagonal swing, from left shoulder toward right leg. As you've guessed from my telling of this story, he misjudged the angle, and gave himself a reasonably solid whap on the shin. This was by no means a full-strength whallop, and - being winter - we were wearing snow-pants at the time - the Canadian answer to quilted armour. -_^ Nevertheless, the strike caused sufficiently sudden and sharp pain that he blacked out. He was back to consciousness almost as soon as he hit the ground - but certainly enough time that someone who meant harm could have dispatched him.
It really serves to illustrate your point about the effectiveness of a shin strike. Years later, when I learned of atemi and other pressure-point techniques, I immediately thought about this strike to the extremities, and its immediate and dramatic effect on one's faculties. We think of shins as "hard" targets due to their rigidity - but their validity as a target shouldn't necessarily be discounted.
I agree. you can't walk, you can't fight. And a slash across the shin with a sword or machete would sever the tendons. You fall down. Guy with the blade will probably make sure you don't get up again. This is also why things like quarterstaves and shillelagh were popular. One good smack to the leg in the right place and the guy falls down.
Anyone who’s gotten a tattoo over a bony area, knows that areas like the shin would hurt a lot.
For a moment I thought this was about Ranking of King's swordsmanship inspiring that conversation ahah
It's worth mentioning that cuts to the head, while not particularly damaging, tend to bleed A LOT. Which can get blood in the eyes and blind your opponent, making it hard to fight. You can see this commonly in MMA fighs today, when fighters get cut around the forehead or brow region.
The forehead slash is well entrenched in the lore, and any boxer can tell you that even a cut to the eyebrow can shut down a fight.
I think it's worth mentioning that slashing weapons also do very well against the abdomen. While unlikely to strike a vital organ, a powerful horizontal stroke stands a good chance to disembowl a person. This might be anecdotal but in my experience, the stomach is also the most natural target to strike when voiding an overhand cut. I imagine this is why Kendo designates the stomach (along with the head and forearms) as one of its main target areas.
It's anecdotal today, but the Japanese and Chinese sword arts are extant, not reconstructed, so we have high confidence in disenbowling techniques.
In Chinese straightsword, we press the blade into the opponent when we make these slices, and it's the last couple inches of the blade that does the work. In Chinese saber, we literally press the blade into the opponent by pushing on the flat back of the blade. (Power for the slice comes from twisting the waist, not moving the arms.)
I'm pretty sure this is the same principle for Japanese swords, based on what limited reading I've done about those arts.
The state of mind of the person being hit is a huge factor. There many documented cases where soldiers on the field of battle received a mortal injury and kept fighting until they expired. Conversely, there are many documented cases where someone received a relatively minor injury and expired from shock. That is the reason why militaries work on psychologically conditioning troops.
I've personally experienced all three types of damage. Blunt force trauma hurts bad at first but the pain gradually lessens, stabs hurt but the pain seems to increase. Cuts generally hurt less than the other two. Disclaimer: most of my injuries were accidentally self inflicted and none required more than stitches.
There's also a huge difference between a US marine and civilians who play at sword fighting.
(I'll take a marine with karate training and a stick of most of what I'm seeing in historical fencing;)
That one Dark Elf looks like the Guyver
Your videos are pure gold Sir !
This is such a great video, and it should (like many other SG videos) be mandatory viewing for FRPG enthusiasts. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for medieval arms and fighting techniques, and keep up the amazing work!
I love how long you spend convincing me I don't want to be shot or stabbed.
Excellent! Very interesting! Always love your videos!
Thanks for the information⚔️
Great information , thanks Matt.
Educational and entertaining!! Thanks!
Always great ideas and videos ! I love your show🖖✌️
I hadn't really even considered energy transfer. I would have guessed that the primary reason cuts to the limbs are more effective simple anatomy. A cut to a limb, even if it doesn't hit any major blood vessels/tendons/ligaments or break bone, is going to pretty quickly degrade your ability to continue fighting. Whereas even without the clothing issue, unless you get a very deep "home run" strike, a cut to the torso is unlikely to incapacitate someone because you aren't going to hit much.
Worth noting is that serious wounds don’t close on their own.
So even flesh wounds mean a few days where the victim will want to be immobile and relatively clean.
Having broken several bones at various times and accidentally deeply stabbed my hand with a chisel once, I still think slashing cuts are more painful and immediately "oh shit" inducing, particularly deep one's where you can see fatty tissue and bone...regardless of where on the body they occur.
Blunt force trauma to the head is very disorientating, you really do see stars and little birdies like the cartoons depict and you'd be wide open for a pointy thing.
Adrenaline cancels a lot of pain so for my pretend attack of choice it's got to be blunt force to a head or neck, arterial cuts / slashes and stabbing as a third - with a caveat that accurate stabbing into vitals (ouch, me vitals) can be instant death.
agree, I've stepped on a very nasty piece of glass that was for all intents and purposes a caltrop, it made very deep stabbing wound that was also quite long, and I kept running on it. It took me at least 10 seconds to notice I was injured, because I was focused on chasing something. I've also stabbed myself in the hand and it wasn't very painful (had to cut a bunch of fat off the wound before I put a bandaid on it, to give you an idea of how deep it was). In both of these stabbing wounds, I noticed there was an immediate numbing effect around the site, and that it wasn't as painful as other types of very minor wounds, such as simply stubbing my toe. It's 100% possible a person could get stabbed in a non vital spot and only feel a vague sensation until their adrenaline wears off
@@moonasha Can confirm that stubbing your toe is MUCH more painful than being stabbed with a nail.
Having once stepped on a board with a nail in it, but still have to finish a job, I can agree. Also have had fingers broken and those stopped what I was doing, but could have continued if I had no choice. But, deep cuts and I completely stop to see what the fuck happened and then try and fix it the best I can until I can get to the docs.
@@bentrieschmann You only really need two fingers to fence. (I've done it that way full contact once when I had insane blisters that prevented using the index finger and pinkie.)
I strongly believe in the #1 rule in Krav Maga: „Don’t get hurt!“ Once you‘ve taken a more than just superficial injury, your chances of winning the fight drop drastically, no matter what the Hollywood choreographies show you.
Something else to consider is that in a lot of sparring and competition people get "touch scores" so people don't train to high impact strikes, a ribcage for example is harder to penetrate than just poking a water filled sacked. Actually a water filled sack isn't all that easy to penetrate you can't just poke it.
Tip-centric cuts to hand the hands and wrists are incredibly dangerous, those areas can get gashed open with very little force and the same type of strike to the torso might not penetrate a loose shirt, and a thrust needs umph to penetrate unless it strikes the abdomen.
Not only is the rib cage hard to penetrate, if you manage to do it, you're probably losing your sword.
High level fencing with one-handed tends to thrust with palm upward, with has a chance of sliding between the ribs, but still a very low likelihood of success, which is why the real art is about inserting the point while *avoiding contact with bone*
thanks for another great video. i pulled this up on my desktop while fending off a home intruder who intended me harm, and in thirty short minutes i had all the knowledge necessary to subdue them!
It's only a fleshwound... the black knight is INVINCIBLE !!!
I can never remember the source but I've read somewhere that most of the saber duels between Polish szlachta in 17th and 18th century usually ended with a face or a sword hand wounds not a fatalities. It seems a nasty cut on the face/head or hand/wrist/forearm was enough to cool off most of the feisty duelers. Many ears, noses and fingers were lost but precious few lives :)
Probably helped along by the fact that most duals would be to first blood or incapacitation rather than death.
@@adambielen8996 Yes. There was apparently a saying among the Poles that if your were just dueling, you used a saber, but if you were looking to kill, you'd use a hammer. (Also, funnily enough, you didn't want to kill your opponent, because if you did, there would be lawyers.)
@@purplefuzzymonster17 I like that saying. And yes, killing a fellow Szlachta would have gotten you in deep shit.
I've read that dueling with pistols was much more dangerous and more likely to result in fatality. You go for the wrists b/c it's the closest target, and, if one knows what one is doing, assuring the tendons are severed via slice is viable. But one needs to be like a surgeon-flailing around and hoping that a lucky strike debilitates is a bad bet.
Listening to this I grew increasingly thankful, that I will likely never have to fight for my life with or against a sharp weapon.
We all think swords are cool, and they are, and we might even think, that it would be great to try out swordfighting for real but no, it really wouldn't.
That is the correct attitude, and is people are going to go around making claims to being "real" sword fighters, they better have some experience doing it without protective gear.
Disclaimer: Kenjutsu and Wudang have methods for doing this relatively safetly-they involve spending tens of thousands of hours in preparation under the strict supervision of legitimate masters.
An interesting angle here is how to incapacitate - but NOT KILL someone with a sharp implement like a sword. Is this possible to do reliably. Is blunt trauma more or less likely to kill? Is medical attenteion more or less effective against certain types of wounds? This might not be Matt Easton's area of competence, tough.
I'll take a hickory axe handle, even over a sword in most cases, b/c I only need one hit to the skull, and it's less messy. That sturdy hickory is more than up to the task of beating the defender's blade off line to make the strike safely.
Lad #13 from that one Towton burial was proof that someone could take a hell of a wound to the face and survive. I'm not sure if he kept fighting right after taking the wound, but he survived and it healed over the few years before he bought it at Towton.
He only survived because he was young, larger and stronger than average and he received medical care and surgery. I suspect it was a training injury as he didn't die from sepsis. What ever cleaved his face in two was clean and sharp.
There is also that adrenaline works in different ways, can make you not feel pain and be at an advantage, or you can be a shaking, vomiting mess that can't communicate or think straight or even faint.
In Filipino Martial Arts (Eskrima, Kali, Arnis), there is the saying: Stick seeks bone, blade seeks flesh.
Makes sense as the bone refers to joints, hands, and the head, whereas the flesh part speaks for itself
Excellent comment! The lack of discussion of interaction with bone make this video weak, and Matt needs to do some more research, and come back and address that topic.
Having been hit in the unarmoured shin with a blunt sword it hurts A LOT and caused me to instantly drop to the floor, the mate I was fighting also had a knee wound from myself that dropped him... both were totally accidental while wearing body, arm and head armour but forgetting the leg armour. When I was fighting with a flail I caught another mate's little finger with the end of the chain and he instantly had to stop and walk off the field, the uppshot was a broken finger and he accepted it was his fault because he wasn't wearing suitable gauntlets for the weapons involved. I can imagine a thrust to the thigh if missed could instantly lead to a drawing cut which would cause a lot of damage if sharps are used. As for head blows I had a pole arm fall from the upright position to almost horizontal before striking just from wind and gravity that hit me square on top of my unarmoured skull and that really really really hurt but all it did was bruise.
With drawing cuts, you want to do for the inside of the thigh where the major artery is.
Very interesting. Beyond what TV shows, instant incapacitation generally only comes with blows to the brain and spinal column. My police training emphasized that someone with arterial bleeding can still function up to 45 seconds after the wound. A lot of damage can be done in that timeframe. We also learned the 21 foot rule when dealing with a knife. Someone can stab you from 21 feet away before you could draw and fire a pistol from the holster. The defense is to move laterally if you can in order to make the attacker adjust to your movements in order to gain the time to draw and fire. Natural instinct is to back up which plays into the hands of the assailant because he doesn’t have to make any adjustments. I can only imagine if a sword would be involved. Again very well done!
Years ago I heard of the 15' rule. I guess they have added an extra step for the attacker since then.
45 seconds can be a million years, but it's not like I'm letting down my guard after a successful strike. In that case, with degraded capability of the opponent, 45 seconds is not very long. But I agree with you in that I'd take an axehandle and strike the skull in a real situation, because I'll only need the one hit.
The Visby dig found a LOT of leg wounds.
omg definitely talk more about leg blows. I feel like the way it messes with how people move/stand, even when it doesn't connect, is pretty interesting. Even successfully dodging can mean messing up ur stance enough that u end up getting hit right after anyways. The recovery is annoying af & nobody wants to get their knees bashed in(if they do & its hard they go down).
If you don't know how to parry a leg strike, which, apparently, few who play at swords do.
This is a point of contention at the HEMA group I am part of in Guadalajara, Mexico. Joachim Meyer says leg blows are futile as it exposes you to a counter to the head, but I am more of Fiore de Libery proponent and am particularly fond of upper thrust feints(rapier and longsword) that I then direct toward the extended thigh and have been quite successful at landing the stab without being touched, so with the proper setup it can be quite easily done. Same with arming sword and buckler, in some close quarter engagements, to the outside of the thigh. Your mileage may vary. BTW, I do appreciate the fencing pants I use (RedDragon) have quite the quilted thickness on the thigh, It's lessened down a couple blows this year. Safety above all, for the well being of everyone! Keep on practicing and having fun.
@@itinerantpoet1341parrying a leg strike isn’t super hard, what’s difficult is blocking a leg strike when the striker intended you to block, so they can strike high.
Sharp bit goes into soft thing, but not too hard, and out, then you wait
That's actually better advice than talking about specifics without considering the effect of contact with bone.
Good points! About "le coup de Jarnac"; the expression has a different meaning in french than in english. In the french military you would use it to describe a swift, violent and debilitating attack using unconventional means. The technique Baron de Jarnac used (taught to him by an italian spadassin) was fair. His opponent died only because he refused to yield, tore his bandages and bled to death.
A great video, as always. My own opinion regarding incapacitating someone is that it isn't something that should be trained or attempted when employing a deadly weapon of any sort. As you said, there's no accounting for the actual severity of a wound (be it puncture, laceration, blunt force trauma, etc), making any wound potentially lethal. There is a slew of other reasons behind the training philosophy of "shoot to kill": it's counterproductive to the use of deadly force; it's impractical; it actually increases the likelihood of someone being injured or killed by an attacker; almost all martial weapons are designed for lethality.
Good point. The more safe you make the sport, the further it is removed from the real thing. Contemporary MMA is a parallel-rounds, rules and mats, unlike on the streets where it's concrete, no time limit, and no rules. (That's why people with actual street fighting experience consider going to the ground to be death.)
Sword fighting is dangerous, and it's meant to be.
The way the real thing is practiced is without protective gear, and it's all about being able to counter (parry) definitively then "show" the riposte without taking it. When done correctly, there's no question about who would have prevailed, but most people how pick up the sword will never put in sufficient time to be able to do that. So they're mostly just playing at sword fighting, which becomes dangerous to them when they also fetishize sharp swords.
I remember seeing a video of guys fighting, IIRC in Australia, where one of them got stabbed in the side of the throat. It was very interesting just how immediately he stopped fighting. One second he was advancing on this other guy aggressively, swinging his fists, and in the next he was standing very still, with this sort of confused look on his face. Then he was in a heap on the floor.
I always thought you had a remarkably good take on stuff like this. Even on modern day violent situations. Hearing you had a job reviewing crime scenes etc...it all makes sense now. :)
Great point about the distinction between sport and combat! I use differently when going for points under rules than I would in a real fight. In sport competition, one tends to see suicidal strategies b/c there are no consequences.
One point I'll make about thrusting in sport is that thrust to the gorget can knock the opponent back, and it can be repeated until they're knocked out of bounds, and it fully disrupts any cut they might be attempting.
Butt in a real fight, even though I can put my point where I want it 100/100, faster tan most fencers can react, I'll still take the larger target of the torso, with abdomen preferred for avoiding contact with bone. (This is a similar principle to favoring center mass with a firearm.)
Note: impaling is not the goal b/c you can lose your sword that way, so quick thrust, twist, withdraw. It was even suggested to me from a highly credible source that the spring steel one sees in late Qing era was intended to bend before popping to puncture, to eliminate the possibility of impaling.
With the pointy end
At my first club where I learnt Rapier (and dagger) and small sword, we had end of the night duels where conditions were set: to first blood, incapacitating wound or death. I you were fencing to first blood and stabbed them in the head, and it was decided it was hard enough to kill, you lost the duel and lost your position on the “league table”. If fencing to a wound we did not roll the dice as Matt mentioned, but draw a card from a pack which determined by chance if the wound would be fatal!
For a second I thought you were saying you _actually_ fenced to first blood, I was 'What the fuck?' 🤣
That's a beautiful sword. I beg you to make a video on it sometime, unless you already have, and I've missed it.
If you want to see why **any** wound in that time period could be deadly look up how Earl Sigurd the Mighty - the first Earl of Orkney died.
I would love to see a video like this about bludgeoning weapons
Very good!
You are right about the psychology of not knowing what wounds might do. Movies often play down the danger of wounds. Lots of times they portray penetration injury at clavicular area/ abdominal area/ thigh as simple non-fatal wound where the actors can just slap a bandage on it and live their life normally afterwards. While in real life we are most likely going to have an emergency surgery to assess internal injuries at that area.
Generally agree, regarding the torso; the highest payoff target for both the cut & thrust is the collarbone. Refer to WE Fairbairn's "Timetable of Death" and notice how extremely close to the skin and the rapid loss of consciousness associated with damage the subclavian artery.
The timetable of death in _Get Tough!_ is problematic to.say the least. Fairbairn DEFINITELY had real world experience, but the table doesn't seem to match up with other people's experience in bladed weapons, especially when facing an active opponent. Many people think it was more than a bit of a confidence builder for the trainees, and if you look up Fairbairn demonstrating in a recovered training film, it's obvious he meant it to be used in a smooth sequence of fast and MULTIPLE slashes and stabs, not at all relying on a single supposedly devastating strike.
Regards to the subclavian artery, Rex Applegate ( _Kill or Get Killed_ ) said even Fairbairn abandoned teaching it at Camp X; there were just too many ways the precision needed to slip it in between the collar bones could be thwarted, including the enemy merely raising his arms up in a reflex defensive action. Oh, it's advocacy showed up in the late not great Michael Echanis' _Knife Fighting/Knife Throwing for Combat_ book where the opponent (Randy Wanner, an actual Hwarangdo practictioner) essentially just stands stationary, unresisting, while "Sulsa" Echanis screams and leaps in the utterly posed still photo sequence. This is likely the source for the late G. Gordon Liddy including the leaping subclavian stab technique in his 1986 novel, _The Monkey Handlers_ but a novel ain't the real world.
Doubling is such an easy thing to do that I used to make my students do push ups they let it happen. Hitting without being hit is the name of the game!
Indeed. If you haven't neutralized the opponent's blade before attempting a strike, you're just rolling the dice. And rolling the dice is 99% of what we're seeing today in full contact sword sparring b/c there are no consequences.
On the subject of leg cuts, i'm a mountain biker and got a nasty scrape to the ankle from a peddle recently, was surprised how much it hurt to walk on later.
I just realised that I've watched dozens of Matt's videos and not disagreed with him yet about anything and I've learned a few things. Nice
It sounds like the essential targets are the ones that are closest to you, and the most exposed, such as hands and legs, at least for incapacitations.
I didn't get to it in your video yet, but I was just watching a ww2 knife fighting video for soldiers, and they were teaching to strike in a pattern. (sort of like the "two in the chest one in the head" from assassin movies). Their knife attack training was always a series of attacks that started in the nearest extremity (usually the hand) such that you cut at the hand, advance and cut at the neck, advance and stab at the body. (so,, they wouldn't be happy with a wound, you had to do enough wounds so that once the surprise of the attack wears off, they are sufficiently disabled)
As the American Boxer, Mike Tyson said, "everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" sounds like if you can get a good hit in first and not get hit in return, no matter where that hit lands you will probably end up winning the fight, as long as your strike is substantial enough.
4:25 this happens in unarmed martial arts a lot too man, very fun to see.
Some good stuff. I have received a stab wound, an inch from my heart. Sure, it was debilitating, I could have fought on, but with only one lung working I preferred not to, so grabbed the blade disarming the offender, and ran away wheezing out of my chest... Ahh, fun times. The folly of youth. Luckily that was over 30 years ago, and haven't been in such a situation since, although I still have some hand damage due to grabbing a knife, but it was preferable to the alternative.
What kind of knife? How thick? Where was the entry point on the wound? (Asking for research purposes-not something I ever intend to do:)
@@itinerantpoet1341 Was about an inch wide, six inch long with a spear point. Entered half an inch to the left of my heart, but punctured my lung, deflating it instantly. Very lucky to have survived, hence grabbing the blade before I got stabbed again. Severed tendons in left hand, one of which didn't recover(pinky) leaving that digit disabled since. Thankfully this was 30+ years ago and no further near misses since.
@@Erebus.666. Can I ask did it penetrate the breastbone or slide through the ribs, and were they using a stabbing grip or thrusting?
(Sorry to keep asking, but your experience is useful to all martial artists. Understanding how best to defend against knife attacks is a major subject, and there seem to be no viable strategies that don't involve some level of sacrifice.)
@@itinerantpoet1341 It went between the ribs. To my best recollection it was a stabbing type grip, although not entirely sure as I was fighting for my life. I guess I was just a dumb kid with more ego than sense. Luckily I seem to have grown out of that stupidity.
@@Erebus.666. Thank you for the information and I'm glad you lived to tell the tale!
(I can relate to the dumb kid with the ego-that was me as well-I think it's a stage we all have to go through:)
Hi Matt, I have spoken to a witness of several duels in southern Italy in the 1950s with duelling epees and he was a second for one of them. the first he recalled ended with a debilitating toe hit that was unexpected and the second one ended with a deep puncture in the forearm. both hits were delivered with enough surprise that the opponent didn't have time for an after blow/ thrust.
Epee is usually first blood. So it would be bad form to attempt a counter strike at that point.
Very very interesting
I remember there was an episode of medieval dead that showed a lot of skeletal remains from a battle that had a lot of leg injuries
I took a sword chop once, through bone (a joint), and there was no pain upon the strike. I was not disabled for around 15 minutes which is when I think the adrenaline wore off. Afterward my brother took me to the hospital where they performed surgery on me and sent me home the same night. Modern medicine could have saved so many lives in the past. Also had bones broken with blunt force, those you feel instantly but it's according to the person on how long it takes them to drop.
Same thing happened to me. More than a dozen stiches from a tap with a blunt sword, and I didn't feel a thing-the whole area went numb!
I would just do the anime thing where you teleport forward with a horizontal slash, finishing behind your opponent, in a kneeling position with eyes closed.
Joking aside, great video! I myself have had several knife & machete injuries, including stab-type wounds; I can't imagine the devastating effects of a weapon of war, in contrast to my little toys. It's why I have a morbid fascination with the wounds found on medieval skeletons, I guess.
I would also add collar bones as incredibly incapacitating if hit - that can be debilitating even with blunt swords and regular HEMA gear.
Collar bone is made to be broken, and I've had it recommended as a great target to degrade capability from credible sources, but don't expect it to be debilitating against a tough, adrenaline-filled opponent. That said, if you can wait them out, after the break, eventually the adrenaline will fade and the pain with emerge. And you can always strike for it more than one, and if you can get them to wince-game over.
Great video thanks. Regarding head blows, reading first hand accounts of frontier America there were an amazing amount of women and children that had received tomahawk blows to the head and were knocked unconscious and survived to live out the rest of there lives with nasty scars on there scalp to show for it. Obviously most of these blows were given as “killing blows” and not received in “one on one combat” but it certainty shows that a head blow with a tomahawk (and probably other edged weapons) are not necessarily instant death, granted probably most were fatal, and I would do my best to avoid receiving one.
The sponsorship notwithstanding, this is probably the most informative video of yours in years so thank you for that.
... and I hope this trend continues and we get less "I'm making a third video on this topic and providing nothing really new" videos. x)
From a former paramedic and a person who's had multiple head and facial injuries herself. Faces and scalps bleed profusely, and cuts from the crown of head down to eyebrows bleed into the eye ( or both eyes, depending on the location of the cut.) A glancing, angled blow with a sharp weapon can also create a flap of skin that covers an eye, or directs more blood into it. This active bleeding is just about impossible to clear if you're doing anything but mopping at it with plenty of cloth or tissues. So a quick cut angling down across the forehead, or straight across the middle, will send a rush of blood into one or both eyes. This will give the attacker pause if what you're facing is another blade or a blunt instrument. Bleeding from the nose or a split lip gets into the upper airway and usually, via the mouth, ends up being swallowed--which for some people creates nausea. (Not me, fortunately: I smashed my face last spring in a fall last spring and bled like the proverbial stuck pig...puddles on the sidewalk. No nausea.) A blunt blow to the forehead *isn't* likely to bring the blood flow--it's got to be a sharp blade , and somewhat of a draw cut.
People do vary a lot in their tolerance for blows to the head, but any blow that gives a shock can slow someone's reaction for long enough to give you an opening for your next attack or disarming the person or escaping if that's a good idea. A surprising number of tough guys get all wobbly if they're leaking obvious blood down their face (but not all) even though the actual blood loss (as opposed to the startling appearance) isn't usually that dangerous. To distract/delay an attacker (haven't needed to do this (and hope never to have that need) I would probably start with a slashing cut to the mid-forehead angling down, to blind the attacker with blood in the eyes, especially if they wore glasses (knock them off, break them). Follow with a diagonal cut across the lower face from the other side. I have had a serious (near-fatal) punch in the larynx (bike handle) that missed the little bone holding the trachea open by a small fraction of an inch, was under observation for internal swelling (the external was quite...decorative ) and clots in blood vessels...I could not have exerted myself because my airway was down to a very small diameter for several days. A blow like that, if not fatal, IS incapacitating ; it jars the brain and delivers the equivalent of a minor-to-moderate concussion; there's definitely some contra-coup injury involved. (In fencing, one time, I took a hard hit in my steel gorget in about the same spot...had to catch my breath a moment, but it didn't even bruise.)
Striking at the sides or front of the neck is not certainly fatal, but likely enough to be so (given the anatomy) and will impress law enforcement as an attempt to kill, not just to escape injury. That nice pulse point you can feel in the front/side of your neck is the carotid artery, one either side, providing your brain the oxygen it needs to keep you conscious. Arterial bleed outs from severed carotids is quick, and meantime the brain starts shutting down. A direct frontal stab can break the little bone that holds the trachea open (no breathing iwithout quick tracheostomy and airway inserttion and if it misses that, a blade tip can slide between the cervical vertebrae and cut off the brain's signals to the diaphragm (As the saying goes, "C-3, C-4, C-5 keep the diaphragm alive" and make it impossible to inhale.
I would recommend that anyone even remotely interested in sword injuries acquire a training manual of the local emergency medical services---at the level of first responder training--and learn where various useful things are on the inside of bodies. Accidents happen even in the best regulated organizations You may all already know; no insult's intended. I keep running into people who are clueless.
Excellent video! Couple of points on biomechanics: cuts about the wrists and hands are where the tendons travel over bones so there is less muscle and soft tissue to cut through...severing the wrist extensors will result in a functional loss of grip strength. Secondly the legs are a good target because if they're taking weight then they can't dissipate the energy of the blow and have to absorb it into the tissues- a lateral blow just above the knee after an opponent has lunged can be quite devastating...think of sports injuries 😁. Again great conversation Matt.
I think with the thrusts it depends a bit on what you're thrusting with, an arming sword could leave a wider puncture than a small sword would, so might have a higher chance of hitting the smaller target.
Think 3D, small sword much more likely to go further on the z axis.
There's definitely a balance to find there. A narrow blade will be more likely to cause fatal damage to an organ due to deeper penetration, where a broader blade will cause more surface bleeding and may have more immediate shock value, but will likely not be fatal.
Depends where you hit too, a wide blade might struggle with ribs, but be devastating to the guts (though there are numerous accounts of people fighting on over their removed entrails). Looking at hunting videos, broad bladed boar spears have very little trouble going in.
Clothes are probably the deciding factor there.
The pointy end goes into the other man.
Got there before you ;-)
Roll to hit and Roll to wound are real in the irl crunch of the universe
This was indeed interesting and fun. I only wish that you had referenced a Late Medieval "Wound Man" diagram!😁
Chad Easton, just patches up his dagger wound by himself.