Longsword Sparring Nick vs Roger AHF

A sparring bout between Nick and Roger of the AHF, both using Hanwei Tinker longswords.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• martial arts
• fighting
• swordfight

[THXn11]

not bad, i like the germanic sweihander techniques as well as the italian fiore de leberi flos duelatorum, but i must say you protective gear leaves much to be desired. a good head strike would be quite damaging considering you're only wearing fencing face shields. also no padded gambesons either or gorgets. someone will get a serious injury there one day. some nice techniques in places but i also see a lot of open body targets presented plus lots of pauses between strikes making it easy 2 hit u

[Nikos3000]

@THXn11 This video was shot over three years ago now. Our equipment is always evolving as we find equipment better suited or new stuff is available. The masks are extremely strong and well up to the job, but we now have a long back of the head/neck protector added. Much more substantual arm/elbow protection. The black jackets are padded, and most now wear a padded t-shirt under them. Gorgets are often used now also, as well as finger tip protectors int he gloves. Lots of improvements.

[LordofDonuts1]

Great video, I watch this at least three times a week just to see what I should aspire to :)

Where do you guys get your protective equipment?

[Nikos3000]

Thanks. Our standard equipment has developed over years of trial and error and evolution of training weapons, still evolving now. I intend to make a video about everything we use shortly, as its a real mix of stuff brought together for a uniform look.

With the new synthetic weapons from Knights Shop due next week, we have been experimenting with lots of new kit, the video will cover all aspects of our equipment for all weapon and simulator types.

[LordofDonuts1]

Will the video be posted under your account?

[Nikos3000]

Yes it will be, we are really just waiting for the new synthetic weapons to come in so we can show all of our kit loadouts for all combinations, so hopefully within a week or two.

[Nikos3000]

Add a beer afterwards and life is great...

[artiepoore]

swords + ACDC....life is good

[THXn11]

@Nikos3000 glad to hear. good luck with your art. :)

[epic0wnag]

just wanted to tell you that i think your video's are great and the explaination with slo-mo really lets you analyze the sword play. You guys are good one day i hope to be close to your guys level.

[11Kralle]

@maeljin

If I go BACK to Meyers book? I think you ment forward! Those modern practicioneers everybody is writing about - they turn themselve in circle-argumentations like: Person A interpreted the Fechtbuch B in such manner, that Pupil C - who never doubt Master A´s skills - looked into Fechtbuch B to see what A should have ment in an absolute interpretation. The thought of the real purpose of such Fechtbücher will never come to those, who dont critizise their `Gods´. Consult Carl Popper...

[11Kralle]

@maeljin

Having red em all doesnt mean I could recitate it word by word. To move forward whilst fencing is expressed since the late 14th century! If one suggests `the reader should embrace a principal tactility/feeling´ instead of the common deceptable `preception and reaction´-method you have to think in short ways. I just want to say: there is a gap between public-asssumings of those arts and the real fight - besides I like Düres `Oplodidaskeia the most (also Petters `klare onderrichtlinge´)

[maeljin]

@11Kralle what I mean is: linear and passing footwork are meant to live together in longsword fencing. I urge you to get back to Meyer's book. The most detailed, most incredible manual inherited by modern practitioners. It's my firm idea that his work is not as radically different from what came before as many believe. Meyer himself was a great fighter and certainly not a "sport fencing guy" as many choose to chacterize him. He certainly knew his business, and crammed a lot of stuff in his book!

[maeljin]

@11Kralle I am sorry, it is not like so. Read again his dusack exercises (and those, we know, apply to the longsword too), and many of his stucken which begin with a series of step with the same leg forward. That is, linear footwork, which has always existed in any martial art. Meyer indeed went to Italy to study, but there he surely found dozens of active traditions, and many of them used a very detailed footwork system that employed both linear and passing steps... As did Meyer.

[11Kralle]

@maeljin

I have red ALL known german Fechtbücher and feel urged to say this:

There is no real description of footwork in those manuals. All you can deduct is an interpretation of the pictures - pictures, which widely differ in a sense of quality and meaning! You can not even assume, that theres a distinction between `Schritt´ (step) and `Tritt´ (kick) in the underlayed texts. That linear footwork in Meyer (1570) is pointing to the contemporary italian `scientific´-fencingmethods.

[maeljin]

@11Kralle sorry, but 16th century texts like Meyer use a lot of linear footwork. And for them swordmanship was a matter of life and death, as well as a martial sport.