Early Irish short spear & shield vs. 13thC sword & buckler

John Looney (9thC Irish warrior clothing) vs. Marek, a friendly Polish reenactor who dropped up to our training in Dublin recently.
The fighting seems stilted; neither person is wearing armour, they had never fought each other before. This is 'freestyle' fighting, without a script.
Marek is using the sword and shield, John Looney uses the short spear & small shield.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• sword
• spear
• reenactment
• fighting

[colddrake80]

I've never used a buckler so to me its seems to small. I'm sure the proof is in the doing. Monkeyishi does make a good point. Treat it like a big fist to quickly swat away an incoming weapon. Being small it would be quick. I see these things as offensive in nature used to aggressively attack foes with slower weapons or kill lots of missile troops quickly. All done at very close range. Sword and buckler men must have been the bane of pike men.

[bigvalen]

@colddrake80 Alas a fist+buckler moves slower than a sword, so usually any attempt to punch a weapon results in opening yourself for attack. As one of the other readers mentioned, the I.33 manuscript makes it very clear that a buckler is mainly for protecting your sword hand from attack (though if you have bound their weapon somehow, you can use the buckler for punching to the face).

[bigvalen]

Yes; though over-hand is only really useful when trying to get over a large shield, I think. It's great for face and neck stabs, but you can't use it for blocking at all, which is a problem when I use small shields. You can do another interesting move when holding over-hand; dip the spear head down (feint a low stab) and smash the butt-end of the spear over someones head. Hilarious.

[Irishfianna]

whats the point in doing that ??/

[bigvalen]

entertainment and education mainly

[bioemir]

isent buckler very hard to use in combat?? and low block rate?

[bigvalen]

It's pretty tough to fight with a buckler alright. Check out books & articles on the I.33 manuscript..it's not really to block the sword, its there to protect your sword hand. The I.33 is all about teaching you how to attack (or protect!) the sword hand in unarmoured combat.

[CrimsonCrux]

Your never going to get through to people like that. Their aguments are based on the poor interpretaions you see in fantasy films and the supernatural hype of Eastern martial arts in film and anime. I doubt they even heard of Sigmund Ringeck, Johannes Liechtenauer, Paulus Kal, Peter Falkner, Peter Von Danzig, Talhoffer....the list is endless. It's also funny that these people think that EVERY single person that fought in ancient China or Japan was a master martial artist.

[Sollai123]

Spear is easy to use with a sheild. Tuck it up real tight the strike really hard and fast.

Thats why playing with real weapons is dangerouse though! LOL!

the moment you actualy try to use your weapon properly, someone dies!

[demomanchaos]

Try the same bout but with a longer 2 handed spear instead of a short one and shield. I'd like to see how the buckler bloke tries to close the range.

[HipposHateWater]

@bioemir

If the buckler was more of a disadvantage than an advantage, then it wouldn't have been around as long as it did. The Western mindset has no place for "novelties", especially in warfare. (the buckler outlasted many other weapons.)

I seem to recall an anecdote or two [albeit kind of obscure and dry reading] of Spanish troops equipped with sword & buckler wreaking havoc on the infamous Swiss pikemen around the same time in history when Magellan was fighting Lapu-Lapu in the Philippines.

[Z0tteltier]

As mentioned before, the spearman seems in big trouble against the sword and buckler 'cause they ve no armor which doesnt allow him to use his weapon properly. In my opinion a sword is less dangerous than a spear. If you stab with a spear you have a strong impact on a small area. I think that in a real fight the spearman would ve won without problems.

[iwnnugget501]

if the guy with the spear could follow through with his lightning jabs it would be a different story. atm he needs to be careful to not poke the other guy to hard as his reach is longer and thrust quicker

[PrometheusIICaucasus]

Hey Highlander !!!! That small round shield is purely of Highlander Iberians !!! Have you seen Georgian highlander Khevsur fighters? That small shield and and  shorter sword way more effective and dangerous !!! Not everyone realises that, or know how to fight with it ;))

[RoscoesRiffs]

Well, maybe there were nerds back then too. . . . Spoken as a member of the nerd community. :)

[billybones69420]

I keep waiting for him to announce that he is not left handed.

[morgasm657]

lol can you imagine what the people that actually fought with these weapons would think of this display?

[UFMD1]

@Pawnbroker00 I agree with that but it's only one part of training. There needs to be practice in technique, footwork and if the system is complete, there is energy work involved. These things will not be practiced full bore like grunting cave men or UFC matches. At least these guys are training and attempting to keep the culture alive, they deserve respect and encouragement.