The PROBLEM with Halberds (and other Polearms)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2022
- If you haven't seen my previous video about the differences between a halberd and a poleaxe:
• Polearms! Knightly Pol...
Polearms have gotten more attention and appreciation in recent years and are not as underrated as they used to be anymore. Have they even started to be OVERrated by some people? Perhaps... why not explore the other main drawback, aside from the obvious (being difficult to carry and use in confined spaces). The fact that they can go from being excellent, arguably even overpowered, against swords and many other weapons to downright useless in a second. How so? Well, let's take a look and discuss...
The videos I'm reacting to, by Weaponism, EGF HEMA, and En Garde Fencing:
• Fighting a rapier agai...
• Halberd vs sword
• Sword and shield vs ha...
• POLE ARM vs DOUBLE SABER
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Outro:
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records
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#weapons #hema #reaction - บันเทิง
I feel like it's worth noting this comment by Fiore on such weapons,
"I am the poleaxe, heavy, vicious and deadly. I deliver blows more powerful than any other hand-held weapon. If my first strike misses, then my poleaxe becomes risky to hold on to and is no more of any use to me. But if my first blow is powerfully made on target, then I can stop any other hand-held weapon. And if I am accompanied with good protective armor, then I can defend myself with any of the powerful striking guards of the sword."
He points out the exact same issue, that for all the power of the polearm's strike, if it misses, it can be very devastating when the opponent closes in.
Do you know what he means by the last part? "then I can defend myself with any of the powerful striking guards of the sword."
@@luckylanno It's relating to the wearing of armour. If you're in full plate then a sword cut has very little chance of hurting you so blocking isn't necessary UNLESS it's a thrust coming your way. You can then focus even more on the offense with the polearm
@@luckylanno I would suppose he is referring to using offense as defense while armored and transplanting sword guards onto the pole ax
I think the interpretation of using sword guards with the poleaxe is also correct especially if you look at the positions adopted. People often think of sword fighting as separate from hand to hand combat or polearm use but Fiore and many fencing masters of the time did not quite see it that way.
Both of you are correct overall. But I think Fiore mentions that he must be accompanied by armour because a poleaxe is a short polearm and short polearms/axes have the issue of lack of protection for the hands and limbs. Plus if someone does close you down as previously pointed out unlike these sparring videos you cannot just strike a guy with armour with your sword after closing in and expect anything to happen without a committed half-sworded thrust that targets the gaps. So you with the shorter weapon would probably need to get your dagger out at some point in a lot of cases and take the fight to the ground.
Better to not keep one's enemies close in this case !
It's always problematic when someone goes around and grabs your shaft.
ummmm...
Oooohhhhh mmmyyyyyyy
First it's your shaft, then they try to grab your pommel and end you rightly.
Depends on who in my opinion. I'd say more often than not I'd rather someone else fool around with my shaft just because I'm too lazy, but there is the occasional time when I notice that they genuinely are just terrible with the shaft so I grab it myself. Usually it's the people who talk about how great they are with shafts too. Imagine that. Although to be fair, there are people who know how to handle my shaft better than I do, despite all my training with it. In which case I say I may as well just give them the shaft because it's gonna be hard to find someone like that again.
@@dankeykang4576 "DAMMIT, TAKEI!"
They're tricky to dual wield.
do you even lift bro?
Its not that hard, you just got to bring you strength and dex up to about 150% of the required stats, then mash the left bumber
@@seanchan4478 the moveset is not that great tho
@@stefanoninivaggi98 But it IS possible
@@stefanoninivaggi98 Dual Helix Halberd L2
The one thing I'd add to this discussion is that this is in a 1-v-1 context. Polearms were often used in formations, and having someone on either side (and possibly in the row behind!) with an equally long weapon massively changes the equation.
Not necessarily. Let's say while your entire formation bright Polarms, their formation brought shields.
It's all circumstancial
@@spiffygonzales5899 weren’t polearms typically employed in tandem with shields? I’m not a buff on this stuff
@@monk3110
Again, depends
I agree with Zpiffy, you're ignoring the enemies' countermeasures. Zweihanders can devastate a polearm formation for example.
@@oktaymeyt no they can Potential deverstate, PIKE formations, but they dont have any cance against a halber formation. Halber where used in a simular fashion as twohanders, beeaking the push of pikes.
The zweihander is supposed to be used to getter with a pike formation.
A halbert is a mutch better weapon in a 1vs1 and an massive advantage im formation.
I feel like the advantage of short weapons at close range is overstated. Do you win if you get in? Yeah most likely, but you also have to avoid death to get there.
Like in a sparring match with fake weapons, sure, it's easy to charge in, but how willing would you be to do that with the threat of getting skewered? This is why I think range is such a massive advantage.
Right! Its why I get frustrated when modern martialist trash traditional foil fencing based on their biases against sport fencing and boffering - which gave their own benefits.
Classical foil really teaches you how to respect a weapon because its not a flimsy piece of aluminum or plastic.
When someone gets a good touch and you feel the bruise in in your chest/ribs/belly, you know exactly how seriously you effed up.
Yeah I was thinking this as well. If it were a real situation in which you could really die or suffer great deformity how many people would really try it.
I think the bigger problem with thinking about the short range issue with pole weapons is they weren't something you'd that often fight 1v1 with. Pole weapons were more used in armies and in groups where allies could cover your close range with their own overlapping range. It was one of the main advantages of massed spear and other pole weapon formations. A lot of modern martial training focuses on dueling, which is kind of it's own specialized field rather than that broadly applicable.
@@spiffygonzales5899 While partly true, I think tossing your hands up and saying it all depends isn't quite right either. Also the greeks were famous for their spear use, so saying they used short swords is a bit reductivist.
Swords see a lot of primary weapon use for light mobile groups, especially cavalry raiders, who are going to try and not hit armies head on. They also see use for a few groups that paired them with big shields and/or heavy armor. Like the romans had to use a really huge and clunky shield and really high quality armor to make their sword work, removing any mobility benefit over pole weapons (along with them usually carrying a few javelins too). Meanwhile heavy headed polearms might be somewhat cumbersome to carry but a medium length spear isn't much more burdensome than a walking stick.
There's not much getting around that if you were outfitting the bulk of your infantry army you were probably picking pole weapons in most places throughout history.
@@spiffygonzales5899 I mean the one where you were saying polearms are less appealing because your supply carts are stuck due to terrain. If your main fighting force also needed large shields and heavy armor, you group is still carting around a lot of cumbersome gear and you're still running into the same supply train and logistics problem the polearms presented.
Also, saying the Greeks needed shorts swords as their sidearm is proof that swords were a frequently viable primary weapon is...like entirely missing the point?
Well that's the problem with the extremes. People often say that one weapon is utterly useless OR incredibly amazing. It heavily depends on the context, but most weapons are somewhere in the middle.
As you say, with the longer weapons the reach advantage is a huge plus, but if the opponent grabs the shaft... You basically dead.
Edit: On the second thought every weapon that can be grabbed or otherwise immobilized becomes useless. But shorter (and particularly edged) weapons are harder to grab.
So if they get past the point or if they can grab the shaft the polearm user is helpless? I take it you're not a fan of classic Spartan laconicisms;).
"If."
I dont buy the grabbing point a. Every weapon can be grabbed especially if its on your life. B. You have FAR more leverage to get your weapon back and far more control while they hold it then really anything else with a polearm
@@silverjohn6037 also people forget if the enemy closes you a. Can move back or b. Hold from further up the shaft.
@@mondaysinsanity8193 walking backwards is slower than walking forward
Shorter weapons provide less leverage to both parties and normally have hilts that make it easier to control on the non-pointy side
Two things with 1v1 encounters, coming from a polearm wielder;
1: Play head games. Never let them know how far your reach is. Always pull it back and hide the fact with your off-hand being half way up the shaft; this has lead to being able to fake-out a lot of people that are _outside_ of my range because they aren't sure, but their reacting and flinching opens up me half-stepping and getting in a cheap and easy shot on something they exposed. Being 6'3" tall also helps, but unlike a lot of weapons, polearms do their best work being offensive and don't leave you with a lot of defensive options to react with.
2: Do not let it ever sit still when you've extended it. Part a, it lets them see your true range. Part b, it lets them bind you up or even worse - completely lock your movement and disarm you. Keep it moving when it's extended away from your body, and avoid large sweeps.
The problem with boffer weapons and sparring like this is that there _are_ several options a halberd/polearm still has available even when someone comes in close, but you can't do them in a training situation since they cause significant damage even in the case of love-tapping. Without.. what were affectionately called 'sting' rules (Which is being allowed to hurt each other a little, but not go for.. full-on killshots or the like), once a smaller-weapon user is in close, they have control of the fight and you're left with the option of dropping, running, or drawing a sidearm if you can. When you're allowed to do a little bit of damage... _you become a lot scarier because you *CAN* still nail them in the face with the pole_. The middle of the pole isn't going to be killing anybody or winning any contests - but that isn't the point. The point is you use it as a club to either take out their arm or get a shot on their face - either of which will suffice for giving you a break to backstep out and retreat back to your polearm's lethal distance and force them to completely disengage and re-asses.
It isn't the greatest defence, since it's still very easy to be hit - but it's on your own movement and reaction to keep your body out of the way while using what's in your hands - the pole - to make a break in the fight for you to regain control.
I am the white armored man in the video you introduced. It is an honor to have a famous TH-camr explain my video.
Well. Most of the weapons in weaponism were made by myself. It functions and has a shape similar to that of a real weapon. However, it is slightly lighter in weight and made to be elastic. The reason is for the safety of the sparring partner. First of all, there are many comments. English is not my mother tongue. I have read and understood as much as possible. And briefly explain my position.
Are we really living in the Middle Ages? And is it time for real people-killing skills? Of course not. Various weapons existed and we imagine using them. ... I have opponents who share fantasies about my weapons.
Yes, they are sparring partners. I have been practicing martial arts for 30 years. It also deals with real weapons. But what if we fight with such radical weapons? Someone is seriously injured. I am a person whose body has been damaged through this kind of behavior for a long time. I also saw a blind person. It's terrible.
Whatever weapon they were, they were made to kill people. we have to be careful Is it important to beat your opponent? If we are professionals, we can do more risky things if we make money from this sparring. Most, however, spar with their friends and colleagues. The weapons I made are for sports that share the characteristics of each weapon and exchange technology with the opponent. Don't expect lethality from this.
We should spar without hurting each other. There are some skills that are great at killing people. I didn't bother writing it to the other person. We need to spar safely at a level that will satisfy each other's curiosity more.
Your channel is awesome! Super cool stuff awesome sparring
You're great!! I'm going to see more videos about the weapon martial arts on your channel!
The weapons you make are awesome man, and the fact that you don't go full realistic on them is actually quite understandable, have a great day
Haha yes we all understand they are for sparring he said that multiple times he is just bringing attention to the fact they would operate with more heft so throwing up a sword to block and overhead chop wouldn't have worked very well
This is why I always used a dagger or short sword on my hip with any kind of pole arm, if someone gets past the head, toss the pole arm between you to try to trip them up and get to your secondary weapon. Having a dagger on my belt saved me many times.
Are you like 400 years old
This really, REALLY puts the gladius in context. Use it with your spear and shield.
Did you reincarnate with your memories?
@@oktaymeyt lmao no I just used to be in a full-contact LARP, like HEMA but without metal armor and weapons.
@@Interrobang212 Well, more Katzbalger than gladius, but yes. Roman legionnaires fought primarily with their pila, then sword.
I have experience dueling against spears. Not big, but enough to start hating them.
1. Grabbing the shaft is not the preferred option. This is the only stable strategy (other than running away and using a shield). You will never be able to match the spear in terms of speed, accuracy and distance. Do not try to fence - you will not be able to go into an effective attack, which means you will lose.
2. "Grab" does not mean "hold". In a spear-on-sword situation, it means "to control." Rejecting the tip further away from your body is sufficient. The opponent will not be able to snatch it, because you move with him. And you also have a sword that you can already use. Therefore, a spearman with a gripped shaft has 3 options (except escape): Die, Sidearm, Clinch
He also has a fourth option a lot of the time:
Smash the opponents face in with the shaft. Because as long as he still has both hands on that pole, and you only have one, he can bring it down on you with force.
@@draochvar9646 How?
to hit hard enough to stop the opponent, he still has to free the shaft from the opponent. It takes time he don't have.
Even if he is so strong that you rip the spear out of opponent's hand and strike with the back end of the shaft in one movement, he have significantly less range than most swords.
@@elinexeridan5422 but you don't. The opponent only has one fix-point, whilst you have two, effectively providing you with a pivot. So if he grabs the shaft, you can still move it on either side of that hand into a strike and there is very little an opponent can do, since with one hand, you don't have the force to lock that movement down.
An edge sharpened on the hooking side of the halberd.
@@draochvar9646 a good kick to the chest while he's grabbing for the haft and pivoting the pole-arm might do trick and possibly unbalance your opponent enough to capitalize
See that's his first mistake. He tried to reload his Halberd when everyone know that switching to your secondary would have been faster.
The problem with even these examples, although they are awesome to watch, is that the person wielding the shorter weapon has nothing to lose (as in their life) and can just rush forward without having to think of the possible real-world consequences, such as being impaled on the halberd, especially since the halberd has the advantage at range. So while I think the shorter weapon user does have a chance, would they really be willing to risk closing in and attempt to grab the shaft of the halberd when the very likely out-come will be them being skewered? Great vid, btw.
Realistically, if you have nothing but a shortsword againist an halberd something went very,very wrong. Kinda like finding yourself whit an handgun againist an assault rifle. A more common scenario would have the swordie whit a shield or an heavier weapon, and probably both wearing armor. Obviously if you add shields and armor 1-hit kills become much more avoidable.
The problem when facing a polearm is that you HAVE to close in. What's the alternative? Staying out of your measure and hopefully out of theirs so that nobody can attack and the fight can never end? Or just staying on the defense until the opponent inevitably ramps up the aggression and overwhelms you with attacks that you desperately try to defend against until you eventually fail?
Its almost as if armour and shields were invented for no reason whatsoever...
@@Skallagrim The better part of valor, Skall :) Run! lol I would run if i was unarmored and had just a short sword, unless i had absolutely no choice, then its rush in and hope for the best :) Now if i had a shield or armor or both, I would feel much more confident about closing.
then you should also bear in mind that all of those example are based on the rule assuming both opponents wearing no armour and is dead everywhere being stabbed. If the shorter weapon opponents wears basic armour on main body parts, he is save to charge against polearm without worrying much.
Of course a lot of these weaknesses of the pole weapon are mitigated in a group. The line behind can cover the close distances with their own reach, reducing the advantage of getting in to just entering the range of the next line. This of course being the main strength of infantry pole weapon formations.
The thing about grabbing a hafted thrusting weapon is... it isn't easy, and not just because the weapon is fast or long. The primary defense is a rotating motion that makes the grab almost impossible from the get-go. I never see it brought up, or used as much as it should be in these videos, but its a multipurpose maneuver for faints, redirects, smacking with the haft/sneaky draw cuts, and the rotation always follows through into a thrust fluidly. Most importantly, when your foolish opponent tries to grab the thing, it rotates away from his hand and stabs him on that side, where his other hand cannot help. It's like what a fencing foil does, except you have two hands powering the maneuver and enough leverage to give no fucks.
Other thing: spear users should be ingrained to understand the full breadth of their range. That means both never overextending their own reach to hit a far opponent, and drawing the weapon back as needed to fight as usual under close quarter pressure. The weapon redirects and stabs just as well two feet from you as it it does 6 or 7.
Unless you are facing shield anarmorur, the primary killing tool is the point. Adding other tools weighs the weapon down, and they need to be used with thought since they expose you more.
Excellent comment.
You don't just grad it with one hand, instead you should do it with the surpport of your main weapon.
I think Skall was also missing that getting hit with the haft with the momentum of the head is more likely to stun or push the attacker to the side, allowing the halberder the opportunity to retreat or rotate.
@@nordoceltic7225 I think the reason HEMA people don't use polearms often is that even dummy versions are very dangerous, which is a testament to their lethality. :D
What kind of rotating motion are you talking about? I've played around with pole-arms a fair amount, and pretty much everything I do involves rotating myself, my weapon, or both, the only real exception being thrusting.
That's one thing we noticed training with spears too, we started training with usual simulators, and they were absolutely godlike in line fights, then we started adding weights to the head so they would match the weight of historical spearheads. Don't get me wrong, they were still the best weapons for line fight and still strong, but it made them a lot less OP, one handed thrusts were slower, and especially the recovery. Pretty quickly, one handed thrust with a long spear, using maximal extension of the weapon would often result in the weapon head being dragged on the ground by the fighter while pulling the blow back, giving better opportunities for counter. Feints were also slower. Knocking the point offline with one handed weapons was much more effective too, as it was slower and more tiring to get it back in line time and time again. Overall be it one or two handed, they were just a bit less nimble and fast and that was enough to make quite a noticeable difference.
That is one of the things I have generally found about sparing with "safe" weapons. Be it the different kinds of swords, polearms etc.. Because of safety you simply can't simulate certain things. Especially when polearm/staff was sword is used, it is rather hard to distinguish which techniques would actually work. Can I grab your sword or would you be able to cut my hand? Would the shaft of your spear break after many blows? Would or wouldn't I be able to block this if our weapons were less flexible?
@@LordKeram Some polearms have reinforcements to make them harder to cut but of course that add additional weight. I imagine that it would be possible to equip such a reinforcements with sharp edges to discourage grappling but I do not know if that was ever done.
@@michaelpettersson4919 Sure, breaking a polearm or a halberd doesn't happen often, but in a real fight scenario it could possibly happen (just as breaking a sword ofc). The issue is that as much as we might try, we will never be able to 100% replicate a life and death scenario in a fight, be it duel or the battlefield.
@@LordKeram True, to get that data we would need access to real fights. Fighting manuals in one thing but is anything written down by witnesses or participants of those real fights? I guess there got to be some memoirs flooting around and after battle reports collected. A simple statistics report on how often polearms are needing new shafts due to damage could say a lot. We know about testemonies about bent swords from even earlier eras so people did take note.
Excaxtly. I have a real spear with steel head, and it feel so much different with pure wood stick. No just because of the extra weight, but the balance is completely different
7:38 no one likes a floppy shaft. Depending on the commitment, you would figure in this instance with a real halberd it would blow right through the defense of the saber and bury its axe head in the agressor's neck.
The Kudayari is rather floppy.
Absolutely blows through that Saber. Good reactions and technique on Saber guy's part, but would not work in reality.
@@Gr3nadgr3gory That's purposeful in it's design though. Very specific.
I'm not sure it would blow through with a real halberd in this specific case, it could, but the saber guy was:
1 - Very commited to the hard block (his whole body and movement were forword, towards the block, arm was locked too)
2 - He caught it on the strongest part of his block, basically his own fist.
3 - He caught it around 2/3 of the length of the halberd, so the power would be lessened.
4 - The halberd guy was stepping back during the attack, so it had a little less power than normal.
I think this specific block he did was perfect, but it proves more the exception of would happen. If anything was off, I think a real Halberd would mostly blow through the block.
No girl likes a floppy shaft without commitment, got it!
An opponent closing in on you is why it always was good reason to carry a sidearm, be it a dagger or a shortsword, if they move past the point, grab the sidearm and go for close-quarters/grappling.
Albeit that is easier said than done
or have a whole formation of halberdiers around you to give some redundancy
It is worth noting the speed at which the opponent went from disabling the pole weapon to closing in and striking. I don't think there's enough time to drop the pole weapon and draw a new one to react to that. Of course armor buys you a lot of time, but then fighting close quarters with heavy armor is another animal entirely to the touch for a hit style of training shown here.
@Jinxed Swashbuckler Armor isn't heavy enough it will hamper your movement greatly. Just saying, the approach needed when fighting an enemy with full armor is very different for both ends. You see a touch from the blades counted as damaging, but many would do nothing striking a helmet or gauntlet. Both the halberd and the sword would need to fight rather differently depending on how heavy the enemy armor was. You aren't going to achieve much unless the blow has a lot of power behind it or hits a gap.
Anyways, yeah a pole weapon has a ton of advantages in combat usually. There were a few eras where they lost out to like sword and shield, but this tended to be a rare occurrence. Decent armor should buy you time to draw a sidearm if you really need it, but as you said overlapping ranges often covered your own close range unless your formation collapsed and fighting broke down into more individual skirmishes.
@Jinxed Swashbuckler I want to watch this video! )
@@marcogenovesi8570 when that whole formation of halberdiers are tied up with an opposing formation of halberdiers, you’ll realize why formations had men-at-arms and knights with somewhat shorter weapons like zweihanders, pollaxes or swords and shields.
The Halberd and Pole arms as a whole are weapons of extremes, you can go from absolute monster wrecking everyone's shit to "holy fuck my weapon is useless and I'm going to fucking die" just like that. That kind of is appealing to me, the sort of high risk high reward nature of these weapons. It takes good skill, indeed.
Skalligrim the yarl of TH-cam.
Isn't it written jarl*?
@@approximateCognition Yes, it is
Generic jarl* comment
Truly
Nah. Jarl is an official title. Unfortunately internet fame is not official.
So he's a yarl rather than a jarl.
In the group I was in many years ago one of the main, almost standard, tricks with a spear was to keep a knife in your back hand. Holding the knife against the spear shaft all you have to do is loosen your grip of the spear and you have a full grip of the knife in hand and ready to stab. What ended up happening was opponents would get past the spear head and the spear user would step into the attack with the back hand knife, usually before the attacker unbound from the spear enough to attack themselves.
Now I'm not saying its magic foolproof defense but it does a lot to close that massive weakness in polearms.
Just wanted to say, when I'm stressed out from my day, or I am depressed and need some uplifting content. I watch your videos. Been a couple of years now and you still come through.
I think the reason people often claim polearms are OP has a lot to do with the following question: in a combat situation, where you were unsure of your opponent's skill level, would you willingly take an engagement with a polearm wielder if you could avoid it? Unless you were very experienced at taking on polearms, would you be comfortable engaging with, say, a halberdier, without a polearm of your own? I know that personally, I would likely avoid fighting a polearm wielder if I could help it. The disadvantages are obviously present, but the advantages are enough to overwhelm someone who can't exploit them, even more so when the wielder knows how to minimise those weaknesses.
Exactly all weapons have drawbacks and strengths that make them viable in general terms. Two handed weapons and pole arms offer greater advantage, but a higher risk if you fail ,with the reverse being generally the case with one handers though skill and circumstance adds to it.
@@sirsteam6455 ya used some words wrong. You meant that polearms have a low risk of failure when someone tries to exploit the weakness, but when it does happen, you are heavily punished.
@@newCoCoY6 no, he said it correctly, just without punctuation
@@TheGateShallStand he used the word risk incorrectly. "A higher risk when you fail" Risk means the probability of failing so reconstructing his sentence would be "A higher probability of failing when you fail" He used the word "risk" when a more appropriate term was "punishment".
@@newCoCoY6 by that logic, the phrase "a higher risk of getting shot" would then turn into "a higher probability of failing of getting shot" which, as you guessed it, is stupid sounding. "A higher risk when failing" is a perfectly acceptable sentence, or else people wouldn't say "if he failed, there would be a high risk of death." In their fantasy novels, they would say "if he failed, there was a greater chance for him to die" or "of him dying," both of which are too long.
Not only are you wrong, you've misconstrued your own concept at the end. If he was to use the term "punishment" then the sentence would become "there would be more punishment if he were to fail." Sounds good right? It is a good sentence I'll hand it to you, but it's basically the difference between saying something is "great" or that something is "amazing". What you've done is called 'used a synonym' while also being wrong about basic grammatical structure
All true, but in actual combat how likely is that someone will grab it BEFORE getting maimed? In the first two videos the halberd dominated, in the second the short sword only started to do something after the user got used to the opponent, which he won't be able to in actual combat. Also in my opinion sparring lack the fear factor of only being able to mess up once, like in a real battle, and this makes people take more risks which is a huge factor, because it's IF you can grab the weapon.
In a duel, the more experienced opponent will likely win regardless of weapon decision. There's a reason that militaries still drill weapon capabilities into a soldier's head. Knowing where you are strong and where you are weak and training to overcome the disadvantages and exploit the advantages is paramount. You are also briefed on enemy capabilities, assets, and tactics long before and directly before a potential engagement. An experienced duelist will likely do the same
In a battle you are very likely to see people move in before you that are similarly armed and they will either succeed, be obliterated, or stall out and withdraw. You may have only one life to live, but a body of troops is likely thousands strong, and at the end of the day there's a job to do and not many alternative options with which to accomplish it. Everyone wants to live through the day, so everyone's going to (at least when fresh) be doing their absolute best and likely fighting fairly defensively.
Stupid weeb sword and shield beats spear 99% of the time. Best combination
@@SeamusCameron No, experience means nothing if you're too tired to fight properly. There's a reason wars were fought with quantity and not quality. The best swordsman can die to an amateur in a single thrust or slash.
@@necromancer6405 Wars were, at least from one perspective, largely fought with quality, not quantity. Most people who actually fought in close combat were drawn from the highest socioeconomic strata of their communities because those were the people who could afford good training and equipment. Bigger societies did often recruit farther down the social hierarchy for a number of reasons; in many cases some combination of A) because the hierarchy became bigger, so even though the same demographic groups were recruited those groups were now part of a much larger totem pole and thus of contextually lower status and B) because a central military apparatus became rich enough to give large numbers of poor people high quality training and equipment even if they themselves couldn't otherwise afford it. Relying in any decisive capacity on people who couldn't obtain good equipment and training was very uncommon.
I would also assume the training halberd doesn’t have the same mass at the end as a real one would. So blocking it is probably easier and like with the shield, I would assume a real Halberd would have a chance of just blasting through the shield.
But we have to be able to survive training uninjured or what’s the point so what do you do.
A good shield should survive. Your arm however would most likely be broken
@@PeterJavi True but even so a broken arm doesn't mean death so it is more dependent
The issue with polearm training is the quarterstaff portion hitting like a maul - a useful trainer would have similar mass, but blunted and padded striking points.
Buckler yes, scutum... probably not, kite shield maybe.
@@robertlewis6915 Even the scutum had problems with inferior older weapons like the falx. And you don't have to break the shield, you can wrench it down and expose the shield holder, pull them off balance, ect.
For how fun it is to speculate on historical use, I guess the sport/hobby answer is that halberd sparring is just not practical. There's just no way to have both safety and authenticity with a 6' top-heavy weapon. Even quarterstaffs are way too dangerous and they pack MUCH less of a punch, not to mention the blade.
4:20 In a real fight, the halberdier would have simply yanked his weapon back as hard as he could, which would have sent the guy with the gladius to the ground. But he didn't do that because this is a sparring match where the combatants are trying to score points, not injure one another.
Yes, the sparring obviously makes it significantly less brutal. He would have dragged the guy over then frenziedly hacked and stabbed him while he was trying to get up, in real combat, and the gladius chap would most likely have been killed.
Halberds are often used in an armoured context though since the whole reason two-handed polearms became more commonplace (the military revolution and changes in military doctrine which allowed for pike blocks also would play a role but armour was quite crucial in the Late Middle Ages) was the widespread usage of better armour so I would argue sword and shield in that situation for example is not as advantageous as you might think because you can get in and tap the halberdier with the sword potentially (of course these fights do not consider the destructibility of shields for safety reasons) but at that point trying to get a one-handed thrust or cut to hurt an armoured opponent is difficult so the halberdier can sometimes break off and get a good hit in or switch weapons if he needs to. You also can't half-sword with sword and shield so even getting past maille is going to be difficult. Any HEMA fight also will never fully capture the fear a combatant will feel when he is dealing with a bigger weapon but this is a limitation we have to deal with because we aren't killing each other.
I do agree that a halberdier better have a sword and a dagger on him though if he wants to be at his maximum effectiveness. This goes for any polearm as you say as polearms are not advantageous in all contexts. It is just worth considering that someone with a two-handed polearm is probably armoured enough that you can't just come in and strike him once and expect the fight to simply end. But absolutely if you can close the distance correctly he should switch to his sword or even dagger.
While a military halberdier would generally have at least some & probably quite a bit of armor in 15th/16th-century Europe, halberds & other staff weapons also saw occasional use unarmored in civilian conflicts. Joachim Meyer addressed rapier (with lots of cuts, so sidesword in modern terms) against partizan assuming no armor. The technique is exactly as you see folks doing in sparring, defending & closing with the intention of grabbing the shaft of the staff weapon. & similar from the Anonimo Bolognese. Even unarmored, though, ideally people should spar while realizing that attacks don't necessarily incapacitate quickly. Closing & grabbing is the valid approach, but it's still quite possible the person with the staff weapon draw a dagger before or after being hit themselves & strike. Historical duels too frequently ended with severe injuries on both sides because of this dynamic. Trying to simulate it more in sparring would be interesting.
This is why I love you, Skall. I just keep learning things from you that I never would have discovered otherwise.
I am so here for that opening, Skallagrim. And your notifications are working again, congrats!
On the footage from weaponism, i'm surprised you didn't remark on how often the halberd wielder would... raise the halberd up high behind them.
Sure, practice weapon, but it's supposed to be a big and heavy weapon. More importantly, why would you take the big advantage you have ,range, and then open yourself by making sure your weapon is far out of the way of anyone approaching?
High risk, high reward. It's like you said about it being big and heavy, if it comes crashing down they're not going to be able to stop it.
Such high guards do appear in Joachim Meyer's halberd system, so it seems to have been done in period & is a good position for launching a powerful downwards blow.
A high guard is just how you can most effectively strike. Trying to swing from a forward oriented position means very little rotation and force generation, so it's not much of a threat. Seeing the opponent in a high guard is actually quite a deterrent to moving in because you know you'll be running into a powerful blow.
Realistically, the halberd would have a spike on the end of the shaft so you could either stab forward like a spear from high guard or have it come crashing down heavily onto their head as a deterrent.
These sparring commentary videos are really helpful for my writing. Thank you!
I hadn't thought about that. Thanks for bringing it up.
That is great footage.
This was a great video, Skall! Helps us avoid the other extreme myth that we might've otherwise fallen for: believe that halberd is unbeatable.
IMHO: mistakes i have noticed. No stance/hand switches. No use of sword guards. To less (if any) strike thrust combos. No backup weapon. Wrong weapon positions - i speak from experience. After i started using these my halberd-fighting extremely improved.
It is a hard weapon category but i see no Problem with halberds or other polearms. You have the tools to defeat any opponent. Just archers are a problem.
Huzzah,, my D&D group were discussing a 5e thing - polearm master sentinel. Just weird to me that yesterday or the day before that happened and this gets posted and gives me pause. Thank you good sir, bless you and yours bountiful.
I’d love to see more live sparring match-ups like this. Good stuff.
I'd like to see a sparring session like this where the halberd user also has a dagger on them. Would be interesting to see how practical it is to use the dagger once the halberd gets tied up and grappling begins. It seems pretty scary to think that even even if you close the gap and grab the halberd, the oppenent can still just shank you.
Yeah, polearms - like every weapon - involve some sort of tradeoff, and knowing how to generate situations where they are most effective (and knowing how to stay away from situations where they're at a disadvantage) are part of learning to use them properly.
Hi there from EGF Hema. Not one of the fighters featured in the video, but I was there when that was shot. If memory serves, we had the halberd for about 3 weeks around that time and really just started pitting it against anything and everything. None of us had really played around with a halberd at the time, but we all wanted to pick it up and play with it at one point. Lots of fun. From the first video, halberd guy is still with the club while the gladius guy has gone on to get into full steel armor sparring. The fighters from the second video have both since moved away. Thanks for picking up the video!
Thank you for linking back to your sources, moar materials for watchers, more eyes for the originators. :)
Problem? With halberds?
Blasphemy!
I'd also think the weight distribution would be a bigger issue for real halberds vs. trainers. End of the day, that's a *lot* of mass concentrated at the end of the weapon, and that's going to impact how quickly you can move it around and (particularly for thrusts) the size of openings you can practically take advantage of. And that's without getting into the overall exhaustion factor of using a fairly massive weapon for a prolonged fight.
Very much enjoyed the video. Thank you. I was specifically looking for swords versus Halberd/pole arm. And knew the last you made a good point. If you are in a life and death fight, adrenalized and prepared to take a little abuse to defeat your opponent, getting hit by the wooden pole instead of the head of the halberd could be easily shrugged off in exchange for delivering a killing blow.😎
Skal have you considered talking about fencing with a saber and flintlock? I’ve seen some stuff on it and I think it would be a really interesting topic for you to cover.
The reach advantage of the halberd should be even more apparent in a real fight, since real halberds seem to have a little bit longer pole, than the practice versions in the videos and their top spikes are usually about 20-30cm longer than here. So overall the weapon might have been around 0.3 to 0.5m (there are some very long ones) longer in real life. Making the attempted hand hits basically impossible and also an invalid option unless one has gained control over or moved past the head of the halberd.
The only reason the gladius guy got the kill when his foot got hooked is because the guy with the halberd didn't want to hurt him. Even if they get inside the halberd, a haft or but to the face is going to ruin your day.
When you hook with a real one, you'll have a metal spike digging into your calf...
Yeah it was a really bad example, the gladius guy only got a hit in because the halberdier essentially stopped sparring to avoid seriously injuring his partner.
You just read my mind. I was trying to wrap my mind around a character in my book would fight with his main weapon being a halbard
I like how his snap is perfectly synchronized with the waves crashing at 11:51
4:00 I'm pretty sure the guy didn't want to pull as strong as he could to not break his practice halberd. I'm convinced he would have knocked him down otherwise
That's what I thought pull hard do he will fall.
More didn't want to break his sparring partner. If he had committed to the leg pull, that guy might have seriously sprained or torn his knee or crotch.
Genuine question, not just trying to be "that guy": why does it seem like a lot of polearm fighters are passive as soon as someone gets in close? I've fought loads of times in SCA type practice fights against a guy that mained sword and board and was SUPER aggressive. Whenever hed close in, I'd switch to either choking up on the point and going at him that way, or I'd start attacking with the pole/butt of the weapon to keep him away until I could get some distance. It doesnt look fancy and is frantic, but I would think that would be better than just passively accepting the L. Of course it would be smarter to switch to a sidearm, but in most fights all I had was a spear or halberd. Idk I just think it would behoove them to get aggressive rather than just take the hits
Based on historical duel accounts, plenty of people would continue fighting even after being stabbed by the shorter weapon. Even successfully rushing a halberdier might get you into a death embrace if they draw a dagger & stab you after you stab them. It's difficult to account for such situations in sparring, but ideally folks would do more to see what happens if a single attack doesn't stop. This is also an issue for the staff weapon, of course, but a heavy blow to the head is one of the more reliable weapons to incapacitate & thrusts with staff weapons tend to physical prevent closing even if they don't incapacitate.
Most of these sparring rules don't allow grappling if it's close to kendo rules
Dude tried to mikiri counter the Halberd and got his leg hooked.
Beautiful
Always good info
A missed or redirected thrust looks like an opening for a spin slash.
Hell, idk.
I know HEMA hates spins.
You spin you die
Don't be childish
@@ChaosBW Except it can create momentum, catch the opponent off guard, and create room for a short period of time. Don't be so narrowminded that you can't entertain an idea due to preconceived notions that self-proclaimed experts spout constantly. There is lots of room for innovation and whatever works, works.
In this case, if the pollax or halberd is hit off course, you could carry that momentum and swing around. Though, you don't have to move your body in a spinning motion, but you could, whatever feels most comfortable. Not carrying the momentum will kill you.
Of course, the best way is to carry a dagger in your dominant hand at all times, so you can just rush in and stab them if your weapon is hit off course or they get too close.
@@WelshSwordsman I'm with you; if you're dual wielding decently long weapons, or wielding a one-handed weapon and shield, you can use your off-hand weapon or shield to knock your opponent's weapon off to the side as you start your spin, and then spin in closer to your opponent, swinging your main-hand weapon while you're spinning to essentially *double* the momentum behind the swing, making the weapon hit much *harder* , and so do more damage than it would on a *normal* swing. And with pretty much *any* weapon, you can go into your spin *sidestepping* your opponent's attack, and do the same thing afterwards to get the same result.
You can also jump over an opponent's attack to your *legs* , and swing your weapon down while you're falling to add the momentum of your short fall to that of your downward swing, making it hit harder and do more damage than it normally would.
You could even go into a leg sweep *ducking* under your opponent's attack to the *upper* part of your body, and strike them while they're unable to defend themselves. The only reason people tend to believe these things to be a bad idea in *any* situation is because they're usually shown being executed very *poorly* in very much *less* than advantageous situations.
All this to say, realistic combat's nowhere near as *restricted* as lots of people seem to believe, and fantasy combat (at least *good* fantasy combat) is nowhere near as *unrealistic* as lots of people seem to think. That's why I like researching these things about history; because the more I learn about history, the more conceptually realistic I see a lot of fantasy tropes to be.
@@ChaosBW With a greatsword against multiple opponents, spinning is pretty much the mode of choice.
There are ways to respond to a grabbed polearm - in aikido we have kata for this. If you still control the balance point of the weapon, you can use it as a lever to dislodge them - equally, the trick to disarming someone is to get past the balance point.
I imagine it’s more difficult with a halberd though as the balance point will be much closer to tip than with a staff or spear. The dual threat of a grabbed weapon and the possibility of getting stabbed would be interesting to deal with too.
A fantastic video! I wish you went into more detail, though.
The picture it painted in my heas is that while pikes etc are great in a "porcupine" formation, where no single warrior can attack a group of pikes without fear of being impaled by at least one of them, in a more urbanised location they probably aren't nearly as "golden". I can easily imagine a combat situation on some market where an adversary of some halberdier throws and pushes some random crap lying around, like fruits, loose paving, or carts, just to give themselves advantage in a desperate situation. (After all a combat with a polearm would never be unexpected, since the guy carrying around probably wouldn't just start slashing people unprovoked, giving at least some time to prepare your surroundings). Which then makes me wonder if an image of a medieval guardsman with a polearm is at all accurate.
I love the reactions to the weaponism channel really cool sparring
(apologies if this comes across as pretentious)
were people saying halberds were amazing for unarmored 1v1 duels? that seems counterintuitive on its face.
as i understand it, percussive (hacking axes and bludgeoning maces) weapons always compare disfavorably with non-percussive (slashing sabers and thrusting rapiers) ones in the context of unarmored opponents, at least given all the options have similar reach/mass, the same hands required, lack of shields, etc. for example, a one-handed warhammer might be decent against a plate harness, but all that punch and mass becomes unnecessary against human skin, and a nimble arming sword that can cause major wounds without as much effort really shines.
basically if i were going to pick a polearm (possibly any single weapon at all) with which to duel unarmored, i think i'd want a corseque or ranseur or some other kind of spear-that-has-extra-options like those. granted, the average gamer probably doesn't know those and has heard of a halberd, but even still, a plain spear, or even a glaive, seems better. and while halberds do have major spear qualities, aren't they way more end-heavy, and even heavy in the shaft due to it needing to be strong enough to not snap while swinging that heavier end - therefore slower and easier to exploit the vulnerability of minimum reach? it just seems like a weird choice.
George Silver & Joseph Swetnam both praised the staff (with a metal point on one or both ends) for unarmored combat in the open. Silver also liked the Welsh hook or forest bill, while Swetnam lumped it in with the other top-heavy polearms he considered inferior to the staff. Antonio Manciolino actually recommended the 12-14+ft lancia over the 8ft spiedo, holding it the middle. The limited historical sources we have do indicate that lighter & more nimble staff weapons have the advantage for unarmored fighting, though there was debate about the ideal length. Of course, such longer spear-type arms have even more a problem if the opponent manages to grab the haft.
Independently, late Japanese scholars of the XIX century also praised the metal weighted quaterstaff as the ultimate melee weapon ... in a context where armor was made obsolete by gunpowder.
Spear > Halberd
Halberd is too slow, for the reasons mentioned in the video. Spear is much quicker and harder to grab or block
spears are useless against full plate armor though
The rise of "slow" two handed polearms basically saw the widespread decline of shields on the battlefield though. A spear can't hook a shield and wrench it down, or hook the opponent's weapon or limbs with anywhere close to the effectiveness of a halberd.
@@TheChiconspiracy Many spears have hooks though.
@@theguileraven7014 Yes, but they still can't offend a shield user with the same effectiveness as a heavier polearm which can hook the shield after displacing it with a powerful blow. A heavier polearm also demands respect from the fact that a blow to even an armored limb or head is likely to be very serious, making a foe much more hesitant to just rush you.
Don't forget that shorter polearms are also shown being used with either end forward. You can threaten a powerful overhead blow and then stab with the butt spike, and in that inverted position with the balance at the back (shown a number of times in period treatises), it's a much speedier weapon on offense and defense.
@@TheChiconspiracy A cut and thrust spear with added hooks, is going to be reasonably top-heavy. It may not do as much damage as a proper pole-axe but I doubt you’ll just no-sell a blow to the head from such a weapon. I’ve seen HEMA practitioners write about feeling the concussive force of ordinary staves, even through their armor.
Don’t get me wrong, the advantage in raw power that a poleaxe would have is great on the battlefield, but I think in a one on one duel against a spear user, they’ll have an easier time out-maneuvering your weapon to get in quick hits or creating an advantageous grappling situation for themselves.
My fav type of video u do. Have u done any on fighting with daggers??
Coming from a kobudo background, in particular the staff (bo), we were taught to immediately slide our lead hand forward to meet the grabbing hand, then quickly draw a small circle with our lead hand to wrist lock the opponent.
Combined with pivoting off-line and enough repetition over time we were able to instinctively counter most grabs to the leading part of the staff. Never tried it with gloves or armor on though, but I imagine the method would still quickly increase leverage if committing to regaining control of the polearm.
I feel like no weapon is perfect. Spears and pole-arms have the range but if you can close the gap, they are pretty useless. Bows have excellent range but require the most skill to master or use and once again, once you close the distance, they are useless. Swords are easily the most balanced of the trio as they have nice range, optimum range, can thrust and splash however it easily gets countered by the two mentioned above.
Of course, once you go into detail than there are far too many weapons to account for however all of them more often than not probably fall into one if these issues.
Keeping all of these into consideration, it makes sense that most weapon users probably always had some sort of second weapon to mitigate or cancel these weaknesses, for example a shield or a short sword.
Suicide vest in melee. If they kill you, you die (and win). If you kill them, you win (and die).
If there was a "perfect weapon", then once it was invented, only that weapon would be used y everyone, because why use a worse weapon? If you are using a worse weapon, it means that it is somehow better for you (even if the advantage is lower cost or better availability).
For example, when guns were invented, they superseded melee weapons (those weapons only are used as a backup now) and newer, better guns quickly replaced older and worse guns.
Always carry a combo
fantasy hit you hard
Yes. In 15th/16th-century Europe, almost all decently equipped soldiers had swords as sidearms, & usually daggers too. (Arquebusiers & musketeers didn't necessarily have daggers by the late 16th century, & certain arquebusiers even intentionally stopped wearing swords to move more freely & easily.) Folks like Giacomo di Grassi emphasized that martial skill was about fighting with whatever you happened to have on hand in the moment of danger, not about only being good with this or that weapon.
The guy with the halberd can always struggle with both hands when the weapon is grabbed,while the attacker can only bear one hand on that struggle.
The shaft is also a part of the weapon,it can knock off the other guy.
Of course,it requires training,and a quick mind.
I've been wanting to pick up a practice halberd from Cold Steel this is making me rethink that idea, I already have a practice longsword from them and it's nice
From a hema dueling standpoint I enjoy the luxory of being able to get past a polearms ward.
From a battle perspective, or historical duel perspective, I imagine if I went for a hook, and got tangled, I would drop the halberd and go for my arming sword or rondel. I personally would try to throw the shaft of the halberd at them, before going for the rondel. Good chance they open up their ward parrying it, or reflex kicks in and they catch it. Or I just get my ass stabbed, but that was going to happen if I didn't do anything anyway.
Great video as always, man.
Wu Shu (吴殳), basically a Chinese version of Fiore and a Spear-lover who always says Spear overpowers anything, admitted in a later work that as a life-long spear martial artist, he was defeated once by a Old Man from Yu Yang with a single handed Jian. He mentioned that the old man extended his arms to further the reach and use his pace very well to close in. This make Wu himself interested into sword martial arts and learnt a thing or two from the old man.
I do think that online opinion becomes too bipolar nowadays especially when talking about sword and spears, in people's opinion both become either dominant or useless. Yes overall the spear have longer reach and overlly adventagous but it still depends and there are still outliers and there's no guarantee that you could always wins over every single melee weapon with a pike or spear in every single occasions.
I really hope there're more video analyzing disadvantages of spear in combat, and people should stop ranting about “uSE A sPEaR” everytime I ran into a medieval weapon choice video (same thing happened in Chinese community), just like people always yelling “go to watch Duelist” even when people talking about medieval martial arts.
I’m not sure of the rules of HEMA, but who is to say things are pretty and always follow structure when fighting? Just because something isn’t in an ancient treatise doesn’t mean you can’t use some ingenuity.
Why not punch or kick the guy if he’s closing in before you get cut? Pull the halberd back or let go of it and try to wrestle him down or grab him? Bash him with the shaft? Haha. I would love to see people think outside the box but I’m guessing HEMA duels have rules
Multiple sources have the kicking maneuver when both of your weapons are stuck in a high bind together.
One trick against polearms I use when sparing on dirt or grass is to evade a downward strike from the polearm then use my weapon to strike & push the back of the polearm shaft so that the head of the polearm hits the ground & partly buried itself.
Doesn't always work obviously but even when it fails the polearm generally isn't in a threatening position. When it does work the technique can give a second or so where the polearm is stuck in the ground. Then I move quickly at the opponent keeping pressure on the back of the halberd with my weapon; with a sword using the flat so it can slide up the polearm if a wood or steel haft on axe, mace, etc can slide regardless. Then when/if I get in range of my opponent I cut or thrust them.
I did a slow work sparring rapier against poll arm. For the most part it really didn't go well for me with the rapier. One time though, when the guy with the polearm over-swung, stopped the weapon, and tried to bring it back up, I was able to put the shaft of the polearm in the crook right at the place where blade and guard met and basically run up the shaft. It looked totally boss, and almost made up for the dozen times before I got "killed."
A halberd has a fairly short area of effect (tip, spike, axe blade). However, it can do a lot of damage while being retracted. It's also highly unlikely that someone could get control of a halberd that has hooked their ankle. Being forcefully hooked by sharp, heavy, pointy steel does damage; with an ankle hooked like that, the leg will collapse under you, and you won't get back up on it. Ankles were rarely protected by armor, by the way.
The halberdiers in these videos also seem to turn overly anemic, once the opponent grabs the halberd. In a real situation, the effect would be the opposite; the halberdier would explode with maximum effort, precisely because of the danger. With two hands on the halberd, against the opponent's one, the halberdier can still execute a number of moves; in fact, the only thing he can't do is retract the point held by the opponent. He can still swing it in any direction around the pivot of the opponents hand, quite forcefully, both doing damage and making it very hard or impossible for the opponent to keep his grip.
As sword fanciers inevitably say, when you talk about closing on a swordsman: "there's halfswording". Well, there's also "halfhalberding", and even "quarterhalberding". Of course, it's not ideal, especially not in a formation, but then, in a formation, it probably won't be necessary. Up close, the halberd is half a bat'leth, with half a quarterstaff sticking out on the other end. Not elegant, but still no joke.
At 4:20 the halberd is on the back of his ankle and would be cutting in if it were real. Instead of stepping in here crouching leaning back and yanking in a retreating motion would be a better option. But that could really hurt his sparring partner in this context.
awesome video!
YES! More polearm videos please!
Problem with Halberd?? Hahaha!! Gentlemen there is no problem at all... sinners see you in combat!!!
For obvious reasons most of these fights were not realistic at all. I have a one handed heavy battle axe ( way lighter than a halbard and ofc short aswell ) no way that it can be blocked with a one handed sword . So yes if the opponent can become closer than the optimum reach you're in trouble but against a trained fighter that's really really risky
Re-watching this and it's still an awesome video. It's what you see often in spear vs sword combat when Sword can negate Spear reach advantage.
after you mentioned the situation where if someone dodges the halberd barely by the head matrix style, I could then imagine if the evader doesn't react quick enough, the guy with the halberd could pull it back and hook the dude's shoulder or back of the neck with the bottom of the axehead. I feel like then you could use the hook to pull someone down to the ground or at least to stagger enough to where the halberd wielder would be in position to thrust while the former evader would then be in mid recovery wide open for an attack. But I mean technically I feel that could play out in many different ways too.
5:30 Very much my experience from doing spear vs sword, it's tricky to get safely past the point, but once you manage to pass it and grasp the haft, the advantage lies heavily with the sword.
The video is great, but I'm distracted by how good your hair looks
3:35 dude actually pulled off a Mikiri Counter in real life.
Yo skall, was wondering, if youd do a video on an indian katar push dagger, was really interested about there use
I love these breakdowns, and this may beyond your scope, but how would these weapons behave or be used as part of a unit?
Have done sparring against halbred with mid length blades, and personal what worked for me has always been focusing on knocking the actual tip of the halbred.
Due to its size and weight in conjunction with limits on novel movement due to the way you can predict trajectory off of the position of the hands holding it, it's not a target that's very hard to hit - and when you hit it with force, it usually makes it difficult for the opponent to redirect the motion for a counter or riposte, allowing you time to close the gap.
Simply put(though admittedly requires practice to execute), hit the head of the halbred hard the moment of extension and then just go for it.
Short of having two blades or a shield, it's the only semi-consistent means I can think of facing a halbred with a sword.
If you're a rapier user... Good luck and god speed lol.
I wonder how helpful it would be to have a spiked guard on a polearm. Specifically, for when the opponent gets in close, as an option for offense/defense.
I like how those rocks on the shore are so smooth. 👍
I figure that spears have an advantage over halberds because the spear has less mass at the tip and is more nimble used for quick little stabs until the fight is over.
I use to do Fencing back in Middle School..and for about 4 days I was trained with a Rapier ...however my currently owned Weapons are a Plasic Battle Axe and I just Acquired a Halberd.
i've been using a Halberd for quite a while now, arguably my second favorite weapon to wield (only second to the Rapier). I can absolutely agree to the fact that this weapon's efficiency rely so heavily on it's range. Alto after trying for a while to fix that... there is different ways to hold the weapon to slightly compensate these disadvantages, like holding it with a very long grip (far from your body) can be usefull in formation battle when you want to strike from behind a shield line, whereas a much shorter grip (kinda like an oversized Ikwa) can be used for very quick trust and gives a much harder time to your enemy if they are trying to grab your weapon, but like this you can't swing with as much power and preferably you would only do quick thrusts and disengage fast. I figured out that switiching between different grips mid-fight can be lifesaving, but it's a skill that takes a lot of situation awareness i think, specifically if you are at a numerical disadvantage.
All of this was achieved in my backard with friends and during bigger Larping events, both against skilled and less skilled people. don't take my advices for scientific proof but i'm open for suggestions if anyone has had simmilar or more enlightening experiences.
If you wanted to make something safe but weighted correctly could you put bags of lead shot (loose of course so it could spread force) inside a pole or padding axe head???
11:53 he snaps and the waves jump in the background definitely a wizard
I am curious about the weight of the “axe end” of the training weapons. I use wooden Poleaxes for training purposes, and they are way more lightweight than my “real” ones. My wooden ones I can use the same way as shown here: like a spear. My metal ones are too heavy to wield like that. I use the butt end for that (which has a metal spike as well).
The 15th century treaty Jeu de la Hache also mention that most fighters often start in a position with the end (dague) forward.
What are your experiences with this?
Skal, its a bummer that you took the recent nunchucku vid offline. Thx for the information tho ✌️
I think the halberdier having a dagger for when the swordsman tries to push past the shaft may be handy in a fight, although i can imagine the halberdier dropping the halbard and going for the dagger in a grapple, followed with the swordsman backing away and having the range advantage, could be a pretty bad day for the halbardier
11:53 I remember Hilde from the Soul Calibur series using a spear and a dagger, one for each hand. Is it possible to fight like this?
So would a more or less dane axe long halbeard be a good compromise giving you some of the advantages of a halbeard and still staying a lot more useable at closer range? Or would it be too light of a head to be used effectively with that handle length?
THE OCEAN BACKGROUND IS SO RELAXING
4:00 the halberd guy was just afraid to brake the halberd, as its blade is made of foam. if he had a real steel one, the sword guy would appear on the floor before he could say "touche"
Yup.
I think this video highlights the problem with practice and simulation in general. If ive got my spear and shield and someone manages to get my spear thrust on their outside and wants to rush me with a sword.
Then im sending a kick to the groin, or using my shield to haymaker their brain. Ive got weight to my thrusts so even when the block a thrust on their shield there is more impact to keep them from pursuing.
So many factors with a polearm that can lead to major damage that isnt "oh my sword touched thats 1 point"
Very interesting!
Finding your timing and grabbing shaft. That sounds like a good method.
What happened to skall's last livestream? I can't find it in his uploaded videos.
Something I saw in another video about halberds was that you would likely have a dagger at ready in case they did manage to get grapple the halberd. Also grabbing a halberd in motion would be difficult. But good video overall.