Very very interesting! Thank you for sharing Matt. I'm going to show this video to all my friends who are interested in sword or mace combat and then we might try all you said out with my sparring group.
I love the calm Matt in this one. Your voice is more gentle, yet it draws more attention. And the immediate showing of the explained mechanics is fantastic aswell. Plus: Kitty Cat Easton. Well done Matt, liked it a lot.
This is Thrand, great video and I agree. One topic I am not sure if you fully covered cutting with sword agaist armor has almost no effect and thrusting nitches becomes important and grappling where as with mace and shield it is more effective to defend wile throwing powerful blows independent of your defense. This applies to axes as well. The priciple of adding armor and shields does change what is plausible to do when attacking. In full harness and armor push cuts are usless and depending on the armor all cuts become useless. Just as screening cuts are not as nessary if needed at all with a large shield. If used properly the sword works independent of the shield to defend ones self. I do agree unarmored bukler combat needs screening cuts as well as unarmored blade fencing but large shields with possible armor allow for powerful blows to be thrown and cuts. Many HEMA practictioners assume even with large shield one must step cut which is absurd. Worse it is the most powerful cut or blow possible. Then what point would there be in use of a larger style shield that can possiby paired with armor. Sorry about the rant, loved the video your exanation was perfect just know many will not understand that from the video above lol
Maybe if you knew you were going up against an armored opponent in battle, but had no armor yourself and you had the choice between a sword and a mace? I can imagine the mace would be a more useful pick out of the two.
At first I could not understand the concept of using a mace without plate armour and a shield - Then I thought more and substituted your very nice mace for a piece of firewood, cudgel, shillelagh or even a baseball bat. Your comments now make a lot more sense to me, thankyou for your insights.
"He ’d a blunderbuss too of horse-pistols a pair ; But his favorite weapon was always a flail , I wish you could see how he’d empty a fair, For he handled it neatly, did Larry McHale"
That is a problem that I can see with full contact sports like Battle of the Nations or similar. I often see them using "bladed" weapons like bludgeons, because that's what they are: Bludgeons roughly shaped like swords or falchions. And they do it that way because that's what works within their sport. And that's the reason why "falchion" shaped weapons are preferred: They have a lot of weight at the top, for a hard hit, while still somewhat looking like swords. The reason they do it is based in the premises of the sport: You have people in extremely thick armor, with weights in excess of 40kg+, and all techniques or weapons that would actually be effective against armor are forbidden. And a sword with historical weight would be useless in a BotN fight, because it's just far to light to be even felt by a BotN or M-1 combatant. So you have "falchions" with weights of 2-3kg+. ("Edge Alignement? We don't need no Edge Alignement!") And you see a lot of grappling, especially in M-1. Same reason: It works within their sport, because the "weapons" are pretty much useless. There is even not really a need to parry! That leads for example to the very interesting type of shield used in full contact: narrow and elongated. Why? They are not really needed for parrying, just take it on the armor, but their length gives them extra reach in a punch! That's where I see the biggest difference between say BotN and HEMA: HEMA tries to most accurately recreate the techniques, while sacrificing historical look for safety, while BotN wants to recreate the historical look, while sacrificing the techniques because of effectiveness. As a sport, I am deeply in awe by the abilities of the athletes of BotN, but I just cannot call it a historical recreation. At best it's a modern interpretation of tourney fighting, that also used specialized weapons and armor. What do you think, Matt? (I hope I haven't offended anyone, that is not my intent!)
Very occasionally our HEMA club have visitors from BotN scene. On average, they have great tolerance in physical exertion, speed and explosiveness. Which are extremely valuable for all sorts of sports. But they're also prone to some "unmartial" habits IMO. Such as frequent double, hitting with the flats, etc.
I remember Matt mentioning the Falchion thing before in another video. Not sure if it was one of his falchion videos, or one about BotN. Grappling was a big thing in historical armored fighting too, because that protection does mean you can get right up in each other's faces. And for actual armored combat, there is Pursuing the Knightly Arts they do some good work: th-cam.com/channels/Del2Bxg6LBT2zEaXJdjovw.html
I'm not so sure that BOTN exaggerates the importance of grappling. That is hands down the best way to deal with an armored knight, especially if you outnumber him.
He talks like how I remember trying to write essays when I was a teenager. Constantly adding caveats and making sure there's no possible room for the reader/listener/watcher to think that he's somehow misunderstood or missed something in his explanations. I failed thru constantly either running out of time or going way over the requested word-count, but it's great to see someone of the same ilk being successful
Thank you. That was very well presented and helped me understand cutting techniques better, as well as give definition to why I always preferred swords over other mellee weapons.
Skallagrim at some point, made a video about the easiest arms to issue to new soldiers (in the middle ages and before) were a mace and a spear (along with the shield)... Could you perhaps make a video showing the use of mace/axe and shield, where you demonstrate with it, the same way as you do in this... I imagine that a lot of attacks become different, when used with a shield, than without it.
Good points, and an often not talked about subject in test cutting, its really important to switch up the kind of cutting you drill, always starting your cuts from a wound up telegraphed position will cause you to develop bad habits that can and will transition into your sparring. Its a good bit of advice to improve your swordsmanship, start your cut from various guard stances, circle your bottle and cut it mid step, put your water bottle and yourself at every angle and distance you would expect you and your sparring partner to be in. This will also tell you if all of your smaller cuts are effective, you may find a certain strike you use in a spar might not actually effect a target the way you expected. I noticed the opposite as well, many seemingly non threatening back and tip flick cuts can cause serious game changing injuries.
I found this very helpful, I’m looking to do HMB and seeing the difference between a strike with a mace and a sword strike is interesting. More of a whipping motion with the mace.
Matt, you should do some videos on fighting moves and stances. You often brush over it when you´re demonstrating weapons, but it would be an awesome topic for several videos.
Maaaan, I first misread the title as "How to Sit with Swords and Maces" and was really interested because I always thought sitting with a scabbard could be awkward and then you were talking about hitting stuff and I was like, oh, that's not as interesting. hahahahah, still, great video, as always.
Suggestion: look up "Championship Fighting" by Jack Dempsy. He used his body being pulled down by gravity for power for his boxing punches. If you use your body's weight moving down slightly you can turn that into a lot of torque. Just a suggestion.
In baseball I was always taught to begin the swing of the bat just after I engaged my torso so the bat is at full swing at the target while my body is just about to end it's pivot for maximum power, body is still pivoting and bat at full speed is more powerful than body stopped or stopping. For your mace swing, wouldn't it be better to begin the mace swing before you are done stepping in and twisting? so the swing gets momentum from the step and body twist? One thing about combat using blunt trauma weapons, knives, and swords I think most get wrong is just how much force they think they need. Against someone without armor you don't need a whole lot of force with a cut or a hit with a mace to severely injure or incapacitate, hit someone without armor in the head with a mace as if you were driving a 10 penny nail is going to remove them from the fight, that's just using your arm. For a sword, if you cut halfway from skin to bone through a bicep that arm will be useless. Against armor sword cuts are useless and putting maximum power behind a thrust is not very accurate and with a mace even if you land a perfect hit with max power it won't instantly stop them, hurt like hell sure. better would be land many more blows that are less powerful as each one will sap strength and endurance like boxing shows us with body blows. Unarmored, no need for an instant kill everytime and armored... good luck getting one so breaking them down first is more beneficial than trying an instant kill. In conclusion I agree that using a safer for you but substantially weaker attack is more prudent.
That was indeed highly interesting! I really interesting video about body mechanics and Melee fighting. Please do more videos like that. Perhaps you could show or just tell what kind of exercises one could do without an sparring partner, for various weapons, like Maces, axes or the various kinds of swords. Are there even such exercises? And if so, do they differ depending on the weapon and are there exercises that can be made with most melee weapons?
I think I learned more about fighting in this one video than anything else yet. (Really shows that dexterity and intelligence are way more important than a Strength Stat!)
Small note-- after years of watching I just got the FIRST TH-cam Ad that MIGHT possibly have taken my demographics into consideration ( a gem/mineral show... all the way across the continent from where I live, in another country.)
I would say this is why you very rarely see anyone depicted in the time period wielding a mace or warhammer without a shield or armor. The lack of protection from incoming blows would make the effective strikes with a mace nearly impossible. This, I think is why swords and polearms were primarily singular weapons that could be used with a shield in some instances, while maces and other striking weapons are almost never seen used alone, unless they are larger, which ventures into the realm of polearms.
So, is that one of the reasons why the flails was invented. You have the shaft protecting and the chain lagging behind before smacking your opponent, thus somewhat combined the power generation with aspect of the first time of blow with the weapon defensive aspect of the second.
This is super interesting. I have zero experience with sword fighting, but to compare what you're talking about to unarmed fighting interests me. I feel like unarmed fighting is more like harness fighting since you have few targets where you can do any damage where as unarmored fighting with swords you have to take care with your whole body. One aspect I think is missing with how HEMA seems to be taught is the concept of setting up a stronger shot with a quicker, weaker one. It seems like once someone scores a touch then the fight is considered over. In boxing you typically use a jab to set up strong shots. The jab is mostly there to harry the opponent to get them into a position where you can safely throw a heavier blow. Is this discussed in any treatises?
Matt Lentzner I don't know about treatises but I do know from sparring against people with a good defense, that you need to bait them, either by a two hit combo, or by offering a target and counterattacking as soon as he goes for your gap on the defense.
Some people do sparring drills where you don’t stop after the first hit. I’m not in a group right now so I don’t remember all the details but one instructor would practice with me by striking at me for I want to say about 20 seconds, which was about how long it took for my guard to completely crumble. This was 20 seconds or so of contact not including the pre-contact posturing and successful disengagements. It was really helpful and I need to find someone willing to beat me like that again.
Throwing combos is still part of HEMA, it's just that once a sword strikes the opponent, the assumption is that an unarmored opponent is pretty boned. Alternatively, it's because competitive HEMA bouts tend to follow "point sparring" logic, which isn't exactly unheard of in unarmored martial arts
Two questions please. 1-How armor affects this and does it continue, habit, or it's, as usual, depends of the context? 2-Not timing the hit or telegraphing it, can they be used or exploited by armored people or fighters in certain situations? like if an armored knight is wielding a mace against a light armored opponent, can the knight pull the mace back as far as possible and advance then strike letting the other guy hit him on the armor but in exchange for a greater hit on his target? or is it possible that a fighter might fake being an idiot and go for such a move to trick the other person into doing something that they might counter easily. And as a general idea I'd LOVE, and pretty sure everybody else, to see a video on those exploits or tricks
i think they are beautiful, especially with engraved backs they are pointy to pierce through mail(19th century in algeria) but are quite hefty thought i might be biased because i am an algerian, and, you know, algerians are pretty prou
I feel that the kinetic chain developed in Baton fighting, with a bit more of core and hip engagement overcomes the problems your discussing here. The Step should be almost a aftereffect of the hip rotation and the attack ...
The advantage of the mace is that it can evade blocking shields or blocking weapons by using the wrist to change angle of attack. An edged weapon can't do this as it can only attack with an edge or point. The mace can be maneuvered around a shield or intervening weapon easily, as it functions as a weapon not just on a small edge, but any hit with the business end of a mace will be effective.
Very good point about making sure you present a threat that needs to be honored as you step up. As a young knight, I had overcome 99 rolled tatami mats, 13 bottles of mineral water, and countless watermelons. But I was quickly defeated the first time I went up against another knight, who had little patience with my "setting up" routine... ;D
I was thinking about something: Why are flails a thing? A regular mace, or a morning star without the chain just seems way more practical in a battle, since the chain makes it hard to move around.
Various reasons: 1: For complicated physics reasons, a flail hits slightly harder than a mace at the same weight and speed. 2: Vibrations don't travel back to your hand through the chain, making it less likely that you lose your grip when you're galloping past somebody. 3: The chain lets you exploit unique angles of attack, wrapping around things like weapons and still hitting with pretty much the same force.
Very unlikely. Almost non-existent. Mace is a weapon of war, not of self defense. When you go to war, you also dress for war which means armor. Mail, gambeson, padded armor. A simple baton is better for self defense than a mace. Swords and daggers were common self defense weapons back in the day as well.
@Artturi Grundström - yeah, I think so too, especially since a mace was specifically designed to face armour. I thought maybe there's more to it, maybe there are historical examples of maces being used in civilian context, but I guess there really is nothing.
I don't specifically know about a mace like that, but Hans Talhoffer's fencing manual of 1467 shows unarmored people using maces and weird shields for judicial duels. Perhaps the lawmakers chose a weapon unfamiliar to most burghers to make fighting experience less of a factor, or to lower the risk of a lethal outcome. There's a Danish tradition of having city watchmen carry big two-handed morning stars, but that was more of an 18th and early 19th century thing.
Study the forms of Marial arts boxing and move to knife fighting the misdirection counter method. I also like the base of iron shirt dao forms. constant movement of the sword provides defense aswell as attack. The momentum tends to provided speed for both......
in unarmed martial arts your also rotating your body before fully extending your arm, and there you are getting knocked out if you fail, sometimes feels like treatises are treating fighters like the most unfit people imaginable
I've developed something that combines these two concepts. A type of mace that's a supplemental strength training for sword fighting movements, as well as shovel training for something called Nu-Jitsu
For some reason I want to believe he does that in normal conversation. Talking about the weather, "I'll just grab a sword for a minute." *picks up sword*
Hi Matt. Currently I'm quite keen on ancient Mesopotamian armature. Would it be possible to have your insight on them? I'm interested in both weapons and armour.
I would argue that reason for 'step first and swing later' in base ball etc is difficulty of aiming in this pattern - not the power of the swing. Properly timed, blow landing just before body stops moving will put your mass behind the strike and give you maximum power possible.
Matt, do remeber a comment someone put up on maces. He said he got it from an egyptian text translated to english.You replied to this comment.It was one of the first comments on the video. The comment tells how heavy maces where , how to hit with it etc.I would really appreciate it if you could locate it for me.
The title of this video I can see the headlines now BBC News: "Knife enthusiast demonstrates how to use large swords easily brought online by kids without parents knowledge" The Mirror: "Backyard sword enthusiast shows brutal medieval killing techniques with weapons brought online" The Guardian: "ZOMBIE SWORD KNIFE COLLECTOR ENTHUSIAST UPLOADS TH-cam VIDEOS IN HIS GARDEN OF HOW TO KILL PEOPLE WITH LARGE SWORDS AND SPIKED CLUBS"
If a blow lands before the foot then it's not. But for the blow to arrive at the target the feet are generally required to move the attacker close enough to land the attack. Unless the person is defending and instead being attacked.
I'm in game development, and I do a little animation. Nearly everybody in games gets this wrong. Thanks for the great demonstration, I'll be passing this along :)
Thing is, what works in real life doesn't necessarily work well for games. Clearly telegraphed attacks are at the core of most action game fighting, while in real martial arts you want to minimize your opponent's ability to predict your movements. Add in the slower reaction time of using an input device like a keyboard or controller to react to stimulus on a screen compared to having a real sword in your hand and reacting to a live opponent and it becomes clear that a lot of the unrealistic elements in videogame animations serve a practical purpose.
Great points, and I totally agree, but I'd rather animators make that decision to exaggerate from an informed perspective, rather than referencing other media, which happens quite a lot! Good reference material like this which is also digestible is hard to find.
It's a question of style or substance. Having just realistic ways to move in a visual media like a video game could get boring. In real life, the movements a martial artist would use is actually really small compared to something you'd see in a movie or game.
Mr. Easton, could you please tell me if the push cut with a front-heavy blade like the Cold Steel Magnum Kukri Machete is more effective than the exact same push cut with the same length but hilt-heavy edged weapon? How does the front-heavyness affect the cutting performance compared to hilt-heavyness?
These alternating hit with the mace and the sword are really illuminating. If you're fighting one against the other the mace almost has to "take a hit to give a hit", good deal in armour. Not so good otherwise.
On the sport analogy: If you ask someone to throw a ball, they wil throw it from their rear arm and leg, never from the lead hand Why? Because that's how humans generate power, rear hand pushes forward as the body weight shifts to the lead leg. People don't do this with weapons (especially blades) because they feel like they're leaving their protection behind their own body and limiting the weapons mobility. It gives you stronger power generation options, especially if you're a lefty .
power from hand and forearm then shoulder , use a guardant - hanger or open , hilt up point down , silver hope , point forward thrust not cut , matt you should show how to build power in the hands and forearms
Hey Matt, I was wondering what Medieval melee weapon you think would be best for long-term wilderness survival? My immidiate thought is some type of spear, however I'm no where near the expert you are so your input in greatly desired. Now I know obviously that firearms and bows are a much safer thing to bring into the wild, but having an upclose & personal defense is sometimes the only thing you can rely on. I'm trying to find a balance between utility, defense, and weight.
The mace is like your M92, you grab for that when your primary goes down. Otherwise, If you are on foot you better have a shield or plate. Like an axe it's pure offense. If you are unarmored or without a shield and on foot facing a swordsman, the best course of action is to beat feet. You need to be prepared somehow to take the blow you will likely get closing the distance, survive the strike and then counter with an overwhelming crushing blow from the mace. OR be in such a tight melee that you need to draw your secondary and fight inside the effective distance of your opponent.
Blunt vs. edged. Heavier, blunt weapons really only seem suitable against armored opponents, not that a mace to the head isn't still a mace to head whether that head is wearing a metal bucket or not. Edged weapons will have minimal effectiveness against plate armor for all but straight thrusts, vastly effecting the tactics used. Plate armor offers quite a bit less protection against a heavy mace, iron club or war hammer by comparison.
5:20 And the Oscar goes to... the neighbour's yard, not even halfway through the exposition... as usual. Not without protesting before leaving, to no avail... You see, if well fed, a cat may sleep as much as 22 hours per day... if everything is tranquil, that is.
thumbs up for cat easton
@Srithor He put everything into climb.
Two paws up and no shits were given by that cat in this production lol.
I didn't notice a cat? Oh right, I was focused on learning.
Humans are not an intelligent species.
5:14 Just another stealth mission in Cat Easton life.
< Plays Mission: Impossible theme >
Throw Cat Easton in your opponent's face to distract them while you unscrew the pommel of your sword to throw at them.
thats some swift kitty parkour
*Catt
Time of the hand.Time of the body.Time of the foot.Time of the cat.
zoukatron Hey Folks, Cat Easton here ScholaCatitoria
1. your instructions are wrong (added: 10:10).
2. that cat's probably (hopefully) dead by now.
Cat Easton here, Scholagladiatora!
Zizka Zenit shouldn't that be Catt Easton?😁
Scholacatiatoria
"Meow, folks!"
Very very interesting! Thank you for sharing Matt. I'm going to show this video to all my friends who are interested in sword or mace combat and then we might try all you said out with my sparring group.
Metatron hey latin bro u should do a collab with thegnthrand (greetings from Romania)
Have to upvote Oscar's fantastic choreography.
I love the calm Matt in this one. Your voice is more gentle, yet it draws more attention.
And the immediate showing of the explained mechanics is fantastic aswell.
Plus: Kitty Cat Easton.
Well done Matt, liked it a lot.
Yay! Cat Easton's back!
This is Thrand, great video and I agree. One topic I am not sure if you fully covered cutting with sword agaist armor has almost no effect and thrusting nitches becomes important and grappling where as with mace and shield it is more effective to defend wile throwing powerful blows independent of your defense. This applies to axes as well. The priciple of adding armor and shields does change what is plausible to do when attacking. In full harness and armor push cuts are usless and depending on the armor all cuts become useless. Just as screening cuts are not as nessary if needed at all with a large shield. If used properly the sword works independent of the shield to defend ones self.
I do agree unarmored bukler combat needs screening cuts as well as unarmored blade fencing but large shields with possible armor allow for powerful blows to be thrown and cuts. Many HEMA practictioners assume even with large shield one must step cut which is absurd. Worse it is the most powerful cut or blow possible. Then what point would there be in use of a larger style shield that can possiby paired with armor.
Sorry about the rant, loved the video your exanation was perfect just know many will not understand that from the video above lol
Kind of covered the point that occurred to me - how likely was a mace going to be used without either a shield or full plate harness?
Not likely I would think. Unless some particularly crazy gentlemen decided to use maces in a duel. :D It had to have happened at least once!
I think its interesting most people don't realise you can break an opponent even through a shield with a well placed strike from a mace.
Maybe if you knew you were going up against an armored opponent in battle, but had no armor yourself and you had the choice between a sword and a mace? I can imagine the mace would be a more useful pick out of the two.
Not if the opponent chose a sword, probably.
Let me translate what Oscar said: Pathetic human, no speed, no grace, no claws and no tuna at all for crying out loud!!
Thank you for the lesson.
I hope that we'll see more videos like this one. ❤️👍
At first I could not understand the concept of using a mace without plate armour and a shield - Then I thought more and substituted your very nice mace for a piece of firewood, cudgel, shillelagh or even a baseball bat. Your comments now make a lot more sense to me, thankyou for your insights.
"He ’d a blunderbuss too
of horse-pistols a pair ;
But his favorite weapon was always a flail ,
I wish you could see how he’d empty a fair,
For he handled it neatly, did Larry McHale"
That is a problem that I can see with full contact sports like Battle of the Nations or similar.
I often see them using "bladed" weapons like bludgeons, because that's what they are: Bludgeons roughly shaped like swords or falchions. And they do it that way because that's what works within their sport. And that's the reason why "falchion" shaped weapons are preferred: They have a lot of weight at the top, for a hard hit, while still somewhat looking like swords.
The reason they do it is based in the premises of the sport: You have people in extremely thick armor, with weights in excess of 40kg+, and all techniques or weapons that would actually be effective against armor are forbidden. And a sword with historical weight would be useless in a BotN fight, because it's just far to light to be even felt by a BotN or M-1 combatant. So you have "falchions" with weights of 2-3kg+. ("Edge Alignement? We don't need no Edge Alignement!")
And you see a lot of grappling, especially in M-1. Same reason: It works within their sport, because the "weapons" are pretty much useless. There is even not really a need to parry! That leads for example to the very interesting type of shield used in full contact: narrow and elongated. Why? They are not really needed for parrying, just take it on the armor, but their length gives them extra reach in a punch!
That's where I see the biggest difference between say BotN and HEMA:
HEMA tries to most accurately recreate the techniques, while sacrificing historical look for safety, while BotN wants to recreate the historical look, while sacrificing the techniques because of effectiveness.
As a sport, I am deeply in awe by the abilities of the athletes of BotN, but I just cannot call it a historical recreation.
At best it's a modern interpretation of tourney fighting, that also used specialized weapons and armor.
What do you think, Matt?
(I hope I haven't offended anyone, that is not my intent!)
This approximately corresponds to my views, yes.
Very occasionally our HEMA club have visitors from BotN scene. On average, they have great tolerance in physical exertion, speed and explosiveness. Which are extremely valuable for all sorts of sports. But they're also prone to some "unmartial" habits IMO. Such as frequent double, hitting with the flats, etc.
I remember Matt mentioning the Falchion thing before in another video. Not sure if it was one of his falchion videos, or one about BotN. Grappling was a big thing in historical armored fighting too, because that protection does mean you can get right up in each other's faces.
And for actual armored combat, there is Pursuing the Knightly Arts they do some good work:
th-cam.com/channels/Del2Bxg6LBT2zEaXJdjovw.html
Everytime I see them do a round house kick to an opponents head I itch to grab a dagger and sink in it behind the knee.
I'm not so sure that BOTN exaggerates the importance of grappling. That is hands down the best way to deal with an armored knight, especially if you outnumber him.
He talks like how I remember trying to write essays when I was a teenager. Constantly adding caveats and making sure there's no possible room for the reader/listener/watcher to think that he's somehow misunderstood or missed something in his explanations. I failed thru constantly either running out of time or going way over the requested word-count, but it's great to see someone of the same ilk being successful
I definately want to see more instruccional videos from such an expert like you Matt. Awesome stuff!
Keep the steel in front of the meat. Elegant and practical advice, love it.
Best sword channel on TH-cam
Thank you. That was very well presented and helped me understand cutting techniques better, as well as give definition to why I always preferred swords over other mellee weapons.
Awesome video Matt. Hope to see more videos focusing on techniques and body mechanics! Your insight is enlightening .
I would like to see some more of Cat Easton
If you want to hit something really hard, hit a rock! They're usually quite hard.
Or throw them to the ground and hit 'em with an entire planet instead.
Centurion: Thwow him to the floow again, sir?
No u
Yes, vewy woughly.
Hit my schlong ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
Skallagrim at some point, made a video about the easiest arms to issue to new soldiers (in the middle ages and before) were a mace and a spear (along with the shield)... Could you perhaps make a video showing the use of mace/axe and shield, where you demonstrate with it, the same way as you do in this... I imagine that a lot of attacks become different, when used with a shield, than without it.
Your emphasis on the whipping was so clear that at 4:42 I flinched, expecting the mace to hit the camera.
RIP punchbag gladiatoria, ???-2018
HebaruSan Punchbag Easton
We can all yell you really love this subject, thanks for sharing your passion with us. God bless.
Another really helpful video. Thanks for posting.
Very interesting and thank you for sharing. I'm FMA based but enjoy exploring all methods for self improvement.
Good points, and an often not talked about subject in test cutting, its really important to switch up the kind of cutting you drill, always starting your cuts from a wound up telegraphed position will cause you to develop bad habits that can and will transition into your sparring. Its a good bit of advice to improve your swordsmanship, start your cut from various guard stances, circle your bottle and cut it mid step, put your water bottle and yourself at every angle and distance you would expect you and your sparring partner to be in. This will also tell you if all of your smaller cuts are effective, you may find a certain strike you use in a spar might not actually effect a target the way you expected. I noticed the opposite as well, many seemingly non threatening back and tip flick cuts can cause serious game changing injuries.
I found this very helpful, I’m looking to do HMB and seeing the difference between a strike with a mace and a sword strike is interesting. More of a whipping motion with the mace.
Matt, you should do some videos on fighting moves and stances. You often brush over it when you´re demonstrating weapons, but it would be an awesome topic for several videos.
Maaaan, I first misread the title as "How to Sit with Swords and Maces" and was really interested because I always thought sitting with a scabbard could be awkward and then you were talking about hitting stuff and I was like, oh, that's not as interesting. hahahahah, still, great video, as always.
Good to see you added the "Ending them Rightly" with the hilt of the sword technique.
Suggestion: look up "Championship Fighting" by Jack Dempsy. He used his body being pulled down by gravity for power for his boxing punches. If you use your body's weight moving down slightly you can turn that into a lot of torque. Just a suggestion.
In baseball I was always taught to begin the swing of the bat just after I engaged my torso so the bat is at full swing at the target while my body is just about to end it's pivot for maximum power, body is still pivoting and bat at full speed is more powerful than body stopped or stopping. For your mace swing, wouldn't it be better to begin the mace swing before you are done stepping in and twisting? so the swing gets momentum from the step and body twist?
One thing about combat using blunt trauma weapons, knives, and swords I think most get wrong is just how much force they think they need. Against someone without armor you don't need a whole lot of force with a cut or a hit with a mace to severely injure or incapacitate, hit someone without armor in the head with a mace as if you were driving a 10 penny nail is going to remove them from the fight, that's just using your arm. For a sword, if you cut halfway from skin to bone through a bicep that arm will be useless. Against armor sword cuts are useless and putting maximum power behind a thrust is not very accurate and with a mace even if you land a perfect hit with max power it won't instantly stop them, hurt like hell sure. better would be land many more blows that are less powerful as each one will sap strength and endurance like boxing shows us with body blows. Unarmored, no need for an instant kill everytime and armored... good luck getting one so breaking them down first is more beneficial than trying an instant kill. In conclusion I agree that using a safer for you but substantially weaker attack is more prudent.
That was indeed highly interesting!
I really interesting video about body mechanics and Melee fighting. Please do more videos like that.
Perhaps you could show or just tell what kind of exercises one could do without an sparring partner, for various weapons, like Maces, axes or the various kinds of swords.
Are there even such exercises?
And if so, do they differ depending on the weapon and are there exercises that can be made with most melee weapons?
Can we get more cat appearances? Zoned out of the video until the cat arrived and then I was laser focused.
In a meler, you sometimes get opportunities to hit someone who is fighting someone else. In those cases, the wound up blow can be very effective.
I think I learned more about fighting in this one video than anything else yet. (Really shows that dexterity and intelligence are way more important than a Strength Stat!)
Small note-- after years of watching I just got the FIRST TH-cam Ad that MIGHT possibly have taken my demographics into consideration ( a gem/mineral show... all the way across the continent from where I live, in another country.)
i really like this type of videos thank you !
I would say this is why you very rarely see anyone depicted in the time period wielding a mace or warhammer without a shield or armor. The lack of protection from incoming blows would make the effective strikes with a mace nearly impossible. This, I think is why swords and polearms were primarily singular weapons that could be used with a shield in some instances, while maces and other striking weapons are almost never seen used alone, unless they are larger, which ventures into the realm of polearms.
So, is that one of the reasons why the flails was invented. You have the shaft protecting and the chain lagging behind before smacking your opponent, thus somewhat combined the power generation with aspect of the first time of blow with the weapon defensive aspect of the second.
This is super interesting. I have zero experience with sword fighting, but to compare what you're talking about to unarmed fighting interests me. I feel like unarmed fighting is more like harness fighting since you have few targets where you can do any damage where as unarmored fighting with swords you have to take care with your whole body.
One aspect I think is missing with how HEMA seems to be taught is the concept of setting up a stronger shot with a quicker, weaker one. It seems like once someone scores a touch then the fight is considered over. In boxing you typically use a jab to set up strong shots. The jab is mostly there to harry the opponent to get them into a position where you can safely throw a heavier blow. Is this discussed in any treatises?
Matt Lentzner I don't know about treatises but I do know from sparring against people with a good defense, that you need to bait them, either by a two hit combo, or by offering a target and counterattacking as soon as he goes for your gap on the defense.
Some people do sparring drills where you don’t stop after the first hit. I’m not in a group right now so I don’t remember all the details but one instructor would practice with me by striking at me for I want to say about 20 seconds, which was about how long it took for my guard to completely crumble.
This was 20 seconds or so of contact not including the pre-contact posturing and successful disengagements.
It was really helpful and I need to find someone willing to beat me like that again.
Throwing combos is still part of HEMA, it's just that once a sword strikes the opponent, the assumption is that an unarmored opponent is pretty boned. Alternatively, it's because competitive HEMA bouts tend to follow "point sparring" logic, which isn't exactly unheard of in unarmored martial arts
Assasin Cat in the background!
A good explanation of Ki Ken Tai Ichi!
Finally a Matt Easton training video!!!
Two questions please.
1-How armor affects this and does it continue, habit, or it's, as usual, depends of the context?
2-Not timing the hit or telegraphing it, can they be used or exploited by armored people or fighters in certain situations?
like if an armored knight is wielding a mace against a light armored opponent, can the knight pull the mace back as far as possible and advance then strike letting the other guy hit him on the armor but in exchange for a greater hit on his target?
or is it possible that a fighter might fake being an idiot and go for such a move to trick the other person into doing something that they might counter easily.
And as a general idea I'd LOVE, and pretty sure everybody else, to see a video on those exploits or tricks
could you talk about the flyssa
it's a sword with a unique design
i think they are beautiful, especially with engraved backs
they are pointy to pierce through mail(19th century in algeria) but are quite hefty
thought i might be biased because i am an algerian, and, you know, algerians are pretty prou
Snake Over its probably based on the yatagan though
It is most certainly based on a yatagan since they look similar and the ottomans stayed in algeria for quite some time (1515-1830)
I find the Parang Nabur rather ugly
But to each his own
I never knew i needed this video until i saw it...
Came for the mace, stayed for the cat comments.
amazing that that bag isnt torn to pieces already. so many sharp edges on that mace.
I feel that the kinetic chain developed in Baton fighting, with a bit more of core and hip engagement overcomes the problems your discussing here. The Step should be almost a aftereffect of the hip rotation and the attack ...
The advantage of the mace is that it can evade blocking shields or blocking weapons by using the wrist to change angle of attack. An edged weapon can't do this as it can only attack with an edge or point. The mace can be maneuvered around a shield or intervening weapon easily, as it functions as a weapon not just on a small edge, but any hit with the business end of a mace will be effective.
You can actually do that with swords as well.
awesome video... i liked very much
Very good point about making sure you present a threat that needs to be honored as you step up. As a young knight, I had overcome 99 rolled tatami mats, 13 bottles of mineral water, and countless watermelons. But I was quickly defeated the first time I went up against another knight, who had little patience with my "setting up" routine... ;D
I was thinking about something: Why are flails a thing? A regular mace, or a morning star without the chain just seems way more practical in a battle, since the chain makes it hard to move around.
Various reasons:
1: For complicated physics reasons, a flail hits slightly harder than a mace at the same weight and speed.
2: Vibrations don't travel back to your hand through the chain, making it less likely that you lose your grip when you're galloping past somebody.
3: The chain lets you exploit unique angles of attack, wrapping around things like weapons and still hitting with pretty much the same force.
Thanks for sharing .
How likely would an unarmoured mace combat be in the time those were used?
rubbers3 if a padded Jack and shield counts as armor very common
@Lana Smith - no, I mean unarmoured. Meaning just plain civilian clothes.
Very unlikely. Almost non-existent. Mace is a weapon of war, not of self defense. When you go to war, you also dress for war which means armor. Mail, gambeson, padded armor. A simple baton is better for self defense than a mace. Swords and daggers were common self defense weapons back in the day as well.
@Artturi Grundström - yeah, I think so too, especially since a mace was specifically designed to face armour. I thought maybe there's more to it, maybe there are historical examples of maces being used in civilian context, but I guess there really is nothing.
I don't specifically know about a mace like that, but Hans Talhoffer's fencing manual of 1467 shows unarmored people using maces and weird shields for judicial duels. Perhaps the lawmakers chose a weapon unfamiliar to most burghers to make fighting experience less of a factor, or to lower the risk of a lethal outcome.
There's a Danish tradition of having city watchmen carry big two-handed morning stars, but that was more of an 18th and early 19th century thing.
Study the forms of Marial arts boxing and move to knife fighting the misdirection counter method. I also like the base of iron shirt dao forms.
constant movement of the sword provides defense aswell as attack. The momentum tends to provided speed for both......
in unarmed martial arts your also rotating your body before fully extending your arm, and there you are getting knocked out if you fail, sometimes feels like treatises are treating fighters like the most unfit people imaginable
I've developed something that combines these two concepts. A type of mace that's a supplemental strength training for sword fighting movements, as well as shovel training for something called Nu-Jitsu
For some reason I want to believe he does that in normal conversation. Talking about the weather, "I'll just grab a sword for a minute." *picks up sword*
He ties his weapons to his shoelaces so they're always available and on the ground wherever he goes.
Hi Matt. Currently I'm quite keen on ancient Mesopotamian armature. Would it be possible to have your insight on them? I'm interested in both weapons and armour.
More!!!! Great video.
I would argue that reason for 'step first and swing later' in base ball etc is difficulty of aiming in this pattern - not the power of the swing. Properly timed, blow landing just before body stops moving will put your mass behind the strike and give you maximum power possible.
Matt, do remeber a comment someone put up on maces. He said he got it from an egyptian text translated to english.You replied to this comment.It was one of the first comments on the video. The comment tells how heavy maces where , how to hit with it etc.I would really appreciate it if you could locate it for me.
So then foot work becomes crucial?
The title of this video I can see the headlines now BBC News: "Knife enthusiast demonstrates how to use large swords easily brought online by kids without parents knowledge"
The Mirror: "Backyard sword enthusiast shows brutal medieval killing techniques with weapons brought online"
The Guardian: "ZOMBIE SWORD KNIFE COLLECTOR ENTHUSIAST UPLOADS TH-cam VIDEOS IN HIS GARDEN OF HOW TO KILL PEOPLE WITH LARGE SWORDS AND SPIKED CLUBS"
And we're back to Silver's true and false times 400 years later.
Tell me...how is it possible for the weapon to be lagging behind if the blow lands before the foot??
If a blow lands before the foot then it's not. But for the blow to arrive at the target the feet are generally required to move the attacker close enough to land the attack. Unless the person is defending and instead being attacked.
... this is all very interesting, but I am having difficulty imagining when I might need to use these skills
What is that sword and where can I find one?
I'm in game development, and I do a little animation. Nearly everybody in games gets this wrong. Thanks for the great demonstration, I'll be passing this along :)
Thing is, what works in real life doesn't necessarily work well for games. Clearly telegraphed attacks are at the core of most action game fighting, while in real martial arts you want to minimize your opponent's ability to predict your movements.
Add in the slower reaction time of using an input device like a keyboard or controller to react to stimulus on a screen compared to having a real sword in your hand and reacting to a live opponent and it becomes clear that a lot of the unrealistic elements in videogame animations serve a practical purpose.
Great points, and I totally agree, but I'd rather animators make that decision to exaggerate from an informed perspective, rather than referencing other media, which happens quite a lot! Good reference material like this which is also digestible is hard to find.
It's a question of style or substance. Having just realistic ways to move in a visual media like a video game could get boring. In real life, the movements a martial artist would use is actually really small compared to something you'd see in a movie or game.
How often would one use a mace without having armor or shields involved?
Wow, I would've never thought a punch bag could take being hit with something like that.
Mort OOPz Makes me wonder how Bruce Lee was able to destroy them with a kick
These weapons are blunted
Still a fuck lot sharper than a fist..... you know, the thing it was designed for.
Yes, the mace is clearly blunted. Shame on Matt!
He's not exactly trying to wreck it
Makes sense, good video
But what kind of treatise and weapon works best for a cat? There arn't enough videos on this topic.
Cutting in time with your footwork is pretty important in kendo too.
You see, even cat understands the basics of footwork with a mace at Scholagladiatoria!
Mr. Easton, could you please tell me if the push cut with a front-heavy blade like the Cold Steel Magnum Kukri Machete is more effective than the exact same push cut with the same length but hilt-heavy edged weapon? How does the front-heavyness affect the cutting performance compared to hilt-heavyness?
Does he work for super dry?
5:14 Wild kot appears
Mat ignores it, quite sadly
Then leaves camera towards roof
Such kot
These alternating hit with the mace and the sword are really illuminating.
If you're fighting one against the other the mace almost has to "take a hit to give a hit", good deal in armour. Not so good otherwise.
Bjorn Nilsson that's what shield is made for, solo mace is just suicidal
Do an unboxing and/or review of cat easton
On the sport analogy: If you ask someone to throw a ball, they wil throw it from their rear arm and leg, never from the lead hand
Why? Because that's how humans generate power, rear hand pushes forward as the body weight shifts to the lead leg. People don't do this with weapons (especially blades) because they feel like they're leaving their protection behind their own body and limiting the weapons mobility. It gives you stronger power generation options, especially if you're a lefty .
power from hand and forearm then shoulder , use a guardant - hanger or open , hilt up point down , silver hope , point forward thrust not cut , matt you should show how to build power in the hands and forearms
that one of regenyei's blunts you're using there?
Hey Matt, I was wondering what Medieval melee weapon you think would be best for long-term wilderness survival?
My immidiate thought is some type of spear, however I'm no where near the expert you are so your input in greatly desired.
Now I know obviously that firearms and bows are a much safer thing to bring into the wild, but having an upclose & personal defense is sometimes the only thing you can rely on.
I'm trying to find a balance between utility, defense, and weight.
Thank you bro.
Hey great video!!
Where can I buy that sword you used?? It would be perfect for my purposes!
The mace is like your M92, you grab for that when your primary goes down. Otherwise, If you are on foot you better have a shield or plate. Like an axe it's pure offense. If you are unarmored or without a shield and on foot facing a swordsman, the best course of action is to beat feet. You need to be prepared somehow to take the blow you will likely get closing the distance, survive the strike and then counter with an overwhelming crushing blow from the mace. OR be in such a tight melee that you need to draw your secondary and fight inside the effective distance of your opponent.
We need a Blofeld themed video with Matt in a Nehru jacket and the Cat. And another book review, I'm running out of reading material.
Blunt vs. edged. Heavier, blunt weapons really only seem suitable against armored opponents, not that a mace to the head isn't still a mace to head whether that head is wearing a metal bucket or not. Edged weapons will have minimal effectiveness against plate armor for all but straight thrusts, vastly effecting the tactics used. Plate armor offers quite a bit less protection against a heavy mace, iron club or war hammer by comparison.
Where did your flax plant come from out of curiosity? It's an NZ native.
matt why do you straighten the other arm behind you in order to thrust ?
Good stuff, thanks.
5:15 is my favorite part
Well done.
Not to seem dense but what are the different types of cut called?
5:20 And the Oscar goes to... the neighbour's yard, not even halfway through the exposition... as usual. Not without protesting before leaving, to no avail...
You see, if well fed, a cat may sleep as much as 22 hours per day... if everything is tranquil, that is.