Fuck, what did I just spend an hour on...

Well, there is no accounting for taste ;) what exactly in the approach do you like?

That is absolutely true, if you get hit you get hit. But how you get hit is just as important. Often these hand snipes are executed so fast in moments where the opportunities come and go extremely quickly and the cut itself is poorly executed. Often people don't have the control/skill to execute a quick and precise cut at the right moment so they just decide to hit you no matter what and that usually ends up being a flat hit or a very poorly aligned edge hit and considering that these "snipes" often don't have much force behind them and a person might be wearing leather gloves (as they should be) the actual damage will be small.

@@miroslavm2503That really doesn't matter on the defence side, though. If someone handsnipes you, you have no way of knowing if it will do zero damage or devastate your hands completely. A strong flat hit to the fingers can easily break fingers. People do not always wear gloves, and even if they do, they were rarely padded. So no, claiming a lesther glove will guarantee your safety against a flat hit is just wrong.

@@borislavkrustev8906 Yes I agree, a strong hit will break fingers... obviously it will, but often these strikes are not strong and they are not precise and more often than not the edge alignment is bad. In those cases and in a "real", martial, situation you would immediately know did you sustain damage or can you go on. A weal strike with bad edge alignment will cause small damage and you might get stabbed or cut in the head or chest in the same tempo since you were focusing on the hands. In any case I do think a lot of people, potentially less experienced, use the argument of "he needs to defend this no matter what" as a way not to work on their side of things. Cleary if someone attacks you need to defend, you can't know and neither should you ask yourself "" hmmm... is the edge properly aligned, did he do his solo drills well enough?", But the fact remains that if you get hit with a flat on a "non critical" target, you will know that and you will go on fighting. I know this from personal experience all to well. I got a cracked rib and broken one in a real fight, unfortunately, this a good equivalent of a strong but flat hit with a sword and in that moment it was like nothing happened. I got a slightly cracked rib after a stab with a Light saber, and finished the sparring and did another one after it. Fingers and ribs are not the same, but both of them you have plenty in reserve.

@@borislavkrustev8906 If a can sort summaries my point... we need to focus equally on both side of the story, both participants. I think there is a clear tendency to focus exclusively on the defending side by forgetting the fact that a bad attack will have consequences. The defending side should defend properly but the attacking side also needs to attack properly. There is not need to waste a good opportunity with a bad cut/strike, not enough power, bad edge alignment etc.. since the return price might be to all to high for just broken finger.

@@miroslavm2503 Of course. The same goes for hits anywhere else. Flat hits to the torso are very common and would also do absolutely nothing. But look at this only from you POV as the defender, and it doesn't really matter - you still failed to defend. As for the attacker - yes, you should always aim to hit well. But the handsnipe when done as described in the video.is one of those attacks that are the least risky to fuck up - even if you fail to do damage, you should still be able to exit distance safely.

Glad you found them useful :)

Oh, I see it in a totally positive note - sniping means shooting someone from where they can't see the attack coming until you get them. That's an awesome thing, bot a bad thing. Anyone smart should want to be good at sniping.

@@borislavkrustev8906 I agree with that assessment. Great video btw. I especially like those games y'all played.

Oh hell no. I put on lens stabilization AND digital stabilization. And I STILL had to add extra digital stabilization in post cause the camera is so shaky. My cameraman needs to lower his caffeine OR just calm the fuck down :P That aside, thank you for taking the time to record, mate.

​@@borislavkrustev8906 This honestly made my day :3

Sheds a manly lens stabilized tear of digitally stabilized joy :'3

Glad you find it useful - I've been sitting on this footage for a few months.

Eh... that says bad things about your arming sword, mate. What maker is it?

@@borislavkrustev8906 windlass (balaur arms) type 14

Nah, and the floor was very slippery. But that had its fun too.

Just right. It's still my main sword, including in tournaments.

I went to Serbia, did some animal sacrifice (the animals sacrificed their meat to me), and pretended to be a rapierists for three days. On the third day he suddenly appeared in my pool and reached the final, the rest is in the vid :P

It confuses the distance and varries the threat. You don't really feel like attacking at that moment.

@@borislavkrustev8906 Kind of like what Childs does with his left hand.

@@falso-dritto Yes, but more full-bodied.

Thanks! Well, yeah, just more of the art of the arming sword from me than rapier :P

@@borislavkrustev8906 As a person (myself) that uses his rapier like a Langes Messer, i feel that

@@lorenzobraschi2010 I specifically asked the Pero guys if I can get yours from the other side :)

Coming soon, but I will admit it wasn't as pretty and technical.

Thank you so much! This is probably the best comment we could have gotten :)

@@FiliiMartis Daggers are definitely more useful against thrusts... But I wouldn't say small bucklers are useless. I don't know who you fenced, but my observations are that most HEMA people who do s&b don't really use the buckler very actively - they just cover some spots... There was an excellent rapier and dagger workshop from Mike Prendergast at the event which I filmed - I except he will post it in a few days.

@@borislavkrustev8906 It was an impromptu rapier bout, and I used what I had on hand to make two set of weapons. We switched the main weapon and their combination with the side-weapon (so 4 sets). "...most HEMA people who do s&b don't really use the buckler very actively" how did you know that that's my style? 🤣But I'm aware and working on it. 😉 And we know historically that the change in the side-weapon preference took place as the rapiers became more popular, but experiencing that on my own was so refreshing. It's the blade binding / trapping / control that I have with the dagger against the long blade that I can't match with the bucker.

@@FiliiMartis Yeah, I get such plays... in my club we have separate days for 1-handed, 2-handed and 2 weapons, and one Saturday a month is anything goes. There is an indication that the side-weapon preference for dagger started earlier - in sidesword sources you gradually have a little bit of dagger and a lot of s&b, then they get equal attention, and then it sharply shifts into almost only dagger (with a handful of sources having rapier and buckler even in the 17th C).

@@borislavkrustev8906 Just to add a thought... they were not using longswords in war, but they still appeared in fencing schools and manuscripts, so the same for bucklers in 17th century... I wonder how much of the fencing of those times was about the use of modern weapons, and how much was the HEMA of those times (before the H was needed). Surely it must have been a bit like that. For sure not to the present degree, but others before Hutton must have wanted to fence in the style of the old times. At least that's how I imagine things when I see a weapon still being used/taught after it's period.

@@borislavkrustev8906 ''most HEMA people who do s&b don't really use the buckler very actively'' Well that also sounds like me 🤣 @FiliiMartis it's not just you haha Looking forward to seeing Mike's workshop :D

@@heirihunziker None of the Lights have received any significant damage or have broken. Check @angelchernaev's channel, he even has a video of a Light used against a Montante.

I've seen three of his in person, two rapiers and a sidesword, and they really are something. It's really special when he is also so good at using them :)

@@borislavkrustev8906 Not going to lie, 🤏 jealous. And it sucks that he's good with them, because I was going to recommand you to wager him a discount if you beat him 10 matches in a row. 😅

@@FiliiMartis 10 in a row, no chance, but my friend Željko, with whom I just posted a sparring with, managed to get him in the pools.

The dash is one of the 14 punctuation marks in the English language, and it indicates a strong, clear break :). And I think it's quite clear the rapier is definitely older than the Florian, although this particular rapier is definitely younger than him, as he made it himself :P

@@borislavkrustev8906 my question keeps unanswered

@@Trolasso_Gazpachero Sorry, dude, I am a fighter, not a philosopher. You need to seek answers somewhere else.

@@borislavkrustev8906 now i understand! In my language, the foil sword is called "florete" so I though it was a Ropera Vs Florete (Florian) my mistake. Once again I ask, in a 1 vs 1 Rapier vs Foil, wich one as advantage?

@@Trolasso_Gazpachero Oooh, sorry, I missed that pun. Florian is Austrian, btw. As for rapier vs foil, IMO the rapier has has rhe advantage, mostly due to lo length. Foil blade is 90 cm, most rapiers are 104-115. That's a 25-35 cm length advantage.

Having the elbow more open would be a mistake in close distance. But in wide distance it gives me the option to choose the angle I am going to attack in and keep it to myself until I decide. And when doing solo work it helps with engaging the shoulders better.

As you can hear from the commentary, it makes some very high percentage handsnipes virtually pointless. But does that change the dynamic a whole lot? No. I'd say it changes it enough to be worth buying and training with a messer too :) For me personally the hilt changes the dynamic more, because I get a lot more grip variations with a messer like this (important to note - that doesn't go for every messer).

ALL THE TIME. Even know, just search sword and buckler in the last year and you will seenit in sparring, workshops and even tourneys.

It is a Regenyei Blunt. I would not recommend it nowadays. Get a Sigi King if you want a good blunt longsword.