My opponent is good at displacing thrusts, so I go for more cuts.

Thank you for your comment. I guess you can see the long distance motions similar to kendo and the short distance plays are similar to the shorter weapons of Eskrima.

Thank you for your comment. I have no idea how rapier is supposed to look like and a lot of people have very different opinions on that. For my part I study arming sword and Longsword and only play rapier very occasionally and at competitions.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing Thanks for your reply! I'd imagine you are an excellent sidesworder. One of the things I think about is to what extent the mission of HEMA is to reconstruct European martial arts as compared to create a competitive environment where martial skills are tested. I guess the assumption is that these goals will coincide, but there is always the possibility that these two goals will end up in conflict.This is not criticism of your fencing, btw! If people start winning rapier wth sidesword methods then that is something traditional rapierists will have to honestly deal with, and thats where the question of what we are trying to achieve comes to the fore. I suppose from a personal perspective I've been doing this for 33 years and am very curious as to the direction it takes (and has already taken - mostly for the better).

Not much of a sidesword fencer actually. It seems the semi-complex hilt bugs me a bit compared to the open hilts of the arming sword. At the same time it’s not really protected as the ones of rapiers. For the second part I would say it’s about personal choices and goals. People doing HEMA can have all sorts of ideas of what and why they are doing it. I want to recreate the fencing itself but am in no way focused on the historical teaching methodology. How accurate my interpretation of the sources is unknowable as far as I am concerned. The context of the time period is gone and I only truly have the current one - fence with friends in gear to try to hit them without being hit. That being said I have very little interest in competitions themselves and they were never my goal. Just another place to fence under pressure and with something “to win or lose”.

They are big enough. We just don’t move around them too much

Thank you for your comment. So first to say I am no expert in two handed swords as well and this was the first day I tried them out in anything outside waving them around solo. The two handed sword category is quite large and for my personal use I would say it's anything I cannot comfortably let go and use one handed unlike most longswords. For my size that's most things above 140 cm and weight at more than 1700 gr. I absolutely cannot use a sword of 2,3-2,5 kg. weight with any reasonable speed or control. As far as PoB - most sparring safe swords of any kind have lower PoB than sharp equivalents. However some can still move quite closely to sharp ones because of the different mass distribution across the blade. But this is surely a. sacrifice that is made with all swords so we can actually play with them. As far as using thrusts over cuts if you look closely at the video you will see that almost all successful hits were either from a thrust or started as a first intention thrust. Most wide cuts were much easier stopped and punished, specially starting with such. And for marketing I honestly can't say which are the most accurate terms, specially having in mind the options to add rings and lugs to the blade. They've said: "The Montante, also known as Spadone or Zweihänder, is the largest of the late medieval/renaissance swords of Europe"

Swords are coming in a spectre and for me it certainly feels like a dedicated two handed sword.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing yes, of cause. You´re right. I just meant that it´s no where near the size of the historical great swords. You wouldn´t be able to fight with them like that, I think. But never mind, you probably know more about it than me. I´m just an armchair expert :)

@@bastianbarx1509 It is at the size of historical great swords - they varied a lot. People like to fixate on the big ones in museums, but if you actually check around, you will find there are tons of swords which are bigger than longswords, but not as big as the heaviest two-handers.

@@bastianbarx1509 To add to that, yes, this is absolutely not a representative of the 2-2,5 kg and the 115-130 blade length class. But you can argue that sources don't fixate on just the larger examples.

Yeah it’s really nice looking. It’s in the inner yard of a Teutonic fortified church in Romania

Thanks. Though each sport has its own cool factors :)

Thank you for your comment. Yes, my partner is very good at stopping a first strike and continuing with a set of Zwerchs. A couple of points on the swords themselves as I had my fare share of scepticism previously. A lot of fencers don't really care about competitions. From the people I personally know and their clubs - perhaps 1 in 5 at most goes to competitions and maybe 1 in 20 with the serious intent of trying to actually win. Most going are just doing it for fun and to travel and fence with other people. There are certainly those that do focus on tournaments but for most people it is at most a 2-3 times per year thing, while training is 2-3 times per week. So having safer lighter tools for us to do more and safer repetitions in the training halls is much more of a concern than getting some advantage at the occasional event. If HEMA will turn into a sport with lower hit quality requirements is not that connected to the swords themselves. Plenty of places even now have lower expectations of what is a valid hit than I do, but that doesn't necessarily produces bad fencers. As a direct example are the Slovaks where SIGI swords come from. Their competition have very low hit requirements but I have played with enough of them to know that they absolutely stomp me and many others as it has created very good fencers. Their ability to play a lot with safe tools has given them a training "edge" that we have to chase for years to get close to. So in short, I am not particularly worried that the game will change into a thing I will not enjoy doing. And the good thing with HEMA is that even if the tournaments become some unbearable game of tag, I have no need to go to them anyways.

Blades are not softer - in fact, they have less wobble than some regular sized feders. They also would have clear disadvantages against heavier blades in competition. Whether a sword touch around the blade from flex is counter as valid depends on judges. Many of them have a hard time dealing with it with heavier blades too. I can assure you that the vast majority of strikes here were quite hard, and had they been done with a sharp blade, would've led to some devastating damage (excluding deliberate flat hits, like the one I throw at 1:36, because I see it might hit the back of the head). Define "a game of tag" more precisely.

​@@borislavkrustev8906 >Define "a game of tag" more precisely. bruh.. you know what I mean, literally the first hit in this video, and you definitely would get a point for that in any comp I don’t really want to argue, to be honest, this is a beautiful sparring with good technique. I just had an thought and I voiced it, maybe we should just practice chopping more so as not to become too sport-oriented (at least for many of those I met at competitions in Russia)

@@druzhoksapozhok Yes, I would get a point, it's a good hit. Have you done the same hit with a sharp? Do you know the kind of damage such a hit does? Get a longsword, sharp, buy a pig leg and try it. Then tell me it's "too sport oriented" :) Dude, I am not arguing - arguing implies there is a discussion to be had.

@@borislavkrustev8906 can you rank their blades in terms of the wobbleness if you have handled them all? I've only handled a few models, old or new, a ranking would help me understand better...

Thank you Martin :)

Hahaha, sure. With his distinctive brown jacket :)

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing What do you mean "hahaha", my sexyness has always been undeniable.

I love how you are defending an act that makes something pointless... then just slow down and do it proper.

I think there are two distinctive issues - the ability of fencers to strike edge on hits and the ability of judges to see if they were such. I firmly believe that as fencers we should aim to deliver edge on blows and that's part of the skill to develop. Higher level fencers should be able to alter their movements and develop their skills to do that most of the time without significant changes. And as you also said "if you can hit me, you can hit me" - most of the time it won't matter much in the way the exchange has occurred. It's my job to defend as a flat or edge hit is mostly the other person's mistake and I have no way of knowing it before that. On the side of judging though - yeah, I think we have reached the limit of what we can consistently accurately judge by eye alone. Even at non-Advanced tournaments, the final few matches can regularly not be accurately judged even with experienced judges. I have no real solution to that though and most other tournament organisers as well, so most places just accept that it will happen.

@@miroslavm2503 I actually work things extremely, glacially slow when I am trying to build a new motor habit or be precise. I record myself doing a thing, slow it down to .25x speed, then I do it slower than that till it's right, then speed it back up. I also do not expect perfect sparring. I expect to do thousands of reps at low, medium, and high intensity/speed to get things correct. My entire coach's approach on the Historical Fencing Channel. In any case whinging about flat hits is a cope. Put the time in. Git gud.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing exactly, 100%. I am an ok fencer. I'm a decent judge. This last year alone I've spent hundreds of hours watching footage at .25x speed. That's what it takes to be good. There's also the likelihood that judging fencing requires people to perform at a certain level to be competent vs say other striking or grappling arts. You have to be able to perform at a certain level to even see anything. I hope to fence you some day btw!

Yes, I’ve been working a lot on getting better at fencing and judging and so do my students. The two skills help each other too. Would be happy to fence with you if we get the chance :)

I am not saying it cannot be used in a tournament environment- just that we are not in this video. However certain restraint must be applied in my very limited experience, but same can be said about using some heavier and stiffer Longswords as well. As far as separating in categories according to weapons we will have two categories in our autumn competition - Longsword standard and Longsword light. Same rules but lighter weapon for people that want to be hit less. And armoured fighting does exist, it’s just way too few people doing it for cost purposes.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing I'm happy to hear that you are already considering all of this for the tournaments you guys organise. I do have a lingering thought. Since you probably talked to others, and you know better, what's your view on standardising the "professional" tournament scene? Isn't there a fear of splitting the base if too many weapon categories are allowed?

I don't think "professional" tournament scene even exists beyond that some places get really good at doing their events. Most recent tournaments I've seen usually have their spots filled in regardless of the amount of categories presented. For example we now aim to increase our overall Longsword open spots with 10 people (20% increase compared to last year) but to have them split in the two categories.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing "I don't think professional tournament scene even exists..." I am not going to disagree with you.😄But I'm nowhere close to organise any type of event... so, it wouldn't be right for me to say that. 😅

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing Btw, speaking of organising things, I saw your involvement outside Bulgaria and the country ball logo (the only way to represent nations in the Balkan area and not get into an argument😂😇). I'm happy that you (and colleagues) are bringing some HEMA love to the surroundings countries and strengthen HEMA in that part of Europe. 👍

Oh yes, I am absolutely proud and happy go their play here and their progress before and after this event. When I get to it, I will make a video from this year's event as well :)

I guess if someone asks, they will make another one. It wasn't that much more expensive than their other complex hilted swords.

A lot of Longsword “techniques” don’t work too well actually. Liechtenauer’s five strikes have very limited usability. So it’s mostly simple cuts and thrusts or attempted feints at the proper distance

Turns out a two handed sword is a two handed sword

Truthfully this is not a very good montante simulator. It's far too short and light. It's better as a spadone. At like, 4.15 lbs it's a good bit lighter than almost all historical examples of the weapon.

I haven’t really looked into the two-handed sword variants. But also am definitely on the smaller side compared to the people that would have used such swords historically - usually specifically pointed out to be very big and strong men. For me it’s a two-handed sword and very different in handling and what I can do with it compared to my usual longswords.

I think it was Marozzo that wrote: In case you find yourself fighting another Montante. Fight as if you have a longsword. The wide strikes you find in the sources of Montante are there against other weapons. They aren't effective against another greatsword.

Yeah it certainly can be dangerous specially with some other heavier examples. And we are definitely not playing “tournament level” intense. But still there is a lot of options to play with and it’s perfectly fine to do it like that.

Thanks 🙏

I think so too! She has watched a lot of fencing but only now starts and I am pretty happy with the super quick development.

Some people absolutely don’t care about edge or flat. Some try to go with edge on but it’s less of a concern. Most people I know do their best to work with the edge.

Some tournaments allow flat hits and some don’t. There is plenty of variety of rulesets and everyone can choose what to attend. At this one they were allowed so no one can complain about them. I’ve only done one sparring and one tournament with smallsword so I have very limited view on it. But haven’t noticed much grappling even when it’s allowed so maybe it’s not much of a need there.

Cope I guess.

No clue what is that supposed to mean. But if you like to expand further perhaps?

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing I was replying to the OP, not yourself.

@@josiasarcadia To say the least.

In almost all cases yes. Several of those were counted in my matches too. Some with even less of a wind up(smaller arcs).

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing I thought so, because after this one some very flat hits were counted. To be honest, I like all tournaments being different and with different rulesets, but in the last tournament where I was a ref, 75% of these hits would have been rejected (yours were fine)... Especially this very flat and very uncontrolled gayszlen at 02:52.

I would say this was of the more controlled and better one handed strikes I encountered. As far as tournaments goes - ruleset are known before sign up, so if I join something, that means I play their game and wouldn't not make a fuss about it. I have mixed feelings about flat and other hits that might be deemed low quality (speaking about incidental ones). On one side I have left myself open and the person has reached me, so I've made a mistake. On the other side, some of the flat and lower quality hits work with slightly different mechanic and look differently, so they can get to you quicker or more unexpected than a good hit. I try to accept both getting hit and myself hitting with the flat as my mistake as that can help me learn and improve. BTW my Zwerch on 01:07 was deemed low quality, which was my only real gripe a the whole event.

​ Thanks for the clarification. I have similar feelings about flat and low quality hits, I don't judge the same if they hit me or if I'm the one performing them. Your zwerch didn't feel low quality, but as usual it's the ups and downs of tournaments 🙂

Haha, yeah, it was funny. I have started doing it a lot lately btw. Might make a compilation of it :) Yes, my PG are still mostly alive but I don't use them too often. The company is out of business anyways so they are not coming back.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing you should! That would be hilarious.

Thank you. Yeah his distance management is what gets me as well as great mechanics. I absolutely love the light feders. Got myself a couple and started using them for everything. Specially for teaching, they are very pleasant to know that you can do many repetitions and the partner doesn’t suffer as much. For 1 on 1 sessions when you get hit a hundred times - perfect. That being said it has to noted that as with all training tools they do bring some artefacts in the play and only working with them may leave someone unprepared when they go for a more standard option. Also most competitions I know won’t allow them as being too light. My standard recommendation for students still remains the Sigi Concept Shorty as being the best middle ground. And those who can get lights already started ordering them too.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing awesome, thanks so much for your feedback! I appreciate your input here as I'm also a coach and the teaching aspect was another facet that drew me to them. I teach in Texas outside in the heat and as a result aside from full contact sparring we're rarely ever in jacket and full kit. This makes it a bit more difficult to drill at times as we're always having to dial back intensity to match the lack of protection which I'm sure you know introduces it's own artefacts In the training process. I feel the light feders could bridge that gap very well and as your video shows, allows for higher levels of intensity without a constant fear of injury! I'll definitely pitch them to my school and consider placing a bulk order but for my personal feder I think I might go the standard or concept route, can't go wrong with Sigi! Thanks again and best of luck in your training!

Glad I can be of help :)

Thank you

Thanks, some worked well :)

Thank you

I generally like it and still use it. If you are in a place where you get a lot of strong strikes to the side and top - Zwerch, Schaitel, I think it’s the best thing to go for. I find the mesh to be too shallow, with a lesser ridge and close to the face which makes it non-ideal if you are receiving a lot of thrusts. Mine is also a bit too big for me and can move the mesh into my face in small but significant moments. As I am currently working a lot I thrusts and counter-thrusts, this makes the standard PBT a better choice. I also extremely dislike the synthetic material used for the padding of the mask. I have seen that they now offer a separate top and back of the head protector which should maybe be good enough, but you can place it on a mask of your choice.

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad that people like it. Almost all of the videos are filmed with an iPhone 11 :) as long as it’s bright enough it works perfectly fine.

It sure is. Yes, I would classify it as a sidesword with complex hilt. Some places like to classify those as rapiers because of the guard type but for me it’s a sword.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing thank you for your reply!

Thank you.

Those bucklers are about average size. Sure a bigger shield will protect better but is also harder to carry around

Thank you. Yeah some of them worked really well :)

Thank you

Yeah it’s an open event and the next edition will be happening next weekend - 10-12.05.2024.

Yep historical sight

Glad you enjoyed it

Thank you :)

Thank you :)

It's not very likely that HEMA will join the Olympics anytime soon and there is quite the "movement" against it happening ever. And Olympic fencing isn't a very watched sport anyways.

I am 175 and I definitely prefer the shorty over a standard with every model of theirs. My overall recommendation for my students is the shorty but it has to be said that a lot of things may change one’s needs.

Glad you liked it

Thank you. No sword hit seen = no exchange. Have in mind I’ve shown the official score even if I would score it differently from the video.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing that makes sense, and thank you for the additional knowledge cheers my friend

Thank you, glad you liked it. And I am sure you’ve also enjoyed the light feder :)

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing its funky. i have mixed feelings about it in differents aspects. but in the end its about fun. fun with kumpel is good.

Interesting assumption, I wonder why you think that. For clarity - it’s me and I have had a single Kendo training session that was about 10 or so years ago.

I so your stance fit parallel, facing forward and somewhat on the balls of your feet, plus thrust and cut combinations. My bad, I guess I read too much in to all that.

Ha, it’s me and funnily enough I actually almost never train rapier :)

Yeah, I really liked them. They will not replace my current swords used but will I will be adding them to my armoury and recommendations.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing I wonder how they would perform VS stiffer blades...

The stiffness in blade to blade contact only matters if you are trying to perform something with the flat of the blade. When you are using the edge to overbind onto your opponent it doesn’t matter.

@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing I consider buying one, so thank you for your reply and bravo for your work ! Keep improving and next time you will defeat Martin ;-)

Thank you. Glad you find it useful. While I hopefully will improve my fencing in time I doubt I will reach his level. That is ok though as it has never been my point :)

You can get a friend and a couple of boffers and start from there. Then slowly build up the gear and eventually get steel swords as well. It’s not cheap but it’s doable