How to fight single combat with the viking shield | 4 - Offense

Welcome to my new shield combat tutorial for beginners and advanced fighters. We have a look at the principles of starting an offence and how to create gapes in your opponent's cover. We also have a look at the concept of Vor, of which you find a more detailed discussion here: www.keithfarre....
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How to fight single combat with the viking shield
0 - Get Fit • How to fight single co...
1 - Stance and Posture • How to fight single co...
2 - Of Strikes and Thrusts • How to fight single co...
3 - Footwork • How to fight single co...
4 - Offense • How to fight single co...
5 - Defence • How to fight single co...
6 - Shield Binding • How to fight single co...
If you are a beginner and still struggle to handle the shield, have a look at my recent exercise-video:
• How to fight single co...
If you are interested how sparring in the combat reconstruction system does look like, here you go:
• Viking combat with swo...
For a brief overview on archaeological finds of viking age scandinavian roundshields:
• What did real viking s...

[@dutifulanglo6614]

This was excellent! I really appreciated the use of the "first person" camera for techniques which were difficult to see from the normal camera. Thanks for this great series!

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

Thanks a lot! It was our first try with the action cam. I also liked it and I will implement it more often now!

[@maihem1]

Great video, I especially liked how when you attacked the leading leg you used your shield to protect your head from the obvious counter attack.

[@oddthearcher7555]

Excellent well worth the wait, looking forward to utilising this in my training sessions and working on analysing openings on the fly I usually see an opening but am not great at reacting to new openings that that creates when they block

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

Great that you enjoyed it! It is worth to sometimes train in slow pace and one partner feeds the other with specific input so one can train the perception of certain scenarios/situations ,and later transfer it to the faster sparrings!

[@oddthearcher7555]

@@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat yes that's definitely something I want to start doing more

[@yourihovington-maltais1044]

Always good

[@luziodg1324]

Best video ever! Thx thx thx THX!

[@jaydenbyrne4948]

great content.

[@Tsurukiri]

Nice location you have there! And I think the video quality is just fine. Attacking first is a big tactical problem in sword and shield. Any safe attack requires that your opponent is unable to simultaneously attack you. This is difficult to achieve when opponent has a shield and is holding the sword back where you cannot reach it. Also, this is a good display of the issues with having the shield held up and to the side (in A frame). As shown, you will have problems in parrying thrusts and your lower legs from this position. Interestingly, you both sometimes drop out of that stance to a more closed form where shield is held at waist level and the boss is facing the opponent. To me this seems to work better for you in parrying the opponent’s strikes but what do you think? There are a few nice shield punch blocks in this video. This is when you punch with the shield boss to the direction of the incoming sword hand. The only point I’d say that those may work better with shield foot forward in the starting position. And you need to get closer to hit the opponents sword hand with the shield boss, to get strong control of it. Then step to the right and get the leg or head depending what is open. Punch blocking is great in that you can catch all strikes and thrusts and even the feints with a simple move (just punch for opponent’s sword hand) and it also sets you up for your counterstrike or thrust. Looking forward to the next Episode!

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

Thanks for the great comment and input! "Attacking first is a big tactical problem in sword and shield. ..." That was the point of this video, I have hoped to make that more clear. It's hard to make a hit happen and you have to put actual work in it. You have to threat him and continuously force him to change his guard/cover until eventually a mistake happens and you can use it. Otherwise the opponent will just counter attack. But let's be honest, many fencers/reenactors often ignore the threat of an attack or the following combination and just straight go in to attack themselves. Nothing to lose in a training fight. “Also, this is a good display of the issues with having the shield held up and to the side (in A frame). .... To me this seems to work better for you in parrying the opponent’s strikes but what do you think?” So we are still learning, especially the head and hand as a hit-zone is quite new for us. We may train it for half a year now. We still make a lot of mistakes ourselves and try to work on them. Every guard has its disadvantages you have to accept and know how to handle. In this case it's the thrust for sure, you are right. However, i would argue the exposed legs are more a problem of wrong posture, which I already mentioned to my partner after analyzing the videos. If we get into binds, you will change your guard to respond to the new threats and situation. The shield on shoulder height facing outwards is more a start position for the middle ranged combat, you will work with the shield in front of you when being at close range in binding. Which will be the next videos about. Holding the shield in front of you at the start invites to be overbound pretty fast by a skilled fighter. “There are a few nice shield punch blocks in this video. ... Punch blocking is great in that you can catch all strikes and thrusts and even the feints with a simple move (just punch for opponent’s sword hand) and it also sets you up for your counterstrike or thrust. “ That’s a good point and we try to work on this one! And it will be also topic in the next video! :)

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

And I should also mentioned that I had a particulary bad day, including the fencing and made many mistakes which I tell people to avoid in the tutorial. I will actually make a commentary video of the sparring and explain my mistakes. Would be gld about your input when its uploaded! :)

[@Tsurukiri]

@@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat Interestingly, all the historical manuals that I know fail to mention how to attack safely a sword and shield opponent who does not allow his sword to be bound. I'm not sure why this is so. I would have imagined that the first attack problem was known. Perhaps that was a piece of "secret" information, the solutions to which were not published because they were indeed useful in combat! Some notes on having the shield at waist level: It seems to be historical. The old (carolingian etc.) manuscripts extensively show shields being held at the waist level. The A-frame position is sometimes shown, too, but to me it appears to be the end position of the parry. Not the beginning. At waist level, the shield handle should be more horizontal. Reason is that a horizontal grip allows you to drop shield lower and parry knee/shin/ankle/foot. It is vcommon to have the handle vertical at waist level, but then you need to rotate it to make a low parry, which takes some time. A compromise is to hold the shield handle at 45 degrees at waist. But the key point is that the handle angle varies depending on how high or low the shield is held. Now you see why the shield shape is round: Handle angle does not matter! Having the shield at waist level, and leaving one's head and shoulders open feels counter-intuitive. But, the tactical application is that a shield covers a lot, so you always leave the location open you want the opponent to hit. When you leave the upper part open, you know your opponent is very likely to hit there. Therefore, you can already prepare the parry and the counterattack. And you want your parry technique to be multi-purpose, to cover all the attacks that can be made to the upper opening, all strikes and all thrusts. A punch block does just that. You only trace the hand of your opponent. Note: if your shield is too heavy for your strength, punch blocking from waist level will be slow. Very slow. Get a lighter shield or work up your strength and then it will be good. There is also a specific technique how to do it, using legs, body and arms, to make a very quick punch block from waist level. But it needs specific training. Also when having the shield in the waist level, you should not leave it there to hang passively when going to opponent's striking range. You must close the distance quickly and need to punch block up immediately to stop you opponent from doing anything with his sword or shield. The reason for starting the parry movement from waist level is that it parries your opponent's strike to your head AND leg with a single movement, but also prevents a possible shield strike from your opponent. The real deal would be to punch and push your opponent so hard with your shield boss (preferably to his face) that he will lose his balance. I occasionally do it (we have armour on), but it is very dangerous to do so in sparring, and many re-enactment rules prevent it for that reason. The timing is critical here, if you punch block too early your opponent can evade it by stepping and easily counter strike. Thus, this works best when your opponent starts to move forward to attack. You also move forward and punch. The collision is terrible so be very careful with it. I hope I could make short videos of this, this is very hard to explain by text. Let me try.

[@Tsurukiri]

@@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat Sure, but do not worry about the "mistakes". I think the videos are better when you show your sparring and not only pre-re-hearsed techniques, because here and there you actually execute the techniques just right. No fight is a perfect one!

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

@@Tsurukiri ​ @Tsurukiri Thanks for that very interesting input, a video would be great since words are always hard to grasp. I disagree with your statement about manuscripts. Most of the early medieval/viking age manuscripts depict dome shields, which work completley different than flat shields. Cuvred shields are hard to manipulate in the bind but are also akward to bind with. It makes sense to position them facing forward, although they tend to be on breast level (or maybe you meant this with waist level?). There are only very few scenes (early medieval/viking age) depicting something like a single combat, most of them are group combat or depicting some slaying unarmed. The only ones which come spontaneously to my mind are: Hexateuch 24v & 25v (manuscriptminiatures.com/5771/21793) or Stuttgart Psalter 70r (manuscriptminiatures.com/4868/13185), all with domed shield. I do not know any scandinavian depiction of single combat. Some later manuscripts depict (possible) flat shields facing outwards mostly on breast or even head level, such as BNE MSS Graecus Vitr. 26-2 Codex Græcus Matritensis Ioannis Skyllitzes 154v (manuscriptminiatures.com/4203/13419), SBB MS. Germ. 2º282 Eneit (Eneasroman) 32v (manuscriptminiatures.com/4784/12573), Beinecke MS.229 Arthurian Romances 241v & 92v (manuscriptminiatures.com/3971/10492, manuscriptminiatures.com/3971/10423). Whole curved shields tend to be depicted facing forward on breast level, such as BNF Français 1463 (A) Rusticien de Pise 28v (manuscriptminiatures.com/4245/19665) or BL Harley 4389 Roman de Tristan in prose 59v (manuscriptminiatures.com/4120/8450). I would be curious on which depictions you based your statement! :) I get your arguments and I have previously fought with a lower shield guard but I simply prefer the high guard. Covering the head, I try to compensate the leg defence with footwork. However, I agree with your shield "punch" blocks, they are crucial for a good defence on every body level! I never made a shield boss strike to work, from which situation do you perform them? I would love a video explanation in any way, maybe I missed something. Words are always hard to grasp!

[@jdjdjdjd4887]

Nice video! Only thing I disagree with is that you need to shield your head. I believe most helmet are more than enough protection for most bladed attacks.

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

And how many ordinary folk do you think had access to helmets?

[@jdjdjdjd4887]

@@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat those who can afford swords surely could afford helmets. But, I did not consider the types of helmets used in the period the roundshield saw widespread use. With a nasal helmet for example you still needed to cover your head, at least partially... So I take back what I said. In a different setup my statement might be true, in this one it is not.

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

@@jdjdjdjd4887 Not really a good argument. Clearly a lot of folks who used just axes,spears or long knives would still go with a shield.

[@jdjdjdjd4887]

@@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat I think you misread my comment.

[@sabinekaiser7893]

I love your channel and content, what sword for practice did you use here or do you recommended?

[@alexandermartzok_vikingcombat]

Thanks buddy! To be honest I cannot really recommend any smith at the moment. Very long waiting times and/or low quality. If possible try to get second hand sword after trying them out. If you are training with fencing masks (thrust to the face) a more blade heavier sword would fit. If you only fight reenactment in eastern/codex/huskarl most go with grip heavier swords.