Hey... Excuse me for my ignornace, but I really don't have the time, nor the attention span to go through all of the posts, so this may be a repeat. What I have come to love (although some of my sparring buddies no NOTHING about), is a paintball chest protector. It's made to take hits from little ba...
I'd invite you out to Jersey, but that's maybe 200-300 Km from Pittsburgh. My training group hopes to travel sometime this summer, so we may breeze through.
To those who are concerned about safety; We use (as Justin stated above) a modern paintball mask for facial protection, and just gloves for and wrist protection. We do take extreame caution in our training, and we only use at the most, an adapted (weighted and properly peiced together) LARP long swo...
Nice try Justin. A. I'm not George freakin' Silver B. I know your tactics now (muahahahaha) and C. Simply by getting inside of your point, you're done. In the time it takes for a rapier to either withdraw or reposition, the longsword weilder can raise his (or her) cross guard up, binding the rapier,...
Personally, I would keep a smaller shield, enough to protect the midsection and the groin. As stated above, footwork is one of the best options, no extra weight, and no getting used to a larger shield.
