My first serious attempt in halfswording vs spear

[Lance Chan]

Hello. I've been reading about how people fight against polearms with halfswording and have always wondered how. Finally, I've given it some serious trials, fighting 70 bouts against chinese spear today and in the final 15 to 20 bouts, I've started to see the light in the technique. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

Here is a few bouts selected from the last few trials. Both of us were running out of gas and the weather was hot. So please excuse me in taking off my clothes. Hhaha. I didn't grappled with my opponent because she's not comfortable of getting to the floor.

2.67mb
http://lancelot.servehttp.com/Sunday%20Butchers/18-5-03/half-swording%2018-5-03.rm

[Shane Smith]

Hello Lance,good to hear from you again! I told you that half-swording worked well against a pole-arm! <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> I saw some good work in the video.A couple of technical points however;

1.Your opponent does not appear to be a highly-skilled spearman(woman),that lends itself to a falsity of action and gives a false impression of the effectiveness of the fight.You managed a complete shutout as I saw it(save for one possible thrust to your foot).That would NOT happen against a highly-skilled spearman that often. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
2.Try to keep your tip pointing at the target while in your guards to provide an obvious thrusting threat with minimal movement.You can still drop to your other guards to parry aside and counter from here efficiently.

All in all,an excellent effort! Strive to incorporate a bit tighter form and you'll have it.I thought you both did well and I congratulate your efforts.There is no substitute for actual hands-on experimentation,nor is there a substitute for folks like you that busy their hands in earnest training and then share your observations with the rest of us.Thanks. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Lance Chan]

Roger that! I will keep working on it and try to use it on various polearms-wielding opponents to validfy my technique. It's so eye-opening that I'm anticipating for the next Sunday.

[TimSheetz]

Hi Lance!

I haven't had a chance to watch the video yet, but if the polearm wielder is doing their job they should really try to "work you over" at the extreme range of the spear to limit the advantages that you have.

Multiple quick jabs from the spear are the way to go after the sword wielder, ensuring that the spear wielder also can maneuver away from you as you try to enter.

Also make sure the spear wielder gets the spear shaft into the action.

Gotta give her some of these ideas.. don't want your life too easy!

Tim

[Guest]

Lance, could you consider the possibility to post your videos in mpeg or wmv format? I can't see rm files and I'm very curious <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> :
When I used the spear against the long sword (I do prefer the spear to the longsword), I usually received "I hate you" statements, It's a very though job to fight with the long sword against the spear.
Carlo

[Lance Chan]

Hello. Here you are. This version is slightly longer than the rm version, including 2 more bouts where the half swording techniques succeeded. To do my opponent justice, she actually hit me at my hands numerous times. I just cut those bouts out. MUAHAHHA so evil I am!

http://lancelot.servehttp.com/Sunday%20Butchers/18-5-03/half%20swording%20highlight.wmv

By the way, after successfully trying to employ half-swording in sparring, I've started practicing half-swording my real sword with bare hand. While I know the pressure should be placed on the flat sides, I still found my hand feeling uncomfortable against the edges. I tried to look for the photos illustrating how the blade should be grabbed (from Matt Easton's gallery) but found no difference between how he and I grabbed our blades.

I think I should point out that... my sword is very very sharp. For those who have watched the video where I cut tatami omote and bamboo, you got the idea. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> I sharpened it down to the forte... and I now regret a little bit. hehehhe.

Perhaps I should put a leather glove on?

[Guest]

Lance, thanks for reposting, I'll try to download from another pc, from mine I get a huge html file...maybe I don't have some codec.
Anyhow it's nice when someone remembers of the poor mistreated spear <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />
Here are some of my fav. tricks with it:
feint thrust-slash at the knee
feint thrust-drop point- rise staff between legs
cross with the sword- thrust at the hand following the blade-thrust chest
feint vertical slash- shorten shaft - drop below the blade- thrust to belly
My fav. spear counters (with one handed swords):
if he has a loose grip on the shaft with the leading hand, beat hard to make him loose the weapon
if he has a hard grip on the shaft cross the shaft with sword grasp the spear near the head, pull back while pushing with the blade into the hand-thrust chest

[Lance Chan]

Well, you can't just click on the link. Right click on it and pick "Save target as".

Actually, try to develop a habit of never just click on the link to download huge file (though this one is not huge). <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" /> Always uses Getright or Flashget to get the file. They can resume broken download, ensure the download is completed and download way faster by downloading multi-segments of the file simultaneously. So, in using these tools, right click on the link, copy the URL and paste it on the tools. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

This is how we manage to download files over several hundred MBs smoothly.

[Lance Chan]

Problem solved about gripping the blade and feeling uncomfortable. I've found that if I grip the blade in the middle, where the blade width is narrower, it fits into my fist comfortably. The forte gripping doesn't feel good because it was too wide for my fist and gave too much pressure on the edges against my hand.

I dun need a glove now. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Shane Smith]

Hello Lance,
A proper half-swording grip at the forte is known as the snake in Fiore's work.The grip you describe with the hand at 2/3rds of the way to the point sounds alot like the true cross as Fiore names it.It sounds like you are stumbling onto proper techniques by chance(which is not so hard to believe as most martial artists tend to move in the most natural ways possibe as a matter of course),OR you're doing your homework and holding out on us! <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Guest]

You might consider butcher male gloves, I would not trust skin gloves for half swording with sharps. I noticed that when I use the morder stroke I slide the leading hand on the blade, I should not do it, but it's an habit that comes from staff, axe and spear practice (I practiced more with them summed than with the long sword), if you do the same...

[Guest]

That big HTML file, if you renamed the extension to .wmv it should work. ( I accedentally did the same the thing by just clicking it rather than save as.) Barring that, try doing an "open with..." and choosing either "windows media player" or "microsoft windows media player" (actually 2 different applications.)

Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer-man... er... geek.

Lance - Keep up the research and good work!

[Guest]

Lance I managed to see the video and liked it, you gave the spearman a good lesson <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
Mike, thanks for the advice.
Carlo

[Guest]

Hi Lance,

Nice to see these vids, it is always a pleasure to see other people travelling this long and sometimes lonely road.

Just some comments if I may.

I think that the spear is too heavy for your opponent, so that it is difficult for them to generate enough speed to make the techniques work.

A second observation, the spear work is not exploiting the situation for the best. Thrusting should be the main technical avenue. Thrusting for the head with a feint and then circular movements (smallish) towards the stomach, and also a large number of attacks to the hands.

The stepping technique needs refining so that the opponent steps diagonally off line when going back and to the side when possible.

Also switching hands can be helpful for the spear user. ALso the ability to lengthen and shorten the spear at any moment can reap great dividends.

The spear user should work the weaknesses of the swordsman continually, probing and feinting where ever there is a gap. The sword is weak on length and on hand defence. Silver admonishes the staff user to switch between head and stomach area so this should be useful information!

I think because of these factors you are finding entering easier than would normally be the case. Nevertheless you both seem to be making good progress with the weapons used.

I personally would give the following advice to my students:

1. Use a light spear about 6 foot 6 " long. Use a small blunt metal spear head.
2. Wear protection of a gambeson, gorget of stiff material, safety helms like a fencing mask and good triple padded gloves and maybe elbow and knee protection. Then if you have a little more emphesis on controle (a little more than you are showing at the moment) then go for it. The results will be more interesting and closer to a real situation.
3. Explore things slowely at first and then speed up to full speed. Good controlled spear work can be learnt in a few months of intense practice.

I admire you for putting up your video which unfortunately I only saw a few times.

Keep up the good work.

All the best

Col

[Lance Chan]

Hello, here is some more half swording action from the last week. Around 4.24mb file.

http://lancelot.servehttp.com/Sunday%20Butchers/25-5-03/Halfswording%2025-5-03.wmv

There were some attempts in the grappling in this 2nd half-swording practice.