Practicing with a scabbard or scabbard like thing.

[Corey Roberts]

I had this thought the other day. Pretty much anyone in the past who was going to use their weapon upon drawing it would have a scabbard hanging from their hip. To what degree would this affect the feel of doing the various movements while fighting. Would it be advisable for us to practice with a scabbard hanging from our side, to see how having this thing flopping or hanging around affects how everything feels? Just an interesting quesiton.

[s_taillebois]

To a point, the scabbard was removed at times. And occasionally carried on the horse itself. Medieval/Renn battles, often the movement of armies was such that lines of battle took a while to form. Much of the 'travel gear', was often left behind in the carts and etc. Ambushes obviously another matter.

Civilian use, many towns had laws (or customs), which discouraged the day to day wearing of battlefield weapons. Staffs, daggers, short rapiers often were considered differently...if for no other reason that these were less of a nuisance when carried into the market, tavern, cote and etc.

Generally a scabbard's light enough it won't impede movement to a high degree.
Advisible, would depend on what one's doing? Practice with a waster and a hanging scabbard, no problem. However, some have gotten into trouble practicing drawing and flourishing with a live blade. Obviously, generally not the esteemed contingent here on ARMA and the like...but there are people who do forget that swords are weapons...and exercise much less care than they would with a firearm.

[Jake_Norwood]

Many German techniques seem to stem from carring the weapon over your shoulder all the time, like a kid with a hooky-stick. I carried a 47 inch longsword around at the TN Renfair for a few weeks about two years ago and found that I actually preferred to put it in the scabbard then put the weapon beltless over my shoulder (with one hand "hanging" on the pommel) in a sort of super-lazy vom Tag or Zornhut as opposed to hanging it on my belt. It was quite comfortable and the weapon was always available (had I been assaulted by Ren-Fairies).

Jake

[Mike Chidester]

Fiore dei Liberi also includes three self-defense techniques that rely on the assumption that the sword is not in your belt. For one, the scabbarded sword is resting on the shoulder; for the other two, you've dropped it so the point of the scabbard is resting on the ground in front of you as an opponent confronts you.