Videos of the recent sparrings (a lot!)

[Lance Chan]

Hello. I and my group have recently sparred with a Canadian SCA rapier practitioner and then a Kendo guy from Shanghai, who was one of the founders of his club that was one of the two kendo associations up there (well, we HK guys always call the mainland up there due to geographical locations). Here's the full report with photos and videos to download:


http://www.rsw.com.hk/activities.htm

[Lance Chan]

A customer in Japan took some time to make a review on swordforum.com:

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31455

[Guest]

Reading that makes me more interested. Unfortunately, it's out of my price range.

[Lance Chan]

We got something new made: Hungarian sabre.
http://www.rsw.com.hk/sabre.htm

Very soon there'll be Dao also. And maybe weeks later, there'll be sabre with knuckle bar.

BTW, about the worry of injury by the unpadded guard and pommel, we'll pad them for you upon request. It's your say. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Shawn Cathcart]

Just out of curiousity. What was the SCA guy doing that he ended up having his Rapier extended straight behind him in the majority of those pics? We've done quite a bit of Rapier work up here and I can think of no scenario where this would be...beneficial or even likely. Hard to use the point when its behind you.

[Lance Chan]

With that stance he wasn't trying to utilize the point but to hit with the edge. Actually I recalled that he mostly used the point. Maybe the 2 pictures showed give a false impression that he used the edges more. Now that may lead to the debate of whether rapier can cut or not. hehe. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Shawn Cathcart]

Well what was and wasn't a Rapier is so up in the air depending on where and when it was said its hard to tell. To me its just easier to divide them as cut and thrust sword, and plain thrusting Rapier. People can argue over what they think the terms actually apply to, but they are definately 2 distinct styles of fight which is what's really important. If you're going to cut with it, you might as well just term it cut and thrust for clarities sake. Most of what I would consider Rapiers or small swords in the Glenbow musuem collection wouldn't cut very well, except for superficial slashes to the face/hands. But then I'm going there again today to look at the collection with a new batch of students, so perhaps I'll look at them again.

[Lance Chan]

Personally I agree with your definition on cut and thrust and rapier. I found it easier to communicate.

I've read posts talking about the rapier manuals illustrating some cuts along with the majority thrusting attack, though. And Noah's argument to support his cutting usage with the rapier was exactly with the wide arc of the swing, it's gonna hurt even if the edge won't cut very well.

[Lance Chan]

Made a prototype today. Got 2 problems to fix though, you may read about it here:
http://www.rsw.com.hk/

[Lance Chan]

We put the claymore to test today and you may find some interesting videos here:

http://www.rsw.com.hk/videos.htm

I used to wield light hand and a half sword with short blade length. It took me some time to adapt the change with the massive sword in both timing and reach. I've found that with such a length and mass, half-swording has become very useful to increase the reaction speed against fast opponent while still having enough blade length to stick the tip into him. The hilt was actually long enough to be used in parry also. The thrusts are surprisingly accurate, for the mass allowed the sword to stay on track along the travel. It was quite a new experience to me.

My friend Simon wielded it in a different style though. While I concentrate on smaller movements like false edge cut, half-swording and thrusts, he wielded it with continuous wide arc cuts. He wielded it as if it was a polearms and it was quite effective.

Besides the new experiences opened up by wielding the two handed sword, it also enlightened those who go against it for it presents some formidable challenges to overcome. People who used to wield 48 inches sword and gain reach advantages over the shorter weapons user, were tested on their closing techniques when they fought against the claymore.

[Lance Chan]

For those who haven't watched our videos before due to the file size, I've made a 1.4mb video and doesn't require real player. (the claymore in the video is of the prototype model. The production model will be more rigid.)

http://www.rsw.com.hk/rswc.zip

[Shawn Cathcart]

That's my major problem though. Sure it might hurt, but why toss away the main advantage of the Rapier, its quickness and reach of thrust, for an admittedly inferior attack which will be almost certainly a non-cutting blow. He might get away with that against someone else with a cutting blade (still rather doubtful) but if he attempted such a trick against another Rapier combatant he'd be skewered right quick. Since the Rapier is all about the thrust, taking your point off line for no real reason is a very poor idea.

Anyway, it looks like you guys enjoyed yourselves. Always good to have people come from different places to freshen up your sparring.