Dual wielding daggers

[Peter_Kurdi]

OK, Allen, you won You are especially got me on the second point. Since anything it is, most probably not a historic European martial art - which was the question I visited these forums to find answer for - there no more point of talking about it here, and we can close this topic. Anyways, if I still get anything interesting information - like, it was derived from rapier-and-dagger or one-hand dagger techniques - from Arkane Studios, I'll tell you, but that's all.

[Michael Olsen]

As someone who used to play quite a good many video games, especially the fighting "sword n 'shield" RPGS, I think I'll chime in here. It's already been mentioned and well acknowledged that video games just don't (and really probably can't) do it right. It's also been mentioned and acknowledged that the benefit of an empty hand when working with a dagger outweighs that of using two-daggers together, at least theoretically.

The connection here, I believe, lies in the combat system of most games relying on vastly simplified movement. You can attack, or you can statically defend. One or the other, never both at or near the same time. This, combined with the lack of grappling and disarming allows "dual wielded weapons" to become metaphysical possibilities. They work in the game world because of the artificial confinements placed on them by the necessity for simplicity in input and output. In the real world though, there are a lot more options.

This connects with the policy of some other martial arts organizations in regards to sparring. If I mandate that there are to be no hits to the head, legs, or forearms, how realistic will the fighting be? Not very. The same thing, essentially, occurs in video games. The player becomes severely handicapped, which allows for anomalies and anachronisms to leak in as they work under the unrealistic system.

[Gene Tausk]

Hi Gene,

What I know about the Hungarian szablya - by the way, it is pronounced like "sab-yah" - I learnt from a teacher at my university. (I studied Literature, but I got to know a lot of History-department teachers and students.) This man is called Csaba Hidán, and he is an experimental archeologist. He is quite obsessed with the idea to reconstruct the ancient Hungarian culture - the one that we had before we arrived to the Carpathians - and he is especially interested in warfare. (As a matter of fact, he had been an airborne infantry officer before). Anyways, he tried to collect as much about how the original szablya fighting could have worked as he could - not only from Hungarian, but also from Turkish and Mongolic sources - forged it to a style and now teaches it personally. Unfortunately, I can't recall any books he have written on his work (he is rather the doer than the writer type), and even if he did, I doubt that anyone has translated it to English. Maybe I could find and send you some Hungarian book, if you are really-really interested and have someone who can translate it for you, but that's all, I'm afraid...

Anyways, here is a clip that has shows some basic moves from 02:10 to 02:30 - not much but that's how it looks like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y69NLLyrULY

All the best

Peter

Hi Peter:

Yes, I would be very interested if you have a book on Hungarian martial arts. I unfortunately do not speak the language, but my (lazy) parents are now retired and have time on their hands and I might be able to entice them into translating it.

Please PM or email me and I will be happy to cover the costs of purchasing the book and shipping and handling.