Swordfighting Article

[alex_greene]

Just read a tumblr summary of a longer article on swordfighting, here. I figured I'd post it here rather than on the Traveller board, because it's more relevant here and because I'm spending too much time over there anyway. Thought I'd drop by the old neighbourhood and see how things are.

How are you?

 

[Prime_Evil]

The New York Times just did a piece on the revival of longsword fighting as a sport:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/sports/100000003040466/inside-the-world-of-longsword-fighting.html

This was also covered by Black Gate magazine:

http://www.blackgate.com/2014/09/19/the-swordfolk-among-us/
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/06/12/dawn-duellist-society-20-years-of-an-urban-fantasy/

Of course, the classic essay on realistic combat and fantasy is Poul Anderson's early 1970's work "On Thud and Blunder":

http://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/on-thud-and-blunder/

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I met a gentlemen a few years ago who was into realistic sword fighting. He would fight people and NEVER lose.

First of all, he NEVER swung his sword, he just pointed it at you and kept coming, knocking yours aside whenever you tried to strike him.

Unfortunately, what most of us know of sword fighting we got from TV and movies, and that is all about LOOKING interesting, not actually KILLING them as fast as possible and with the minimum of risk to yourself.

 

[wbnc]

I met a gentlemen a few years ago who was into realistic sword fighting. He would fight people and NEVER lose.

First of all, he NEVER swung his sword, he just pointed it at you and kept coming, knocking yours aside whenever you tried to strike him.

Unfortunately, what most of us know of sword fighting we got from TV and movies, and that is all about LOOKING interesting, not actually KILLING them as fast as possible and with the minimum of risk to yourself.

That is one style of fighting, I've done fencing...and well lets say I was never very good at it.

From what I've read there were as many styles of sword fighting as there are styles of cooking...even more. a Single large city might have several masters offering instruction, and each instructor having several styles he could draw on depending on the situation/opponent.