I like how we say of Hutton's age that they dismissed everything before them, and basically gave the Middle Ages a bad rep. Meanwhile Hutton is looking at Medieval and Renaissance manuals to become better swordsmen.

You could say they are recognizing that you can't expect your opponent in war to fight you on your terms. Therefore you must adapt how you fight (whether individually or as a whole army) to the war you're in. Not doing this has lost many a war over the course of history.

Its good that Hutton combined other martial arts with it

I'm sure I read/heard somewhere that the British view of the Choora as a chopping/cutting weapon was a form of selection bias. Doctors were treating cut wounds, but not stab wounds and so assumed it was a cutting weapon. However anybody stabbed by a choora was going straight to the burial detail and not being seen or recorded by the Doctors.

I love it that you guys also used full speed in demonstrations! Yes, use slower movements and pauses to clearly explain the technique, but also show how it might look in actual use, preferably against a resisting opponent!

This was a great video, there are some rough contemporary spanish sources. A few decades before Hutton but Jaime Merelo y Casademunt's treatise on the saber addresses this topic! In his book he delivers his fundamentals of saber fencing but he goes on to have 3 interesting sections at the end of his treatise. He covers the spanish sword/foil vs saber , he covers the saber vs bayonet, and finally the saber vs short weapons mentioning the Spanish experiences in North Africa and the Philippine Archipelago. He has a series of rules he lays out and mentions how he would fence with shorter weapons so that a student would know what strategies would be employed against them. He also mentions that grappling is an essential part and that its something best learned in the salle rather than in a book. Similarly Maestro Roman Punzalan Zapata covers his take on the spanish sword vs machetes, lances, and knives.

Excellent. Great presentation. I love the "practical application" aspect of this. Thank you very much. Top quality demonstration and explanation. Cheers!

Hello, Mr. Easton. A friend of mine directed me towards this particular video of yours, and I appreciate how you show the techniques first in slow motion several times, THEN at the chaotic full-speed several times. (Your method of HOW to educate viewers is as worthwhile as the subject matter.) Second, at around 08:50 minutes, you said, "In some cases, these things will just HAPPEN over the course of the fight." I agree! There are times in aikido classes where any student might be thinking, "Why are we practicing these elaborate, precise movements in class when IRL the odds of us contorting a chaotic mugger into this configuration is between slim and none when it's all coming at us too fast?" Some aikido techniques are more akin to: if we practice it enough times over enough years, eventually we recognize in a split-second when the assailant is in the proper position for us to use the technique. If we had scoffed at learning the technique and hadn't practiced it, the opportunities wouldn't be visible or available to us in the middle of a flurry of violence. Your mentioning of, "In some cases, these things will just HAPPEN over the course of the fight," strongly brought that to mind.

I think this would be a pretty difficult situation for the swordsman without a shield. These seem more like emergency techniques where you’re hoping the enemy over commits on the cut. I don’t think they are invalid, more like you’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I especially enjoyed discussion of use of the pommel, and the apparent tradeoff between the fastest possible instant response vs the option of a slightly slower but likely more deadly strike, either point or more devastating cut.

Both the footwork as well as the sickle-like motions of those defences bear a striking resemblance to Okinawa-style Karate. I am thinking of Uechi Ryu or Gojo Ryu . Great video, cheers🙂

I gotta read more of these books

Probably not useful in my daily life, but very enjoyable. Changes in any system after analysis are always fun to me. Since there is currently very little growth in swordmanship from use, I sometimes get the idea that what I see presented was BEST, rather than another stage in development. Thanks for this.

Hey, we did the exact same thing with Marozzo, Fiore and Leckuchner. I recognize those movements and actions. Grab, twist and strike.

The original video was very well presented. I love the demonstrations of "battlefield fencing" involving grappling and free hand manipulations!

many different grips in the shinkage-ryu marobashikai where the interaction of two opponents dressed in armor is considered. therefore, they do not cut with a sword, but use it to overcome the distance and various ways of knocking an opponent to the ground. At the same time, both the impact of the sword of the performer of the technique on the body of the opponent along its weak vectors and lines, as well as various kinds of levers and tacks are used. in fact, this is a technical analogue of European fencing books on the theme of a two-handed or one and a half sword, but in the form of a living tradition and not speculative reconstructions

I watched this when it premiered during Dreynevent. Thank you for bringing it up again. This is simply great.

Fascinating video. Interesting to hear about guys still developing combat styles right up until the weapons become obsolete.

Matt Easton, you're the best. Thank you for your earnest dedication.

thanks Matt, been hunting for this for weeks

Thanks Matt I enjoyed that one. I can imagine that being very useful to young gentleman and when reading historical accounts of battles I can see how this instruction was used .

Matt Easton, you're the best. Thank you for your earnest dedication.. Its good that Hutton combined other martial arts with it.

incredible, thanks for the opportunity to copy and work around

That was all really interesting, thank you for making that available to us! ^_^

This is an incredible video! More of this Matt! If you want to break down sword systems in this way, (commentary over video examples) I would want to watch as many videos of that as you could make!

This improves my faith and love for HEMA. Thank you for covering this, Mr. Easton. I anticipate more coverage of this topic with electric enthusiasm.

Great video, one critique is that its very obvious the "attacker" is not putting full force into the swing. With forward momentum on a swing they should easily be pushing the blocking blade, but in all these videos the attackers blade stops basically dead as soon as it makes contact with the attackers sword. This would definitely change some of these subtly as the 'defenders' balance will be different by trying to hold back the momentum of the 'attackers' sabre.

GREAT video - more like please ! I look forward to part 2 where you talk about the better alternatives you alluded to.

Fantastic video! Great analysis; thank you.

That was a really interesting video! Thanks Matt! Lots of what I see here is similar to the way we do fencing in Quebec's Scrimicie

I feel so grateful for your content great stuff, I will try to incorporate these techniques with my combatives, thank you.

You have no idea, how helpful this video is with some fight sceans I've been struggling to write... ❤ You channel 😺🐈👍.

Very interesting as always. I am always surprised to hear the Khyber Knife was primarily a cutting weapon, but you have mentioned British army medical reports confirming this in one of your earlier videos. The ones I have handled have a rigid spine and would make powerful thrusting weapons; I wonder if those records have survivorship bias-- the soldiers who were stabbed instead of slashed didn't make it to the doctor?

Great video. Very informative. ⚔

Dude this was awesome!

Fascinating and important work.

What an excellent video. Thank you so much, Matt. It is fascinating to see how swords were really used in relatable battle. I'm sorry, I love the medieval content you do, but this more modern look was just great.

Thank you for the video it was very informative and entertaining ⚔️

Matt you're a legend ❤

Intriguing. I'm Fascinated by sword work. Liked it!

Thank you for this video, we are working on alot of these movments currently with my group, grapples are a very fun technique and should be used more often I think in sparring and tournaments.

These videos are awesome! It's cool to know more about swordsmanship. I don't want to just go to my nearby hema class and only learn about long sword.

Amazing stuff! I was always amazed at Hutton's research into older swordplay. Is it too much to call him the "Father of HEMA"? Love the practical demonstrations.

Outstanding!!!!!

Fantastic!

Onlineschlag event was amazing, hope I wish wish they continued the project even though lockdowns are over

Awesome video; very interesting. It would be awesome if you expanded and showed modern-day options for these types of attacks.

I really enjoyed this video.

This is a very well written and presented video, at least from my perspective. I like to consider myself a quick learner, but I have very limited experience with HEMA, most of it in longsword and basic European sabre and I found the information contained within easy to understand and - if I wished - implement to start learning these techniques. Which, as an aside, strike me as eminently practical, particularly given the role of an officer in combat of the period and the likely opponents. Someone else commented that these seemed like desperation moves, as a buckler armed opponent has a considerable advantage, and I would somewhat agree - but the shield / blade armed swordsman has to reach engagement range through firearm fire, making these situations either applicable in surprise engagements, or in the closing elements of more conventional engagements - at least, I would assume that, without knowledge of the Afghan war of the day - and those situations are by their nature desperate and bloody.

I googled "battlefield sabre techniques" yesterday and was met with a dearth of practical info. A lotta "light saber" nonsense. Yeah. Anyway, saw a Scholagladiatoria notification this afternoon and, lo! Ask and yea shall receive. Thanks, Matt!

This is very interresting. I looked for one of the books and found one on eBay.👍 Regards from Limburg, Germany.

Thanks for another great video, this was the video I was looking for when I found the video where you talk about pistol. This is exactly what I was after and answers very well some thought and questions I was having in my own mind. I was interested you mention a French system that includes the use of the scabbard, as this was also a train of thought I was having in my mind, could you name the source so I can find it. Interesting what you said about small sword and 133. I will get hold of these. As I am realy more interested in the use of Saber on the battlefield, as like you said combative. Going to try this out with a friend. Thanks again for the Great insight. Dan.

Indiana Jones knows how to end a swordsman quickly

It kind of reminded me of some of the ideas that I saw in a demonstration of the Shawnee (Native American tribe) martial arts. Seizing with the off hand, grapples, using the tomahawk to first hook and then coming back around to strike with it.

I disagree that all european martial arts held the bucklers at arm's length exclusively. Marrozzo himself says it's ideal but not strictly neccessary. Also most brassards (anti-grappling tournament armor that locks the arm in place) have the arms at a half-bend. In addition, KDF and non i.33 sword and buckler has the buckler as close as the indian fencer in the dreyschlang video as a resting guard, only going further as a reactive response (bucklers are a reactive defense after all).

Lovely presentation, we are working with a local Scottish broadsword school due to similar interests. Your mate was cutting a bit more in the European fashion which I suppose is fine for the demonstration. But it would be cool to see it done more from the shoulder while spilling forwards. It might actually make the advice a bit more advantageous actually

What I find interesting is that the ability to use the hand seems more advantageous than to have a buckler.

And remember to always restomp that groin.

I'd love to see the reaction video of a HEMA guy specialised in renaissance techniques.

Behold, the origin of all modern military martial arts!

As someone who practice sabers, that use hammer grip and blows with power of whole arm I can say that paring powerful strikes with lite saber and a this gentle grip is much difficult than it looks

Reminds me of the movie Rob Roy, the dueling scene at the end, saber versus rapier.

Matt, with your extensive reading, experimentation, and experience the HEMA world would greatly benefit from you authoring some kind of fighting manual in modern language-- not so much a history lesson as a practical textbook. A separate volume describing and summarizing historical sources techniques would also be extremely interesting. Edit: while I’m planning out your time for you, please make something that doesn’t look like crap on a kindle.

It's "top gun" training (dissimilar combat training) for swords.

The offhand weapon passes remind me of what I have been taught in FMA work. Very good video

Excellent info. Not sure if you have already covered “khukri” but would love to learn more about its origins. ❤

More techniques to add to my toolkit, yippee!

Again, tshirts of greatness! Do you have any bad ones? No!

Nice Wrap at 7:24 followed by a draw. Amazing how practical it is even with a saber. It will also work to the back of leg to hamstring somebody. People who have never executed any of these cuts are going to come along and say it's not a wrap. Unless you regularly use back edge cuts you don't know what a wrap is and how flexible and versatile it is. 7:24 " inspired by earlier sources" 🙂

The wars between the Danish vs North English were the earliest example of the behind the knee or leg attacking technique as far as I have heard of. The protection armour, interlocking chain armour, was vulnerable to the early Danes. The mercilessly aggressive Danish were trouble. This period was within the 13th, 14th century.

There is, or used to be, a YT clip of an Indian martial artist using a sword (tulwar) and a spiked buckler. The buckler was employed as a stabbing weapon, punching the opponent with the spike, while the swords were bound.

Rob Roy movie shows I think well what a dandy can do. It’s one of the best sword fighting scenes in all movies. Lots of contemporaries might look at him and laugh. But he was a rock star of the day and lethal. They practiced daily for hours and they fought dirty. Grappling an equal is one thing. But someone like a master would not allow you to close without obliging you with serious injury or death. Also if it’s life or death the stakes and mistakes are many. To remain calm in those situations is where the training comes in.

A lot of this looks a lot like medieval langesmesser. I love it :)

Very interesting vid - showing once again why context makes for better understanding of our shared world-history! 👍🏻 More often than not, however, the terminology of swordsmanship can lead to raised eyebrows: Like when we combine swordplay with "an appendix of the rear" (😳); How to pass the "Dutchie" on the lefthand side… And don’t get me started on "Fingering the Guard"! I’m sorry; but the jokes are pretty much writing themselves at this point… 😁

Thanks

Awesome

That head is nicely shaved and polished. Customers will know you maintain your blades well

Fantastic presentation. Did they include any moves or drills with a pistol still being drawn as well?

Not to disparage this at all - these are effective techniques - but this kind of parry followed by open hand grappling and then counterattacking are techniques I was taught in the first year of studying Eskrima. Because Eskrima swordsmanship involves mainly short swords and knives (there is some saber), grappling the enemy's limbs is very common, very fast, and usually results in a quick exchanges of grapples, counter-grapples, close range strikes or other similar maneuvers (including a lot of open hand blade deflection against the flat of the blade, or outright grasping - usually the false edge). Considering that Eskrima was influenced by Spanish swordsmanship, it's not surprising. but nice to see the same ideas appearing/being discovered elsewhere. Eskrima continues to develop to this day alongside modern weapons (in other words, firearms) and if you know the roots and can follow along the development paths of its various schools, you can find a lot of history in there.

Hey Matt, big fan of your channel! I was wondering if the preference for primarily 'cutting' weapons on the battlefield like the saber, the katana etc. can be explained because of the tendency of stabbing weapons like the rapier getting stuck in the body of the opponent. There are witness accounts from the first world war where bayonets stabbed between the ribs got stuck when the opponent fell to the floor and apparently even stabbing someone in the lower belly can lead to a contraction of the abdominal muscles and prevent the weapon from being withdrawn. Not much of an issue in a one-on-one confrontation but quite a nuisance when facing multiple opponents. Is there any historical support to this theory? Thanks in advance for your answer and effort and I look forward to your next video, preferably on the Dutch colonial klewang.

We do unarmoured sparring on a weekly bases with blunt olimpic fencing sabres usually towards to the end of our regural HEMA session. I would say one needs huge balls to attempt a wrist grab / grip in a situation where sharps and no armour involved. Great video though.

_The Dread Crochet_ please write this book.

Give us another video on the better options!

Like how when they're going full contact the shield user doesn't just let himself be manipulated. You can see he struggles when his arm is grabbed and uses the shield to evercome and block the counter several times. Vary good techniques.

Great stuff just waiting for the wife to come home so I can try out some of these moves on her

The tank general, General Patton, had a looong career. He started as a cavalry officer. Designed the last official for combat use sword. Held the unique title "Master of the Sword". Bronze in the Olympics. I heard a rumor of a short manual for cavalry by him from this time before WWI but can't research this point. I have seen a return showing 40,000 of this pattern sword in the far east in 1940: 18,000 cut down and issued as machetes in the Philippines.

Interesting material. Matt you mentioned that you think there are better sources to draw from than Silver for this- it would be interesting to see you expound.

Nice.

That is what we learn in Silat weapon fighting ... Very interesting presentation. Come to think that my ancestors who fought the European were "uncivilised" 😅

I just googled that works of Alfred Hutton I never knew he made that many books

I brought a Sabre when I deployed to a combat zone. Semper Fidelis!

All the arm trapping in the first moveset is really similar to basic chinese dao moves

Matt you need to write a book on combat saber.

A major flaw in the instruction is that when you step in to grab your opponent's sword arm, they will almost certainly continue to step to the left, and at the same deliver a hard punch to the face with their buckler.

Some of these demonstrations remind me of traditional performance martial arts, where an answer to a single strikes involves multiple actions, while the training dummy holds the pose from that initial strike.

I started Judo in 1967 and taught it for a couple of decades, I see all kinds of foot sweeps available., I wonder if anyone in HEMA utilize this art?

Interesting. Most of the presented techniques make a lot of sense in close ranks fighting.

First? And fascinating. I know a few reenactors to send this too.

Does the person with the buckler have an advantage if they are equally skilled?

Grip 2 reminds me of the Pinnion from Parkyns ans somethu😂ng from silvers closing mixed together.