Problem #1: You die when you are killed.

"Necromancers: Healers with bad timing." This is the first time I've heard that joke, and I'm using it to describe them in the future.

Problem with any HEMA competition is that you will always even subconsciously be less cautious because it isn’t real. If you’re leading in points, you can even lose a few points to further gauge your opponent. Not possible in real life. Suppose you could make it so that if you “get a fatal wound” you just immediately lose, but that makes for poor sport.

"The best techniques are passed on by the survivors." Yes this quote still applies when it comes to real fights.

Very good points Skallagrim. One thing I've read is how ehxaustion was far more impactful than skill. Fighting is one thing, fighting after marching for 14 hours is another one completely. Someone said: "an exhausted skilled swordsman will always be beaten by a well-rested novice".

This video brought to mind a couple quotes I read. The first is from one of David Gemmell's novels, can't remember which one. But the quote is something like, "Every man with a sword is undefeated in mortal combat." The other is from "The Excalibur Alternative" by David Weber. The context is an English army is stolen fom the Hundred Years' War and recruited to fight on behalf of an advanced alien civilization. In reference to the aliens' highly avanced medical technology and the effect on his soldiers' abilities, the English commander is thinking, "Death was a wonderful teacher when he was not allowed to keep his pupils."

Gorgeous landscape right from the start

On Mike Tyson's podcast the WWF wrestler the Undertaker recently told a story that some WWF wrestlers don't practice the really dangerous stunts because the risk of injury is just as high as doing it for real, and training would only double the risk. I can see that same mindset here, if the risk of simulating combat is loosing a limp then you simply don't. You train the basics, you train yourself silly in dealing with circumstances but you leave the high risk situations for the moments that count.

The thing I love most about the Tybalt-Mercutio-Romeo fight in Zefferelli's film version of Romeo and Juliet is that the fight begins as two teenagers showing off with deadly weapons, turns ugly when one of them gets skewered more or less by accident, and devolves into a dusty, brutal brawl and no one wanted and everyone loses. That's one of the most realistic swordfights in film history.

To avoid miscommunication with a hairstylist always show a picture of what you want and use language like "just an inch shorter here." Never trust that they will just automatically get it because it's their job.

This puts an interesting perspective on the realistic lightsaber duel that you reviewed. The school taught its students the art of the sword, and they often died repeatedly in their training and testing and thus had to be repaired and revived.

It really makes you comprehend how epically talented someone like Miyamoto Musashi was. First kill around 13 years old with no training, he basically picked up a katana and was either going to figure out sword fighting by surviving life and death battles or he was going to die, and instead of dying every battle he survived made him a better swordsman until he was the best in his generation. Such a story sounds unbelievable when you consider how much can go wrong in any given sword fight.

Hi skalla, there are some direct and indirect references to fencing protection. Rapiers with ballpoints are mentioned by some masters, fencing masks from the 17th and 18th century seem to have survived. Pagano writes in his narration of two people fighting with two handed swords that they had hats that had steel protection underneath them and a spring device that would when being hit release an iron mask to protect the face. There are other more indirect refernces to fencing jackets, some kinds of protections one seem to imply some skullcap as protection underneath a normal hat. Regarding realism, the masters back then knew about the problem, manciolino iirc suggests a tournament system that is more realistic, where being hit punishes you much harder and the hit person is allowed to do one action in form of a ripost. Imo there should be different styles of tournaments with different goals. Another thing would be trying out accurate historical fencingswords and actually only fight with eye protection maybe throat protection and historical rules. So no thrusts and only hits to the head. Interestling enough that changes the whole dynamic of fencing and usage of techniques also it seems the injuries are quite harmless. Some did experiment with that. Should be however noted that with accurate fencing swords many seem to mix up parat swords and real fencing swords. Spinning is only really vialable when being surrounded no matter if rapier or great sword, there are however some smaller late rapier devices that have spinning moves in them. Anyways great topic.

Just the fact that you realize that you're actually fighting for your life puts combat on a whole different plane than any kind of training. Training may make you a swordfighter, only combat makes you a warrior. Great video.

In Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines. It is common for martial art train with weapon. There are some case of fatalities when accident happens. Injuries like cut, losing or damaged a finger is quite common amongst practitioners especially in a traditional training

You get this in the unarmed martial arts as well. Point sparring is the first to come to mind. This can lead to a false conception of ones actual skill level. This is because the "point" can be won with little to no power used in the strike as long as it made some sort of contact with the opponent. I enjoy this topic. Keep'em coming.

Barber might just have trimmed up ol' Skall a century or two. From 950's Shieldzerker to about 1150's Housekarl.

In other words, we are extremely lucky Musashi died just shorly after (matter of days) after writing his Treatise, although, not quite, as the final parts might have been longer and deeper, but he rushed cuz he knew he was short on life expectancy. Also lucky the manuscriot survived rather wholly - that he wrote while serving someone who happened to be in the end one of the rare lords that managed to keep his Castle, Lands ans Title after the civil war, instead of it burning down to arson/fire or purely being dismantled by order lf the central govt. And also with few alterations or parts whose originality we actually might question.

Off-topic: It's so lovely seeing you walking around in that landscape. I went there on holiday six years ago. Such an amazing place ❤

I haven't got to watching your content in a while and I'm glad im getting into it now, it's nice to see you describe combat scenarios objectively while also giving your opinions on the matter and understand where certain things can be used for exaggerated scenes for fun as well as understanding where the lines can be crossed between practicality and impracticality. You're a fun and insightful man.

I feel like I’m lucky to still be battling, after a poke in the face, gout issues, a hernia, cracked fingers, cracked foot from hacky sacking a steel blade, and growing older, to the most recent issue - a ganglion cyst on the bottom of my foot right under my big toe where the gout flares up… 🤦🏻🤷😂 …and that just from training, health, and age. No where have I suffered actual combat damage. Who knows how far I’d have made it in 1585 without modern surgery and medications on top of actual combat damage, because my bold, beginner charges would likely have left me crippled pretty early! 🤔

Heh, loved the "Fatality!" edit.

One of the best quotes ever in martial arts (and it applies great to weapon fighting as well) cam from (oh, well) Bruce Lee: " I don't fear the man who practiced 10.000 techniques for 1 day. I fear the man who practice 1 technique for 10.000 days".

Quite the dilemma! Compare Olympic fencing vs. classical fencing vs. actual duels. Likewise in Budo. Kendo is a shadow of Japanese fencing; pre-WWII Kendo (still practiced by Japanese police, and which includes tripping, grappling and disarming) is somewhat closer to Japanese combat reality, but still using shinai (light-weight mock swords made of bamboo slats - early use of wooden swords was tried & quickly abandoned as too injury-prone). We can get close with kenjutsu kata with bokuto (wooden swords) or even metal swords (unsharpenable alloy metal blades, or even shape steel for the more advanced practitioners) are more edgy, but those are just pre-formed forms and not free-form. (And forget the foam boffers of Sports Chambara - quite the joke from the demos that I have seen, but can be somewhat helpful given the proper conditions as supplemental training). The bottom line is that, generally, the safer you make sparring, the further away from actual reality you are. Likewise, we do want our playmates to return to class for the next session.

When things are games/hobbies then they really are not fights. This is a blessing! We live in an age where friends hit eachother with swords! Much better than your enemies hitting you with swords!

Does that necromancer joke qualify as Dead Pan Humor?

I see the same issue with gunfighting, though at least we can measure our accuracy and time with paper targets and a shot timer. Though force on force training does require simunations and all that.

"A necromancer is just a healer with poor timing." Now _that's_ a quote for the ages.

It was indeed stimulating ! I like this kind of content, you rambling while taking a walk in a cool place

My man is hiking through rough terrain and casually talks about sword fighting, gotta love it

Another interesting aspect is that HEMA practitioners today also may have fought more opponents and for longer than many of the authors of the original treatises. The safety of equipment today means people can keep doing HEMA for longer than what some of these old masters even lived. Sure, HEMA isn't going to be a good simulation for real life combat, but it's still an interesting point.

I really enjoy these rambly videos. They're short but on point and I can do stuff while listening. Also hits home with the saying "fear the old man in a profession where men die young".

Well said. I was trained several years ago, for real sword fighting. You fight to maim or kill, not to make points. There were seldom any predictable movements. Most of the time you were trained to duck and get in that first slice. It wasn't fencing, it was brutality. In exchange, I instructed in the skill of rifles. A long distance form of inflicting pain.

for a moment there i was taken aback by skall actually saying "fatality" since i half expect that this video will be demonitized because of it but nah, this is skallagrim.

I really like these videos where you are out in nature. Such beautiful scenery.

ngl the beard looks quite good in that style. cant wait to see what it looks like when it grows again and maybe get the same trim, but less short haha

the point about learning from mistakes and real vs practise fighting is immensely important. the value of veteran troops was high, just look at the end of the Roman Republic or post Stalin Russia. a trained and blooded man joining your ranks is usually more valuable than a total amateur and will get a signing bonus or easier promotion as a result.

There is one argument about the historical fighting experience I found out recently that completely flipped my view of how "experienced" those medieval duelists may be. At the very end of the 16th century, Prague had ~60k citizens. Yet in Old Town (one of three city districts), there was a law introduced, allowing fencing tournaments to be held "only on Sundays or Holidays" which means, roughly 110-130 tournaments PER YEAR. The law has many more interesting details but the fact that they had to restrict the tournaments to be "only" every 3rd day or so is insane if you think about it from today's HEMA perspective. If you realize it was one of the most popular free-time activities overall, there were 2 major schools in the town (Marxbrüders and Federfechters) that were attended by many (most?) adult citizens plus traveling professional swordfighters making a living out of prize money... The raw talent pool and skill transfer options were unimaginable from our modern perspective. I think it was more like soccer which every Western kid knows how to play than anything else. And we are still talking about one city of the time only, not a small one but also not a large one by any means.

I like this style of video by the way. Walking through the woods speaking into a mic, perfect way to keep the viewer engaged! I found the surroundings beautiful!

Hey Skall, interesting insights. I like these kind of toned down chill but informative and still fun videos. Very pleasant to watch and listen too. Cool Castlevania merch btw. I really love the Netflix adaptation.

Skall, the stylist was right, you look fucking great like this man!

I can't remember exactly who it was off the top of my head unfortunately (they might have been a member of the Shinsnegumi) but there was a Japanese swordsman who had been in many real duels and was undefeated and feared. But in duels with practice swords was okay (not bad but not super amazing either). And he had a quote about how fighting with practice swords was just play. Which always struck me as how many factors make fighting with real swords with your life on the line different from practicing

dude i absolutely love this new walkabout format you've got going on, your country is super beautiful, hearing about swordy stuff while getting to go on a beautiful walk is next level :)

Would absolutely love a video about the use of spinning in sword fights and other armed combat (spears, knifes, blunt impact weapons etc)! Great content Skall!

Not by any means a sword person, just watched by accident! Yeah that was fascinating, a good dose of reality, thank you 👍

I am writing a fantasy story set in the times of the early roman empire revolving around a young germanic warrior noble, who rises to great prominence and power due to his devilish skill with the sword and shield. While writing the very topic of the video popped up in my head. At some point the protagonist contemplates on why he managed to get to that point while so many others didn't, ultimately coming to the conclusion that a lot of it has to do with circumstance and sheer luck, and less with his own outlandish talent, as he was told from early on in life. Being born to a chieftain, therefore having access to both better gear and better training than the vast majority of people. Not to mention actually having the time and energy to train daily under a skilled mentor, without having to work on a field or anything like that. Being lucky enough to survive his first few real battles until his skills properly developed is another thing. He witnessed some of the other boys of his age, close friends to him, being severely injured and/or killed long before they could ever realize their potential. He also trained like a madman of course, but that again is a privilege that comes with being a noble.

Those are some deep, well consideres, and provocative thoughts. This is the first of your videos that I’ve seen and I’m subscribing.👍

it's good to see you out hiking, that is a really beautiful landscape friend

About spinning attacks, it's simple, the back muscles are pretty dense to absorv unarmed blows. However, when weapons are involved, you can be stabbed (or hitten any other way) pretty faster and deadlier than any unarmed blow powerful enough to cause damage or consequences to the fight.

I've been dealing with the same problem in my latest book. A knightly order of sorts who have been patrolling the countryside, keeping the roads safe, but that's pretty much the extent of their combat experience. In order to become proper warriors, people have to go to war. And a proper fighter needs to be in fights. You can train all you want, but the safety net of blunt weapons and controlled environment only gets you so far. If the danger isn't real, how will you react when it finally does become real?

Nice video, that is something nice to consider when it comes to fencing and its evolution through the years. It also got me thinking about a misconception (largely thanks to movies/games/pop culture in general) and how complete enemy forces annihilation wasnt nearly as common as we have been led to believe. A loss of as "little" as 1/3 of one's forces (for example) is catastrophic, but we're very used to seeing armies obliterated with no hint of survivors, which *did* happen but in few instances throughout history. Would that be video-worthy? I figured it has lots of similarities to what you said about fencing, except in a larger scale, about how unforgiving fights were and how injury, death, and ability to fight is nothing to scoff at. *YOU* have a good one, love your videos

Just want to say Skall that I like these styles of videos with the ocean background mixed in with video of you test cutting and stuff. Really makes the video more interesting to watch imo

Sorta related to this - I used to play a *lot* of combat flight sims. WW2 era in particular. I have *way* more trigger time (with pretty realistic ballistic models these days) on maneuvering targets than anyone who ever actually flew in combat. I can compare my shooting with actual ww2 gun camera footage and straight up see that I'm just a better shot than the vast majority of those guys where. Any historical person that's got better aim is just a freak of nature (and those do exist). Here's the thing though. I'm not even really all that good compared to a whole lot of the guys out there flying sims right now. Wouldn't be even if I wasn't a bit rusty these days. Just food for thought. Not any kind of criticism of the guys that actually flew those planes. They just didn't have anything even close to a realistic simulator. The closest thing they had was the occasional highly choreographed pass on a towed training target. They definitely didn't get the ability to learn from a fatal mistake either.

It amazed me in fencing how many "double hits" happened in epee (rapier). Incredibly more than foil and sabre. In other words, you're both mortally wounded. Interesting technique difference of parry and riposte, versus allowing an attack, hoping you're faster (and being wrong).

Great video, Skall. Love the nature walks.

I haven't seen your videos for a while. I am glad you are back

Have you ever covered Mensur / Academic fencing? Made me curious due to the topic in this video where they actually are slashing each other in the face.

many of the same things apply to modern combat. we can get closer to simulating a firefight with the tools we have, but it will never be the same as the real thing

I appreciate the whole walking-through-the-woods-while-tirading vibe. You are very reasonably articulate and easy to understand.

Love the walk and talk! Not sure of this is a new format, would appreciate more.

As an infantry combat vet.....i can safely say there is a difference between practice and real combat lol. Unfortunately there is no save scumming or continues....😅

Keep the content coming brother

Nice! Exercise and chatting about swords! Best of both worlds!

Amazing landscape! And reasonable thoughts, too.

Some really good points. I am member of a school teaching german long sword and Joachim Meyer in particular. We train without protection - like they did in the medieval times. For the first year, you are only learning footwork, control, the principal hews and some basic counters. We train this every week until we exactly know how to stand and walk properly and how to dose our speed and force. Controlling the blade and body is the no. 1 priority, because it's the foundation to not hurt each other. And in addition, it build up trust. But it takes a lot of time, dedication, effort and a certain mindset. The payoff is awe inspiring when you see the members, who are close to becoming masters fencing at full speed without protection and the worst injury is a splinter in a foot from the wooden floor.

Many times it wasn't the best swordsman who won, it was the luckiest. Nobody, regardless of skill, is ever more than one lucky punch or one lucky thrust away from being slain. I heard a martial arts master say once that all it takes is 1/10th of a second to completely undo decades of training and discipline.

Skall's backrounds are always top tier, Canada is a beautiful place

At least your beard still looks good this way. You make an excellent and very important point about the likelihood of being taken out of the game before you can even get good at it, and about it not being a certainty. I would love to see a video (or series of videos) about techniques for fighting multiple opponents as successfully as possible; I know the subject has been touched on in several videos, like the one about the dual-wielded spears in Wheel of Time, but I'd love to learn more about viable tactics.

the same as with every martial art if you were actually fighting for your life you'd fight very differently.

It's something I've been lamenting about the "meta" of swordfighting. All that mostly seem to exist are historical martial arts either from the east or the west. The thing is, theres no reason to think those historical martial arts are truly the peak of swordfighting technique and it just can't really be advanced anymore. Looking at MMA especially is really interesting because we can see styles collide and improvements being made and the entire dynamic of what works now is not the same as what worked even 20 years ago, even though historically there was probably more unarmed fighting than armed fighting. Even now, it probably hasn't reached it's peak. Swordfighting just can't go through the same thing because swordfighting is just TOO unsafe to actually practice. The damage and fear are crucial to understanding real swordfighting and it just can't be matched in a sparring setting. My best hope for an eventual swordfighting development is full dive VR, but who knows how far we are from that.

I liked the rambling with the walking in nature, it is a very nice combination! 😊

I just want to let you know I really enjoy the hike you went on also. What a nice place. It's the nature of combat, a great fighter can lose to circumstance. Albeit far less likely.

A thing that you didnt really touch on fully was also even if you were the better swordsman its very possible your opponent could just get lucky and land a fatal strike or you anticipated incorrectly and were punished. So with how reality is for us 1 solid hit makes the whole thing even harder to get truly experienced

Playing chivalry I think the same thing. I'm truly a force of nature now but it took me 20,000 deaths to get there. How do people get good at this when you can only die 1 time?

Looking very sharp there man, really like the haircut/trim.

I just want to say I love your outdoor filming locations.

Oof 😂

Don't cha love it when a guy who's never been in a fight tries to lecture you about fighting.. lol

This are my favorite kind of videos, a well thought rant while you walk through the wilds. I wish I could go walking into nature like that near home

I like this. Getting to see the scenery and quite an interesting point

Very stimulating video!

My condolences to your beard. Great scenery, wish i was there. yeas old warrior syndrom is real. going on 52 now and I am simply broken all over. Thanks for a lovely vid.

This video helped me understand something about kenjutsu which has always puzzled me. My understanding is that many (most?) kenjutsu schools place a heavy emphasis on two-person kata drills but little emphasis on free sparring. Given what we now know about developing skill in combatives, this always struck me as odd. Perhaps the answer is this: two person kata were the most effective method of training that didn't bring with it a corresponding high risk of horrific injury or death. Free sparring, even with wooden implements, would have maimed and injured individuals before it developed enough skills. The kata approach may have been much less effective at developing competency, but it allowed people to train consistently and some level of skill before the rest was honed on the battlefield.

Nice talk, nice view and the landscabe is also nice in this video

Loved this style of video!

That's quite a relaxing scenery you are walking around.

Cool shot video Skall!!!

Like to see you out getting that exercise, my man. 💪 Beautiful scenery.

Good Points! Something to keep in mind.

Very beautiful scenery

I just peruse your vids from time to time. You're hair looks good at that length bro. Is your approach anthropological? I love the perspective, compare and contrast between now and history. Keep going!

Love the backdrop. Beautiful area. It really doesn't matter what you pontificate about, or for how long. If you're out there, I'm watching it.

The background to this video is really pretty, those shots of the sea (or lake, i don't know) look beautiful

@Skallagrim I like the idea of a video discussing when *spin* attacks work in swordfighting, but I actually think it'd be a good idea to go a step *further* than that and make a video talking about when *lots* of different flashy techniques actually work in swordfighting and armed combat in *general* . I can think of *two* more scenarios in which a spin attack would be advantageous; one you mentioned in an *older* video, doing it as a sidestepping dodge and counter technique, or using it as a means for a short weapon and shield fighter or a duel wielder to close in on an opponent with a *longer* weapon. In the *latter* case, they'd go into the spin using their offhand implement to knock their opponents weapon outta the way and then quickly spin in too close for them to swing their bigger weapon; and in *both* cases, they'd attack with their weapon while they were *still* spinning to add the spins momentum to that of their attack, allowing it to hit even *harder* . *Another* flashy technique I can see working is the *jump* attack; if your opponent went for your *legs* , you could *jump* over the attack to *dodge* it, drawing your lower legs up underneath you to make absolutely *sure* they didn't get hit, and bring your *own* weapon down onto your now open opponent while you're falling, adding the momentum of the fall to the momentum of the attack to compensate for your lack of a kinetic chain due to being in the air instead of on the ground. And finally, there's *kicks* ; it might not seem like a good idea to kick in an armed fight, but there's some times where it'd actually give you an advantage; on Hurstwick, I read about a scene in the Sagas in which one Norsemen kicked the bottom of his opponents *shield* to knock the *top* of his shield into his *jaw* . In most cases, it probably *wouldn't* do the kind of damage it's described as doing in the Saga in question; what it *would* do however, is *stun* your opponent for a split second, which in a life or death armed fight, can make all the difference. And let's not forget, if there's a decently high *ledge* or decently deep *water* , you can potentially end the fight by kicking them *over* the edge, or *ringing them out* to put it in terms Soulcalibur players will understand. When it comes to life or death fights of *any* kind, but especially *armed* ones, people are gonna do whatever they think will help them *win* , and if that happens to be some flashy technique, then that's what they're gonna do; that's why I honestly believe *real* historical combat was somewhere *in between* the two extremes of the extreme down to Earthedness of Hellish Quart, and the flashy anime spectacle fighting of Soulcalibur. I hope you find that interesting, and consider my suggestion.

Wow that ocean view was breathtaking. You where talking about some serious stuff but i was just lost watching the nature and the sea.

The fatality was good editing lol two thumbs up!

Whoa! :O Your good at those swings!

Short beard looks good bro! I bet it's feeling nice and cool, just in time for the summer.

tour and lecture i like it that place is so calm

Your trim really does look nice