It's because of sparring. If you actively spar, and you don't hold onto misconceptions, sooner or later you find what works much better than HEMA pseudo-authorities.

We are organising an Open Light tournament this autumn at Sofia CrossSwords 2024 - with swords provided.

@@borislavkrustev8906 if swords are provided is protection aswell?

@@wormdao No - if you don't have your own, you are most likely not ready for a tournament.

If he can hit with the flat, he can hit with the edge. Also, such a hit to a bare arm would easily allow a second hit with the edge.

@@borislavkrustev8906 If someone can hit with an edge then they should, I don't understand this attitude of, if he can hit with a flat then he can hit with an edge. You are just justifying bad fencing. The tournaments, especially longsword are touring into a flat slapping and hand sniping fest. It's as martial as Olympic fencing is.

@@borislavkrustev8906 Also, a hit with a flat in order to distract an opponent and then finish with a edge on hit is just fine, it's a valid tactical approach. But that's not what they are doing, they finishing with a flat hit because they don't know any better, they are fencing at a speed at which they have no controll and/or precision.

@@miroslavm2503 Safety. You simply haven't experienced a full intent cut to the forearm. Even with good protection. Handsniping is one of the most martial action in fencing - you attack the closest target in the safest way possible. Ask the Bolognese. Flat hits don't count in 2/3 of Olympic fencing weapons, so you might rethink that :)

@@borislavkrustev8906 We cannot fence with full force since there is no possibility to do that safely and more importantly there is no point to it. Working at 70% is all that you need to do, to know, all you need to know, and plus a actual weapon will cut effectively at far less speeds but you must align the edge properly, and there lies the problem. This fantasy of expiriencing an actual fight never goes away for some, me as well, but the desire to abandon martial sense does for others for some reason. Last time I was in a military drill/exercise they didn't divide us into two groups and gave us live ammo, so the ones that make it are good to go. There is only so much we can do to prepare for an actual fight with weapons. We cannot fence at full speed in a friendly manner and not make the whole thing a travesty. I recently had a similar discussion and I was told that: if I am not hitting with a flat I am not fencing fast enough. Next time I drive I will remind my self that if didn't crash I wasn't driving fast enough.

Every person who has tried Lights - by now I've seen over two dozen - has loved it as a training tool. Most of them have done Light vs Light. And even the biggest sceptics have admitted they were surprised after 2-3 minutes with it. Is is the one and only sword you need for HEMA longsword? No. Is it a great additional tool? Absolutely.

​@@borislavkrustev8906I have had the same experience. I was quite sceptical and was actually surprised how little has changed. It hits less hard and we had longer exchanges because recovery was much quicker.

It's a sports fencing, or as we in HEMA tend to call it, Modern Olympic fencing gym. Our hosts are great, they offer is an awesome rent, and we have an awesome relationship. The flooring is perfect for fencing, modern or historical, I can leave some club weapons safely since there is security, so I frankly give zero fucks what they put on the wall. Aside from that, I have enormous respect for Olympic fencers, their pedagogical development and the athletes they produce. They play a different game, but we actually have more in common than not. The sad reality is, most sports in Bulgaria have to rely on financing from betting companies to exist. The state funding is minuscule.... I miss the Digest too, but another sad reality is that I have a full-time job as a political journalist and there is only 24 hours in a day.

@@borislavkrustev8906 Got it! You are sharing a space. Nothing wrong with it. For a moment I thought you had your own space, and I was surprised to spot the flag (I was thinking you were trying to attract support for HEMA to become an Olympic associate sport, or raise HEAM's appeal to a broader audience, or something along those lines that go against the general HEMA and Olympic fencing optics). And as snarky as my comment about betting may be (and yea, it's not my favourite thing to see), the truth is that it's hard for me to judge underfunded sports that try to survive (not all are tennis, football and the like). Btw, for all the debates in the community (e.g. weight of a feder), if tomorrow we would have a guy invest 100 millions or so into a professional HEMA tournament circuit, he would get to dictate the rules on the spot. It's not even a question that money got to dictate the rules and directions that mainstream sports have adopted. Fans only get to dictate the rules if their sport is at the level of a hobby. What? Political journalist? But you'll be out of a job with the lack of wars, crisis and political scandals... oh, wait. 😏 👍

It's worth the wait, man. Still my favourite longsword. And it's holding great through constant abuse.

Sigi junior and sigi Queen

Coming soon!

The first exchange is the last two actions of the 5th play. And O:33 starts with the first action of the 1st play - It just continues differently.

We are getting new messers soon, so we will play with that as well. :) Talhoffer seems to see messer and arming sword as interchangeable, so...

@@borislavkrustev8906 well true, a messer can be used like an arming sword... an arming sword can be used like a sidesword...a sidesword can be used like a rapier... All can be used like a stick 😜

Great to hear! I am sure we can arrange a spar even if the tourney draw doesn't meet us. :)

@@borislavkrustev8906 definitely ! We'll know next month for sure if we can come

Yeah, we suck. Been working on getting faster, but the camera is stuck at 120 fps...

Hey, don't shit on tourneys. When you are running a tourney, the primary goal is to make the fencers happy - they are paying for it. Sponsors help mostly with prizes, the heft of the bill is footed by the fencers. And when you care about the fencers, you have so many other tasks that filming takes a back stage. Also, if you need to have 4-5 rings on video (as some tournets do), you can't afford a 1000 USD camera for each. You use decent webcams or phones, and you live stream it, which always lower quality. While here I am in a chill training hall, there aren't 100 people running around, I was still worried at times for my Nikon Z30 on the side :)

Excellent points and thank you! @@borislavkrustev8906

Give me a historical source for that definition and I will agree with it :D

Imagine what it would be if you had a second weapon AND the option to cut, not just thrust.

@@borislavkrustev8906 I do in Mugai Nito Ryu!

Hence the slow-mo doggo B-roll at the end :)

I've studied I.33 in detail, but it is not our main source at all, for a variety of reasons. You don't need to have the buckler fully extended all the time, and that in fact I is an inferior approach. I.33 is a confused and confusing source, and definitely one of the most useless when it comes to actually understanding s&b.

@@borislavkrustev8906 lol ok

Thanks :) That can be arranged

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Probably sweat. All operators were also fencers :D When shooting at events, you gotta check the lens for smudges all the time. Doesn't help that its also Greece in the summer :)

What do you mean? If its a copy of a copy of an earlier source? Possible, but there is no indication of that.

@@borislavkrustev8906 exactly what I mean. It's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum. But what context does it exist in? To what does it share it's context with?

They sure do

Unfortunately they're much more likely to develop a permanent kink from repeated bending (physics and shiyet). It's fixable but requires a disassembly and a few heat cycles (so sad q.q) T. Proponent of using wider, fullered feders anyway x)

@@Sk0lzky Yes, all the fullered blades I've used managed to develop quicker and more permanent sets. And yes, wider fullered blades are great anyways :)

You are not qualified to critisize my fencing, thanks. Nikon Z30.

I think you are confused who's who in the video, btw. At 0:13 Angel gets me in the hands after a quick parry. At 0:17 his sword doesn't go anywhere near my head. At 0:23 I deliver a thrust without any danger to myself.

Also, my focus is in Early KdF, so I have no idea what you call abfechten, reizer, or nehmer. Although I don't think those terms pop up in Meyer, either.

@@borislavkrustev8906 since you start left and Angel right in picture it's needless to say who is who, since both of you have different gear. On the last example I mistook you as Angel, there you were correct and I was not. Sorry. My friend, you just confirmed what I said earlier: At 0:13 you got hit by the hand because there was no Abfechten! Let's keep going from here on :) At 0:17 You know english/subjunctive, right? -> Quote/I repeat: "[...]without out gear YOU WOULD HAVE LOST an ear." Maybe just the lack of grammer, syntax, ... which has let you fall into misunderstanding me, getting mad because your (hurt) ego is responding to my comments :/ ...

@@borislavkrustev8906 Nevertheless, the core of basic fencing terms you should know as an athlete to describe what you do, right? Some facts no one can deny: Meyer (in all his books b.t.w.) describes and divides (a "piece"/"Stück") fencing into three parts. Let's take his third book, but the version he still edited himself before it was transformed: -'Zufechten' (mentioned 96 times). - 'Hand[t]arbeit' (mentioned 26 times, including the title of Chap. V, last section before Chap. VI, but(!!!) 11 full pages explaining this principle and dividing it into 28 techniques) and - 'Abfechen' (or Abziehen, Abfechten, zieh ab), which is mentioned 293(!) times in his third book, if you take all the early German and various synonyms together. Three more questions for you: 1. Do you think this most basic and important thing like "Abfechten" (not getting hurt/beaten during and/or near the end of a duel) is so unimportant? 2. Why, brother, would it be mentioned 293 times in his third book if it was not so important and why don't you use it? 3. ... and most importantly, why don't you know it by heart? And to be honest, I accept what you do, everything has its justification and its market, and the "practical execution" will dominate the market (Meyer, Chap. VII), because the egoists/stupids will be wiped away (Bruce Lee, "Paper Tiger") after people neither rely on no professional reading, nor respect the old masters (Meyer, opening speech). I have nothing personal against you. The only thing I consider not fruitful was your way of arguing in a dialogue that had nothing to do with you.