Real modern day top-tier (tournament) sword fighting.

[Jemini]

So, for anyone not well acquainted with the medieval community, HEMA is a historical recreation of medieval swordsmanship from the study of historical sword fighting manuals and what's been discovered in the practical application of those techniques. It is the closest thing to historical sword fighting you will ever see in the modern day.

Swordfish is one of the international championship tournaments in HEMA, they run the longsword tournaments. That means the guys you will see here are the very best longsword fighters in the modern world.

The finals round in the second half of the video is particularly fun to watch. It has a sword veteran Vs. a young guy with what is the closest thing to a cheat skill to exist in the real world (the ability to effectively handle a longsword with only one hand and not loose control over it in doing so.) You will see in action exactly why something that sounds so simple really could be described as a cheat skill.

It's a pretty fun watch, and very informative if you want a very good example of what actual sword fighting looks like in order to put it in your novels. (although you might need to research a little more in order to actually know what you're seeing. I recommend checking out videos by Shad (youtube channel = Shadiversity) and Skallagrim (Skallagrim IS the Youtube channel) as they are the biggest Youtube HEMA practitioners and make their name talking about medieval weapons and fighting techniques.

Anyway, here's the swordfish finals video.

 

[NotaNuffian]

So, for anyone not well acquainted with the medieval community, HEMA is a historical recreation of medieval swordsmanship from the study of historical sword fighting manuals and what's been discovered in the practical application of those techniques. It is the closest thing to historical sword fighting you will ever see in the modern day.

Swordfish is one of the international championship tournaments in HEMA, they run the longsword tournaments. That means the guys you will see here are the very best longsword fighters in the modern world.

The finals round in the second half of the video is particularly fun to watch. It has a sword veteran Vs. a young guy with what is the closest thing to a cheat skill to exist in the real world (the ability to effectively handle a longsword with only one hand and not loose control over it in doing so.) You will see in action exactly why something that sounds so simple really could be described as a cheat skill.

It's a pretty fun watch, and very informative if you want a very good example of what actual sword fighting looks like in order to put it in your novels. (although you might need to research a little more in order to actually know what you're seeing. I recommend checking out videos by Shad (youtube channel = Shadiversity) and Skallagrim (Skallagrim IS the Youtube channel) as they are the biggest Youtube HEMA practitioners and make their name talking about medieval weapons and fighting techniques.

Anyway, here's the swordfish finals video.

The video is more than 30mins long and by god the opening blasted my ears off.

Ivan (the young guy, red) is quite impressive, with the one handed slice to the belly as he swishes the two handed sword with ease. The dexterity from Ivan was apparently the fencing training he had and somehow carried forward to the longsword, it is absolutely absurd seeing how fast he can move that long stick to cut and parry the beheading blow with ease.

Also the fight starts around 15 ~ 16 mins, at least the first match, so can just skip.

 

[Moctemma]

I also want to share this channel about HEMA
Blood and Iron HEMA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBbd3QJ-IT2g8kSvq3r3RA

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Writing about it is a whole other ball of wax. I've seen quite a few videos like these and heard friends talk about it, but it still goes over my head. I think I would have to get trained and do it myself before I could do it justice.

 

[BenJepheneT]

This is actually a good insight as to how swordfighting works. People write swordfighs like they're some 30 minute choreography where each are as equal as the opposition. It just gets boring. Matches like these lasts under a maximum of 5 strikes.

Remember, they're still humans, and they're fighting with steel. They're meant to dispatch and kill ASAP. This isn't some brawl. It's a bout to the death.

 

[Jemini]

This is actually a good insight as to how swordfighting works. People write swordfighs like they're some 30 minute choreography where each are as equal as the opposition. It just gets boring. Matches like these lasts under a maximum of 5 strikes.

Remember, they're still humans, and they're fighting with steel. They're meant to dispatch and kill ASAP. This isn't some brawl. It's a bout to the death.

Yep! That's one of the biggest key things a lot of people get wrong.

Also, look just how exhausted they were at the end. That was two 3 minute rounds, so a total of 6 minutes fighting not counting the breaks between sets and the little bit of cool down time between rounds, but they both looked absolutely dog tired at the end of it.

 

[OliviaMyriad]

Similar, medieval battles aren't constantly fighting on a personal level. You engage, you retreat, you rally, you engage. Across the entire battlefield multiple flanks are doing the same thing so there's constant fighting, but it's unreasonable to expect a peasant, or even a trained warrior, to actively fight for hours on end.

 

[Mejiro]

Yup - most actual engagements are short, but a battle might be engaged of lots of them, without necessarily much time to rest between them. Depending on the scale of the engagement, you might have very limited backup as well - you might have a unit or group, or it might just be a rough group of you and some other individuals that then go their separate ways as the chaos of battle happens, and then you have to try and find your own 'side' again afterwards.