Show me your best HEMA sparring videos

[Eugenio]

Something more light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tkk5M54 ... ature=plcp

[xedric]

Out of interest, by clean throw do you mean something like a judo ippon or simply the fact that one is on the floor and the other still standing?

The latter

[Thearos]

I hope the people in these vids will forgive me for posting links (J. Norwood, B. Grundy, R. Warzecha)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scbu5HDWz8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUG97lYkEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkQO0kT4SZA

-- but I thought these helped me understand binding and winding, especially seeing Warzecha working with non-I.33 stuff.

[edited for spelling of names]

[Lyceum]

As always I vote for some of the AHF videos.

e.g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teDmaWqZDc8&feature=plcp for messer.

[Thearos]

Nice hanging guard from Nick

[Lyceum]

Agreed, though I really dislike them myself. Shocker I know, I guess I've just been conditioned to avoid using them a bit.

Oz had some good footage of him using Silver over the Pub here a while ago, good examples there too of utilising hanging guards and disengages.

[Andreas Engström]

It's not exactly "the best" as you asked for, but at least it's very new.

Me and Mikael sabre sparring a few weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnk7xHHnqRQ

-Andreas

[Cutlery Penguin]

Oz had some good footage of him using Silver over the Pub here a while ago, good examples there too of utilising hanging guards and disengages.

Any ideas when, or what else was going on in the vids? I'll try to dig them out if I can.

[Lyceum]

Oz had some good footage of him using Silver over the Pub here a while ago, good examples there too of utilising hanging guards and disengages.

Any ideas when, or what else was going on in the vids? I'll try to dig them out if I can.

None, I'm trying to find them in the pub, it was a gathering of sorts rather than club practice. We spoke about it a while back. There were a series of parries and a sudden disengage and forward movement/strike from what I recall....

[Cutlery Penguin]

None, I'm trying to find them in the pub, it was a gathering of sorts rather than club practice. We spoke about it a while back. There were a series of parries and a sudden disengage and forward movement/strike from what I recall....

It sounds a little like my bout with Will at Fightcamp last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LecOKos6 ... ture=g-upl

[Axel]

I dont know if it is my best but I like it because I try to use the high (over the head) vom tag in this clip, something I try to work more with (it is much more frequent in manuals than it is in modern HEMA), from last fall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w91GH1Tsnc&feature=relmfu

[KeithFarrell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqcczE68HZg

This is a sparring bout that I had at Dijon just this weekend with Marcos Ariño, hopefully he won't mind me putting the link up here. This is some of the best sparring I have done: not too fast a pace, but not exactly slow; quite tight, clean and controlled; very few double hits; lots of thrusts from the bind. I managed to use a Zornhaw effectively at least once (including at least one Zorn Ort I think); I managed a couple of Zwerhaw hits; I used the Schaitelhaw to break a low guard (although without managing to follow up with a hit in the sequence); I used a few Krumphaw defences successfully and only failed with some Krumphaw attackers because Marcos was really good at getting out of my range when I tried them offensively! There was some Nachreissen as well and some good playing with distance. I am quite pleased with my footwork, stance and general posture, and only suffered a couple of hand hits due to fairly good use of my cross guard.

So, I'm in the black jacket and Marcos is in the white jacket. I hope our fight can be appreciated as a good example of sparring

[Derek Wassom]

Nice, Keith. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to spar this time. You can see me wandering past in your video (around 1:25) and had I known that was you, I would have stayed an watched.

Anyway, here's mine from around the same time. I'm the one in the stretchy trousers getting my ass kicked by a Spanish beast (Alvaro Lareo):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1krZDYhh ... ure=relmfu

[KeithFarrell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2Bg3A_HyY

A video clip of a sparring bout I had with William Bouilliez in Dijon early last month. It was a very interesting fight since I am a fairly short fellow and William is very tall, and in addition my sword was quite a lot shorter than his. The disparity in height and reach makes for some very interesting swordplay from both of us! Thanks go to Anthony Menting for uploading the video for us and to Roland Fuhrmann for taking the footage in the first place.

In terms of style I was trying to use a very Liechtenauer-like style, trying to use master strikes while closing distance, and using the German sorts of guard positions. I believe William was fighting in Vadi's style, using several guard positions that I had never come across before. It was all very interesting for me!

[John H]

Just a question from the height side. A few of his guards exposed his arms quite a bit and I like to remind people not to stick them out, but I am tall and use a long blade. Did you find that you couldn’t easily snipe that forward arm with the range deficiency? Did you try or were you more concentrated on hitting the body and head?

I usually find the little guy likes to grapple more, I thought it different that he seemed to prefer to get in close and you seemed to want to keep it at a longer range.

thanks for posting!

[KeithFarrell]

A few people have asked similar questions, including why did I not try and attack his legs and suchlike. Honestly, I was intent on not letting him hit me; I would much rather not attempt to snipe and therefore not leave my head open for a strike than to land my attack on my opponent but suffer a double hit in return. I could possibly have sniped his arm, but he could easily have landed a double hit or afterblow on me. By not leaving myself open by trying to snipe him, I managed to maintain the integrity of my defence and took relatively few hits.

As for grappling, I don't think I have ever met more than a couple of shorter people who prefer to close and grapple with taller people. Certainly I much prefer to stay at a distance and use my weapon; my sword is much more effective at putting down an opponent than my body, since I'm light and not too confident at grappling in a manner that keeps me safe, and so it makes much more sense from the point of view of my own safety to stay at the most effective and efficient distance.

At least, those are my current theories and what I am trying to do at the moment

[dreagan]

Here are some recent videos of my student Chad & myself fencing. I'm not unhappy about how they turned out.

Some edited footage from a couple different freeplay sessions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_BYK-vVoQk

Using Albion Meyer vs an Ensifer Heavy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QbP8a7ComE

The first time we fought with the heavier/longer Pavel Moc Feder & Ensifer Long Feder. Chad got the best of me here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdWhH-Y2sY0

[bigdummy]

How would you break down the usefulness / danger level / quality of the various blades you are using?

BD

[dreagan]

How would you break down the usefulness / danger level / quality of the various blades you are using?
BD

All are pretty equivalently useful. In practice the longer/heavier blades have been fun to use, as they really seem to accentuate use and differences between weak/strong. Also, they slow the action down a bit and you can be a bit more tactical. The downside is that it's easier to have sloppy moments with them...where you end up just kind of floppin' the blades together in a mush.

I'd say the Pavel Moc and Ensifer Long are about equivalently the most dangerous in terms of breaking bones potential with strikes, just due to their weight. The Moc is probably the safest out of all 4 in terms of the thrust.

The Meyer is probably the safest of the 4 in terms of controllable striking power.

I'm a little worried about the relatively sharp hilts of the Ensifers, but one could probably cap those if it's a big concern.

All seem to be high quality blades. None of them are suffering inordinately. The finish level of the Moc is the highest, followed by the Meyer and then the Ensifers. The finish level of the Ensifers is completely adequate for the purpose, though -- perhaps even preferable, so you don't have any guilt pangs about fighting with them if you are prone to that sentiment.

[George]

Sparring videos . Here's one of ours from Battersea Bartitsu Study Group (London), here Sam is in the black headguard and Carlo's in the red headguard...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91803745@N00/6846641752/

Best wishes,

George