I thought this may be of interest to some of you: http://www.youtube.com/group/westernmartialarts Louie
Louie, thanks for that!!! Man that looks like good fun! Just keeping your guard up and your jab pumping in boxing is one hell of a workout for the shoulders, forearms and traps.. I remember just from a bit of fencing and epe that I did ages ago that it was a monster workout for the shoulders. So surely that saber and a dagger would have to be shoulder workout extraordinaire!!! [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spA8DYqHF_4&mode=related&search="]Test Cutting Vid Scottish Baskethilt Broadsword - YouTube[/ame] This was the first time I've actually seen a test cutting done with a Scottish Baskethilt Broadsword. Impressive! The 2 liter bottle is impressive that it cleaves it cleanly without knocking the bottom half of the bottle off that stand! Additionally this one was very interesting. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_mCNoqqK0k&mode=user&search="]Test Cutting Vid 1796 Pattern Sabre - YouTube[/ame] It's the first time that I've ever seen anyone use a sabre to thrust with! I always assumed that sabre was a type of blade primarily used from horseback.. eg. mostly for slashing... not for thrusting. I found that the 7 inches on the top side of the blade was also sharpened rather interesting. He certainly put it to good use. While he's not exactly got the gift of the gab in his videos... his cuts are pretty clean. Ouch!
It's actually not that difficult to achieve. To do it time after time is difficult, but I've managed it on several occations. The interresting thing is how sharp you make the sword. I've managed to do it on a bottle with a longsword that was so blunt that I could drag my thumb along the entire edge without cutting myself (not pressing hard of course!) As for thrusting with sabres; acording to the Royal Armoury in Leeds, one prefered way of charging with sabre from horseback was to thrust with the sabre. As I do jousting and swordplay from horseback, we've learned that the wrist is extremely vulnerable when blade meets flesh (or whatever you use to train on), so thrusting is safer than swinging the sword, as a twist can break the wrist.
I guess it's my turn to put my head on the block: Here's a video of me (in blue t.shirt) and a pal. (He edited the clips) It's unarmed german, and it's done with a cooperating partner (that would be me). We allso train this stuff with "Aliveness", but those clips didn't work. (And we don't do the punching full speed/full-contact either, as it's difficult to grapple with a boxing-helmet on: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlEaWQui6FQ"]YouTube[/ame]