YouTube Swordplay Gems

[higgins]

Okay, this has got to be one of the most epic swordfights I've ever seen:


youtu.be/e9891vPGisw

Also, here's an example for embedding YouTube videos with BBcode:

Code: Select all

[youtube]dkhpqAGdZPc[/youtube]

In short, you must just use the unique video ID, not the full link. The video ID about a dozen characters long comes just after watch?v=

If there are some parameters after the video ID (youtube does that sometimes), you must clean them up for the BBcode to work. Essentially, the ID is the text between watch?v= and the first &.

[Daeruin]

I love that video! Now that's dedication. And thanks for the example.

[hector]

This isn't so much a fight as a series of educational videos by a Sikh martial arts group in London, where the Guru explains the basic assumptions of the system (these are swordplay related, but they have videos on spear fighting, knife fighting and unarmed combat). I found it rather interesting, and it makes me wish I lived close enough to London to try it out for myself.

Tulwar 1/3

youtu.be/pLTcVJGMBkQ

Tulwar 2/3

youtu.be/bEr8-O_gZ98

Tulwar 3/3

youtu.be/G1YqIoIiPqw

[higgins]

Ah, yes! I've seen him. He had interesting things to say about blade contact and made some vicious counters, as well as pre-emptive strikes.

[hector]

Yay for thread necromancy! Just a couple of videos that may be of interest from a guy who studies Chinese swordplay (ba gua zhang, specifically), but does a lot of sparring against people from his local HEMA club:


youtu.be/Lqi92RkSB1s

youtu.be/oEn_pFxwpN0

[Agamemnon]

Yay for thread necromancy! Just a couple of videos that may be of interest from a guy who studies Chinese swordplay (ba gua zhang, specifically), but does a lot of sparring against people from his local HEMA club:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqi92RkSB1s[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEn_pFxwpN0[/youtube]

"They just want to suggest the blade go elsewhere. I know you want to go here, but how about you go there instead."

The jian is so polite!

Also, I completely forgot about those sikh videos and wound up watching them again. What I always find fascinating about the swordsmanship in that part of the world is that they have these great big long, curved sabers and then use them to get as close as humanly possible to their opponent. I suspect the Germans would approve.

Also entertaining:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10B4oCreJDo[/youtube]

An ARMA prize play competition in which a dude wins 72 out of his 93 bouts. This is actually one of my favorite videos to show someone when they ask about western swordsmanship, as after watching some of the ridiculous lightning clashes take place they usually wind up saying something along the lines of "so what you're saying is that the fights were over pretty quickly?"

It is an excellent video if you ever want to impress upon someone just how quick, violent, and unforgiving a real sword fight is.

[higgins]

youtu.be/bSzZFqujots
I didn't quite get what they were advertising, but that's hardly the point, is it?

[higgins]

Not a swordplay gem, but armor surely counts! I recommend HD.

youtu.be/lEtXU9Zcu7g

[thirtythr33]

Since this thread is alive again, here's a bunch from my collection.

Some instructional/experimental videos

Longsword techniques: Zwerchhau, absetzen, nachreissen

This little video really illustrates just how fast and brutal a simple combo can be. This is what fighting is like when people are trying to kill eachother and not just look flashy.


youtu.be/ln94E9AGYTc



Spear vs Sword (and knife)

Most videos you find are between equally armed combatants, but this is a great example of how tactics change dramatically when that's not the case. IMO, the RPG that best replicates the tactics involved in disparately sized weapons is RQ6.


youtu.be/vJcTD5qIZJ4



Sword & Shield Fighting with Roland Warzecha

Interesting in-depth discussion about viking sword and shield, particularly the stuff about why the viking round uses center grip instead of an arm strap.


youtu.be/dkhpqAGdZPc



Favorite movie/television fight scenes.

Brienne of Tarth vs The Hound (Game of Thrones S04E10)

A truly brutal fight scene where the combatants use every edge they can find ::pun::


youtu.be/K2P2ByOtOOs



Gabriel Feraud vs Armand d'Hubert (The Duellists 1977)

This one really exemplifies the gentlemanly (and rules-bound) nature of Napoleonic era duels. The fighting styles are exactly historical but I like the "dressing" around the very quick duel.

youtu.be/l2KWTEhyVX8



Macbeth vs Macduff (Macbeth 1971)

Gotta love how it shows plate armor actually being useful. And who doesn't love Shakespear?


youtu.be/tr6VrmOQY1M



And for a little bit of humor.

Fighting in True Times

Learning about True Time attacks with the aid of dolls and slaps


youtu.be/L0LpsnO0E4U



Fencing Slow-Mo Replay

This is what really happens between the blows of Olympic class sport fencers.


youtu.be/xGv7Cc7zpAE

[higgins]

Lots of good clips! Most of them I've seen, but some I haven't (like the slow-mo fencing, ha!). It's especially tragic that the Slovenian longsword guys stopped uploading their stuff, as it was outstanding.

Sword & Shield Fighting with Roland Warzecha

Interesting in-depth discussion about viking sword and shield, particularly the stuff about why the viking round uses center grip instead of an arm strap.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkhpqAGdZPc[/youtube]

Here's some trivia for all you stalkers out there. This is video is actually uploaded to my personal youtube channel! As embarrassing as it is, it mostly hosts my 360p cat videos from back when I lived in the ass-end of Eastern Europe. Now I'm happy to announce that I live 40km closer to civilization. It's still the ass-end of Eastern Europe, but at least I can't see Russia from my window anymore, as it literally used to be the case.

As the story goes, I found Roland's video online in three parts with the audio so badly out of sync that it was quite impossible to follow the lecture. I fixed the audio and joined the clips. Having done that, it felt kind of selfish to keep all that awesomeness to myself. Alas, we didn't have Grand Heresy Press youtube channel back then, as it would have been much more thematic up it there... So, instead I upped it to the only youtube channel I had, right next to my cat videos! Makes sense, right? Now it's close to reaching 600k views.

At some point Roland contacted me about changing some of the information in the description as he was leaving his old club and launching Dimicator website and the accompanying youtube channel. This is how we first corresponded.

If you want to follow Roland, Dimicator FB page is the best way to do it.

Take care.

[hector]

Definitely liked the MacBeth fight scene - of the two Shakespeare plays I had to read in school, it was by far the more interesting (though to be fair, the other was Romeo and Juliet; and reading Shakespeare is doing it wrong)...

[Agamemnon]

I've always been a big fan of Macbeth and Hamlet. Excellent scene. One of the things I actually really appreciate about the sequence is that the two fighters seem to actually feel the weight of their armor - possibly because they appear to be actually wearing proper armor, rather than mocked up props.

I hadn't seen the Brienne v. Hound one before. It kind of reminds me of the original combat-demo writeup Higgins and I did for the melee chapter, before we decided it was long-winded. Two combatants begin at length, fight, one winds up disarmed, it devolves into grappling, ground-work.. albeit ours ended up with someone shoving their thumbs into the loser's brain via the eyesocket, but the vibe is definitely similar.

You guys should check out this channel, pretty much everything these guys do is great.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38sVdx7nzhQ[/youtube]

[Daeruin]

I definitely like how the armor was handled in the Macbeth fight scene, even though it had plenty of those annoying moments when they choose to punch a wide open opponent instead of chop their head off.

I really liked Roland Warzcheza's long video. Very practical, and it had some points I hadn't heard before. Thanks for posting!

[thirtythr33]

I hadn't seen the Brienne v. Hound one before. It kind of reminds me of the original combat-demo writeup Higgins and I did... ours ended up with someone shoving their thumbs into the loser's brain via the eyesocket

*Gasp* This opportunity is just too good to pass up! Make sure you watch until the end.

Oberyn Martell vs Gregor Clegane (Game of Thrones S04E08)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdG-cwFg4k[/youtube]

Seeing all the love of the Macbeth scene, you guys would probably like this one too. Same vibe, only not quite as well done in my opinion.

Arthur vs Lancelot (Excalibur 1981)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiYBfTE1ec[/youtube]

And for something completely different, I have for you all a (long) presentation and Q&A by a historical swordsmanship expert and game designer (Guy Windsor). The uploader has a LOT of great game design presentations by greats such as Vincent Baker and Luke Crane.

Ropecon 2014: Guy Windsor: Realities of Steel
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phwAkVudu-I[/youtube]

[Marras]

RopeCon is the biggest roleplaying convention in Finland and there have been many big name guests of honour during the years so there might be lots of interesting recordings there.