Hey! Wanna talk about swords?
Let's talk about swords.

Did you know I used to do stunt work and stage swordfighting?

I did!

My specialties were quarterstaff, spear+shield, bastard sword, and mace.
I did not just fight and perform, I was also a lead trainer teaching form and stunts.

Unfortunately, this was all before I cut my hair and came out as nonbinary, and before I got good at selfies...so their aren't really any pictures for me to hook you up with.

What you should know, though, is that stage combat like we did it is with real, hefty weapons. Not theater style foil pieces.

That's right. In my heyday I used a 12lb bastard sword in my right hand and a 20lb mace in my left.

Most people associate a very ring and ting noise with sword fighting because of movies and sound effects.

But big swords and worked metal don't sound like that when they collide. They sound like when you hit a trash cab with a hammer.

So we made our swords out of spring steel.
Hefty, but still makes that ringing noise in battle.

Since I have fairly extensive experience with swords and choreography, watching movies with any kind of sword or fist fight choreo with me is a chore!

Movies usually line up the cameras so they can "hit" w/o hitting each other.
And you can tell, unless editing is really good.

In a real fight, you are best off waiting for openings instead of using up all your energy swinging your big heavy weapon.
But standoffs are boring.

So in stage combat, fights are short, quick, and have a lot of catching-your-breath-by-hurling- challenges type stuff.

In good choreography in theater, especially theater in the round, connection is key to selling the hit.

Whether it's a punch or a slice.

But you don't want to hit the person with a weapon.

So you have to trust that their sword will be there to stop you.

You also have to swing like you mean to hit, not swing for the sword.
Bad choreography always swings for the sword, so if the defender has their sword in the wrong place it looks like they were never even in danger.

This means that practicing for the sake of building endurance, and practicing for the sake of combat theater, both require the same strength to stop just short of hitting flesh if your partner isn't in the right place at the right time.

By the way, I should add that I usually wore leather or chain, and sometimes even wore scale mail...
The heavier the armor is supposed to be, the less likely a person is to make a lot of big swings. Wearing the armor is tiring! Weapons weigh a lot!

There are many reasons that heavy plated armor was mostly for people on horseback or other transport.
And many reasons that pole arms, spears, and other reach weapons were likely to lead the march.
A person in heavy armor is no match for a long stabby thing.

Movies are really fond of the idea of a single very fast person overcoming an entire army of slower people in armor or with longer weapons.
That's completely unrealistic.

Short, small weapons like daggers and short swords are for eating and one on one fights, never for two hoards colliding.

The fact of the matter is, in a fight with martial weapons, you want them to not get close while you can still reach them.
Reach almost always beats speed.

But as for swords.
Lots of people are fond of Very Big Swords.
But if you're looking to have something to work with that you might actually hit someone with some day, look for something "battle ready" and within your tolerance weight range.

Spring steel weighs more than carbon steel. Expect 3lb-7lb for a hand and a half (bastard) sword, which is a good size for average sized humans because it can be used with one or both hands.

Claymores and other very long swords are more like sweeping weapons than slashing weapons, and entirely useless for stabbing.

Now, here's the thing.
I've been in the SCA, been a LARPer, been involved with the local viking reenactors. I've used viking-style one handed long swords and carried a big round shield during battle with only the strength of my hand to hold it.

The difference between choreographed combat and reenactment combat is mostly about watchability.

It's hard to see what's happening in a real fight.

In a choreographed one, you use big movements and the other person reacts to help the audience know what happened.

Most of the armor you're familiar with, from movies and from reenactment, is designed to stop one kind of weapon or another.
It's not really possible to stop everything and still move or function as a fighter yourself.