2019-06-29

Magic

The first attack: fire ball vs Olympic sabre

Parry & an excellent riposte (0:1)

The most dangerous magical attack!

One of the last futile tricks... 0:15 :-)))

 These nice scenes are from an excellent promotional video of the FIE World Fencing Championships 2019 to be held in Budapest. [1] The full video entitled A Kind of Magic could be seen here. Also there is a short video about the creation of this promo (in Hungarian).
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  1. At the moment it has been viewed at least 111 thousand times.

2019-06-26

„Duel”

Please choose your weapon!

En garde!... (Etes vous) prêts?... Allez!!!

A little patching up ;-)

  A nice demonstration of a mock sabre duel at the OSC fencing hall in Budapest on June 22, 2019 was presented to the visitors. It was an interesting event of the Night of the Museums. All pictures are downloaded from the FB-page of the Fencing Museum of the OSC hall. (Vívómúzeum in Hungarian)
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  1. Fencing master Árpád Németh was the senior duel second, who supervised the whole „duel”. As far as I could see Regenyei sabres were used during this demonstration (Strong saber with lace pattern guard, ~875 g).

2019-06-17

Atlantean

  By pure chance I came across a couple of photos of Arnold being trained by Kiyoshi Yamazaki [1]. The most interesting image is this one:

The Japanese teacher & Arnold

  I'm not a big fan of Conan the Barbarian (1982) film, but nevertheless it is interesting to know that in the 80s a Japanese instructor was employed to improve the fencing skills of the actors. Even more rewarding is to find out the specification of the Atlantean sword, which - according to the script - Conan found in a hidden cave, next to a skeleton.

Atlantean sword

   We are lucky that there are several manufacturers who produce this sword, and also many reviews are available on the net. So let's see the specification (Conan the Barbarian Atlantean Sword):
  • Overall length: .... 38 7/8"
  • Blade Length: ..... 28 1/8" from emergence from casting, 21.25" from end of langets [54 cm]
  • Grip length: ......... 5.35" [13.6 cm]
  • CoG: ..................... 4.5" from end of grip ....... [11.4 cm]
  • Weight: ................ 7 lbs 12 oz ........................ [3.171 + 0.339 = 3.5 kg]
   A short extract from the review at MyArmoury:
Handling Characteristics Well, what can I say about the Atlantean's handling qualities? At a weight of nearly eight pounds the sword is certainly no lightweight. In fact, the Atlantean's weight puts it far outside the parameters for a functional sword of this size. The sword does have a rather nice static balance, but once it is set into motion its weight becomes a hindrance. I was able to grasp the sword in a reverse grip and twirl it around in best Arnold fashion. I was able to maintain this for a few seconds before my shoulders began to feel the strain. In short, you'll need to have bigger guns than mine if you want to act like Big Arnold. I have no doubt that the Atlantean would be able to cut through any test medium of choice if it was sharpened. It just can't be done quickly or repeatedly. (Full review)
  Additional infos can be found on Wiki: „Samson and Huchthausen agreed the weapons were heavy and unbalanced, thus unsuitable for actual combat;[120][117] Lighter versions made of aluminum, fiberglass, and steel were struck in Madrid; these 3 lb (1.4 kg) copies were used in the fight scenes.[121][117] According to Schwarzenegger, the heavy swords were used in close-up shots.[122]

   From the above it is rather easy to conclude that a 3.5 kg two-handed sword is not particularly well suited for actual combat. The average weight for a historical longsword was between 1.1 and 1.8 kg (the average weight of 23 longswords in the Wallace Collection is 1.74 kg).

   So enjoy the film, if you like the whole story etc, but aware that the actual „Atlantean” sword is way too heavy and badly balanced when compared with historical European longswords.

   It is also fun to watch Skallagrim's video (How to Make Conan's Atlantean Sword Better?) A really good point from it: why is the Atlantean sword so (comparatively) short?


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  1. Schola Gladiatoria's FB page.

2019-06-13

Bors 2019

  Ez csak egy gyorsbejegyzés a múlt vasárnapi Bors Kupáról, amit a Hejő Törzs Egyesület szervezett egy Miskolc melletti tanyán. Az edzésnaplóba már bekerültek a részletek, de kell még 1-2 nap, amíg ide is átvezetem a verseny során lejegyzett adatokat.  

A helyszín [1]

   Számos gyalogos és lovas versenyszámban lehetett indulni: fegyveres futás (3,2 km), szablyavívás;  csatakereszt dobás, íjászat, botbirkózás; lovasíjászat, -birkózás stb. Csak szablyavívásban indultam, összesen nyolc versenyző nevezett, két csoportban vívtunk (2 x 4 fő), innen 4 fő jutott tovább. Sikerült újrázni (2017-ben már megnyertem a szablyavívást).



  Hamarosan folytatom....

A hangulat [2]

Summary:
  A short post about the Bors Cup organized by a local baranta group. I have participated only in the sabre fencing part of this competition. (Baranta is basically a modern reconstruction of old Hungarian martial skills, ranging from fencing to archery, spear throwing etc.)
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  1. Az első és az utolsó kép egy YT-videóból lett kivágva (2017-es Bors Kupa).
  2. Egészen furcsa hangulata van helynek: a távolban az avasi lakótelep (XX. sz.), nem messze robog el az IC (XXI. sz.), közben pedig a Hun-tanyán lovak, jurták, hagyományőrző ruhában vágtázó lovasok (XI-??. sz.)