Pamela Muir wrote: | ||
Quite useful for clipping coupons or making paper snowflakes. :p :lol: |
Cutting nose hairs is a bit tricky though. :p :lol:
Pamela:
Do you have the Spada II book and read the chapter on using the Partisan ? Getting your views on that article as well as any ideas about how a 10 pound polearm might be handled ?
The article is interesting but just a taste I think of the many possible techniques. I find the basic thing were the hand forward basically stays still while the rear hand near the butt rotates up and down or side to side or even in small circular arcs to do most of the defensive moves. There seems to be a great economy of motion with this style of use of a polearm. ( I say this style because I assume that there may be other styles out there ? )
One thing though is that even if I move my rear hand as quickly as possible the motion of the head of the polearm just doesn't seem very fast to me ? This might explain in part the need for very economical moves that work with a minimum of movement. A sword would seem much faster but the range advantage of a polearm seems to maybe compensate for this.
Thrusts on the other hand seem very fast and the use of the partisan is said in the article to be mostly thrusts, at least against another partisan used by someone who know what he is doing.
The use of a partisan or my L of B in wide sweeping cuts might be used against shorter weapons or in more of a battlefield situation where in the confusion of battle create opportunities to use wider swings without exposing oneself and leaving openings in ones defence.
Another observation based on the Spada II article is that if I move both hands instead of following the advice given in the article it seems to me that I can get more speed out of a chop ? ( I have been playing in slow motion due to lack of room as I've mentioned in previous posts ) There may be techniques which are exceptions to the general rule that the forward hand must be only used as a pivot point at least for defensive parries ?
One more thing I've noticed that if I use the side of my body at waist level as a rest and pivot point I can direct the blade with minimal effort from my arms and the body is uses as the main mover, a bit as if the polearm was a canon on a tank turret with the hands /arms handling elevation and depression and just a bit of rotation: Hard to explain clearly, and my observations and so-called technique could be historically all wrong. The point is that if I'm not completely wrong about the above it means that for heavy cutting power and speed could come from the core centre of gravity of the body rather than just coming from the arms? Also my L of B is a 10 pound polearm while the partisans in the article are said to weight closer to 6 pounds.
I also think that the partisan techniques would apply equally well to any simple spear.
Well, I would suggest that this Topic could continue with observation / guesses or knowledge about polearm use or could be spilt off into a new topic ?