: Re: Learning about hand-to-hand combat? I am writing heroic fantasy. Plot demands hand-to-hand combat, about which I know little. What is the best/quickest way to learn enough about pre-firearms defense

@Goswami879

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Most martial artists will not be able to inform you about conflict nor will you pick it up watching tournaments. (Opinion informed by over 30 years in a Kung Fu style which is pragmatic and was taught to one of the Chinese armies, but we don't spar full-contact.) They may be able to describe or critique unlikely movement. Too many arts are either sport-oriented or just ban dangerous moves for safety reasons.

A readable but possibly upsetting book is On Combat which talks about the psychological and physiological basics.

A lot of John Ringo's SF books cover this kind of conflict, with good training descriptions in There will be dragons which is free from Baen. It's about how a far-future group of re-enactors rise to prominence when technology goes away. (Ringo's style is to pick an idea like how can tech go away and build a believable case for the event and after.)

Baen tend to publish a lof military SF much of which is the we got stranded on an an alien planet/back in time and need to recreate military history sub-genre.

Update

I forgot about the video series by Skallagrim who does a lot of sword and armour critique. The ones I have watched look plausible both in technique and criticisms.

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