: 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

@Deb2945533

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There are historical and modern combat manuals you could use. They typically have woodplate illustrations or photographs and often focus on a specific weapon/style versus various opponents with different arms.

Hans Talhoffer has some, there is Joachim Meyer, and of course Miyamoto Musashi has the classic "Book of Five Rings". Guy Windsor, Christian Tobler, and John Clements are some (of many) modern folks trying to record or recreate these techniques. There are plenty of martial art manuals and modern weapon fighting as well.

Just remember that many of these manuals over-emphasize the "flashy stuff" over what most folks probably actually used. But you'd be amazed at how versatile something like a sword can be versus what we see in most movie fights (I've seen VERY few films that utilize the blade for trapping, reverse it to strike with the hilt, or have folks choke up on the blade).

A little of this stuff goes a long way, IMHO, so a more generic description with one or two specific techniques should suffice. Nothing drags a fight down like intricate descriptions of "his right arm dropped behind the enemy's left knee, pushing it forward, while his left hand gripped the enemy's belt, pulling him over his shoulder into a forward roll..." just trying to visualize what is actually being done can be exhausting.

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