Go for the sword ...

It arrived today.

Have at you! *lunges*

One thing that always amazes me is how little people really know about swordfighting. It isn't all strength, in fact a person who knows what they're doing will beat someone who doesn't and can bench-press 200 more pounds 100% of the time.

If you're going to get a sword, take fencing from a sabre master. You won't regret it.

Swords are very, very dangerous as I've learned--I had someone's fencing sabre (which has, by definition, a dull blade to the point of not being able to cut balsa wood) tear a good-sized hole in the kevlar jacket I was wearing (standard equipment for fencers). It also disabled my shoulder for 5 minutes--I couldn't move my arm. Be careful with that thing.

Fun tip: If you're fighting someone with swords (hopefully NOT SHARP and with adequate safety precautions) use your feet more than your sword. You can tell, 90% of the time, how an opponent will move his arm, and thus the sword, just by looking at it. Jump out of the way, and after he's made the swipe at you, jump back in and cut. You'll usually end up hitting him.

Also, keep your eye mostly on your opponent's blade, not his face--it's the blade you're fighting, not the face. Where the blade moves dictates what you do.

Please note, too, that MOVIE SWORDFIGHTING IS TEH FAKINESS!!!!!!!!! All movie swordfights that I've seen, except for one or two, were completely fake--watch the next swordfight you see, pause when you see someone cut or thrust at someone else, and look very, very carefully--would the cut or thrust have actually hit the person if the person hadn't guarded? No? Then WHY THE HECK DID HE GUARD INSTEAD OF JUST RUNNING THE OTHER GUY THROUGH??? These fake swordfights drive me bananas.

HAHA, Star Wars. stupid jedi and sith.

A girl in my gym class is planning on teaching us fencing. Can't wait, really.

Fencing is really an excellent exercise. Statistics show that most people who take fencing graduate from college. Fencing teaches you to think quickly, be able to respond to other people quickly, and exercises the little grey cells as well as the muscles. It will also teach you the skills necessary for martial arts--up to a point, that is. It will teach you to see and react very quickly to stimulants of any type. It's also taught me a lot about the human body (such as there is a weak spot on your shoulder that, if hit hard and accurately, will disable your arm).

Well, I doubt we'll get more than "this is a sword, this is a suit, and this is the most basic swipe possible". I mean, we've got 2 hours of gym a week, and we need to do the normal curriculum as well. Still, if I really, really like it, I might take it up as a full hobby somewhere after next school year.

Well, most people get the wrong idea about swordfighting. I used to do display stuff with a Katana, nasty weapon even when blunt, but when we did shows I used a sharp one, which you can quite easily cut your own ear off with.

Most people assume (often after watching the Star Wars trilogy) that the idea of swordfighting is to hit the other guys sword whilst looking as dramatic as possible. The real purpose of swordfighting is to stick 4 feet of hardened steel through the other guy.

They don't fight in StarWars, the strict definition of what they are doing is 'dancing'

Yup.

I watched quite a few re-enactment groups fight. Those fights always last very short, and the hits are almost never at the other guy's weapon.

Real fencing is never much of a spectator sport--a sabre bout can be over in less than a second as both fencers lunge, or one doesn't retreat fast enough. I'm kind of an exception, not the rule, but I can cover an entire fencing lane in 3 steps, at about .5 seconds per step, then a lunge, also a little less than .5 seconds. The longest bout I've ever fought was about 3 minutes. I tend to be a defensive fencer until someone gets near me, then I defend against their attack (or just whap their sword with mine; if they're advancing, any contact with the advancer's sword gives the advance to the defender by rule, therefore just touching their sword then lunging will give me the win if we both hit simultaneously).

Anywho, both of us, when the bout started, did a jump-step-retreat. This technique tends to throw people off, as most of the time, a fencer who jumps will lunge after a quick step, but in this case, since both of us retreated, it didn't make any difference. The other guy obviously wasn't going to attack; he just sat there. So, I advanced a few cautious steps, lunged out, but didn't have the reach to touch him. He hit my sword sideways, to knock it aside so I couldn't bring my arm up to defend myself, then attempted a downward cut. His hit on my sword wasn't powerful enough, however, and I defended successfully and took a sideways swipe at his arm. He caught it on the guard and retreated. This went on for several minutes, after which our instructor called a draw.