Sword Fighting: An Introduction to handling a Long Sword

So sorry, but I'm going to break the 5-star rating chain.Why?Primarily, the footwork. Oh, it'll work, but Schmidt is severely deficient.The book's publication is 2014. In 2010, John Clements of ARMA online published _Scale, Volta, and Keys_. Whatever you may think about Clement & ARMA, he conclusively showed through the fechtbuchs, through period combative art, through ancient Western combative art, and even referencing non-Western martial art footwork depictions that natural foot orientation is far from limited to the 45-degree "closed" position.. I don't see anywhere in Schmidt's book where the "open" 135-degree is used, let alone referenced. Same for the "reverse" position (a 45-degree oriented in the opposite direction) and the "cross-step" positions. The 135-degree position is clearly present in the oldest illustrated fechtbuch, "I.33/Walpurgis" manuscript and still well into the baroque and post-baroque fencing manuals but Schmidt deals with it and the others not at all.OK, why is this a deficiency? Simply, those other foot orientations allow considerable 'snap", addition power via hip rotation by the turning of the "keys", the feet, to be applied to weapon strikes, displacements, and to ringen grappling. Likewise, Schmidt seems to be committed to standing pretty upright--which is common in the fechtbuchs but so are far lower stances, for greater stability in delivering or resisting throws. Maybe Schmidt has bad knees.

This is a fair choice for a complete novice, but some of the information is outdated. A few of the interpretations are questionable and the chapter on safety equipment is very lacking. I don’t like how the original manuals are not quoted. For the price it’s a good book, but Toblers book is a much better resource

The book delivers what the title implies! Originally published in German by longtime instructor Herbert Schmidt, this 2014 translated edition was released for English-speaking Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) enthusiasts. Schmidt provides a solid foundation to the German School of Kunst des Fechtens (Art of Fighting) in a clear way that beginners will easily comprehend and retain. He includes concise summaries of principles, each followed by numerous detailed photos that demonstrate the fundamental techniques based off of various German primary sources stemming from the teachings of Johannes Liechtenauer.The print quality of this book is excellent and given its textbook-style hardcover, the book should easily endure being loaned-out to newcomers of any club. I recommend this to anyone beginning his or her journey in learning Kunst des Feuchtens. Lastly, an excellent follow-up to this book would be the German Longsword Study Guide by Keith Farrell and Alex Bourdas.

I received this book and upon going through its contents I can't express how appreciative I am that this book has been written and is available. I have started to take HEMA more seriously and when I received this book it was everything I had hoped it would be. The book is great quality and is an actual text book which provides fundamentals and progresses into a lot of material all the while providing hundreds of photos for demonstration and descriptions. Any one should be able to learn from this book and although pictures are limited in their capacity to communicate movements entirely a beginner could easily search for a youtube video corresponding with a particular technique in this book and be able to learn effectively. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book after I started a HEMA class on longswords based on the German texts. Much of the class went too quickly, as I couldn't remember the difference between a zwerchhau and schielhau. This book together with Christian Henry Tobler's excellent Fighting with the German Longsword truly helped, and made for great souvenirs of the class.There is lots of overlap with Tobler's book, but this one has better color pictures and discussion, but less drills. I recommend both books for anyone interested in learning HEMA.

This is the second introduction to longsword fencing I purchased. I wish it had been the first. This book has excellent pictures, diagrams and explanations. I also appreciate that the author includes the source terminology without making it harder to decipher. This author follows the German tradition, which was a plus for me but not a necessity.

I live out in the sticks. I do have access to internet and all the YouTube videos you can handle. However most videos show it being done but have no real instruction on how to do it properly. This book is well illustrated and its step-by-step process makes the techniques easier to pick up on. If you're looking to learn something about long sword fighting / fencing in the German style then this book is for you.

A great book. It came as a library discard but in such great shape that I called the library to be sure it was actually discarded, and it was.

The young person I gave this to, apparently took a breath with joy! A wonderful source.

Well illustrated with photos and offers useful advice on what safety equipment to use

Libro de gran calidad. Perfecto para el estudio de la espada larga. Buenas fotos y bien comentado. Recomendable para principiantes y veteranos.

Excellent book - bought it for my son-in-law who is into LARP. He's finding it perfect for his needs.