right uh now this video is about Spears
um I don't actually have a spear here
with me I decided that' be a little bit
dangerous to be wielding what I've got
is um an 8ot length of Dowling uh but
it'll do the job of illustrating uh
playing the part of a spear now 8 foot
is about the longest a one-handed spear
can be uh there were of course longer
Spears but they weren't wielded in in
quite the way that I'm talking about the
style of spear I'm talking about is one
that you could use in melee as an
individual um with one hand uh my
reenactment Society many years ago did
make a 9- foot Spear and nobody could
wield it uh and there were some guys
much bigger and heftier than me in the
society and they G they gave it a go and
it was considered to be just unwieldy by
pretty much everyone so 8 foot seems to
be about the longest that you can uh you
can use in one hand and some of the
smaller weaker members of the society
even didn't like 8-f Footers now the
principal point I'm going to be arguing
is that I think that most of the time
Spears were used underarm not overarm
now it's very important for you to
understand exactly what I mean by
underarm versus overarm so uh let me try
to make it clear
overarm uh I have the uh the little
finger of my hand closest to the enemy
that I'm trying to hurt and uh my the
back of my hand is away from my head and
I'm using the spear like this overarm
okay whereas underarm is the other way
around and my little finger is further
away from the enemy and I'm using the
spear like this now I can use the spear
underarm down here or up here it's still
this still counts as underarm okay um
even if the the uh the the spear is
above my shoulder it's still the the the
way I'm holding it is still underarm
okay so that's what I mean by underarm
now I believe that Spears were normally
used not exclusively used but normally
used underarm for several reasons now
the first is reach Spears are good
because they are long that's their
that's their shtick that's their unique
selling point uh they can't punch as
hard as an axe or a mace they're not as
wieldy as a sword uh they don't have
great you can't really chop with one
they haven't blade on them isn't really
very useful all you can do is thrust but
they are long and that's that's how they
they are better than other weapons so if
the enemy's got a load of swords and
we've got Spears ha the enemy won't be
able to get near us now if I hold a
spear underarm I can hold it with my
elbow very close to the end here like
that and that's perfectly uh uh that's
perfectly you know um stable in my hand
okay so here uh you can't see it of
course but there's an awful lot of spear
sticking out the front there and I can
of course I get the length of my arm as
well like that and I get the length of
my lung
which you can't fully appreciate either
but if you add the eight 8ot spear minus
most of a cubit there plus the length of
my arm and the lunge it's I don't know
it's got to be at least 15 foot uh reach
I've got with this thing uh if I use it
underarm and if I use it underarm I can
poke downwards at the guy's feet I can
poke up upwards at his face and I can
poke not the guy opposite me not the guy
next to him but the guy two away from
him over there both or the guy have to
avoid the evening night uh you know two
away from him down the road that way um
I've got a lot of choice in what I
thrust at if on the other hand I hold my
spear over arm I have to haul it in the
middle um
and uh I've now got very limited range
for a start I've now only got a 4ot
spear cuz I'm holding in the middle and
if I want to thrust at someone's feet
that's extremely fact he right seriously
he'd have to be
standing only about two paces in he'd
have to be standing within sword's reach
of me easy sword reach of me for me to
get him in the foot and to get him in
the foot look how awkward my position is
and it's a really weak thrust as well
get his foot really isn't a viable
Target anymore his
knee yeah I could get him in the knee
but wouldn't be very easy I could get
him in the belly sh I could get him from
the belly upwards definitely no no
problem um I can't I could get the guy
next to him with a bit of awkwardness if
I if I stepped out of out of the line
out of my formation a little bit then I
could get the guy either side of him but
the guys either side of them no they're
Out Of Reach um so my angles of attack
are fewer uh my thrust uh from most
angles is much weaker admittedly I can
do a very strong
thrust there there's one thr if you I
got exactly the if he's standing exactly
the right distance from and I get
exactly the right line of of attack then
I there is one very strong thrust but
other than that all my thrusts are a bit
weak and awkward
um another thing is that because I'm
holding it in the middle if you knock
the spear sideways this bit of spear
sticking out the back is a counterweight
that that's in sympathy with that so
knocking the spear here uh is it's very
difficult to stop the spear spinning
that way because the weight of this
whopping great counter weight is is
helping that that turning motion so
someone wants to knock aside my spear
with his sword or edge of his shield or
whatever he finds that very very easy um
whereas if I got it braced against my
arm like this uh he can knock it aside a
bit but it doesn't go anything like as
far and I can bring it straight back it
comes straight back another thing I can
do is I can Parry with this spear if
I've got it like this underarm I can
parry and not just Spears uh thrusts
aimed at me I can rake a very large
imagine the volume of air in front of me
that I can uh Parry enemy Spears in it's
very large and when I did reenactment
most of the powering you do with your
spear isn't against attacks aimed at you
it's protecting the guys either side of
you and the guys either side of them I
can if anyone does use the reach of his
spear to try to attack the guy to to my
right he's going to come across me and I
can then just knock his spear up or down
like and becomes quite exhausting after
a while because in a long protracted
spear fight you're doing this raking
Spears raking Spears out of the air all
the time and um it gets quite taring but
that's what you got to do um so I can
Parry not just blows against me but I
can protect all the guys next to me if I
use my spear underarm if I use it
overarm however um I can't really Parry
with it at all and I can't help the guys
either side of me much um plus every
time this gets knocked don't forget
there were spikes on both ends of Spears
okay so I've got a spear I've got a
spike on that end of it
and I'm a danger to the guys behind me
every time the spear gets knocked
um so those are some reasons that I
believe that Spears were used underarm
rather than overarm um there are others
um oh I just want to make clear as well
that if I do if I got the shield if I do
want to get over the top of an obstacle
or or whatever I can just raise the
spear I can even um take it away from my
elbow and and thrust quite effectively
like that um but we would uh fighting
across obstacles quite often have our uh
in the reenactment Society quite often
be holding our Spears up like this and
you can you can fight like that for
quite some while and so uh you know the
getting getting the spear High isn't
particularly a problem with an underarm
uh
hold
um so you can Parry you got the
reach you're in less danger to your
friends greater help to your friends
yeah I reckon underarm is the way to go