um breaking a spear shaft with a shield
would that work
probably not you can cut through a
spearshaft but it takes several blows
with a sharp sword it's not a lightsaber
hi i'm matt easton of scholar
gladiatoria and i teach people how to
use things like spears and swords and
daggers and i also deal in antique
weapons i've been teaching people how to
use weapons for 20 years so today we're
going to be looking at some polearm
combat scenes from movies to judge how
real they are
okay so stabbing the foot there that was
really nice and i think a lot of people
might think that's silly but funnily
enough there's an anonymous treatise
from the early 16th century that
repeatedly talks about stabbing the
opponent in the foot and stabbing them
in the crotch
so
so absolutely it was done
this kind of distraction tactic is in
medieval treatises so i love it
okay
there's there's
like
flipping this spinning this thing around
so this is a thrusting weapon but she is
twirling it around like a snooker queue
in a bar fight
that's not going to have much effect on
people it's not a good striking weapon
thrust with it it's a spear
taking turns so this is this is a
favorite way for multiple people to
attack a hero in a movie or a big
villain is to take turns at attacking
them just attack them at the same time
don't go one two three four so if they
are trying to surround him they should
still have their spear points forward
predominantly and form essentially a
ring of points around him perhaps the
only excuse you could give them is
they're trying to capture him rather
than trying to kill him
one of the things that really bugs me
about spear use in black panther is that
the spears are used more like quarter
staffs now not to say you can't use a
spear like a quarter stuff you can
strike with a spear it's just not the
most efficient and effective way of
using a spear if you've got a sharp
point use the sharp points so
i've got to be honest i'm going to give
it a 3 out of 10.
so tridents absolutely were used in
combat most famously by roman gladiators
of course that's the most famous example
but tridents did continue existing into
the medieval period the fact that you've
got multiple projections at the head the
fact that they are heavier this is a
heavier weapon designed for fighting
against armor in that sense that makes
them more like this polax here he seems
to have a secondary crossed guard a
little bit lower down which is quite
interesting because there's a parallel
with european poll axes there as well
which has a handguard here that's not
only to protect the hand but it's also
to give more force to the push so if
you're fighting an armor and you plant
the cross as it's called in their armpit
and you want to push them it gives you
something harder to push against
[Music]
so that one of the first things to note
is how twirly this fight is i'm not a
huge fan of such turning i mean they
turn their backs on each other so much
so there's a really nice technique there
where he basically turns the back end of
his weapon around his opponent's neck in
order to throw him it's sort of an
impression of some of the techniques
that we do see in historical treatises
and in armour this is a very good way of
overcoming someone they can get up but
it's not that easy and it's not very
quick that gives you the opportunity to
to attack them while they're on the
ground and disadvantaged and you can
look for the gaps in the armor like
their armpits
there's a really nice technique there
where the bad guy
one end of his weapon is is locked up
and so he swings the other end of the
weapon around to strike with the back
end and again that's completely typical
of polax combat if one end gets occupied
or dealt with then that being pushed
aside you immediately come round with
the other end or the middle i would give
this about a five
so troy is really really interesting
because it's one of those rare occasions
in
movie fights where we see them actually
attempting to use spear and shield
together you know the spear and shield
was absolutely the this standard dueling
weapon for heroes to fight with in the
ancient world and you only have to look
at ancient greek vases to see the two
heroes standing in front of each other
with the spear raised and the shield in
front of them
achilles lances his spear out at maximum
length with a thrust and that is
predominantly how spears are supposed to
be used you grip it as near to the back
of the shaft as you possibly can it's
actually remarkably difficult to find an
opening to stab with a spear if the
opponent has a large shield as here
that's why people used them
really really nice detail there we see
achilles switching um the the spear
around so he's using both ends of it and
in fact we know um in the ancient greek
world spears often have two ends on them
throughout history a lot of types of
spears have two ends on them so you can
stab with the main principle end but you
can also stab with the the foot end or
the heel it's not usually so sharp or so
big because it has to stand on the
ground at all the time but nevertheless
if you're being stabbed with it it's
fairly unpleasant
so there was one little minor detail
there that kind of bugs me hector
basically kind of slashes with his spear
and now with a typical spearhead like
this it's not going to have a lot of
cutting potential so you know i suppose
it's fair that it in a pinch you might
do this to make someone back off
especially if it's kind of face level so
it's going to make a person flinch or
move away
but even if it had connected it wouldn't
have done an awful lot of damage it
would have been like being hit with a
stick basically
resting the the spear on his kind of
back um and thrusting over the top of
his shield this is incredibly short
range and i think of dubious use
um breaking a spear shaft with a shield
would that work
probably not look at movies where things
like this spear are chopped through with
a sword we've done experiments we've
tried to do it you can cut through a
spear shaft but it takes several blows
with a sharp sword but it's not a
lightsaber breaking through one with a
shield even less likely
so really spearshafts are designed to be
relatively durable relatively light but
not super light but pretty strong if
they're not strong then they're not
going to work as effective weapons
[Music]
we see achilles's spear get broken by
being stamped on now this is slightly
more plausible i don't think it'd be as
easy as it's shown here however it's
more plausible than breaking it with a
shield an eight out of ten
i know this is a very special javelin
but this is an olympic style javelin
it's not really a weapon if it's the
same as a typical one it's an aluminium
tube with a kind of slightly pointy end
so this is not something that's designed
to you know penetrate thick clothing or
go through armor or anything else and i
have to say they're not terribly strong
either i mean if you stepped on one you
could quite easily bend it and buckle it
[Music]
she's using it like a giant lightsaber
as if it's magically cutting through
people but i don't understand how or why
[Music]
oh finally a stab oh a double stab so
finally she thrust with it i have no
issue with that of she actually used a
spear like a spear eventually but you
know what's all this swinging it around
it what's it it's not going to cut
anything i'm going to give this
a 1 out of 10.
[Music]
it really really bugs me how he uses
this spear it is the most stupid way
that he could have used this spear
basically he could have won this fight
in the first few seconds if he just used
it like a spear instead he uses it like
i don't know like a broom handle he
thrusts with the wrong foot backward
giving himself the minimum reach he's
got enough space especially in a
corridor to occupy that space with the
point of the spear and keep the opponent
in front of him so the main advantage of
any pole on but particularly of spears
is reach but with reach also comes
leverage the two things go hand in hand
a small movement at the back end means a
large movement at the top end so quite
simply if you're trying to get around an
opponent's shield you can go from high
to low you could go above the shield and
below the shield
in the blink of an eye which takes
longer to do with a sword the usual
balance is a spear person can beat two
swords people if there's no armor and no
shields involved a spear is a game
changer
spears can can block with with any part
of the shaft you can block with the tail
end sometimes the middle of the shaft
can be used the problem with using the
middle is it means any defense is closer
to your body but most predominantly
spears are used with the pointy end
projecting forwards and most of the
defense will be done with the front end
the way he used this spear is
infuriating and at one point he's even
got the spearhead pointing backwards
away from the opponent while holding the
blunt end outwards i mean he doesn't
even have two spiky ends
it's an entirely metal spear which is
unusual
generally you wouldn't want to make a
spear entirely out of metal because
although it would be stronger it would
be so heavy that it would give up the
advantages that the spear has if you
make it heavy it also makes it far
easier for the opponent to grab although
they have a lot of advantages of reach
and leverage they are way way easier to
grab for the opponent to grab hold of
than something like a sword a sword is
mostly blade so it's harder to grab this
particular fight will get a really low
score of two out of ten i loved this
episode but this fight just sucked
[Applause]
too much swinging of the spear not
enough thrusting frosting doesn't look
as impressive on screen it's also
slightly more dangerous for the actors
as well despite the fact that in the
modern world we probably think of axes
or swords associated with vikings
in any army in the so-called dark ages
in the early medieval period the spear
and shield was the primary weapon of
battle they fought in shield walls with
a spear
yep richer people might have a sword and
other people might have an axe but those
are weapons that are only really useful
once you're you've closed beyond spear
range
one of the great things about spears is
they are one of the best hand weapons
that you can have in your hand and
they're also a really good missile
weapon at any moment they can get thrown
and psychologically that makes a huge
difference within the fight even if the
opponent doesn't throw the spear the
knowledge that they could throw at at
any moment as javelin
really changes how you fight it makes
sure you keep your shield up it makes
you very wary i've once been in a fight
in a tournament in fact where the
opponent had a spear and shield i had
sword and shield so i'm up there
preparing to protect my my head and my
uh my torso against the spear throw and
i get a spear right in the leg and if
that had been a real spear and gone
through my leg then i wouldn't have been
fighting anymore throne spears are
incredibly powerful they will stick
deeply into a shield if they hit you in
the body
you're in big big trouble i mean they'll
go through a person's torso and they'll
also penetrate certain types of armor i
would give this six out of ten
so what we see here is the famous pike
phalanx these are macedonians but pike
phalanxes were used all over the ancient
world they were used by the romans
initially it's very good against cavalry
it makes it very difficult for cavalry
to operate on the battlefield these are
very very long spears you're far more
limited in how you can use them you
don't generally turn them around and use
the back end although these pikes do
have a counterbalance on the back end
with a spike on it now that's partially
so if the pike gets broken you can turn
it around and use the other end still as
a weapon also it provides a
counterbalance so you can hold more of
the pike out in front hop lights were
quite characteristic for using the pike
two-handed they needed to use it
two-handed because it was so big and
relatively heavy but they also used
shields and so what they did is they
strapped the shield in such a way that
they can hide behind the shield to some
degree obviously protection against
arrows but also protection against enemy
pikes this has been represented very
very well very accurately
so against arrows it's difficult because
you you know you're holding a great long
pike with two hands and you kind of got
a shield suspended
it's not that easy to at that point put
your shield up because you're not really
holding the shield in the typical way
and also the shield doesn't cover your
whole body the problem with arrows is
they'll they'll find it doesn't matter
how good the armor is or what shields
you're carrying they will find gaps so
absolutely peppering a phalanx with
arrows is good advice
so one little detail it makes it look
like the pike is traveling very very
quickly and piercing bodies and the one
thing you have to say about pikes is
they don't move quickly because they
only move as quickly as the pike block
moves you can stab a bit with the pike
but it doesn't go through an awful lot
of motion eight out of ten
so it's a massive massive glaze a glaive
is an english word for for a weapon
that's essentially like a a falcon or
broad
sword on the end of a stick
so it has the reach of a pole arm but it
has the cutting and thrusting abilities
and type of a sword and it would be a
form of dao a dow is a single-edged
weapon so it's something that's very
effective at cutting that's a very very
big glaive head so this is this is a
heavy pole arm
[Applause]
[Music]
okay
i actually like the cutting mechanics
that he's doing they're pretty pretty
good but why have they got to grappling
distance
he shouldn't have allowed the swordsman
to get that close if you get to
grappling distance the swordsman has the
advantage
[Music]
spinning around the neck it's not
something you'd really want to do in a
real fight at all unless you wanted to
lose
i wouldn't say he's necessarily holding
it in the most logical way because he's
given up all of his reach advantage by
holding it across his body the
opponent's got a sword he's got a weapon
that's twice its length so he should be
using the reach advantage i mean it's
beautifully choreographed but a lot of
it is totally unrealistic to how you'd
actually use those weapons and that goes
for the swords or the pole arms three
out of ten
so the the bad guy has what we would
call we'd probably call it a form of
halberd so a halberd is essentially an
axe blade with a with a rear spike and
usually they have a top spike but if the
axe blade is shaped to have a top spike
already then you don't need an
additional top spike
now the way he's using it
it looks comedic but actually
can you think if you're occupying a
space how intimidating that would be
this is a weapon which weighs
probably if it was a real one and if it
was steel probably about six pounds
if someone's got a six pound weapon of
which about five pounds of that is the
end and they're whirling it around
that's really really intimidating one
hit from that and you're going down
absolutely the right thing against the
pole arm wielder i really really liked
it as a fight an 8 out of 10. i would
say that out of the movies that we've
looked at today troy is the first one
that comes to mind that actually shows
spears used like spears i think that
this is one of the best spear fights on
screen thanks so much for watching i
hope you've enjoyed this video why don't
you click on this one up here to see
something else that hopefully you'll
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