Bart Maney October 7, 2017 12:26 PM UTC

Hey James,

How would you upgrade the tactics/strategy/training of this Medieval MMA to move it beyond a "sloppy, nerdish mess"? I'm thinking about trying it out for fun and I want to destroy the opposition.

Bart, I am not proficient with all of these weapons. I am very good with the shield and smaller swords, okay with the long sword, and see some very good shield punching and much poor shield work. Since they are in full armor fighting according to can-opener rules, I like the semi-wedge-shaped shields used by the red knight at 4:58.

According to these rules, if you are permitted, I would fight with two shields. Just go out there and box. You’ll KO people. With all of the one on one action there is a lack of footwork. Nobody tries to pass. I am guessing that there is a rule against stabbing with the halberds to prevent death. I saw no thrusts, these might be illegal.

To summarize the main weaknesses in form I see here:

-Lack of coherent team work or formation use in battles [this is worse in smaller and mid sized battles and there is evolution toward football level formation use in the 16 on 16 battle], training in twos and threes to make building blocks for the larger formations would be useful

-Lack of foot work in duels,

-Ineffectiveness of one-handed weapons other than shields.

Over all, navigation of the combat space in teams ranged from good to non-existent and individually seemed glaringly bad all over.

With your empty hand background I would recommend competing in shield and sword individually and for battle replacing the sword with another shield.

If you are going to fight with a one-handed weapon in battle it should be an axe, with a shield. In order to wield this effectively would take a lot of forearm conditioning. If you do this, you can alternately grab the axe with two hands while slinging your shield on your back. What I am suggesting is, since the one-handed swords are not effective with this armor, if you are not permitted to fight with two shields or don't like to, shield and axe is a good system, and you could increase the effectiveness of your stroke through training with axe handles and such and powering an edge on stroke with one hand, not swinging, but chopping and bringing that elbow back down to your body as you pivot and then grinding a left leg pivot and slamming the shield edge into them.

Developing the strength and technique to not led the dull axe head turn and slap with one hand gives you a tactical advantage over most of the axe users who cannot finish foes with one-handed strokes, meaning they can't score a KO while moving and get bogged down. Also, try striking with the back of the axe head, which uses the head weight, but does not torque the rest or encourage buckling and defection.

Thanks for the advice James.

Here is a knockdown via fist strike like you advised me to do.

-Bart

This other video has a great first person view of the action.