Posts: 416 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Mon 10 Mar, 2008 9:25 pm
Steve with a V,
There is a lot a halberd user can do that you didn't mention.
If we are talking about a real, to-the-death, man-on-man engagement, it is my bet that you will see a whole lot of things being attempted and accomplished that are not to be found in any manual. Manuals are guidelines, not set-in-stone rules (otherwise there wouldn't be so many different manuals...), and everyone who fights knows that you can't really learn how to fight from a book.
If you will allow me to use the example of a Edo period Japanese Warrior-monk, or
Sohei, who were very well known for Naginata techniques, a fact that eventually led to their eradication at the hands of Oda Nobunaga, starting in 1571, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, ending in 1603. A Naginata is essentially a halberd, or glaive, depending on the Naginata, as I'm sure you will agree. The Sohei, who were very often defeated or disillusioned Samurai, and very organised professional soldiers, were able to create "sections" in an enemy line with the use of very fast turning, with the blade at alternating heights of leg, torso, head, and back again in random patterns. The opponents would not be willing to step inside the circle this created around the Monks, and would be scattered into smaller groups. The
Ashigaru, or infantry, and usually armed with Yari, or spears, would then pick off these smaller groups of enemy with far less trouble. (Meanwhile, the Samurai would be facing off in a series of dismounted one-on-ones against other Samurai, or riding around on horses picking off stragglers and heroes with arrows and swords.)
It is true that they wouldn't have faced a
Shield and Sword in combination, shields not having been very popular amongst Japanese fighters, but they would have faced many exponents of the School of "Two Skies", famous for the use of a Wakizashi and Katana at the same time, the Wakizashi being used primarily as a blocking tool. Not similar enough, I know...
Now, I realise that Western halberds were used on the battlefield in situations where a turn could hit your comrades as well as your opponents (unless of course the turn was ordered or expected...), but in a one-on-one fight, a turn out of a move such as you described would bring the head of your weapon back around, free, and ready for another series of cuts. A swordsman can jump above a lower leg cut, by the way, this is a fairly basic technique, and one which should be practised. He can also "stamp" the halberd just below the head if he is skilled with feet, and the shock of this to a halberdiers' grip is often enough to lose the weapon for an instant, or it may even force the halberdier to drop the weapon altogether. A good swordsman only needs an instant, as Vassilis will tell you.
Before I started ranting, and nearly went off this off-topic topic, my point was that there is an incredible abundance of techniques and strategies that do not come in manuals. The old masters would have included the fundamentals and intermediate levels only, and from experience with modern masters, I can tell you that they would not have shared everything they knew, except with the successor to their school.
Experimentation is the true path to free expression with a weapon, just as it is with any pursuit.