Hello,

This might sound like an odd angle to look at things from, but I've been wondering if there ever were any recording on how to deal with one or more unarmed (and generally unarmoured as well, I suppose) opponents while you yourself are wielding a sword or other striking weapon? The unarmed opponent will certainly be in a grave disadvantage for both offense and defense, but I can also imagine that the armed fighter loses his cool and posture in order to press the situation further in his favour - which could lead to the unarmed man being able to feint and close with the sword-swinger and wrest the weapon from him or otherwise remove his high ground. This is likely to require a significant degree of skill, but I am sure that it must have happened at one point or another throughout history's course.

Imagine, of course, that both combatants are skilled soldiers who are fighting for their lives against each other. How would the swordsman approach a situation like the above?

Swordsman would just need to keep the distance...

The basic principle is to put your sword between you and the opponent, and cover yourself as you strike. This is the same against a unarmed target. Do what normaly do, and it will suffice

I think that fighting an unarmed opponent with a sword was just called murder. As far as I know there were few treatises written describing how to best murder unarmed opponents. There has been a lot written about unarmed combat from the other side howing how an unarmed person may take on an armed opponent. Some sword manuals show how to grapple and disarm an opponent if a sword has been lost in a fight but most unarmed combat manuals have been produced in the 20th century and do not cover an opponent armed with a sword.. There were certainly plenty of cases in history where unarmed groups have been despatched by sword, axe, spear and gun but it would take a particularly warped individual to write about how best to do it. On the battlefield unharmed opponents are usually encountered as they try to flee the battle after defeat and are simply cut down from behind as they run.

Every time I read something like this all I keep remembering is a story about an English Knight during the 100 Year War that somehow got separated from his group and wandered into an French village.

The French being, well French, decided that this was a faux pas, decided they would group up, and kill said knight.


They failed to do so, the English Knight killed a good number of villagers during the attack and wounded many many more and ended up walking out of town with its wealth in hand.

Hi folks

Oh pick me to be the unarmed person - not.

There are a number of drills in Eastern martial arts where its armed v unarmed. I've tried a number as the both armed and unarmed practitioner.

Assuming a skilled opponent, you can win as the unarmed fighter in one condition (well two really)
1. They stuff up and get impatient.
2. You are lucky.

Apart from that my experience with any kind of longer weapon (staff, sword) is the same as Michael's - bang I'm dead.

Against a not so skilled or nervous opponent, your odds improve from none to slim.

cheers

mike

Unarmed people have defeated sword-wielding people in the past. It can be done, and done for real.

Typically, it's done by closing while the sword-wielder is "winding-up" for a big swing, or has just missed a big swing. Example from real life: a WW2 Japanese officer lifts his sword up to cut downwards, opponent tackles him around the waist. Opponent gets cut across the back, but defeats sword-wielder.

If using the sword, don't be overconfident, don't wind up for big swings, don't make big wild swings. Use the point, and win at long range.

As I've experimented quite a bit with this subject and have a wide range of martial arts experience, I was going to describe several methonds of negating disarm attempts, tackles, grapples and throws, as well as counter grapples that leave the sword free. One ending up as a slit throat, another as a broken neck or a choke. But it occurred to me that I don't think we should be discussing this in any real technique detail over an open forum. This is way above violence accepted by peacetime society. I decided I don't want an unethical person knowing all that much about it. Better to keep it in WMA-schools & dojos where there's at least a teacher to weed out the bad seeds, or nurture them with an honor code to be less of it.

A point that I think should be clearly made is that if you actually manage to kill, or as has already been said, murder someone unarmed while you're weilding a sword, it could end up as serious jail time for you.
On the other hand, say you're being attacked in your home by a high as a kite assailant, or someone much larger than you who doesn't understand what a gruesome weapon a sword is or as some criminals do, simply think you don't have the guts to use it for real, then it can happen to ordinary people just defending their lives. I'm a bit torn here really.

The obvious thing is to keep your advantage, that is never let somebody else take the sword or let them step into your arc of cutting. Half swording, a deep open stance with the free arm forward fending off grapples and tackles, or rapier fencer stance with an aimed point they'd run straight into helps with this. Also the James bond stance, with sword close to the body and point on the opponent, that one is very hard to disarm and also less threatening than a wide cutting stance and still very lethal.

As yet another formally trained martial artist with two blackbelts and a high brown, loss of temper is equated with loss of control of the situation, armed or unarmed. Though there is no real defense against a drawn gun, but this is about a swordsman against multiple unarmed attackers! First guy you take out is the most threatening of the group which deflates the courage of the others. No real life threatening situation can be controlled with a preconceived by the book defense technique, in reality it is a "Nightmare" in there and loss of temper, honed skills of timing, distance control and all offense and guard techniques become "blunt"!

Bob

Very well said Bob, bringing up keeping cool, fight psychology and control strategy which are the most important parts of all and still often forgotten. Without it the rest will fall apart but done right you might not have to fight or hurt anyone at all.