Does anyone know of a HEMA book based in the Liechtenauer tradition that provides good coverage of the spear material from Talhoffer, Meyer, Kal, von Danzig, Mair etc?

I found a couple on Amazon, but they were either out of print, or had less than stellar reviews.
Thanks.

I'm not aware of any specific spear focused compilations. I would consider both of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Polearms-Of-Paulus-Hect...aulus+mair

http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-With-Quarterst...holm+staff

I'll bring mine along next time we meet.

Most staff work is highly applicable to spear, in my opinion.

Hey Scott,

Scott Hanson wrote:

....I'll bring mine along next time we meet.

Great, I look forward to checking them out! I've been wanting to add spear to my solo drilling.

Scott Hanson wrote:

....Most staff work is highly applicable to spear, in my opinion.

Totally agreed on that point. Bill's excellent intro class at WMAW really impressed that fact on me.

A spear is a staff that is happens to also be above average at thrusting :)

In fact, not only can the spear be used as a staff, but some of the 16th century sources illustrate them interchangeably. Also, Talhoffer shows some spear work with the techniques that look just like the poleaxe. And the spear work seen in the armored treatises largely mirrors the techniques seen with the halfsword.

So the cool part is that if you do just about any of the medieval weapons, then you already have at least a basic foundation for spear. :)

Chinese tradition often uses spear and staff interchangeably - a spear is just a staff with a blade on the end. (Shaolin spear was criticised in the late Ming by one writer for being just staff technique, so some disagreed.)

So, in the Chinese tradition, take sources like Silver and Swetnam which cover staff (especially long staff), and apply to spear. Staying in Liechtenauer, you have Meyer, who explicitly uses staff as the foundation for the other long hafted weapons in the Chinese style.

If anyone else is interested, here are some video's of spear play I found:

Spear vs Sword and Buckler: Nick vs Mike Sparring
Spear vs Longsword: Nick vs Jake AHF sparring
Spear Plays of Paulus Hector Mair

:) Good stuff!
If anyone has some favorites feel free to share.