[Lancelot Chan]

https://youtu.be/KQKldcoxysA
As a 1 vs multi sword, Longship Armoury Giant Silvia has to be able to deal with enemies coming from the front and behind. This is a test to do front and back cuts on elbow difficulty targets with PPR pipe core.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Nice, smooth and flowing: Seems almost effortless to me although I personally have only rarely done any test cutting, and that with an easy target like pumpkins or melons.

In Movies and T.V. sword fighting one sees a lot of useless and suicidal spinning when fighting a single opponent and turning one's back on the opponent, which I think is rarely a good idea to do deliberately ? It could happen to recover from a bad over committed miss to continue turning rather than stopping when one has become open and exposed.

Now in the scenario of fighting multiple opponents, or at least two opponents with one in front and one in back, spinning and combining two strikes in one flowing continuous move seems like something good to practice like this.

To work in a real fight against two, the first opponent has to be dispatched by that first cut because if he isn't dispatched, and one is caught in a bind, that one coming in from behind has good odds of getting to you before you finish with the first one ?

If the first cut doesn't instantly dispatch the first opponent one might have to do " something else " to continue defending and avoiding the second guy ? Probably try to rotate around and get both opponents to be on the same side by pivoting around the whole engagement.

Oh, and I went a bit off topic of the actual excellent cutting practice and more into speculating about tactical applications issues.

[Lancelot Chan]

Thanks for watching! You're correct, every cut on the first opponent has to be able to "come out free" and "disabling" in order for the second strike to work. As we all realize, being attacked from the front and behind is the WORST situation. Thus this test cut is to simulate the worst case. There are literally not much choice if one ended up being in the center of getting attacked from the front and the back. :| Getting killed is just a matter of time if it doesn't work out ideally. One of the few choices available is to escape to the side after the first strike, and pick another terrain to fight so that the enemies will concentrate in a less spread out area, ideally within 90 degree apart.

This test cut was simulating hitting the forearm / wrist of both opponents, to maximize the chance of the blade getting through the target smoothly and the ability to disable. If I hit too thick a target, the blade is gonna get stuck in the first person even if it's disabling. If I hit too little a target, it may not be disabling enough. Thus the choice of hitting wrist / forearms.