Sources for Weapons and Fighting Styles

So, like any lover of shonen, I have desire to write lots of fights. Now, while I take shotokan karate and have a vague idea how fist fights should realistically work out, I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations for the following weapons?

Please note, I don't mean the wikipedia articles, I mean movies, books, documentaries or some other place that displays the fighting style with a realistic yet aesthetically pleasing style. Preferrably visually.

• A type of bow and arrow that a 14 year old girl could carry around and string. Was thinking something like the mongol's used. Thoughts? Turkish bow,◊ mongol bow,◊ korean bow◊
• The fighting style of kukri knives
• The fighting style of weighted balls (or, yoyos, I suppose)
• Using contortionism as a fighting style
• Throwing knife style
• Fighting using chains and rope and some handcuffs, as well as how much one could reasonably have on their person.
• Fighting style of a whip
• Canes with rotating blades on them
• Fighting with arms tied up. Is it possible to balance poles/weapons on one's shoulders/knees?
• Are there any videos out there of ACTUAL sword fights? I can't seem to find many. Also, backhanded fighting style. Gladius◊
• Fighting style of polearms. Greek bad ass version◊

edited 16th Oct '10 7:20:01 AM by A_H_R

Have you come across the Urumi before? That is a truly vicious weapon, although it requires a huge amount of skill to get right.

In passing. The image was basically a lion tamer type of thing, so the whip would not really work in that sense, but at the same time, it does look rather interesting/bad ass.

Um, it ain't just a whip, it's a whip with a razor sharp edge, and while it can't touch armour it looks like it could do some damn nasty stuff to exposed flesh.

edited 15th Oct '10 1:19:33 PM by MattII

Yes. I noticed that. That's the one reason I didn't want to do it at first, since it would harm animals.

What type of swords are you looking into? I've recently been studying a lot about European style swords through the middle ages but it seems like you might be looking for a more eastern look.

I actually want a more western sword. As long as it can be held one handed, by a male that's 14 or so.

Oh, and won't shatter easily, even if say, lightning strikes it.

Would a gladius or spatha work for your 14-year-old? I don't know how easily it would break if it were struck by lightning, but why would someone want to be in that situation?

Lightning? That's an odd request, but you know it is a metallic object, the lightning will conduct into the wielder.

If you're going for one-handed sword tactics these are largely for lightly armoured and unarmoured opponents. There's a variety of swords but generally from what I've seen you have three basic stances

High Guard - you hold the sword high up, ready for a downward swing

Mid Guard - holding the sword outward at normal waist level

Fool's Guard - holding the sword pointed downward to lull your opponent into attacking

General, you have hews (swings) and less likely is the thrust (since it is hard to do and leaves you open aftewards). Generally you favour the high guard to protect your upper body area because the majority of the attacks will come from the directions of your arms (swings against them).

You do not use the sword to block blows. You instead use your shield. If you use your sword there are two problems. First is your sword could break which would be terrible. Second is that it leaves you open to an attack by a second opponent. On the battlefield you'll never get a one-on-one battle, so you have to account for the fact that every single person is basically fighting, from their perspective, an uneven match.

Expert swordsmenship is about footwork (though the specifics I do now know). Generally, all moves are meant to be both attack/defensive moves at the same time. The reasoning is that if you make a defensive move only, then you're going to get attacked by multiple opponents constantly. If you make an offensive move only, you leave yourself open to a second opponent to strike at you. So with good footwork, you can move to attack an enemy while at the same time defending yourself (typically with your shield or facing off an opponent).

These weapons (one-handed swords) have low penetration against full plate or in fact do almost no damage to them.

edited 16th Oct '10 1:28:38 AM by breadloaf

I think I like the gladius better◊ than the spatha◊.

^Do those stances work if you hold the sword backhand? Forgot to add that part. Dammit.

I'd think that holding the swords with the blade pointing away from the enemy would pretty much make it difficult to block, if not impossible, unless the character's got some sort of super speed or precognition.

Yeah, I figured it would. Basically it's something he developed out of habit at a young age, and he is better with fighting just due to practicing and stubbornly refuses to fight another way.

It's supposed to look weird and be a bit awkward for him.

As well, having the blade point away from the enemy may result in them attempting to yank the sword out of his hands (which may well happen, because, well, he's a 14 year old kid), or they could otherwise force it out of his grasp.

>:)

Perfect!

Why?

Because it means I can set up plenty of fails for him. He's not supposed to be the greatest swordmaster ever. Just a kid with a sword.

Holding it backwards is... not a good stance. That would be for a dagger or at most a long dagger. But if you intend for him to suck, that's fine.

Not suck, just being dead set on doing things his way regardless of the benefits he could get from doing it differenly.

Well most of the hold backwards style means you can only use a very limited portion of your body for the swing. You're sacrificing power for speed and I believe it's unwieldy for anything longer than a dagger. Maybe it can work with a sabre or curved swords.

...power for speed eh? Believe it or not, that actually benefits him a lot more than you think it does.

Oh i should add, take what i say with a grain of salt. I'm hardly some swordsman running about crushing enemy armies.

'I'?

He won't be crushing armies with a sword. I dislike the use of the ninja rule unless it's justified.

What's wrong with "i", do i represent a council of shadowy figures?

If he is holding the knife backwards, there's likely to be a lot of wrestling involved too. Also is he cheap? He can always knee in the groin, poke the eyes or whatever, while slashing with his blade.

Hm. Yeh, I'd say he has no problem with being cheap. He started sword fighting as just playing rough with his best friend, so they probably did play pretty cheaply.