you don't need to be a strongman to use a sword, but it still requires certain strength and endurance to wield it effectively. have you ever actually swing around a sword in "combat"? it's highly exhausting, most sword matches end in 5 minutes or less, usually 3, and do require upper body strength to hold the guards and perform cuts.
a woman will likely win against a man without a sword just by extra reach, but will lose 8/10 times when facing a man with a sword even if they have equal expertise and similar body size. that was the point.
even when you use guns, women will lose on accuracy because most of them have too low upper body strength to steadily hold the weapon or handle the kickback. force multiplier doesn't matter much if the other side also has the same weapon but is naturally advantaged in physical strength, endurance and spatial reasoning. it only works at point blank range and the other side was caught by surprise. within 21 feet, a determined man with no gun might still be able to grab the gun from a panicking woman.
one can argue even at the high tech level of using remote drones, men will still beat women using the same weapon, just look at esports, women still lose to men even if the activity only involved keyboard and mouse with minimal physical movements.
what's left? pushing a button to fire missiles in a secured bonker?
there's a reason why every competition is separated by sex, it's certainly not to the benefits of men.
have you ever actually swing around a sword in "combat"?
Yes. I fence HEMA, and I have practice cutting with several sharp swords that I own. I also participate in a semi-local LARP group that uses steel weapons. I have also been a judge at a few HEMA events.
When it comes to unarmored fencing, strength is hardly a factor. Once the basic muscles are developed, Endurance and Finesse are the name of the game, even in longsword. Based on my experience, a sword fight will not last long unless two very skilled opponents are fighting each other. A match between two rookies is likely to end in both being severely wounded or dead, and a match between intermediates will be more aggressive and suicidal than a match between experts. 2 to 5 minutes is pretty long for a sword fight.
While it may be true that men on average are stronger than women, the two populations intersect significantly. I have personally met and fenced good bouts with women who are more than capable of holding and swinging a sword, as well as maintaining guards when appropriate, much longer than the average sword fight will last.
I have personally participated in events where women have gone on to beat men who have more years of fencing under their belt. having fenced these woman myself, I can tell you they are good fencers, but they are no more experts than the other men they have faced. yet they easily hold their own.
What are the ratios of women in the sport that can hold their own against men (and then win), from the already small pool of women who are interested in hema? I imagine the number is really small at whichever hema club you are at. They are the exceptions.
Sure there are women who can effectively use sword after training and already fit in general but that hardly matters when they have to face some one a foot taller and 100+ lb heavier wailing on them. Also this is hit based sport match with heavy protections where men will still hold back when fighting against women, if somehow in real life we ended up carrying swords for self defense, people wishing harm against someone wearing a sword will not openly request for duels, the force multiplier is still moot.
HEMA is still a small and close knit hobby, I would argue anyone who is interested in it is an outlier of some sort.
I don't have hard numbers, but my observation is that women who train as much as the men tend to do just as well. Men definitely seem to have more of a competitive instinct, seem to be prone to training more, and are generally more motivated to show up to practices, but that is a social discrepancy rather than a physical one.
I have indeed personally witnessed a smaller female fencer getting injured when going against a larger fencer during a tournament. in this case, the height and weight discrepancy was massive, where she was going up a guy who was 6 ft 7 and had the weight to match while she was around 5'3 and also had the weight to match. she scored a few points on him, but the male fencer landed a clean blow on her collarbone which seemed to have broken it. In this case, it was an extreme weight difference that led to the injury in my opinion.
That weight difference is not present in 99% of the bouts that I have fought and judged. male or female, a lighter and smaller fencer can take on and defeat a larger and taller fencer no problem as long as they have practiced that match up. the smaller fencer has a lower center of gravity and will generally have an advantage in grappling situations. they also have the advantage of being able to hit their opponent while being past their opponent's strike range. So long as they can close the distance, they can land the point.
And this is just height/weight difference. I have personally fenced men who are even shorter and lighter than a lot of the women that I have fenced. Given the same skill level, the men and women pose a similar challenge in my experience.
finally, a sword is a fucking sword. with the proper technique, it does not take much to inflict a mortal blow on an opponent. even then, tournaments have a standard for a quality hit and will not award points if a cut does not have sufficient force behind it. if you've ever held a longsword, or any other real sword, you'd know that cutting weapons can do a lot of damage just being swung under their own weight.
I can also tell you that, in a tournament setting with a medal on the line, nobody is holding back. I sure as hell don't, and I don't expect anyone to hold back on me.
all of this said, this is still assuming an unarmored fight. I do not participate in harnessfechten, buhurt, or any other armored combat sports, but I have witnessed several matches. In my inexperienced opinion, strength does indeed play a major factor in armored combat and I do believe there would be a visible discrepancy between men and women in that regard, similar to the discrepancy between men and women in combat sports like MMA.
lol month old zombie thread.
you don't need to be a strongman to use a sword, but it still requires certain strength and endurance to wield it effectively. have you ever actually swing around a sword in "combat"? it's highly exhausting, most sword matches end in 5 minutes or less, usually 3, and do require upper body strength to hold the guards and perform cuts.
a woman will likely win against a man without a sword just by extra reach, but will lose 8/10 times when facing a man with a sword even if they have equal expertise and similar body size. that was the point.
even when you use guns, women will lose on accuracy because most of them have too low upper body strength to steadily hold the weapon or handle the kickback. force multiplier doesn't matter much if the other side also has the same weapon but is naturally advantaged in physical strength, endurance and spatial reasoning. it only works at point blank range and the other side was caught by surprise. within 21 feet, a determined man with no gun might still be able to grab the gun from a panicking woman.
one can argue even at the high tech level of using remote drones, men will still beat women using the same weapon, just look at esports, women still lose to men even if the activity only involved keyboard and mouse with minimal physical movements. what's left? pushing a button to fire missiles in a secured bonker?
there's a reason why every competition is separated by sex, it's certainly not to the benefits of men.
Yes. I fence HEMA, and I have practice cutting with several sharp swords that I own. I also participate in a semi-local LARP group that uses steel weapons. I have also been a judge at a few HEMA events.
When it comes to unarmored fencing, strength is hardly a factor. Once the basic muscles are developed, Endurance and Finesse are the name of the game, even in longsword. Based on my experience, a sword fight will not last long unless two very skilled opponents are fighting each other. A match between two rookies is likely to end in both being severely wounded or dead, and a match between intermediates will be more aggressive and suicidal than a match between experts. 2 to 5 minutes is pretty long for a sword fight.
While it may be true that men on average are stronger than women, the two populations intersect significantly. I have personally met and fenced good bouts with women who are more than capable of holding and swinging a sword, as well as maintaining guards when appropriate, much longer than the average sword fight will last.
I have personally participated in events where women have gone on to beat men who have more years of fencing under their belt. having fenced these woman myself, I can tell you they are good fencers, but they are no more experts than the other men they have faced. yet they easily hold their own.
What are the ratios of women in the sport that can hold their own against men (and then win), from the already small pool of women who are interested in hema? I imagine the number is really small at whichever hema club you are at. They are the exceptions.
Sure there are women who can effectively use sword after training and already fit in general but that hardly matters when they have to face some one a foot taller and 100+ lb heavier wailing on them. Also this is hit based sport match with heavy protections where men will still hold back when fighting against women, if somehow in real life we ended up carrying swords for self defense, people wishing harm against someone wearing a sword will not openly request for duels, the force multiplier is still moot.
HEMA is still a small and close knit hobby, I would argue anyone who is interested in it is an outlier of some sort.
I don't have hard numbers, but my observation is that women who train as much as the men tend to do just as well. Men definitely seem to have more of a competitive instinct, seem to be prone to training more, and are generally more motivated to show up to practices, but that is a social discrepancy rather than a physical one.
I have indeed personally witnessed a smaller female fencer getting injured when going against a larger fencer during a tournament. in this case, the height and weight discrepancy was massive, where she was going up a guy who was 6 ft 7 and had the weight to match while she was around 5'3 and also had the weight to match. she scored a few points on him, but the male fencer landed a clean blow on her collarbone which seemed to have broken it. In this case, it was an extreme weight difference that led to the injury in my opinion.
That weight difference is not present in 99% of the bouts that I have fought and judged. male or female, a lighter and smaller fencer can take on and defeat a larger and taller fencer no problem as long as they have practiced that match up. the smaller fencer has a lower center of gravity and will generally have an advantage in grappling situations. they also have the advantage of being able to hit their opponent while being past their opponent's strike range. So long as they can close the distance, they can land the point.
And this is just height/weight difference. I have personally fenced men who are even shorter and lighter than a lot of the women that I have fenced. Given the same skill level, the men and women pose a similar challenge in my experience.
finally, a sword is a fucking sword. with the proper technique, it does not take much to inflict a mortal blow on an opponent. even then, tournaments have a standard for a quality hit and will not award points if a cut does not have sufficient force behind it. if you've ever held a longsword, or any other real sword, you'd know that cutting weapons can do a lot of damage just being swung under their own weight.
I can also tell you that, in a tournament setting with a medal on the line, nobody is holding back. I sure as hell don't, and I don't expect anyone to hold back on me.
all of this said, this is still assuming an unarmored fight. I do not participate in harnessfechten, buhurt, or any other armored combat sports, but I have witnessed several matches. In my inexperienced opinion, strength does indeed play a major factor in armored combat and I do believe there would be a visible discrepancy between men and women in that regard, similar to the discrepancy between men and women in combat sports like MMA.