Sword weights

In a comment to my second Mudthaw post, Time Meyer asked a question that was important--so much so that I'm going to repeat it here:

Tim wrote, "Do you find it's easy to grow attached to a particular sword? I was having a lot of difficulty this evening with my heavy field battle stick this evening at the local practice because I don't use it a lot in tournament-style fighting. My regular sword is lighter, but was down for repairs this evening."

First let me say that I have always been a "use whatever is in my hand" kind of guy. A stick is a stick is a stick to me. Sometimes, though, that has gotten me into trouble. I do best with a lighter sword. I've fought with a lot of heavy swords in my time, and a lot of light swords, and switching back and forth can cause a lot of problems. There would actually be a point when I switched. I would go to a heavier sword so my blows woudl hit harder, and for awhile I would, but then my whole body would start to slow down, match the time of my sword and I start to get killed. Then I'd switch toa lighter sword. My hand would spped up, my body would speed up, I'd do really well, but then I'd start to get sloppy in my technique (heavy swords require better technique, or so I thought in the old days) and my power generation would suffer. Then I'd repeat the whole process all over again. I now know how to generate power with both heavy and light swords, which require different techniques as I explain below.

Bellatrix always said that you should only have one style sword: never go back and forth from a light sword to a heavy sword. He was speaking of people who use a heavy sword in training and then a lighter sword in tourneys, but the same applies in your situation. In tourney fighting you move your sword much more than in mellee, and in a greater variety of ways. You may not through a lot of molinees, but if you throw them in wars you are wasting motion. A heavy sword is very hard to throw a molinee with. As my example shows, your technique suffers. But Paul is only teaching one technique.

Most of the time, however, it's not really about weight, and therein lies the real issue. I find that when people talk about a heavy vs. a light sword what they are talking about more often than not is balance. A heavier sword with the same style basket hilt will balance more toward the tip, a lighter sword more toward the hand. This effects the mechanics of a blow more than anything else can. A long, tip weighted sword is best for the Bellatrix style, because the weight of the tip adds impact to the blow and, if technique is proper, also increases tip speed. The sword is thrown forward using the hips and the arm guides it. A sword that is balanced more toward the hand uses rotation to create momentum. It's good for molinees or the Gendy style snap. Speed is the imperative. It doesn't really matter how heavy the sword is. Gendy himself uses a relatively heavy sword, but because of the way the sword is balanced it rotates almost on top of the hand. This allows him to build power by moving his elbow and closing his hand, creating a very fast rotation of the sword. Remember: impact = mass x momentum. A sword balanced near the hand allows for a quick rotation and fast tip speed even in a heavier sword. But I have always found that the gendy style doesn't allow me to create as much pwoer as I want, and it messes up my timing to the point where my footwork and defense disapear. Plus I can't use it for the varried offense I like.

My own preference is for a sword balanced a hand's breadth from the top of the quilions/basket hilt, in the formula developed by Kevin Peregrin back in AS single digits. This allows me to to some of the molinees and rotation snaps and the Bellatrix technique but not much of the Gendy technique. But I still on occasion have trouble generating power for some shots, like the offside body which, paradoxically, I land better if I'm using a lighter, hand balanced sword, because I can generate more tip speed, ala Gendy.

My point is this: don't think of it as heavier vs. lighter. Think in terms of balance and that should help you with your problem. Know how the balance of each sword can dictate technique. All things being equal, I would advise you use the same swords in wars that you do in tourneys, whichever design that is.