The Armour Archive

hey guys Iam looking for good training books to help me out with my swordsmanship, i see there are quite a few on the market and i have been told there are some really good ones and really crap ones

I am looking for German two handed sword style , like Brian price Italian two handed sword

any other two handed style

sword and shield style any country would be good

just looking for book that will help me become faster , stronger , better and more well trained

thanks and regards Byron

Nobody has answered yet, so I will, lest your question go completely unanswered.

Let me say, before I do that, that I don't do WMA, I play SCA, and that means that I have a small interest in the WMA literature.

These are the books I have personally read.

http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-German-Me ... 1891448072

People who know more than I say that this is a good one. I (for some reason) took a dislike to Mr Tobler.

http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Combat-F ... t_ep_dpi_2

This is a different edition of the book that I bought at the British Museum.

Hope that helps.

f

Hello,

At the risk of sounding self serving, may I recommend:

http://stores.lulu.com/hughknight

The pollaxe and halfswording books have many techniques which are SCA legal (although many more are not--these books were not written with any thought toward SCA fighting), and the new longsword book covers a broader range of material than most others do (only because most books focus on the basics--that wasn't meant as a criticism). There are no sword and shield books because there are none extant, but if you're interested in sword and buckler you will find one of those in the list above as well--German school, but different from what most others are doing.

NB: I do *not* recommend the first longsword book above--Introduction to Liechtenauer's Longsword--as it was written purely as a study aid for my students, and fails to include crucial basic information they would receive in class.

Those are all good, but don't forget to look at the sources. Try here:
http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=25

Meyer's Art of Combat, translated by Forgeng.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Combat-German ... 453&sr=8-1

Marc de Arundel has used it as somewhat of a basis for his longsword combat style, and the dussack section contains at least one example of pretty much every "standard" SCA shot or combo I've seen so far. (Admittedly, my experience is limited.)