How the fuck do you fight effectively with a sword? It seems

You don't. Swords are stupid.

>>34907604
But how will I be the mallninja I always wanted to be without OC-ing a Cold Steel(tm) Machete?

>>34907590
>OUT OF GRAVITY

Use your sword with a shield so you can focus on stabbing and cutting at wrists and ankles.

>>34907771
I can't get a link because it's dominated by War Thunder nerds, but basically im borrowing it from dogfighting and the core concept is that because it takes less energy to come down on something than to come up on something for the obvious reason of gravity existing, it's generally better to swing/move downwards than upwards. but once you go down, you have to come back up, and are at a disadvantage unless you manage your stance/position/whatever properly, or secure a kill from that higher stance or position

>>34907794
Considering that a sword weighs 1 to 6 pounds (depending) and a fighter weighs a couple of tons (wild guess), the two don't really have much in common at all. Swordfighting is more about beats (rhythm): this thrust leads to this parry leads to this guard to this cut, until somebody loses physical, bodily momentum and gets stabbed. You're not looking for a higher or lower position, you're looking for an opening to exploit. You attack to draw attention, defend to draw in close, and commit only when you're certain.

>>34907590
Go study HEMA.

>>34907861
that's interesting, I always thought it was about establishing and maintaining pressure, with the maintenance of pressure requiring power and speed in fluid strokes, rather than a sort of dancing until one dancer makes a mistake (not that theres anything wrong with that, I understand a lot of hand-to-hand martial arts essentialy being trading throws and counter-throws until someone gets put on the floor and gets niggered upon savagely because they're grounded)

>>34907861
>Fighter weighs several tonnes
What the fuck

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>>34907947
i'm NOT fat!!!

>>34907590
MAGNETIC FORCE JACK
NATURE'S FORCE

>>34907861
sword fighting works on the same process as hand to hand striking. You try to read your opponents movement and patterns, strike their openings. If you don't think that vertically shifting positions isn't involved in sword fighting, you kinda sound like a couch ninja.

>>34907946
I should clarify that I only have reasonable experience in small sword, smarra, and academic saber, which are used in drastically different ways than heavier weapons. This isn't too say that there isn't an art to using arming swords, back swords, et al; just that it's easier to physically dominate your area of combat when your blade has more presence. Either way, you do establish and maintain pressure by dictating the tempo and distance of the fight, trying to maintain the lead until you either prevail or fall. Obviously with a heavier weapon this demands more force, but still.

>>34907947
I did say it was a wild guess. I don't really into airplanes.

>>34907777
are you a peasant roman conscript ?

OP wants to know about fighting with a sword not how to suck the shit out of a runny aqueduct.

>>34908003
>vertically shifting positions isn't involved in sword fighting

You need to work on your reading comprehension. I implied that it was a means to an end, not a goal unto itself.

>>34907590
This webm would've been better with a QTE button prompt on the screen at the start.

>>34907590
Short answer is that you have no frame of reference for what a sword feels like or how to fight with one

shorter answer is if you swing a sword like a ineffectual cosplaying faggot you're going to get your shit wrecked by anyone who knows how to fight with a sword

Long answer is download a few fechtbuchs and watch some youtube videos made by yuros and maybe you'll get a concept of how footwork and biomechanics play in throwing around a ~2.5lb 3ft long razor blade.

Longer answer is you're always going to get your shit wrecked until you understand how countercuts work

>>34907590
>How the fuck do you fight effectively with a sword?

Step Parry Blow

>>34907590
Raiden almost picked up outer haven.
I'm pretty sure he can swing a sword effortlessly.

>>34907590
You swing it at shit. Pro tip, hit the guy with the sharp part

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>>34907590
How about you git gud?

>>34907794
lmao this nigga think that every sword strike is you just swinging the sword down with gravity
protip step in a gym at least once in your life

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>>34907952
>o rly
>what's this

HEMA is fencing for larping faggots
real combat was brute strength endurance matches, like an alternating triangle pushup contest where the winner gets to live

>>34910469
>real combat
Do mean as in a war?

Most of the stuff in fectbuchen is about self defense and judicial dueling, yes, but professional soldiers still sought the masters who wrote these primers for instruction, because technique can reduce the effort needed to perform an action and can occasionally allow you to exploit an opening that will end the fight faster.

If you equate mass combat to a pushup contest, skill at fighting is equivalent to knowing to choose a stance that is less punishing than triangle.

It won't save you from dumb luck, overwhelming numbers, or opponents with better equipment, but it will make you more effective you were before you received it.

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>It seems like you'd only ever have two, maybe three swings before you're out of gravity or momentum energy and are in a necessarily disadvantageous position.

Then your cutting technique is quite poor. You're usually not going to cut in a large, all out swing. You cut in a controlled fashion, as much forward towards the opponent as arcing around. Somewhat like throwing out the hook with a fishing rod. On top of that, the various guards for something like longsword or katana are also the logical end points for various cuts. Diagonal cuts form above take you to left or right pflug or nebenhut. Cuts from below go up into ochs or von tag. Any cut can be to langen ort. So your sword and arms should always be in a good position after a cut, and your footwork should ensure that you're still properly balanced as well.

>How are you meant to maintain pressure on a parrying or dodging enemy

If he parries then you can quite literally put pressure on him, since your swords should now be in contact. (Though in that case pushing hard or not are both viable options, do the opposite to what your enemy is doing.) Fighting from "the bind" is for many styles where the bulk of it all happens, and for a good fencer often the safest way to fight, since you can now straight out feel what your opponent is doing with his sword.

If someone's dodging then you can follow after him and keep attacking for starters. You should be faster forward than he is backwards. If he's simply side stepping so you miss, without having to defend himself with his sword then your attack was simply not a good one, and you're about to pay dearly for your mistake.

I don't really see how a polearm or similar would help you in either of these cases.

>>34907861
You are stronger coming from above, and as such you will usually want to be the one on top in the bind.