Why didn't they just use hammers or clubs?

>flail
>common

Even as a child when I saw one I knew it was impractical as fuck. How did it become such a meme? I guess they look cool

>no grappling
>best style of fighting 1v1

It's the most autistic weapon to date. It requires you to spin it up to really get and damage on armor. You're pretty much just running into the opponent and hoping the heavy thing hits them harder than they hit your armor

Because they are trying to demonstrate half-sword techniques. Redshirt guy should be in plate too but they can't understand Talhoffer's drawings apparently...

My uneducated guess is that medieval monks and scholars that drew images of battles but never actually saw them were told about morning stars and/or two-handed flails (that were threshing tools occasionally used by peasants as weapons) and wrongly imaged that these were one-handed flails.

Then 18-19th century collectors made one-handed flail "replicas" based on these.

The dude in red is a champion swordsmen and considered one of the worlds best.
The guy in the knights armour literally gets knocked out in this fight if you watch the doco.

>The dude in red is a champion swordsmen and considered one of the worlds best.
That's a weird way to spell "the dude in red is a widely derided charlatan who isn't actually any good at HEMA"

Yes, clearly that's why they're doing it. Not because it's what the people making the show asked them to do or anything like that.

...

>charlatan

Explain.

Clements forbade members of his club to frequent other clubs or practice another martial art, he forbade people to use techniques that he hasn't prescribed himself, he has a list of "validated and appropriate techniques" (many are at odds in interpretation with pretty much all the rest of the HEMA community, see his video of the krumphau for a typical example), he repeatedly wounded partners because of carelessness (in the video he gives his partner a concussion for instance), he threatened people who were displeased with him to reveal compromising medical records to their employer, when ARMA poland wanted to have it their way he threatened their instructors for a full-contact duel with feder with nothing else than mask and gloves and then ducked out of it when the poles accepted his terms and offered to pay the trip.

Clements is basically full kung-fu cult master in HEMA. He used to be at the forefront of research in the old days, but now, his isolationist policies and bullying persona is completely at odds with the rest of the community. Lots of respected members HEMA people are former ARMA people who were just fed up with Clements and there are admittedly lots of good people in ARMA, but Clements himself is the rotten apple at the top of the tree, no matter how much he sincerely loves the art.

>w-western blades were just as razor sharp as japanese ones
>constantly gripping them by the blade is a viable fighting style
?

Clements is the running gag of HEMA and so is his outfit. They are universally seen as McDojo.

No problem to grip a sharp blade, it just doesn't make much sense in most circumstances.

I'm sure the pommel would've done a lot of damage to the guy in fucking plate.

You can hold a razor sharp blade by the edge with a glove on, or if you're good, by pressing your fingertips to one flat and the pads of your knuckles to the other. You're not literally grabbing the edge, retard.

You had to travel to Sardinia to unlock that skill however, the second visit granted the ability to throw pommels. Now fuck off Skaal

>responds to a perfectly factual comment with memes

This is the cancer killing Veeky Forums.

I get holding the edge but wouldn't sliding it along your hand slice/fuck up your glove?
In the webm he slides it multiple times.

HEMA is a running gag lol.

> Why didn't they just use hammers or clubs?

They did, but the sword would still be lighter and more versatile while still being superior against unarmored troops.

Also, one handed hammers and clubs had a much shorter range and a more predictable attack range.

It is only the polearms where the blunt attacks reach so ahead of swords that the swords cannot compete.

why is the third guy carrying a showerhead?

what the fuck is going on in this

youtube.com/watch?v=vwuQPfvSSlo

He says specifically not to let the blade slide through your hands which is what red shirt is doing.

again, red shirt is a retard.

FLAT OF MY STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!