>> Give me that beat, give me that beat, give me that beat,
[stick tapping] yeah. Historical Weapons Guild, HEMA. Is that the name of it? >> ANTHONY: Yeah. >> Nailed it!
[laughs] >> Nailed it! Rondels, bucklers, swords, quarterstaves. >> What else is there, man, we got this. >> We got this. [slow motion sword clangs] [grunts]
[sword clangs] [slow motion sword clangs] >> Well I guess there's that. Stop it, stop, stop.
[sticks tapping] [calm music] >> NARRATOR: Using the
sword to chop stuff in half. >> Hot damn, man we are back
at the Historical Weapons Guild with Anthony Buonomo and
we are meeting Karl Bolle. How did we get here, man? >> Karl's a cutting expert,
he cuts things with swords. >> Yeah, dude, I didn't
know, I guess tournaments with cutting is a thing, and he's one of the best in the world. >> Yeah, Anthony says he's got a guy who knows how to cuts stuff,
and I'm like yeah, sure, cause when Anthony knows
a guy, they're cool. >> Yeah, sure. >> Bring them on, they've got
some sort of bizarre skill. >> How do they judge cutting? >> We have grass rolled mats, they will set them up and they'll
give us specific patterns. And then they'll judge
what our form looks like, as well as what actually
happens to the target. >> How do you find your targets? Do they just like walking
up and down the street, you throw them in the back of a van or? [laughs] >> We don't talk about that.
>> That's the after part. >> No so we actually use tatami mats, which was is also a target
used in Eastern martial arts and it is effectively just a carpet. >> How much of it is just
the sword being sharp, how much of it is technique,
how much of it is power, like what's important in this? >> Right, so the three
things that really matter are the edge alignment as
you're cutting the mat, the speed, and then if
you have a hard target, the structure you have
to resist any forces coming back as you're
trying to cut through that. >> JASON: Like bowling. >> Like in my mind, I'm
picturing taking a baseball bat to a metal pole, like your going to feel it resinate back at ya. >> Right, exactly, exactly. >> So in that case, I guess it matters the angle of attack that you go. Does it matter, I assume, the farther out on the sword that slice
is, the more power there is, but I assume also kind
of like a guillotine you want to make sure that you maximize the amount of cutting that happens. >> So what we're going
to be doing is hewing. The difference between hewing and slicing would be like you hew a tree with an ax, you slice a piece of cheese. >> So chopping is--
>> Or cut, if you will. >> KARL: Right, right. >> Straight face and everything,
it's fine, it's fine. >> That was good, this is good. Now it is important to
note that power generation isn't really a key force in this. We actually have a young lady at our club, she's nine years old,
she's about 75 pounds. She cuts clean over hows and under hows better than many, many
other people in our club. >> Is it Hit-Girl?
[laughs] >> Yeah that's basically
Hit-Girl, she's pretty awesome. >> Okay so you said we're
going to learn hewing, which is the chopping,
not the slicing right? >> KARL: Correct. >> So what do we need
to know before we begin? >> We need to do some
basic safety protocols. >> All right.
>> Boo! [laughs]
I mean-- >> What's the injury reset at right now? >> Yeah, you know what,
this is a good point. Let's hear safety first. >> Safety first, okay. >> You ever watch Rambo? >> Every day. >> KARL: Every day, and they have that scene where like how sharp is this knife. >> Yeah wait that's supposed
to bad for the blade, right? >> No, it's fine. See this is paper--
>> Bad for the paper. >> And it's a lot softer than steel, otherwise we'd make our sword out of this. >> So these are all razor sharp? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> And thus better than Anthony's. >> Oh, oh, oh that's, oh my gosh your-- >> You're bleeding? >> Your arm hairs went away. >> Yeah, yeah.
>> Oh! >> Yeah, I've got a little bald spot now. It's absolutely, absolutely razor sharp. >> So how do you not get cut? >> Most of our cutting tournaments are done with two handed swords. This is specifically because as you swing with a one handed sword
there might be rotation that could cause you to hit yourself. >> That would be bad. >> I used to that in
racket ball all the time. I sucked at racket ball, too. >> Right, so we'll be
doing two handed swords that way you'll won't
have as much of a chance of you rotating on your self, but there are some key rule
that we have to play by here. Any time that we are walking around with one of these swords,
we want to make sure that we keep tip down and we want to make sure that we keep the sword in front of us. So places do allow you to go
up top on to your shoulder. I don't like this because
some people are tall, like Anthony over here. I'd rather you be down
and when I say down, I mean like straight down. I don't want to see this ever, because then if somebody
walks over to you, you could stab them in the leg. >> Man it's really funny once you watch somebody shave themselves
with a piece of equipment, how you give them much more respect. >> This is an extremely
dangerous weapon, right? >> Yeah. >> I'm just thinking these are all things that my squire will have to worry about. [laughs] >> When we say that
you are allowed to cut, you may approach the mat, perform
whatever cuts you want to, or whatever cuts are in the pattern and then you'll want to walk
away, preferably en garde. >> En garde means that like you're afraid the mats going to come back and get ya? >> Right, exactly.
>> Yeah. >> That would be proper technique. I will have you do a couple
of dry cuts with a fetter to make sure that you
are not doing anything that is inherently unsafe
in your general cutting and correct any of those issues. The most important one is at no time should this
object go into another person and if you do that then pretty
much safety is taken care of. >> Fine, I got it, it's fine. >> Let's go, I got it, I got it. Mat's like talking sass about my family and then I'm like whoosh. >> Okay safe-ish, I want you to try not to, like, rotate through the cut because it could actually come around and like smack you in the back
if you rotate it too much. >> You're right because then
I would chopping myself. Okay so instead keep it level, think of horizontal
the whole time, whoosh. >> Okay that's safer, yeah. So I would be a middle how, not
usually done in tournaments, but it's okay, you can totally do that. >> Okay [laughs] he's already
giving me the business man. >> Yep, you may proceed when ready. [laughs] Strange flourishes with
a sharp, please don't do. [laughs] >> Okay. [calm music] >> Make sure that you stay well
grounded and don't fall over. I don't want you to get
unbalanced thinking. Once there target there,
you're going to have a mental desire to like hit it ever harder and I don't want you to
slip or trip or fall. All right that's a little better, I'm not as worried about you
tripping on your cowboy boots. Okay I can deal with that, we can let you try to cut the tatami now. >> Yeah man Modern
Rogues have sharp things, what could go wrong? >> Whoa, nothing at all. Did you bring the cut gloves? I didn't either. >> So I'm going to let you guys select what weapon you want to use. And it's dangerous to go alone. >> BRIAN: This one spoke
to me, do they have names? They have names, don't they? >> KARL: That one is the Munich. >> The Munich. Which on speaks to you, Sir Murphy? >> This one. >> KARL: The Viceroy, okay. >> JASON: The Viceroy.
>> BRIAN: The Viceroy. >> KARL: Excellent, good choice. >> The Viceroy, yeah. >> BRIAN: The Munich
not as brad as Viceroy. Munich is perfectly acceptable. >> Hey, hey, how are you
supposed to hold that? >> You know what, they've
got beer in Munich. >> All: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
>> Already, already, already. The Viceroy does what he pleases. >> [laughs] No he doesn't,
he does what this guy says. >> The Viceroy does what
Karl says, listen Viceroy. [laughs] >> I just want you to
do as good as you can and give yourself a
baseline so you can see whether or not you've improved after we do a little bit of training. >> Okay, what is the reason
for the water in there? >> It's actually more difficult to cut when it's completely dry
and a little bit of water gives it some weight, so it doesn't just like fly everywhere. >> Okay, what's that? You talking about my buddy Munich? Oh you're saying that
the pilsner comes from the Czech Republic and not Germany. I told you John Rubio already explained that in the comments. >> Hey! >> I over extended, but that felt awesome. [laughs] That was not safe, that was badass. >> If you weren't holding
a sword right now, I would run over there
and high five you so hard. [laughs] Just like right here, bam. >> BRIAN: I don't know
if I just got lucky, but it seemed like it hit near the end and had all the power. And you could actually feel
it slicing though on there. You got to try this. >> Yes I do. >> You may begin when ready. >> Don't jerk me around on this Viceroy. Let's do this, okay? >> All I'm thinking is like
please hold on to the sword. [laughs] Please don't let go of the sword. >> I was trying to build
a bond with the sword, you're screwing with my mojo, Brushwood. >> Whoa! >> Jeez. >> You got that awesome angle
and everything on there. >> KARL: You did actually a very good edge alignment, excellent. >> BRIAN: You did good edge alignment. He's saying nice things about you. >> Am I glowing, it feels like
I might be glowing right now. Am I glowing?
[laughs] Well done Viceroy. >> I got to be honest Karl, I didn't expect either of
us to get anything right. >> I didn't either. [laughs] You guys had pretty decent edge alignment, to be completely honest. Which is probably all your work with long swords with Anthony here. >> Yeah! >> Number two these
are actually beach mats because we couldn't get true tatami. >> Are true tatami actually harder to cut? >> Much, much, much denser weave of fiber. >> JASON: Training wheels,
that's very kind of you. >> Okay so I'm going to say we
got lucky on our edge alignment, that's a skill I assume
you develop over time. I noticed that both of us just went right through the middle, which I'm guessing does
not a world champion make. >> KARL: No, no not quite and you had a lot of additional motion in your cuts. >> I felt very unsafe
when I got through it and then I tried to stop
and then I could feel like oh you're not supposed
to be off balanced while holding something sharp
enough to shave, right? >> I mean I figure there's
probably some pretty bad problems. Pretty much everything except the result. >> Yeah the result was pretty good. It didn't spray, your flatness
of your cut is pretty decent, the piece didn't go
flying off terribly far. Those were pretty decent cuts, but I think we can improve them and make them a little bit
more economy of motion. Should we see what Anthony can do? >> Yes.
>> BRIAN: Yes, Yes. >> JASON: Yes. >> BRIAN: Anthony, Anthony. What's the name of your sword, Anthony? This is a Talhoffer, I've
never used this before. Karl sharped this for me this morning. I literally just bought it on Wednesday. >> It's funny because they had never used their swords either. >> ANTHONY: I know. [laughs] >> But he got his in an alley. >> Yeah I did get mine in a back alley. >> JASON: He literally bought that in an alley the other day. >> Wait for reals? >> ANTHONY: Yeah. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that seems like Anthony. >> You may begin when ready. >> Ah, terrible. >> Oh, we did better than Anthony. >> This is why I need the class, too. [sword clanging] >> KARL: There you go. >> BRIAN: Okay, he did better than us. >> JASON: Yeah. [sword clanging] Oh it's just like how much you can. [sword clanging] >> So the last one
threw, but the first two, the center two were great. >> Cause I did notice
that it sort of knocked the top off and it went
all wonky sideways. My guess is that was not perfect. >> Yeah let's talk more about
how we're better than Anthony. >> Yeah, no, explain in details the ways the Viceroy an Munich, Worlds
Greatest Sword Detectives were able to better than-- >> Sword detectives?
[laughs] >> So Anthony did a
great job of showing us all the things that we
look for us to not to do. And it's excellent that he's such a good cutter that he can do that for us. The first cut basically tore the top off, it went flying, right? That's something that we try to avoid and you can see the other
half that cut, I believe here. Where you there's a big
scoop coming through here and we have some pieces of
tatami that got cut separately. >> And so you want to see it perfectly straight all the way through? >> Right so this piece where it just fell right there, that's perfect. This last cut, you see
there's more scooping and a piece went flying off to the side. That's something that we try to avoid. He didn't do it, but if
we cut through another cut that we had already made,
that's called a mountain. That's to be avoided,
that's a targeting error. So those are little
things that we try to-- >> Like if it peaks or
something like that, where you cut one way like, got ya. >> So if I'm understanding you correctly, the perfect demonstration
would be perfect line cuts starting at the top, each
one not hitting the other, going back and forth. How many do you do in a perfect cut? >> Do we want to try? [sword clanging] >> Wow! Five cuts, each one perfectly straight, not one of them hitting the
previous target, that's great. >> Yeah one thing that I was
noticing about your technique is you weren't really putting
a lot into it, cause I was. My back kind of hurts. >> You were baseball, you
were swinging for a home run. >> So we have these
techniques that are, you know, we come in, come to contact and then we do a things like etiquettes. >> The bind. >> Where were just like
lifting off a little and snapping very quickly
or we have like ones where we connect right and
come around and then drive, what's known as the doubling. Which is just a little motion, right? Little techniques like that, that have a little more
complicated compound action, those are the types of
things we want to do against a tatami mat to really know whether or not our technique is good. Simple cuts even against true tatami is pretty easy to do, but
more complicated cuts, such as the doubling or a zech
can be pretty challenging, because you just don't
have as much time to move. >> Yeah, it's not like just like in combat you don't get a hold on a
minute, let me get reset. You want to be able to
[cutting sounds] straight down. >> So I can try to
demonstrate that real quick. >> BRIAN: Yeah, go for it. [sword clang] >> Whoa! [sword clanging] >> Ah, nope. There we go. >> For us it was just
raw power and you know force equals momentum
times the speed of light, as we all know. >> You had good edge alignment, but you had lots and lots
of speed catching up, yeah. >> Where's the power coming
from with that little of motion? >> Great, so this is a wonderful question. The two axes where you are
making your motion, right? Which is coming from your
arm, going up and down and coming from your hips,
going left to right. So when you a diagonal cut, you guy almost did
entirely with this swing. >> Yeah, just a baseball swing, yeah. >> Yeah, so you only got
the power out of you hips and little bit of power out of your arms cause you were cutting across
your body with your arms, which is not ideal, but
hey it worked, that's cool. What I'm going to show you how to do is to isolate the power in your shoulders, up and down with good structure and isolate the power out of you hips, so that you can have a very narrow window and pull all that power in to it. Were going to start with grip, both of you were holding
it this hammer grip. When you have full extension, right now you've very
short at the sword, right? You don't have a lot of distance that you could approach a target. We want to slide our hands down, so that you have extension by riding it between your index knuckle
and the base of your thumb. >> BRIAN: Oh wow, yeah, you feel like you have a lot more surface
area on there that way. >> Yeah we're going to
do that with both hands and now when we try to get
that distance on target, we don't have that bend in our wrist. We want to make sure our wrist is nice, flat, level spot, so
maybe go up a little bit more, so that your wrist feels
nice and comfortable. So now you have a full extension when you're going to be making your swing. So that's trick number one, number two is we want to go ahead and
take a nice wide stance, settle into our knees, a little bit and we want to go straight up. And we want to start understanding this power that's coming
from our shoulders. So we're going to be full extended all the way up and go all
the way down, up and down. >> You can actually feel it
starting up in your upper back. >> Correct, yeah When you get to the bottom of this action, make sure you're not falling into it, you want to make sure that you
counter balance your weight and you try to keep your
self as up right as possible. >> Like Rudis, right? >> Right, another thing you guys are doing is even though you're extending
up, as you're coming down, you're starting to break at one elbow. So I want to teach you guys a trick and this doesn't need swords. Let's put that down for a second. Let's go down into a push-up position. >> JASON: We're bad at this.
[laughs] >> Put one hand over top the other, like you'd be holding the sword. As you can see I've put my
hand right in that webbing. We can stay here, like all day, right? >> Sure. >> This isn't too bad.
[laughs] Even if we go down a little
bit, this isn't so bad, I mean it sucks, but it's-- >> Yeah, yeah. >> But up here we can stay here all day. What if we lift to one side of
our body or break one elbow? >> Oh yeah, you feel all that. >> Same the other way, yeah that sucks. If you go way too far, you're just going to fall right over, right? >> JASON: I'm probably
just going to fall anyway. [laughs] >> Same is true when
your impacting a target. So if I can just get
you to like extend out. While you have elbow
nice and out, you can-- No, no, no resist. I can push you before I
can collapse the sword. Break at that elbow a little bit. Now it all breaks down, right?
>> Oh yeah. All of a sudden your wrists are in charge and your wrists of course are not the strongest part of your body. >> KARL: Yeah, there
not very strong, right. >> Yeah dramatically different. >> You want to lock all
of that, well not lock, but you want to extend all that out. Locking is actually bad because you have to unlock to
then make another motion. You want to extend as if you're trying to reach something that's just
right past your finger tips. So now let's try that a
couple more times, up, down. Go ahead, go up, don't hit me. Go ahead. There you go, feel balance? >> Oh wow, okay, yeah, [calm music] >> Feel balance? >> Yeah. >> KARL: There we go, hey look at that, that's very good balance. >> That'll keep ya from
falling over forward. Too worried about falling over backwards. >> That's actually good,
if I'm getting ready to fight Anthony here and
I have a little bit of back weight and he suddenly does something that I don't expect, I just drop. It's much better than me being forward and having to pull myself
back and then back peddle. So there are some other things for like cutting from above that we're not going to go over too much
because they're more nuanced. But we'll go ahead and
transition to your hip rotation. >> The side to side. So that's all Y axis stuff,
now we're thinking X axis. >> Yes, exactly. We're going to isolate that out, too. So we're going to take
a decently wide stance, we're going to extend all
the way out to one side and we're going to make sure that our torso down to our hips
all stays on one plane and all of the rotation
comes from the hips. So you see how everything from like navel up is just staying stationary. It's not this. >> Like a He-Man figure. >> Yeah, now you're talking. >> Exactly, you want to
He-Man figure this through. We're going to sink into our
knees, extend out, cut across. Then we can flip the
sword, cut the other way. >> He, Man, He-Man, He-Man, man at arms, Trap Jaw, She-Ra, Cringer. >> So, extend all the way out, that way you don't break at
the wrist or at the elbows. >> ANTHONY: So when you
get to the other side, flip the sword over. >> Oh, yeah that makes sense. >> KARL: Yep, yep, there
you go, there you go. >> There we go. >> KARL: Now what I want you to imagine while you're doing this is there's like, you're on a spindle and it's going right through your center of gravity and you're just turning
along that spindle. >> BRIAN: Okay. Now am I seeing right? On the way over it seems like
he's doing what you're saying, but on the back I'm
seeing the right elbow-- >> He's starting to break at the elbow, you're also getting a little off balance, which might be what's causing it. So just like make sure
that you're counter acting the weight of the sword
being extended away from you, with a little bit of lean back. >> Okay, got ya. >> KARL: Much better.
>> Yeah. >> Hey that last one was really
good edge alignment, too. Did you hear that whoosh? >> I did. >> Now we want to put those
two concepts together. Step one foot forward,
dominance side, preferably. We're going to sink
into that a little bit. What I want to us to do is I want to us to kick our hip in towards our back and I want to go up with the sword and I want to tilt the
sword down a little bit and we're going to do the up down motion with our shoulders, all right? That same motion while
we do the turning with our hips at the same time
to make a nice diagonal cut. [calm music] Little better, lean the sword over, remember how I was saying. Like start it leaned over, cut through. Remember the push-up drill, when it's in line with your body, then you've got lots of strength, but if you start coming over to the side, like you're doing at the end of your cut. >> Oh yeah, watch the
follow through, yeah. >> So just try to like keep it in line all the way through and
then you're going to, it's going to naturally stop, cause you can't go past a certain point. >> So we're up here, we
come down at an angle, arms straight, chest out,
slightly leaned back, getting power from the X and the Y axes, and we chop down, how do
we reset to the other side? Do you pivot your feet? >> It depends on what's
happening in the fight, right, and what technique
you're trying to pull off. So like if you were trying to cut from one side to the other,
the most graceful thing would be either to make
an advance or a retreat. Your arm work will be you
come to the complete stop with full extension, right,
and then you're going to ahead and let your arms bend to come to another angle and back down. [calm music] >> And we want to come all the
way back up again on that-- >> So I wanted you like feel
coming all the way up, right? But in a fight, right,
if I was fighting Anthony and I'm like this, there's lots of things he can do that are really
unfortunate, right? That I suddenly have very little I can do against it because my
sword's way up there. Most of the time we want
to be on the shoulder. When I did this there's a point in a arc that I got to and when I use
Anthony as the cutting target. I want to cut to the
point right above where I'm going to impact Anthony
and then follow through. So I cut to the point right above Anthony and then I do that same
cut as I go through him. So one of the really
important portions of cutting is edge alignment, right? We've kind of worked on how to generate enough speed and enough
structure to get through your mats with conservative motion. If you hit it sideways, it's
never going to get through. So we want to worry about making good whistling in the air because that whistling noise is coming from the air flowing
around the edge of the sword. And so what our edge alignment
is will change that pitch. Good edge alignment might
sound like [sword whistle]. But bad edge alignment
by just a little bit, nothing.
>> oh wow. >> And that's like the difference
of this, to this, to this. >> That's basically all we
want to do is be cognizant that our wrists are
making sure that this is aimed in exactly the same
direction as we're cutting. >> Correct, and so what
will happen as an effect on a piece of tatami is
as you're intersecting it, if your edge alignment is turned up, you might make it through the tatami because it's a sharp sword, but this will act as a ramp
and throw that tatami away. >> BRIAN: Got it. And if it's down like this and
you're coming this direction, you'll probably make it through it, but it'll hit the
tatami, scallop across it and bend the bottom piece
down and also throw a mat. >> Man that makes so much sense. >> So that's what we do when we read, is we see how was the mat affected by the cut we were trying to do. >> What causes, you mentioned
the scooping on there, it that just you rotating
as you go through it? >> Most of it is you impact something and you don't have enough
wrist and elbow structure to maintain that cut all the way through. So the impact on the sword,
which is a big lever, changes once it impacts a medium. So if you're fully extended
and like I can do this easily, then the tatami's going to
be able to affect the sword. >> Okay, are we ready to see
if we get the improved award? >> Yeah let's see how you do, there plenty of other things
to learn on the subject, but I think this should be able to get through some simple cuts. Let's see what happens. >> Awesome, welcome to Modern Rogue. [laughs] >> You may begin when ready. >> Okay. >> KARL: Probably want to
get a little bit closer. >> Arms straight the whole time. >> Little closer, or not.
>> Whoops. [laughs] >> It still works. >> So that's probably, I should have taken your advice on that. [sword clanging] >> KARL: There you go. [sword clanging] >> Nope. [laughs] Three's not bad, three's not bad. >> That's not bad, not bad. >> Respectable. >> You only got one on the first one. >> Yeah, that's true. I get the most improved
award for Brian Brushwood. [Jason clapping] That's good, Munich, and with
that your watch has ended. >> You may begin when ready. >> I'm actually more nervous, now that I've had the instructions. [sword clanging]
>> Wow! [sword clanging] Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow. >> KARL: Okay, don't get greedy. >> You're a natural. He's a natural. [clapping]
>> I don't know about that. >> Ladies and gentlemen,
the Viceroy. [laughs] You did mountain at the end, though. >> I got a little into it. >> You got a little excited. >> I got a little blood frenzy. >> KARL: Avoid them habits. >> Dude that was amazing, though. Your alignment, your precision, like you could have keep going,
but then when you get near the bottom it's easier
to just be like mrah. >> JASON: Yeah, that's
what I really wanted to do. I was like you're mine, not mine. You guys don't need to critique my form, I know it's pretty good. That's good, okay, wrap, wrap,
credits, credits, we're good. [laughs] >> That was astonishing,
I felt so much more power drawing from more places, I could tell that I was still
flopping more than I should, I could tell my edge alignment. Like nothing but drill is
going to fill that, right? >> I did great, thanks for coming out. [laughs] >> So if people want to learn
much more about all this stuff, where do they go? >> If you look up the
HEMA alliance club finder or just Google for that or if they happen to be in
the Washington D.C. area they can always go to
capitalkdf.org and come to our club. >> Dude, and if you're here in Austin, Historical Weapons Guild, check us out, we've got a new YouTube
channel we're setting up, doing lots of sword and buckler style. >> Oh I see, you're in competition now. >> Yeah that's it. >> Let me get my, Munich
you're out of retirement. >> To me Viceroy. >> BRIAN: Oh god. >> JASON: I have the power. >> ANTHONY: Karl, you distract
Brian, I'll get Jason. [swords clanging] >> JASON: Go away bad
guys, crush your enemies. [laughs] >> BRIAN: Edge alignment, edge alignment. >> ANTHONY: Not the toe. >> BRIAN: Wait, Munich come back. >> JASON: Viceroy give
me sight beyond sight. [laughs] >> Trademarked Viceroy and
Munich are on the case. [whip cracking sound] My look was a little sassy, it was a little sassier than I was happy. >> Look you're the wild card boy, Viceroy. >> It wasn't like a, it was kind of of a. [laughs] >> Perfect that's classic Viceroy. >> Like coy, it's like coquettish. [laughs]
