10-01-2011, 11:50 PM
Quote:Yes, Manciolino is the only author or living tradition I know of who covers any kind of spear and shield. Do you know what the Sikh dances with spear and shield are called? Despite being Canadian I know nothing about them.
I think its pretty clear that in a big battle, hoplite spearmen were supposed to have a space two cubits by two cubits to fight in; but its likely that those hoplites who bothered to learn spear and shield fighting focused on single combat (or martial dances which imitated single combat) anyways.
The dances in particular? No idea, I can't name the dances in general unfortunately since it's been years (dhara-natje maybe?) I think we should attempt to distinguish between Sikh dances (gatka) which are a quick and easy way of passing on some fundamentals and conditioning and the way they actually fight (shastar vidya) which is a well thought out, if scarcely found, system that's pretty popular in places like Germany etc.
The link between martial dances and combat is an interesting one and something I'm actually intending on working on in a Greek context though I'm no longer of the opinion that they were particularly useful for those learning to actually fight.
Other living traditions? Well all the other stuff is African/Papua New Guinnean and what not and varies slightly from what I've seen out of Asia or in the Renn manuscripts.
I think if you want to assemble a decent "yardstick" from the fight manuals then it really is important to acquaint oneself with Manciolino despite the shortness of the section but also look how things like Partisans/Lanze/short spear were used across the board and learn the various positions of the rotella with whatever weapon possible. After a while you'll just pick up your spear/shield and based on all that something just clicks. I'm not saying that it's how the Greeks fought but it's 100% more sensible than the stuff I see re-enactors doing.
Jass
