[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[JaM]

The grip is less a problem than you think because most of the force comes from accelerating a heavy spear.  If the shaft loses linkage with your hand and slides it will not matter.  You are not pushing with the spear.  Again it is very much like a throw.

but if you hold it back, you dont have enough of "spear" to let it slide.. for that you would need to hold it in the front,same as Thrand is doing.

"and if you are holding the spear in the back, your wrist has to hold the whole weight alone during the attacks."  That sentence makes me think you are not understanding what a rear weighted spear feels like.  The part in front of the grip is completely balanced by the part behind.  There is no special stress in holding such a spear near the rear.  It is exactly like holding a regular spear in the middle.

yet wrist is the most vulnerable part of the arm..its not that hard to twist it.. with undearm fixed grip, no such thing can happen.

As to the speed of the strike.  All that matters is the strength of the muscles engaged and their mechanical advantage and the amount of time the hand spends in contact with the shaft accelerating it.  The muscle groups used in the overhand strike are far stronger and in fact have evolved in humans specifically to throw- Chimpanzees can't throw like us.  The range of motion is far greater as well, meaning more time to accelerate.  Overhand is far faster.  Again, this has been tested by Connolly and De Groote.

yes, but throw to be effective, it has to have quite a different trajectory for maximum speed.. while you are thrusting on downward path, not upwards. from your picture, it even looks like the only muscle that does the work is Triceps, which is again not that effective, and in no way more powerful than using high underarm and more of a "benchpress" move with all muscles in upper front body together. and btw, you can have slow forward "punches" like this, but also quite dynamic ones and very fast. its all about the technique.

Overarm is only faster for the release trajectory, not past it, then it slows down quite dramatically.. you would have to do a throwing move with the spear to keep the speed with it.. if you keep holding it, your own body will slow it down.