Sizing up your opponent.

Pre-amble

After a certain level of experience you begin to be pretty adept at identifying exactly how long someone has been fighting or at the very least their relative level of skill to yours.  Being able to eyeball an opponent and quickly identify what they can and can't do is pretty important.  This tactical analysis is also necessary in order to identify what shots you think you can actually land on your opponent.  Having a wide variety of shots doesn't mean you need to throw all of them all of the time.  Certain shots work better on certain targets but having a ton of shots to choose from means you'll usually find at least one you think will hit.  Being able to tell a person's skill at a glance will also stop your from getting chumped by someone you've never seen before.

A good fighter has a good foundation (build from the ground up)

The first thing I notice for an opponent is where they've placed their feet.  When I teach a new person how to fight I always start from the ground up because if a person isn't standing in the right place then it doesn't matter if they know how to swing or block.  Your feet are the first piece of range control which makes sure that when you swing you're in range to hit your target, and also makes sure that if you have a reasonable guard you don't just give up free targets like your back.  So when I look at a fighter I want to get a sense of how well their weight is distributed. 

A new person won't have stance of any kind.  Their legs will usually cross planes (you can draw a straight line from one leg to the other).  This means that either they're totally flat footed (left foot is parallel to their right foot) or they're stacked front foot directly in front of their back foot, which means they have no lateral movement.  In the case where they're flat footed I know that if I step in and swing I'm almost guaranteed to land a shot anywhere their guard isn't.  If the person has their feet stacked then it's likely that if I step sideways or in a 45 degree angle towards them I'll have ample access to shots that bypass their guard (break their line, if you know that terminology) because even though there forward and backwards movement may be quick they have no guard to their sides.

Assuming they aren't incompetent most fighters stack their weight either forward or backwards depending on their tendencies as fighters.  A person who has their weight and usually their weapons forward is more likely to aggress.  A person who has their weight towards their back foot is more likely a defensive fighter and I can expect that they're waiting for counterblows, or are look for an opportunity to try and bullrush me.  In either case the fighter in a back stance tends to be very susceptible to 45 degree angle footwork.  A person who is super aggressive by contrast is more likely to die by careful forward movement because they'll overextend, all things being equal (if your opponent is better then you are these details may not matter, conversely if they're worse you may still win with poor form or poor strategy).

Chickenwings are delicious

Anyone who has spent almost any amount of time fighting me knows that my favorite shot is "the chicken wing" it's a shot to the area between the elbow and the wrist thrown to the top of the arm.  If you know how to cheese that opening it can make for a great feint, especially if someone thinks that you're new.  The reason why is because most new fighters haven't learned a guard that actually protects their arm.  They simply hold the weapon in front of them, unaware of whatever angles they cover or defend with their arm.  Sometimes a new fighter will pick up a shield before learning to correct this error so you'll see sword and board fighter, often who aren't that new, who still display the chicken wing target area. 

The difference between that as a bait and an actual error tends to be degree.  If a person is just barely showing the chicken wing, then likely it's deliberate.  On the other hand... if both arms have chicken wing targets that are wide open then your opponent probably has no idea that they're so exposed.  A quick double tap to the sword arm and they're finished.  Conversely a more veteran fighter is likely to have that area either completely covered or just uncovered enough to make it juicy.  If a person looks like they have that area covered... then don't swing for that area.  Find a way to aim to the opposite side first to bait out a shot or move their guard.  Alternately aim higher or lower then their standard guard to try and open up some shots.

CON-FIDENCE

A more veteran fighter has a sort of quiet confidence about how they handle themselves on the field.  They know how to stand, where to stand, what they're doing and who they want and don't want to get into a fight with.  A new person... has none of that.  They either run recklessly towards the enemy with no semblance of strategy or restraint OR they're very nervous and tend to shy away from a direct confrontation.  If a person is running headlong at you with no thought of defense then they're probably vulnerable to a strike to their torso.  If a person is hesitant to fight you then you can just press into them.  If you move forward faster then they move backwards they'll tend to seize up and stop moving.  Alternately if you want to just break through a line, keep walking them backwards until they aren't protecting their teammates and then run the line.  Chances are good they won't chase after you.

Conversely if a veteran gives ground they tend to do so very deliberately and they only give as much ground as they need to.  If you try to simply run past them, even if they've retreated, they will almost certainly back you (unless you just run much faster then they do).  Also a veteran who engages very aggressively tends to do so with their guard up, rather then just flailing.  If you panic and start throwing shots before they've made it to the range they're closing to chances are good that you've opened yourself up which plays into their hands.  When dealing with an aggressive vet try and counter their motion by taking steps in the opposite direction.  If I move in at 45 degrees to my right, then you should step away at 45 degrees to my left.  If I step straight in, you step straight back, etc, etc.  Just make sure that you keep resetting the fight so that you deny the vet whatever angle they wanted to get on you.  (Re-read the section on guard for why that matters).

Fighting by the numbers

A new fighter (a few months in) tends to approach awkwardly, they have usually just one or two swords and have their back arched forward so that their shoulders and back are visible from the front.  As they go to swing they telegraph their strike by having a huge windup and by looking at exactly where they're going to swing.  ...So I hit them twice in the arm before they even begin to swing and then block to the area they were looking at.

At a year or two of experience they may have a board but still haven't learned to guard for their arm or their back because, even though their footwork has improved some and their guard now exists, they haven't fixed some of the underlying problems with their body mechanics.  They still look at where they're going to swing, they still telegraph the swing with a giant windup.  Also, for reasons I still don't understand, they highly prefer swinging at the front leg.  ..So, I block the shot that they were going to throw, step to within range, and then hit them in the back or shoulders by going up and over their shield.  At this stage in their development a full wrap is usually unnecessary and an angled slash or a half wrap is sufficient to pick the shoulder.

When they hit about 3 years of experience they've finally learned to not lean over and though their list of available targets to swing at hasn't changed much they no longer stare at their target nor do they have as much of a windup.  But they still have some windup, and they still do look at the target they're swinging at they just don't make it quite as obvious.  Additionally while may have learned to aim at the arm and the back those shots are slow so they still tend to prefer throwing for the leg first they just now follow up with a shot to your back.  I can either block the leg and return to the back, this time with a half/flat wrap or a full wrap, or I can change my engagement range ever so slightly so they reach for the leg and then hit them in their sword arm. 

By the time they hit 5 years of experience they've stopped being an easy target (even at my own now 14 years of fighting).  By now that person has developed a proper guard.  They have a variety of different shots that they can throw, and they do so at a reasonable speed.  They do still tend to have a moment of windup and they also look, at least in the general vicinity of their target.  Unlike the 3 year fighter though having additional shot selection means that although I know what general area they're throwing to, I don't actually know what shot they're throwing.  Still, this fighter tends to have some slop.  Their shots aren't as accurate or fast as my own, and they have a second of delay between their shots and their blocks.  Combos at this point usually work pretty well, as does punishing their sword arm when they swing because they leave themselves exposed briefly.  Also, the fact that they telegraph where they're swinging first tends to give me a moment to react and re-position.  If a person has learned footwork correctly than it's likely that by this point there are no holes in it.  However if a person HASN'T learned proper footwork by now, it's likely to never be fixed, and this leads me to the exploits listed in the footwork section.

At 10 years of fighting my opponent is usually indistinguishable from myself unless they haven't been fighting actively for that period of time.  The shot selection they had at 5 years has grown and almost all of the slop that's been on their shots is gone as they've had years to hone each one of them.  Additionally, where they look is no longer a good indicator of where their shots will land because by now they've likely learned how to chain shots and put them together.  Typically by now their footwork is pretty damn good, meaning that there is no longer an easy exploit, and I also have to be wary of their aggressive footwork on me.  However, at this stage I tend to have more shots than they do still, and my - now a triple tap - also tends to give me more shots than they have.  I tend to win those exchanges by simply having a higher shot volume than my opponent.  They are ready to block the first few shots but then get overwhelmed when the last 3 come in and their guard degrades.  These fighters also tend to be more susceptible to feints since they now know what most shots look like, so trying to juke them out often ends in my favor.

At something like 30 years of fighting you get another breed of fighter.  These are your 40-50 year olds who have managed to stay in good enough shape to continue to melee instead of retiring to archery.  They know every shot I know and than an entire order of magnitude more shots than that.  They also tend not to be susceptible to feints to the point where they punish me for trying to throw a feint.  Baits also don't work on a fighter of this caliber.  Typically, when I score a kill on such an individual it's one of 3 things.  1) overwhelming offense.  I manage to tie up their weapon and get all up in their grill where I throw a barrage of shots until I manage to break their line and bypass their guard.  2) I catch them trying to do something fancy.  As vets get older and have more and more shots at their disposal they'll pick up some ones for flare that they do to feel cool.  Every so often they'll think they have your number and you can catch them when they try a particularly cool looking trick shot.  3) I badly outfootwork them.  Fighting as you get older takes a hell of a toll on your body and if you don't learn to go at 80% instead of 110% you'll grind your body down in no time.  Some of the older fighters have long ago destroyed their legs over the course of fighting and as a result are susceptible to footwork.  By moving quickly into and out of range you can either score a lucky shot, or catch them out when they go to swing at you.  In either case... it's rough.

There's more to it then numbers...

All of these are generic fighters at a certain level of years.  There are also plenty of all stars for their particular time in fighting.  Many fighters who started when they were 16 and are something like late 20's or early 30's have the level of fitness of a young person but with the level of skill of an older fighter.  That having been said you can still use the metrics above to try and figure out where their level of skill lies.  If a person has clean swings and good footwork but has only been fighting for a year... treat them like a 5 year fighter, just in case.  If a person has been fighting 30 years but doesn't display any footwork and has a bad guard, it's likely that you can treat them like a 3 year fighter because they've haven't been consistent about practice.

4 Steps, Part 2, 45 degree Angle Steps

If you aren’t familiar with the idea of a line/lane or a box, go ahead and take 5 minutes to look up what that means in the context of fighting. (I've also written about it here)  The extremely simplified version is that a box is the area bounded by your shoulders and your hips (the 1-shot kill zone) and a line is the plane on which your static guard protects.  The basic gist of winning a fight is a matter of breaking another person’s line to either kill the hand that guards them or to get that line off center so that it no longer protects a person’s box, which in turn gives you a kill shot.  You’ll find that this idea is super important in the amtgard (been spelling that wrong for years…) and is starting to become more of a thing in other versions of the sport.  Peter the quick has lots of good tutorials on working and controlling those lines if that’s something you want to learn more about.  

Step Diagrams

In addition to the 4 steps that were taught in the first training manual there’s an additional 4 steps that I’ll go into here.  The previous steps were all versions of moving or responding to combat in 90 degree increments.  Having a good sense of those is important but none of those maneuvers will help you break your opponent's line, or deal with an opponent breaking your lines.  To do that you need to know the 45 degree angle steps.  

The basic 4 steps look something like this:

And you can look them up in the training manual.  Now we’ll talk about the next 4 steps which look something like this:

45 degree angle steps

In an effort to make my life easier I’ve labelled the steps 1 through 4 so I’ll rotate through them in that order.  All of these scenarios assume a right handed fighter fighting another right handed fighter, typically as a florentine fighter against sword and board.  If you find that you are a lefty fighting a righty or vice versa, simply switch your feet and hands so that your offhand matches their sword arm while your dominant hand matches your back foot.

Offense

The first step is designed to bypass the line created by their sword arm.  Generally speaking this is a risky engage because you put your entire body close to harm in order to get into this position.  Against a sword and board fighter however this often puts you at a significant advantage.  If they don’t move you can easily bypass their sword’s guard with your left hand while defending your swinging arm with your right hand.  If they see the opening that you’ve created by breaking this line you can instead block with your left hand and then throw a counterblow to their arm with your right hand.  The step mechanics are pretty straightforward.  From neutral footwork take your front (left) foot and step it 45 degrees out and forward in front of you.  This will briefly put you into an awkward position as your feet are overextended.  This first step is the stagger step, typically it’s done as a half step because a full step would set you completely off balance.  Then, simply allow your back foot to slide back into a neutral stance.

The second step is the one that I generally prefer when fighting sword and board fighters as it takes me closer to the outside of their swing arc, thereby reducing the effectiveness of their swings, while simultaneously using their own shield to guard me from some of the shots they might otherwise have access to.  This step is typically done with the intention of throwing a wrap shot with your back (right) hand.  In this case your back foot takes a straight step along the 45 degree angle it’s already lined up with.  Once your foot has landed you’ll want to allow it to turn so that it faces the same direction as your opponent while allowing your back foot to rotate so that it is now pointed at a 45 degree angle to the left instead of straight at your opponent.  This one step should be sufficient to keep you lined up without throwing you off balance.

Defense

The third and fourth steps are defensive steps designed to react to an opponent who is closing on you, often by doing either the first or second step.  The third step counters the second step by unbreaking the lane from your left arm.  As a counter move for a person moving in towards you it’s often done with a wrap shot for your right arm at the same time you throw a block with your left arm.  The wrap shot will shift your shoulders (per the arm exercise earlier) which will get your front hand back so that it’s in a better position to absorb an incoming wrap shot.  The step is done mechanically so that you take your front foot and pull it back and out at a 45 degree angle.  Once you’ve taken a full step back you allow your front foot to rotate so that it is now facing your opponent.

The fourth step counters the first step and similarly involves throwing a right handed wrap against a sword and board fighter.  This step is also a stagger step in which you take a half step backwards at a 45 degree angle.  You can generate the speed for the step by pushing off with your front foot.  Once you’ve repositioned your back foot you’ll want to allow your front foot to be pulled back into a neutral stance closer to your body.  Typically when a person engages with the first step they’re trying to break the line on your left arm.  By stepping back into line with the opponent (or close to it) you close that lane back off.  Your opponent meanwhile has stepped their body closer to you which leaves them susceptible to wrap shots.  If they were the one to engage then they probably also intending to swing at you meaning that once you see the shot coming and can block it you have the freedom to swing as well without having to worry about losing your arm in the process.

Range Control

Range control is your ability to effectively control the distance between you and your opponent.  This starts concretely with where your feet are vs where your opponents feet are and then begins to take into account details from the waist up.  Range control comes down to being able to measure/control your own threat range relative to that of your opponents.  Your threat range is the area in which you can quickly swing.  For most people this is the length of their weapon when swung to full extension plus a single step.  There are ways to improve your reach that I’ll get into later but for now get that picture in your head.  The range that you threaten also includes the full range of the arc of every swing that you can take, so it’s not JUST the maximum distance you can swing but also the left and right of the peak of your arc.  For most blue weapons this is just a normal strike, but for reds this often involves “casting”, IE, throwing one handed swings that lose speed/force and gain a significant increase in reach.  Knowing a person’s threat range is supremely important when fighting florentine because literally every support weapon will out range you.  Knowing by how much is the difference between skating safely outside of their threat range and being skewered.

Swing Arc

Range control is done primarily with a person’s feet but also takes into account where a person is vertically (as controlled by how much they crouch/stand tall) as well as the position of their arms.  Your maximum reach for any weapon will always be directly out in front of you.  Additionally the most force you can generate will always be in the center or the apex of the arc.  The more you go to either side of the center the more of the maximum force you can deliver is being given up.  This becomes important later but just table that in your mind for now.

So your range for a shot at arm level is going to be greater than your range for a shot above or below your arm level.  If you want to get more reach vertically you can do so by either standing up more straight or by crouching lower.  As previously mentioned a red user can throw a one handed shot to extend these arcs, making it so that by giving up more of their power they gain reach instead.  This actually becomes an excellent opportunity to block, but more on that later.

Coiling  

Range control can also be done with the positioning of a person’s body.  By starting with your body coiled, IE, all joints slightly bent, you will get slightly more range then you would if you started with your body at full extension.  For those who don’t believe me there’s a simple way of testing this.  Set yourself sword distance away from an opponent and set your stance so that one hand is forward and one hand is back.  Without moving your feet, or rotating your back into the opponent's range, place your sword as though you were going to swing it with your forward hand.  Now repeat with your back hand.  What you’ll find is that the back hand has 2 to 3 inches on the front hand in terms of range that it can safely deliver.  The reason for this is that because your front hand is already at extension it’s range is only the range of your weapon plus the range of your arm.  Your back hand meanwhile is coiled so it’s range is the range of your weapon, plus the range of your arm, plus the range of your shoulder joint, plus the range you get from pulling one shoulder back to put the other shoulder forward, plus any range you can get from your back knee.  With your front hand engaging your shoulder joint means breaking your line and giving your opponent a shot at your back.  Engaging your back knee while swinging with your front hand doesn’t do anything, and if you engage your front knee for reach then you’re bending over which again exposes your back to being struck.  That’s a practical example.  Here’s an easier one - sit down, take on hand, put it into a fist and reach out as far as is comfortable.  Next, using the other hand in a fist simply punch into the air.  You’ll notice that one fist is now further in front then the other fist.  If you do this backwards you’ll notice that it still works.  Both of your arms have the same reach but when you punch you pull the forward hand back slightly so as to give your new forward hand more distance.  This is just body mechanics but it’s important for understanding your own reach as well as your opponents.  This is also an example of transferring momentum - by taking energy from your extended right side (for example) and shifting it to your left hand (for example) your left hand is able to move faster and go farther than it would have been able to if lock up the right side of your body and prevent it from moving at all.

Putting it all together

Range control then is broken down into three basic pieces that you control - the placement of your feet, the positioning of your body (crouched, standing tall, leaning forward, leaning backwards) and the placement of your arms (forward vs backwards) - as well as a few things you don’t control - the length of your arms and legs, the distance you can make in one step, and the length of the weapon you are currently holding.  There are things that you can do that will increase the distance that you can make in one step through training, but at any given moment that will be a static attribute.  You can also of course change the gear that you’re using but moment to moment that is also a static attribute.  The only exception to the last bit about gear is that how you hold a weapon can increase/decrease its range.  By choking up on a weapon you’ll lose reach but gain power and speed for your swings and blocks.  When in close and grinding on an opponent this is a great thing to do.  By pulling your grip down towards the pommel you’ll lose some power and speed but get additional range.  One of the easier feints is to miss a shot while choked up on a weapon to show an opponent that they are out of range, only to then hold a weapon down by the pommel and strike them easily.

All is one, one is all

Certain things take time to master.  So let me preface everything else that I'll say with that.  The more time you spend with any particular style the better you'll get at that style.  That's true whether it's a particular style of fighting, or a particular set of weapons in your hands.  Familiarity and practice will eventually get you farther then actually knowing what the hell you're doing.  The reason being that you can probably figure things out as you go just from trial and error.  Hell, I did.  That having been said, there's no reason to haphazardly wander through things.

Lessons

Each weapon set starts with a basic set of design decisions.  Certain weapons optimize more for one thing or another.  That means that if you learn to become at least proficient with each weapon set you'll slowly pick up on the particular optimizations that, that particular weapon set is designed around.  I'm going to go through each of them in turn so that I can be more specific then simply, "it optimizes for something".  The point being that each weapon set has a specific thing that it does well, and by mastering that particular weapon set, you can gain the knowledge or the lessons that that particular weapon set has to teach you.  While it's not practical to try and become a master of all weapons (largely because of the time it would take) it's not a bad idea to spend a little bit of time with each weapon set before you decide that you're going to pick something and stick with it.  Even top tier fighters like myself have a few things that are comfort zones.

Lessons from single sword

Single blue is probably the best thing that you can learn to do.  Sure, it's not practical out on an actual battlefield because it makes more sense to use both of your hands, but if you're good at it you can still be effective.  Single blue excels at nothing, but also doesn't have any inherent weaknesses.  Failing that, you can always do single blue in duels.  If it gets too easy with one hand, you can always switch hands.  Training your off hand to be good is valuable for all sorts of other things, not the least of which is being better then your opponent if you both lose your main hand.  Anyways...

Single blue gives you a single item to block and strike with.  This teaches a number of valuable lessons.  The first of which is range control.  Range control is knowing how far away your opponent is relative to how far you can hit things.  Range control is also knowing how far away YOU are from your opponent relative to how far away THEY can hit things.  Range control is manipulating these distances so that you're in your sweet spot.  If you have more range then they do, it's making sure that you are always able to hit them while remaining just outside of their reach.  If they have more reach then you, it's making sure that you stay out of their reach until YOU want to engage and then making sure that when you step into their range you also step into your own range.  Range control is very important, and it translate to every other melee weapon you can pick up.  It is a very valuable thing.

Single blue also teaches you footwork.  If you aren't close enough to your opponent, or you constantly leave your legs open, then you'll lose.  Knowing what range control is isn't the same as knowing how to execute on it well.  To do range control well you have to be able to move your feet well so that you can make sure that when you aggress on your opponent you can actually hit them.  Footwork is also, generally, what keeps you from getting hit in the leg when you don't have a shield to block for you.  Because you are required to keep your weapon up to guard your torso and to swing, you can't really afford to be using it to block low for your legs.

Single blue teaches you the fundamentals of blocking and striking.  Not only the basic mechanics of how to block quickly and how to throw blocks that cover your entire body, but also the timing of it. When you get good at single blue, you don't JUST block, you also counterblow whenever your opponent makes a mistake.  Single blue also teaches you how to throw shots, and not just the standard set of slashes, stabs and wraps.  Single blue will reward your creativity when throwing swings, whether it's using momentum and linking together combos, or it's throwing trick shots and playing mind games on your enemy.

Single blue is your first lesson in stabbing well.  You can throw a bad stab a bunch of times and have it simply swatted away.  But eventually you'll learn to use your whole body to throw that stab and it will be brutal.  Anything other then a swift and decisive block will be meaningless in the face of such a stab and the end result it a quick death to your enemy.

It should be clear to see... learn single sword first, learn it well, and learn it with both your hands.

Lesson from sword and board

Of the styles that require both of your hands to execute well on, sword and board is the most forgiving.  The board in your off hand gives you the greatest passive guard of any other weapons combination, but learning to use it well means not simply having it in a resting guard but also learning to use the shield to manipulate your opponent and their weapons.  While sword and board is good for new people, because, even if you're terrible at it, you've still got a good guard which allows you to practice swings, there's much more to it then simply having the board in front of you for it's passive guard.  So, for the sake of argument, when we talk about the lessons of sword and board, let's assume that I'm talking about a person who is competent, rather then just a noob who happens to have picked up a shield.  The main weakness of sword and board is that the defense offered by your board can sometimes inhibit your ability to swing, and it tends to make people's footwork lazy.

Sword and board teaches you how to manipulate your opponents weapons.  Since sword and board tends to be the most common weapon set out on the field, learning to do it well means learning to bypass the defenses of other sword and board fighters without letting your own defenses get compromised.  For me at least this meant learning shield manipulation and wrap shots.  Shield manipulation is using the edge of your own shield to knock their shield out of place so that it's no longer protecting their body in the way it was meant to.  One example of this is simply tagging the bottom of their board so it tips forward, exposing their shoulder, giving you just an instant to snag a kill.  Another set of techniques with sword and board involve using your weapon to bind their weapon while you step in to get better shots.  By swinging at their sword arm to get it to block you are effectively manipulating their weapon in order to line up a potential wrap shot at a better target.  Most fighters will warn you that the high cross is a bad shot, but over and over again you'll see most fighters throw that swing.

Sword and board teaches you how to stand your ground with your footwork.  Because you have a shield, other fighters are allowed to; kick your shield, crash into you, hammer the side of your shield with a red weapon, stab violently at the shield and it's edges and try to run you over or pancake you (IE, pin you on the ground beneath their shield).  Because of these things learning to get deep and low into your stance so that it's strong is super important.  There's a lot of footwork/dodging that you can do to avoid getting steamrolled or pancaked but before any of that becomes relevant you need to be able to absorb a body check without getting sprawled out on the ground.  Shields are also what makes up a line so in addition to being able to absorb that physical engage from other fighters you also have to be able to weather a volley of weapon strikes without having your guard crumple.  Learning to do that is also valuable because once you don't have a shield to rely on not having a guard crumple becomes infinitely more important.

Sword and board does NOT teach you what to do with your off hand, which is why it's important to do other things like single blue.  Many, many sword and board fighters become completely useless once you take off their sword arm because they've never learned how to do anything else.
Don't be that guy.

Lessons from the spear

Ah the spear, potentially the most deadly weapon the field on account of it's ability to throw swings at range faster then any other weapon on the field.  It's major downside being that if you only have one spear and nothing else, trying to get through a shield is a pain in the ass.  The spear is optimized to kill things very quickly and at range, but it's ability to defend itself when someone closes is almost non-existent.

Fighting with a spear will make you aware of angles on a line.  Angles are what allow you to break your opponents guard, turning a perfectly reasonable static guard into a free kill shot.  On a line you are probably not going to do much damage to the guy directly in front of you.  Most of the kill shots are going to be the person to the right or left of the guy directly in front of you.  With a spear the same thing is true, only now you have a reach of 3 people.  So, you may not kill the guy in front of you, but with one step, you can threaten the 3 people to your left, the guy in front of you and the 3 people to his right.  Chances are, at LEAST one of them isn't paying enough attention to you, the spear, and will have a sweet opening, often right under their pommel on their weapon side.  Since you only need 1 of 7 people to make a mistake there tends to be plenty of opportunities to cause havoc.  If you get 2 spears together then you can practice shield manipulation and do even more damage.

Fighting with a spear will teach you some degree of field awareness on a line.  Because you have to be watching 7 people instead of just the guy in front of you, fighting with a spear is the first step towards developing field awareness beyond the people immediately in front of you.  As a polearm you also have to worry about being shot by an archer so you learn to watch for arrows in a way that a person with a board does not.  Since you have to watch for arrows it means you're scanning the backline of the enemy team watching for incoming projectiles.  As a polearm on a line you're also probably fighting other polearms so you need to learn to watch them as well, trying to either snipe them so that they get shut down, or at the very least make sure you avoid getting sniped by a well place stab or red swing.

Fighting with a spear will teach you aggression.  When done correctly a spear is an EXTREMELY active weapon.  The main reason to use a spear over a red is that you can simply stab many more times then a red can swing.  To put it another way, you have more actions per minute then a red does.  Assuming your strikes actually hit something you'll do infinitely more damage in the same amount of time.  A spear that passively pokes at whatever openings happen to present themselves simply isn't doing their job.  A spear's job is to MAKE openings, either by picking off targets at angles, or by picking legs so that the line itself can have easy wrap shots or can work angles on a nearly immobile opponent.

Lessons from a red

A red weapon (such as a glaive) is the first response to an entrenched position.  With a red weapon you can clear any number of tower shields and open your opponents up to other aggression, whether that's the melee of other team members, or a ranged attack from support weapons like spear or archers.  A red weapon is optimized for range.  While it's better at defending itself in close quarters then a spear is, and has the added advantage of being able to destroy shields for going through a line, is major predator is the spear.  Because the red weapon is heavier in order to accomplish being able to swing it can't fire off nearly as many shots as you can get with a spear.

A red weapon will teach you how to use your hips.  In order to generate enough force to have a red swing actually be considered a "red" swing you need to learn how to generate power.  This is done primarily through a quick rotation of your hips to give the weapon a sudden bit of acceleration.  Using this technique you need less then a foot to turn a normal swing into a "red" swing.  Learning to do this correctly means that you can throw lots of potentially dangerous swings without any real force, and then only accelerate them if you're sure that they will land safely.  That having been said, please know I am not generally an advocate of the 12 to 6 swing.  The ability to generate force and use your body is useful globally for two reasons.  The first being that learning to use your body to throw swings (instead of your arms) will make them faster and more accurate.  The second being that if a person starts calling your shots light being able to add that extra bit of heat to them usually fixes the problem.

A red weapon will teach you momentum with your footwork.  It is my opinion (which I doubt is shared very widely) that learning to fight with a red well is about learning how to use momentum well.  Momentum with a red is less about throwing multiple swings, as this requires a strong base (IE, planted feet) to throw from and more about using the momentum generated from weapon swings in time with your feet.  As a red on a line your goal is to rapid fire shots as fast as you can, but if for some reason you are alone or you get caught out you'll need to know how to fight without someone doing the work for you.  As a red alone you learn to throw a swing and then use that momentum to move your body.  So that after your swing connects you are far enough away (range control) that you get to swing a second time, without being immediately cut in half by your enemy.

Lessons from archery

While archery isn't (obviously) a melee art it teaches relevant meta skills that are relevant to the field as a whole, even if they don't directly relate to your ability to swing stick.  Archery is optimized for surgical strikes.  By having a nearly arbitrary range you have stifling field presence while also potentially being able to pick off high priority targets that aren't watching you.  What archery suffers from is the inhibitions on shooting into a melee due to safety reasons and having no ability to deal with a fighter who successfully closes.

An archer must have COMPLETE field awareness.  An archer must know the location of all other archers on the field, so as not to get shot by them.  An archer must know the location of all the polearms on the field, as it's generally their job to deal with them.  An archer also has to keep an eye on any flankers, and get people to deal with them should they happen to get around the line, because if they don't, those flankers will probably hunt down the archers first.  If those archers aren't paying attention to the flankers, they'll simply all be cut down the moment a flanker gets behind.  An archer also needs to be able to understand the flow of the battle as a whole.  If the left or right side is losing they need to make sure that they're there trying to help fix that problem, rather then adding firepower to a side that's already rolling.  Archers generate a ton of threat, and even without firing any arrows they can be a strong deterrent that keeps an overwhelming force from advancing in spite of having superior numbers.

Becoming a good archer will require you to communicate and coordinate.  As an archer you have no ability to melee, which means that if someone should get to you you'll need to get a teammate over to help you ASAP.  This requires that you learn how to quickly communicate with teammates so that they can come to your aid.  If you voice isn't heard, aid will not come, and you will die.  From an offensive perspective, learning to be an effective archer requires you to know not only where to stand but also requires you to work with the right people.  If you're facing down a shield wall you won't do much on your own, but if you have a shield wall on your side against a shield wall on their side with polearms on either side then it can become interesting.  If you can simply deter the opposing polearms from swinging because of the threat you generate from a knocked arrow, then you can let your own polearms do work.  It's much better to use your polearms to bait out their polearms, or to generate openings on the shield wall then it is to simply try volleying shots that have a low percentage chance to connect.  This again requires that your voice is heard so that your strikes are coordinated with your teammates.  You can also do this with your fellow archers by working angles so that a target can't avoid all of the arrows fired at them.

Lessons from florentine

Florentine is theoretically the most deadly weapon set as it gives you the greatest ability to work angles on your opponent and the most number of shots.  There isn't a shot you know that you can't throw with a florentine set and because one hand is always free to block you can throw shots at crazy angles that would normally be lethal.  What florentine lacks however is any kind of passive guard which makes them an excellent target for any support weapon.  Additionally, since a florentine fighter has no resting guard they are excellent archer bait.  Florentine fighting optimizes offense at the expense of an effective defense.

First and foremost what florentine fighting teaches you, is how to block with your weapon because that's the only thing you have that will keep you alive.  Miss a block by the width of your weapon and most of the time you've died.  Perhaps some of the time it's an arm or a leg but then you're still badly handicapped.  With a florentine set you need to be able to actually attack your opponent, so trying to avoid them or kite away won't work.  Additionally, many weapons have reach on you so playing a passive game won't work either.  A florentine fighter needs to be able to be aggressive which means being able to confidently step into another fighters reach while throwing shots.  This means that they have to obviously block as well as swing.

Florentine fighting will make you much better with your off hand.  Because florentine fighting requires that you actually USE your off hand it will become more adept at everything.  Learning to block with it will make you better at single blue, even if you haven't otherwise practiced it, and it means that if you normally sword and board, suddenly you'll win fights where you and your opponent have both lost your sword arm.  The thing is though, most setups require you to use your off hand to some degree.  Making your off hand faster will mean you blocks with a board becomes faster and more efficient, as well as your weapon manipulation.  Learning to use your off hand well will make your blocks with a red weapon better as well.

Florentine fighting will teach you chess like nothing else will.  Chess, as I refer to it here, is the process by which you throw swings to create openings on your opponent so that you can kill them while simultaneously avoiding providing them with any openings.  With florentine you can aggress with both hands at extreme angles which allows you to play all sorts of mind games with your opponent.  Feinting with your right hand may give you time to swing with your left.  If they learn to reach by blocking their right side because they've learned to expect this second swing, simply turn your feint into an actual swing to exploit the opening that you've been given.

Florentine fighting teaches you about options.  An option (under one swing that was many) is when one swing can become 3.  As a florentine fighter who can throw shots with both hand and is constantly playing a game of chess you need to know that any shot you can throw with one hand has options, so that if the block comes for the shot you were going to throw you can quickly adapt it to something that will connect.  Were you going to throw a stab and they swatted it away?  No problem.  Roll your wrist around and turn it into an arm chop.  Learning to open up your options and use then with both hands will mean that most fighters can't do much of anything to stop you from hitting them.  The best way to not be hit by a florentine fighter? Don't let them swing at you, eventually, most will overcome your guard.

Putting it all together in [no particular order]

Field awareness.  Field awareness is the skill that you develop to know what else is happening in the field around you.  Field awareness means watching the person in front of you, and the people next to them, and all the support weapons, and all the projectiles, and the flow of the battle.  As you get down your own ability to swing stick you then open up the potential for doing this because you no longer have to focus on the basic mechanics of swinging and taking hits.  Field awareness is primarily taught by support weapons like spears, reds and archery.

Angles. The idea behind angles is learning how to fight your opponent by breaking their center line so that you can swing at them where their guard isn't.  This is best taught from fighting with a spear or other stabbing support weapon even though it's most utilized by archers and florentine fighters.  That having been said, theoretically EVERY weapon set can make use of angles as bypassing your opponents guard is always a good idea.

Footwork.  Footwork is so many things.  Footwork is learning to position yourself to work angles (like you would with florentine).  Footwork is learning to use your weapons momentum to propel you away from your enemy (like you would with a red).  Footwork is about having a solid base to swing from, so that other fighters can't knock you around (which you learn from fighting sword and board).  Footwork is also about working range control effectively while simultaneously guarding your legs (which you'd pick up from single blue).

Weapon manipulation.  Weapon manipulations is the processing of controlling your opponents gear so that it's where you want it to be.  This is primarily taught with a sword and board with shield manipulation but is utilized by other styles.  Spears and reds may do shield manipulation by knocking the shield around.  Shields can use weapon manipulation to redirect support weapon swings, or can pin weapons.  Florentine can use their two swords to first pin a sword arm and then swing around it.  Florentine can also do shield manipulation by stabbing the edge of a shield with one hand and then swinging with the other.  Reds can do weapon manipulation simply by the force of their strike.  But enough oomph behind the swing and suddenly it becomes very difficult to block it with anything less then a shield.

Range Control.  Range control refers to how well you control the area in which you can swing as opposed to the area in which your opponent can swing.  Effective range control means that whenever possible you don't give your opponent a chance to hit you, something that's super important for red fighters.  Effective range control also means that you stay close enough for you to strike or that if they out range you, whenever you enter their threat range you also make sure you get close enough to put them in your threat range.  This is a particularly important skill for florentine fighters, especially against support weapons.  That having been said it's a generally relevant skill to have even when it comes to blue weapons though it's by far less punishing if you get it wrong.

Force/Torque/Swinging with your body.  These are the skills that you'll learn if you want to fight with a red well.  But, once you learn them you'll find that they apply to all swung melee weapons.  Knowing how to make a shot go faster by using your hips to apply extra torque is quite useful.  It makes it much harder for opponents to sluff swings and it also tends to make wrap shots go further.  Learning to swing with your body and not your arms will additionally grant stability, making your swings more accurate, in addition to just having them go faster.

Aggression.  Aggression is an all important, and often ignored, bit of battlefield tech.  When you have the numbers advantage you MUST push the advantage by being aggressive.  Passively standing by while the rest of the fight goes on will usually mean you are soon outnumbered.  Aggression for a support weapon just means that they actively swing.  Aggression for a sword and board fighter means that they actively block incoming projectiles, protect their support weapons, move the line forward when they are at an advantage and will rush and opening in the opposing line should one present itself.  For a florentine fighter aggression is everything.  Simply waiting for counterblows when your opponent either out ranges you, or has a much better passive guard then you is almost always a death sentence.  It's why, as a rule, florentine fighters do better away from a line where they can use their footwork to aggress on their opponents without worrying about being hit from the sides as much.

Coordination / Communication.  This skill is also generally applicable no matter what set of weapons you're using.  Coordination is what allows melee fighters to work angles, or for support weapons to work together to ruin the fighters in front of them instead of just those that are off the sides.  Communication is required in order to coordinate, but it also extends to doing things like letting the rest of your team know about the state of the field.  Sometimes it's as simply as shouting out to someone who is about to get backed before it happens.  Other times it's about convincing a line that it should move up because it has the advantage.  These skills are generally taught by archery though they can also be picked up from working in a well organized unit.

Chess.  Chess is the process of outwitting your opponent.  It's taught by all weapon sets at a higher level, though it's taught most immediately by fighting florentine to a basic degree of competency.  Learning to play chess well is, at least in my opinion, what separates veteran fighters from new fighters.  Having access to a lot of shots is good, but knowing how to use them and WHEN to use them is infinitely more important.

Options / Shot selection.  Options is about having a series of shots that all start with the same motion but then end at different points.  It means that no matter where you start your swing from it remains impossible to predict where the shot will end.  Combine this with feints and you can really keep your opponent on your their toes.  This of course also requires that you have a wide variety of shots so that an opponent can't learn to guard against 3 basic swings and be safe forever.  These skills are taught primarily by florentine, but are relevant to any set of swung weapons.

Weapon blocking.  Weapon blocking is taught, brutally, by florentine but it should be also used by every swung weapon.  Spears aren't swung weapons but they also require you to know how to block with your weapon while you reach for some kind of secondary or just generally get the hell out of the way.  Learning to weapon block well will mean that your guard with a sword and board is more complete.  Weapon blocking with a red (specifically using the handle) is incredibly important.

Off hand proficiency.  Off hand proficiency is trained with either florentine or by fighting off hand single blue.  While it's crucial for florentine, you'll also see the benefits when blocking while fighting with sword and board or red.

Box, Line, and Lane

As I start to dive into more technical stuff about how a body moves and how and why you choose to line up different pieces in any particular configuration I have to spend some time laying groundwork so that I can talk about this stuff without having to constantly re-iterate big picture ideas.  So this is the first of those.  I'll figure out some way to better organize that eventually.  For now you'll just have to keep reading these forewords :-P.

Box

A box is the hit zone that determines death.  Any target area that can kill you in one shot is considered part of that box.  The box is also probably an idea from other things, but as a person with no formal training I don't have anything else to point at, sorry.  The box, generally speaking is the quadrant's provided by drawing lines from shoulder to shoulder, from shoulders to hips and from hip to hip.  This target zone represents a persons "box" and when I start talking about a person defending their box what I mean is that they are keeping their guard set up in such a way that it passively absorbs swings to anything bounded by this region.  A good guard will hover over your box so that without moving you aren't likely to be killed in one hit.  When you block a shot that's out wide (like a wrap shot) then you're blocking outside of your box.  Even if that shot is for your back, moving your weapon/shield far away from your body to prevent a shot from hitting you uncovers the area I think of as your "box".  Additionally the box only refers to your FRONT side as there isn't a passive guard that I know of that's going to protect the box bounded shoulders and hips on your back that also guards your front side well.  (Though you could totally do that with a back shield if you don't use a shield for anything else).

Line

The "line" as I think of it your center line, it's the line that you'd draw from your solar plexus to your opponents solar plexus.  So long as you're fighting a person you'll be looking at each other, and in doing so you generate that line.  Assuming that you've guarded your box well and your opponent has done the same neither you nor your opponent will have any good or obvious shots so long as the line remains unbroken.  As a result a lot of discussions going forward  will talk about breaking your opponents line; IE being the person who clears your opponents center line to the left or right proactively in order to open up a series of shots that weren't previously available to you.  It's important to note that when you break your opponents center line you also create a similar set of openings on yourself.  But by being the one to initiate the movement you have the advantage of knowing in advance what openings exist, whereas your opponent has to spend time reacting to your movement rather then proactively taking shots at the openings that you've exposed.  Since, at least theoretically, no good shots exist when both people are center line even (facing one another) much of fighting comes down to finding creative ways to work your shots around a person's center line.  I suspect that's why the high cross is so popular despite it being a bad shot.  (Bad because 1, it's predictable, 2, it has a low rate of success, 3, it leaves your arm way open when thrown).

Lane

A lane is established by a weapon.  To the outside of the weapon is the outside lane, to the inside of the weapon is the inside lane.  If you're holding a sword in your right hand then your outside lane is anything to the right of your weapon and your inside lane is going to be anything that's your arm on in.  If you're fighting florentine then you'll generate two sets of lanes.  If you're fighting with a polearm then this theory still applies except that now your inside and outside lanes are determine by where you place your hands.  If your front hand is your right hand then your outside lane will be everything to your left and your inside lane is everything to your right.  Generally speaking whenever you can catch a BLOCK to your OUTSIDE lane you gain advantage by being able to RETURN shots to their INSIDE lane.

keeping it short and sweet for theorycrafting.  that's all for this post.