A Few Thoughts on Dual Wielding and the Cross-Block

Another quick demonstration and commentary about differences between fantasy sword fighting and historical techniques. Dual swords are of course quite popular for style, and although the use of two full sized blades is rare in historical European martial arts it did occur. It's more challenging to learn but can be useful against a single weapon (although not as useful as sword & shield in my opinion).

*** Support the channel ***

Help fund future videos, get bonus content and other rewards:
For one-time donations:

Books about history and/or martial arts, swords, knives, video/audio equipment, and other stuff I recommend (as an Amazon Affiliate I earn commission through these links):

Other ways to support the channel by shopping through affiliate links:

Kult of Athena, my favorite online store for reproductions of historical arms and armor, fantasy swords, etc:

Where to get HEMA gear and practice swords:

Knives on Gearbest:

*** Social media & merch ***

How to contact me:

See a list of my video uploads:

Channel-related shirts and other merch:

My side channel (for rambles, vlogs, opinions, gaming, etc):

*** Music ***

Intro song:
"Illuminate" by Vindsvept

Outro:
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records

[Skallagrim]

Just to clarify: The point is not that dual wielding doesn't work. It does. It comes with advantages and disadvantages, like anything else, and it's more difficult than single sword or sword and shield. And dual swords are often used in less than ideal ways in fantasy fights... big surprise, right? :) Either way I used to be more negative towards the idea, but now I definitely agree that dual wielding is viable. With some caveats, but still viable.

[lemonfan]

On one hand, you have a sword, on the other hand, you have a sword.

[overtotter]

Hollywood should take a look at this stuff, because just like John Wick you can make real techniques look cool with enough speed.

[devin]

But Skall you're forgetting the most powerful technique that all dual wielders learn, spinning like a helicopter!

[Hickokboy]

Is this guy a bot that Skall can just spawn when he needs to make a video?

[patronofviolenceanddebauch]

FOOLS, Dual wielding long bows is obviously a superior combination😎

[NOCTURNALARROW]

I can't get over how beautiful that snow is

[CazadorSlayer]

The dual-wielding Cross Guard also has the added benefit of exorcising any demons in-front of you.
Can't believe you didn't mention such an important detail!

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

Dual wielding is awesome, especially in Halo.

[antonkukoba]

The case of throwing two pommels while dual wielding is not covered at all

[Liezuli]

Clearly the purpose of the second sword is to protect your back while you do spin attacks

[duchi]

*_"Who needs a Guard anyway_*
*_Just use the Blade as a Guard! "_*

[michaelblacktree]

Seems to me that the cross-block would tend to "funnel" the opponent's weapon toward your head.

[evsterflick]

I appreciate the overhead shots, really clears things up

[ZefulStarson]

The best depiction of the technique in fiction was in the Ranger's Apprentice series. It's a very down to Earth fantasy setting that's pretty grounded. In the story an aspiring knight and friend to the main character (the eponymous Ranger's Apprentice) is shown the cross block as an option for fighting a longsword without a shield, later during the big battle with the setting's big bad, the aspiring knight is facing down said big bad solo, slightly concussed, with his shield lost and his sword broken, pulls off the crossblock with his the remnants of his blade and his dagger to stop the big sword of his opponent long enough to shank him with the dagger, killing him.

[afriendofafriend]

This is the kind of content that makes someone $18 million.

[calamusgladiofortior]

In George Silver’s Renaissance-era treatise, his view was sword and dagger was better than a single sword, but worse than sword and buckler, sword and targe, and all two-handed weapons (including the longsword). That makes a lot of sense, given that those other combinations all appear to have been much more common than paired swords or other weapons.

[StaleDoritoCrumb]

Dual wielding logic:
Theory: 100
Reality: 5
Swords: (Now there are) 2 (of them, this is getting out of hand!)
(This was meant to be sarcastic everyone, too many are taking this seriously.)

[darkblood]

For a second I thought Skalls wife had really let herself go. I need my eye's checked again.

[morlath]

Skal, there's one thing that's brought up in duel-wielding that I think is ignored/overlooked but I'd really like a sword user's opinion. Basically, the argument always gets brought up (as you did) that two blades of equal length can get in the way of each other but surely the entire point of dual-wielding is to actually learn/master the art? It's like someone saying how complicated dance movements aren't possible because your limbs will tangle. Well, yeah, because that's what happens in the beginning until you've actually learnt how to do the movers. Or a more simple example - it's far too difficult to walk on high heels so there's no point to it because you'll keep stumbling.


Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to talk about the actual skill level of a "master" of two swords might have. But it just seems really off to me how wanting to use two swords obviously means having to learn techniques and body mechanics which would prevent the beginner-level entanglement issue that is one of the main reasons everyone keeps saying it's not viable. So what happens if you eliminate the swords clashing being an issue? How does/does it then change whether it's a viable style? Also, let's put aside one sword is better than two since I don't think that's actually a valid point in the discussion on whether duel-wielding works. It would be like saying a spear and shield is the obviously superior choice to a sword so there's no point in learning the sword.