| Strength matters. But not as much as other factors. Size can actually be a disadvantage. If you're small, you can cover more of your body with a sword of the same size. If you're bigger, you open up more of your body when you attack. You have to be strong enough to hold a sword and to move a sword. Despite the unintuitively low weight of a well-balanced sword, that's actually something that takes some training. Not just strength training -- you need to train the actual muscles involved. You're holding weights in unusual positions, not picking up and putting down (or pulling and pushing) heavy things. But beyond a certain point, strength doesn't matter. Sword fighting is not about jedi-style sword clashes with sparks flying off to the side as you try to wrestle the opponent off balance. Sword fighting is more about evasion and putting your sword where it needs to be at the right moment to hit the other guy. Actually, aside from the "binding" that is being discussed a lot in the other comments, one of the best techniques is not actually making contact with the other guy's sword at all. If you hit the other guy's sword, your sword is bound as well. If you instead avoid being hit by the other guy's sword as it comes in and sidestep into a counter at the same time, his momentum evaporates as you land your fully controlled hit. If the other guy has a strength advantage and wants to use it to win by brute force -- just don't play his game. Side-step, evade, move your body out of the way and your sword into him as he attacks. If it's good enough for Asian martial arts, it works in HEMA too. |