THE SPEAR - MAN’S OLDEST WEAPON
Across almost all cultures that exist today, the spear has been present in warfare at some point in its history. Spears have been found in the hands of all kinds of fighters from Viking raiders to Zulu warriors. Its low cost to build, long reach, and ability to be used for both combat and hunting made them commonplace in almost every successful culture that has ever existed. It is a versatile weapon that can be used to hold off enemies, de-horse cavalry, thrown as a projectile weapon, and create fearsome formations of soldiers. Armies have spent a great deal of time, energy, and money training soldiers in its deadly use. It also takes far less time to train a fighter to be deadly with a spear than it does with shorter weapons such as swords, axes, and knives. Spears (and polearms) are effective melee weapons both as a standalone duelists weapon or utilized in a formation with multiple men. Historically, some single, well-trained spearman have been known to hold off or defeat multiple enemies at once.
KING OF THE BATTLEFIELD?
When we think of ancient battles, we typically imagine two large forces clashing together with great calamity. We imagine the clang of swords and the bangs of shields not realizing that the majority of deaths on these ancient battlefields (across all cultures) were inflicted with long pikes, spears, polearms, and bows.
While swords are deadly and had their place on the battlefield, the primary melee weapons of ancient soldiers were those that had reach. Against fully armored opponents, swords had little effect. But a carefully aimed spear thrust or strike could de-horse a knight or pin a samurai to the ground, preparing him for a grisly end.
AGAINST THE SWORD
It’s true that spears, pikes, and polearms have a significant reach advantage and better learning curve than swords but does this make them completely invincible? Anyone who has sparred against spear using a sword can attest to how difficult of a task it is to even get a cut in. This does not mean that a spear-user will always win against a sword
Longer swords (such as a the zweihander great sword) were designed to give the sword-fighter a chance to defeat spear-fighters. There are even some specialized techniques designed for normal-sized swords that can be successfully employed against the spear or polearm. Spear-fighters will always enjoy their reach but we caution them to not get too comfortable. Because our club has both spear and sword fighters amongst our ranks, we encourage these techniques to be experimented with.
OUR SPEAR CLASSES
Our spear classes are based in Japanese Sojutsu (art of the spear). While many of the traditions in Sojutsu are present in our teachings, the techniques we teach in these classes are quite universal and are echoed even in Western spear training (there are only so many ways to stab someone with a stick!). We teach the use of a spear against other spears (and polearms), against swords, and multiple attackers. Like our other classes, you need no experience to begin training with us and we may have gear for you to borrow for your first few lessons! Please feel free to check out our GEAR GUIDE page to see our equipment recommendations to start your Spear training with us!