Lancelot Sword

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Lancelot Sword

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    • Compact
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    • The Blue Baron
    • The Red Baron
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About Lancelot

I, Lancelot, have been practicing swordsmanship since 1994 and started practicing with real swords since 1998. Test cutting for me began around late 90's (1998-1999) from the last century, probably being the first person to use an European longsword to cut Japanese tatami mat, a Glen Parrell custom made bastard sword, which failed miserably. On the other hand, previously I had cut with a Howard Clark 1086 loaned to me by a dentist friend alright.  


https://web.archive.org/web/20020406201337/http://www.vikingmetalworks.com/footsoldier.html


The euro-swords made back then could not handle such target. They do not have the understanding of what I was up against. When I asked for an edge that can handle realistic target, Angus Trim even accused me of planning for mall murder on SFI.


I have been teaching swordsmanship since 2004 and become a full-time teacher as well as sparring sword maker (Realistic Sparring Weapons) since 2005. I was the first person in the world to teach German Longsword swordsmanship in Chinese.


Over the years, I have done full body targeting, full speed, freestyle sparring with many proficient weapon users across the globe. Many of them were national or even global champions of their respective disciplines, while some others were full-time swordsmanship teachers. It is because of this extremely high-level and realistic cross-disciplines sparring experience, using realistic simulators that simulate the actual swords’ shape, weight, balance, length, and momentum, that allows me to have a unique, not-by-the-book understanding of combat situations. Such understanding would differ a lot from dojo style one on one face to face equal setup situations.

Besides unequal weapons setup, I also trained students in various modern scenarios like home defense, corridor defense, multi vs multi, 1 vs multi, staircase combat, protecting VIP, etc., all in various environment with different kind of grounds like cement floor, grass ground, sandy ground, wet muddy ground, in total darkness or rainy stormy days, and more.


Combining my background in European swordsmanship, and later Chinese swordsmanship, I progressively developed my own style of swordsmanship that could handle various situations and weapons that may not have existed in historical setup. This style is called Universal Swordsmanship, the one style that use them all, because it can be applied to any kind of swords, polearms and even unarmed.  


In addition to combat training, I emphasize very much into realistic cutting training, for this is essential to one’s combat ability. I have cut a very wide spectrum of targets, from pork arm to water bottles, from bamboo to tatami, and finally settled on PPR cored soaked newspaper roll with occasional fabric covers, with swords from various historical cultures to fantasy designs, to gain insights on their performance.


I am also a professional sword sharpener due to the necessity and have developed my own method of sharpening using diamond plates along the years, with reference to many top sharpeners’ research. Through a lot of experiment performed at the cost of my very expensive swords with modern alloy like CPM3V at high hardness (61HRC), and exchanging notes with top smiths, I have finalized the angle and grit I would put on the swords so that they can cut even kevlar and still withstand the impact of cutting through living bone hardness material. 

Universal Swordsmanship tutorial at shop

Master swordsmen skill compare episode 14. This time we take a look into different A-class movements. Upper left swordsman used hip movement to start the cut. Lower left one used walking to start the cut. I also used hip to start the cut, but added with high speed zone powered by Musashi grip. The upper left swordsman's speed is impressive in itself, and out-sped the lower left swordsman by a lot. They both cut through the same difficult targets. So the hip form of A-class movement allows a faster cut without sacrificing power. I out-sped the upper left swordsman's speed only because of the utilization of Musashi-grip powering the high speed zone. His hip movement is very impressive. This is how I compare techniques.

Master Swordsmen skill compare Prequel. It will only be fair if I put this one up. It is what started all these compare back in June 2023. Back then I came up with a thought to try to mimick Master Kim's triple cut combo and see how I would do. Of course I was behind Master Kim's supreme combo speed. So in all the compares I did along the years to study different performances produced by different methods, I did not win all the compare. Certainly not. This one is a good example that I lost and have no way to overcome the difference. These kind of studies are like car racing. When we try to match the cars used, and with different drivers, driving on the same course, but with different style and methodology, the result will differ. I study these difference to refine our techniques. Bravo to Master Kim.

Master swordsmen skill compare episode 12. I totally lost the speed competition to master Kim in combo cuts in the past. So my student asked about the single cut

Skill compare with Toyama ryu headmaster

Hon Wing with current technique, compared to James Williams and 2016 me using traditional Chinese technique.

MK with current technique vs Me in 2016 using traditional technique

Desun's turn in the compare.

Tun shows that with the proper technique he is faster than the other even on single leg standing.

My student MK Tang as the compare person, showing the skill is replicable and a heavier, longer sword, paired with the right skill, can be faster than the shorter and lighter sword.

My student Edwin Chan as the compare person, showing the skill is replicable and a heavier, longer sword, paired with the right skill, can be faster than the shorter and lighter sword.

My student Maxwell Leung as the compare person, showing the skill is replicable and a heavier, longer sword, paired with the right skill, can be faster than the shorter and lighter sword.

Remote student of 6 months cutting our kind of difficult targets.

In depth analysis of cutting power

Discussed about edge apex, edge plane geometry, blade geometry, rotatory acceleration, top speed before hitting the target, penetration speed, speed lost inside the target, reach and top speed relationship, reach and speed lost relationship and etc.   

Requested by a sword friend, this is the third episode of compare. This time I explain how I do this clips, as well as what caused the speed difference in detail.

Right to left diagonal compare between master swordsmen. Using the same / similar sword, only the skill matters. The three masters I compared with are RJ McKeehan, Knife or Death champion and US cutting tournament champion, Phillip Martin, US cutting tournament champion, and 杉尾仁.

left to right diagonal compare between master swordsmen. Using the same / similar sword, only the skill matters. The three masters I compared with are RJ McKeehan, Knife or Death champion and US cutting tournament champion, Phillip Martin, US cutting tournament champion, and Isao Machii, Guinness world record holder.

A brief review of more than 30 years of progress, leading to an universal style that can be applied on different kind of swords. Literally one style to use them all!

A demo test cut I made for the Universal Swordsmanship Lesson 34: Left horizontal and upward cuts. I intentionally use a relatively normal sword, in compare to Supreme Cutter and Red Baron, to show the universal validity of the techniques I taught in the lesson.

Explaining the difficulty level of low target moving cuts.

To lever or not to lever, this is the question

To answer the question, I did a compare on the techniques to show the difference in effectiveness. 

This is a short example of 3 students, 1 local and 2 overseas, employing my techniques in their test cutting.

To lever or not to lever, 6000 fps slow motion compare

A whole series of videos in Cantonese where I talked about swords, swordsmanship and sword design. It's part of the Universal Swordsmanship.

Universal Swordsmanship is not an ivory tower swordsmanship. We spar in modern environment where home defense would take place, including narrow corridor.

First person view of high speed cuts, made to help an overseas student to understand what visual cue to look for during a full speed practice.

This video illustrates the unique feature in our cutting style.

This showcases the intensity and level of my students' sparring, with realistic weighted and balanced simulators at full speed.

More premonition training examples.

Premonition training: Not everybody is a Jedi to begin with

We did a video about premonition.

It is because a local HEMA club does not believe such thing exists. So we did a test with the students and let them raise their hands whenever they feel a strike is coming in. As long as they can hit the timing, it's a success for them. Both the target student and the attacking student have no vision of what the others were doing, and the attacking student would strike at a random time after I yelled "ready". Later on I showed how the students use premonition ability in sparring, to read the opponent's move earlier than it takes action. Finally I showed that top boxer like Ali was an expert in this aspect. This sums up what I want to say about premonition. 

Comparing some HEMA thrusts with mine.

Comparing Scott's spear vs sword video to our spear vs sword sparring, showing a huge difference in speed and intensity.

Comparing Scott's sparring to our sparring, showing a huge difference in intensity and diversity level.

Putting Scott's technique to real test with Lancelot's thrusts.

Using spear, naginata and Supreme Cutter Compact to spar Joe.

Using Supreme Cutter Compact to spar against naginata wielding Joe.

A sword friend asked me for comments about Scott Rodell's video of deflecting thrust, spawning this video.

A speed / power compare between traditional gripping method and my Musashi gripping method, both cutting free standing thigh targets, with the same sword

Showing the stability of Musashi grip.

Chris Fields raised the issue that the left to right High speed zone cut breaks the wrists. When wrists were hyperextended, it led to injuries and hard to recover from a missed cut by reversing the cut with the back edge immediately. To prove my point that I did not break the wrists, I did this test to reverse the cut immediately without flipping the sword around, which would usually take a rigid wrist structure to facilitate.

Part 2 of the Zornhau vs Lancelot High Speed Zone cutting, this time comparing the power. The high speed zone cutting is handicapped by single leg standing, and short distance, and later on crouching, progressively.

Skallagrim believed the rigid structure zornhau is powerful. Chris Field thought my high speed zone cutting method broke my wrist and is bad for offense and defense. So I pit the two methods against each other with the help of my students.

Skallagrim brought up that he learned rigid structure style from a particular HEMA school, thus I made a video to compare my high speed zone cutting style vs the rigid structure style.

How to properly inspect a sword

Living by the blade - Sword fighting in Hong Kong

One-on-one with Lancelot Chan, Hong Kong's weapon designer and combat instructor 

I and my sword in action in Decision: Red Daze

I and my sword Little Cutie have been added to the game Decision: Red Daze

I and my sword Little Cutie have been added to the game Decision: Red Daze

Indoor polearms combat

Lancelot with Trident vs Anderson with Naginata 

Lancehau vs Koryu secret of secrets technique

A mainland China friend mentioned that my technique Lancehau counter strike was presented in Ono-ha Ittō-ryū as the secret of the secret techniques. He showed me the footage of the school showing that part. I said mine is much faster, with a different mechanic. So I made this video to show the speed difference.


My RSW was 1670gram while the bokken was likely 500gram, thus the simulator I used was 3+ times heavier than the bokken in the video. Yet, I was still faster. 

Sparring with a stranger

RSW bout between Brian with custom nodachi and Lancelot with Supreme Cutter Ultra. 


Sparring with a customer who came to collect his RSW. He has over 10 years of sparring experience.


Sparring with a stranger is an important experience for every swordsman, for real combat often happens with strangers and you will not know what kind of attacks / defenses the opponent will perform.

Zero distance single leg standing tip powering through forte

Tip powering demo featuring Ibrahim from Mizongluohan

Skyward Stance Technique analaysis

Skyward Stance Technique analaysis

Supreme Cutters RSW in action

Using Supreme Cutter Compact, Classic and Ultra, and finally a spear against Anderson's naginata. 

Supreme Cutter Classic RSW in action

 MK with Longship No Remorse RSW vs Lancelot with Supreme Cutter Classic RSW 

Supreme Cutter Ultra RSW in action

Putting Supreme Cutter Ultra RSW to test by facing a younger, faster, taller opponent wielding a nodachi. 


RSW stands for Realistic Sparring Weapons, which have the exact same length, shape, weight and balance of the real ones. Thus they have the same reach, speed, momentum and reaction time of the real ones as well. So they can act as a simulation for the real ones in action. 

RSW™ - Realistic Sparring Weapons

Lancelot elaborates the thoughts and care that put into the design of 

the RSW™  Realistic Sparring Weapons

used by his combat academy for safe and realistic sparring

Preview - Lancelot Sword Lesson 1

Full length lesson available for private viewing

Root of Universal Swordsmanship, lightless sparring on grassland, Simon vs Lancelot, back in 2003

It was long long time ago that we were experimenting actual combat situation, without light, and on grassland. I lost my glasses on that night, unable to find them again after putting it somewhere, due to totally without light source.

Explaining the difficulty level of low target moving cuts

Edwin Chan and August practice moving cuts on forearm targets.

Cutting while on the move

 edwin single handed cut fabric covered forearm target and moving cut upper arm targets with zsey hira zukuri katana 

Cutting while on the move

Tun putting what he learned into practice, cutting forearm targets while on the move.  

Cutting while on the move

Edwin putting what he learned into practice, cutting upper arm targets while on the move.  

Visit Lancelot's Youtube Channel

The first time I cut tatami with an European sword was in 98 to 99, but it was a failure due to edge geometry issue. I think the first time I ever success in cutting tatami with an European sword was in this photo. 2002, with a tinker custom made hand and a half sword. Edge still no good but managed barely.

Back at the time, the European sword scene were not cutting tatami at all. So it could the first time ever in human history that an European styled sword successfully cut old Japanese tatami. 

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