>>419671
I do full contact sword fighting with proper armor and normal humans (no edgelords, everyone is okay with taking a hit).
Its extreme fun, don't let anyone stop you. Just the feeling of finding your own sword (a real one, we use rockwell21 (yes, kinda soft, but since we all have around that strenght its alright) without sharp edges and we don't stab towards the eyeholes, everything else goes.
I train with many people, but even the guys that do various material arts and have years more of expierence lose to a spear.
Spear [untrained] > [2h Sword, trained, 1h Sword Trained, 1h+shield, 1h+kiteshield]
We do the 7 point system, you want 7 points to win, a 3rd person judges, hit on the head is worth 4 points, body 3, legs 2, arms 1 - if the enemy hits you back withhin the same sec, you even out. (hit chest vs counter-hit arm = 3-1 = 2 points)
The spear is easy to use, the range is GODLY and thats all you need. Honestly, you feel 3-5 cm (A inch) of lenght difference in sword fighting and you will always feel the fucking spear before you reach that motherfucker.
Personally, I'd avoid fighting a fucker with a spear, but when I have to I usually use a very silly combination - a kite shield and a parrying dagger (with many catching points) to establish a point of contact (you feel a lot of movements during the contact - they go hard, you go soft, they go soft, you go hard) - and once you feel the spear you can rush in and keep the contact.
Sadly rushing in is also when the injury risk is huge, cause 2 moving objects are more ouchy then 1 and my kneecap is usually one of them.