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actualy, that is not entirely correct, shields went out of fashion for many reasons, most of them having to do with the advances in body armor and missle weapons- many shields, depending on design will in fact stand up quite nicely to a two handed swing with an axe or a sword- but with the advance of plate aromr, they simply were no longer nescessary to the upper classes, and at hte same time the lower class warriors were being exposed to more missle fire against which greater mobility was more desireable- properly made plate is nothing short of damn cool, which is why almost every manual of arms surviving from the period shows people who fighting in plate and using two handed swords using them in unconventional methods, to either spear their enemies, bash them , or using the sword to assist in wrestling the other guy to the ground- my friend who runs an SCA armor shop will gladly let you swing a two hander at one of his test pieces of Plate, and thereby demonstrate one of the reasons why shields became extrenuous-
As to blocking a sword- Yes you certainly can, by properly deflecting the blade and channeling the force appropriately- it is a basic principal of both eastern and western swordsmanship- I am however dubious of the effectiveness of the technique that dizzet is suggesting as it would seem to force the arm to absorb an awful lot of force, rather than deflecting it- I would welcome a clarification
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Thought the harder, Heart the bolder,
Mood the more as our might lessens
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