Lessons from Sparta .. and Beyond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImaVqdYT-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFz36jg6uls

Here is a video series by a guy called Kostas Dervenis (The first 2 of 5 parts are above, and I recommend watching all of them to get the whole picture) and his take on tactics and martial arts. (Thanks to MattR for the find :-)
Though I have disagreements with him about a few things, including his definitions of fighting as purely battlefield application, and his lack of consideration of how battlefield technique evolved into peace time ambush and dueling (the lethal kind as opposed to sporting kind), mostly I agree with his ideas ...

He is promoting his own school and their method of course, and honestly I have seen nothing of this and thus cannot comment on it at all. Also I cannot comment on his grappling ideas as I have little experience there, though his point about preferring his adversary face down makes sense to me ...

Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to put his thoughts here as a comparison to what I was talking about in the "Cheat" post regarding the use of edged weapons and the importance of tactics.
He says that as soon as weapons enter the picture, the rules change completely, and I couldn't agree more. I am a bit more specific in my own ideas about HOW swords differ from other weapons, and how they free you to investigate tactical thinking in ways that empty hand and impact weapons training cannot with any degree of safety, however his basic premis that tactics are foremost in your ability to prevail, as a tool wielding, puny, human, resonate with me for sure. As does his emphasis on context when trying to understand meaning in historical systems.