[split] Phalanx warfare: use of the spear

[Paul Bardunias]

yet i think that would be much closer to actual reality than just swinging the spear into open air meeting no resistance at all..  Romans for example practiced sword fighting against wooden figurines, so i guess they did it for a reason..

 so that they had a target to hit, which is why I hit a hanging ball.  Not hitting something is actually more tiring than hitting something with a blunt tipped spear because the blunt tipped spear bounces back unnaturally helping you recover from a strike.  In jabbing the air or a light target, your arm has to rcover the weapon by pulling it back.  The whole thing about "meeting resistance" is nonsense if you try it, because if you are hitting full tilt and the spear is not being forced back through your grip on contact, what is called a failure of linkage, then you are not hitting hard enough.