Blade Length | When Does it Matter

A blade under an arm can't be a shield and a sword like we're used to with longsword, it has to be one or the other. This is something that shaped our sparring, I came across the concept in Historiches Messerfechtens Mainz YouTube videos. Haven't found it in other videos but I'm sure its in many. Regardless I decided to share it here so it may help someone else out. We really wanted to separate our Long knife fighting and focus on grappling so we're getting ones that are under 65 cm so there not just arming swords with a nagel. I have noticed a big improvement in my ability to close distance with multiple weapons after this practice. Not saying its bad or unhistorical to have longer Messers, but you should know what the difference in length causes.