Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

That reason being a psychological trick -- it's not that accelerating actually meaningfully affects damage, it's that not decelerating does, and human instinct causes you to decelerate shortly before reaching the point you're aiming at.

Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

So you're suggesting that accelerating into the point of impact would not have a noticeable effect on measured force of impact, relative to a strike with no delta-v? I find that hard to believe, considering the math.

I was reminded of a fun video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblxX_AzNjg

Look at the slow-motion capture and you can see how he is accelerating into the target. The auto-collision expert mentions "build(ing) up enough velocity" which is exactly what I'm referring to by bringing up Newton's Second Law. But, I think what's more interesting is how little rebound his fist undergoes. Essentially, he is counteracting the effects of deceleration on impact by accelerating into the impact.

Oh, and he hits as hard as a 35mph car collision.

Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

Sounds like a decent justification for a Technique or Striking ST (Karate Only).

Well, what sort of knight would he be without a proper sword?

Accelerating up until you hit something is going to boost your velocity, no question about that. Once you've actually hit, however, continued force is typically just going to be pushing the target. There's a bit of an exception if your strike went into the target (like with a sword blade), as continued force helps you maintain the pressure to keep going in, but most of the time if you're strong enough to keep it going like that, you're probably strong enough to have built up enough speed in the first place that it doesn't make much of a difference.

Regardless, you still want to keep accelerating, because that's a lot easier to do than it is to stop accelerating with a strike and let it continue forward without accidentally decelerating it, and even if you can do that easily, a strike that you aren't accelerating or decelerating is a strike that you aren't controlling for part of its travel, which isn't a great idea. Plus, extra knockback is typically a good idea.

Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

Energy is equal to to force times distance. The amount of force you can apply to an already near peak speed is low, and the distance you are applying the force over is very short, so yes -- we're typically talking under 1%.

Note that you can achieve acceleration immediately before impact via a whip crack energy transfer through the wrist, but this has very little to do with muscles. In addition, you can push the target after the initial impact, but while that is relevant to knockback, and to the injury from a stabbing weapon that has penetrated armor, it has negligible effect on armor penetration.

Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

If your attack doesn't accelerate anymore from a certain point then you have initiated the attack to far off the target; Ideally, you would like to hit your opponent just before you reach maximum velocity and the range you need you would like that to be a short as possible. The longer the range the slower the acceleration (or it stops accelerating and continues at the same speed or even slows down) the more your opponent is able to defend himself.

And don't start talking about that this is already in the rules because you get extra damage. The extra damage is nice to have, but to lessen the chance of your attack getting parried is what you want.

Re: Realism; Strength is not important for swordsmanship(?)
 

Hmm. That sounds like a form of Deceptive Attack.