Do you still need recommendations? Scholagladitoria does some work with antique weapons dealing and reviews a lot of weapons. He also expands to quite a number of cultures, which is ALWAYS welcome. I'm on my phone and can't look up my favorites, but when I get on my laptop I'll try to link some more folks I watch. Hope that's fine.
From what I see, you use a kick or a punch when it feels like a good (and safe) time to do it. You don't want to deck someone only to expose it to a good chop. I feel like it's actually not rare for a sword fight to go from the "more elegant" standing exchanges to just... ground fighting. Also, what outbests a sword is probably a longer range weapon, UNTIL the one with the sword bypasses it, probably. From what I gathered, if you ask someone in the HEMA community what's the best sword against another, they'll probably say the longer one LOL (or a staff. Or a polestaff.) There is a lot of dynamics... and not a small part of it relates to what defenses the other person has. Half-swording is a technique to ensure that a sword can pierce through mail for not insignificant damage, for example. War hammers were created to inflict damage through plate armor. Furthermore, it might be good to note as well that swords are often *sidearms*-- that is, they're secondary weapons, often used as last resort (in battles I presume). The main weapons are probably something longer reaching (probably spears). Of course, writing just swords because swords are cool and you're not in a battlefield setting is no problem (I'm writing a wuxia, I can't talk), but remembering the context that other weapons exist at equal if not greater importance will help a lot in expanding the dynamics of fight in your writing, I feel.
You can look up HEMA treatises or discussions on it; European might be a lot more reliable because Chinese martial arts has been mostly for acrobatic aesthetics since what, 19th century? As far I remember, some are uploaded in long articles online, but they do require some background knowledge to understand. I haven't checked this much, but you can try?
Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Patri Pugliese
wiktenauer.com
This guide provides you with HEMA beginner sources and books on the most popular HEMA weapon systems: Longsword, Rapier and Sword and Shield!
www.hemaguide.com
There are also a LOT of forums. Especially if you're not limiting yourself to Chinese martial arts, you're bound to find plenty of references. I sure can't find a swordfighting class in good ol' Southeast Asia
Even better, there are also forums for weapon smiths. If you want to include more variety, lots of non-western fighting styles are also discussed in forums. I remember coming across discussions on Filipino martial arts (the name escapes me, I'm sorry). There's just a lot. But this post is already monstrous according to this forum's standards...
