but why are jump attacks, spin attacks and sword throws utter nonsense?
well...
jump attacks:
they look cool and may be powerfull if used in the right way. however that right way is "if your opponent is a sandbag". in most martial arts jumping is discouraged since jumping means you give away any control of your movement. the oponent van simply move his spear in such a way that you jump into it. futhermore where you may have momentum you oponnent has the ability to brace himself and use the ground as an anchor to overpower you. lasly, if you jump you come down and have a moment of imbalance. especially when you are armoured. this is a prime opportunity to get some additional steel in your guts.
spin attacks:
this is easy. you leave yourself wide open and sacrifice a lot of speed for a bit of additional momentum. also, spinning is quite disorienting. the nice thing about weapons is thay they are good at doing damage so even a well-placed stab would suffice and be quite easy to do when someone moves his prime method of defence all the way to the back.
sword throws:
swords are satbbing and/or cuttng weapons. they are balanced for either stabbing or cutting. not for throwing. secondly by doing this you waste your weapon.
dual wielding:
I'd still like to see the ability and it's uselessness as well as this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXxR6u36tSM
stances:
while the images might be ridiculous you have to admit that stances were important in historical martial arts. if anything I think it's interesting to see the option to switch between overarm and underarm wielding. sadly I'm not really knowledgable in this area so I don't know other possible stances
on the testudo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oJVfHz7kq8