But in fiction, historic accounts, reconstructions, 'medieval combat' often involves clashing with polearms then sometimes being disarmed, or willingly dropping your polleaxe to grab and dagger stab someone.
The deeds of Jacques Lalaing cover some of that:
http://www.thearma.org/essays/Lalaing.htm#.XDcGolUzaUk
The two knights emerged from their pavillions, carrying a spear and a polaxe each. "Each marched fiercely towards the other; and as they approached, they hurled their lances" - to no effect. Switching to their polaxes, they closed distance. Early on in the combat, Jacques used a disarming technique, knocking the polaxe out of one of Jean's hands - but the Italian knight quickly recovered his weapon, and resumed the fight. Jacques struck Sir Jean such a blow that it nearly turned him around, but still the fight continued. Finally, Jacques disarmed his opponent entirely, striking the polaxe out of both his hands. The Italian knight immediately sought to close distance, hoping the grapple with Sir Jacques, and trying to catch hold of his visor. But Jacques "kept driving him back with the point of his axe, so that de Boniface was unable to reach him." At this point, seeing the dire straits that Sir Jean was in, the Duke of Burgundy threw down his baton, ending the match.
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A few moments later, Jacques disarmed Diego, knocking his polaxe out of his hands. Following standard practice, Diego rushed in, arms outstretched, seeking to grapple. Jacques extended his left arm, stopping him, and with his right hand threw his axe aside. Still holding his opponent at bay with his left hand, Jacques was drawing his short sword when the King of Castille threw down the baton, stopping the combat.
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The foot combat began uneventfully. But after about 10 or 12 blows had been exchanged, Jacques suddenly caught hold of his opponent’s polaxe with his right hand, clearing an opening. Holding his weapon in his left hand, he struck Jean 3 times in the face with the tail-spike of his polaxe. Releasing his adversary’s polaxe, Jacques quickly grabbed the plume on Jean’s helmet "and pulled him so rudely that he fell to the ground." The judge, seeing the Sicilian knight stretched out on the ground, immediately stopped the combat.
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Jacques came against James Douglas (the earl's brother) and swiftly disarmed him, knocking the spear from his grasp. James switched to his polaxe, but Jacques disarmed him again, just as easily. Irate at having lost both his spear and his axe, James drew his dagger and attempted to close, striking repeatedly at Jacques' unarmored face. Jacques held him at bay with his left hand, catching his fingers in the eye-slits of his helmet. Discarding his polaxe, Jacques drew his sword, "...which was a thin estoc, and grasped the blade near the point, so he could use it as a dagger, for he had somehow lost his own." Meanwhile, James had caught hold of his bevor (chin-guard); attempting to thrust at the unarmored palm of James' hand, Jacques lost his sword. Now completely disarmed, Jacques caught his opponent with both hands on his visor, and was in the process of throwing him to the ground when the king stopped the combat.
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Jacques attempted to continue the fight, but his left hand [got stabbed] failed him. Holding the head of the polaxe under his left armpit, Jacques continued to fight, wielding the tail-spike with his right hand. Realizing the dire straits he was in, Jacques discarded his polaxe and closed to grapple with his opponent. Grabbing the Englishman’s helmet with one hand, and his left arm with the other, Jacques used a wrestling technique to throw Thomas Que. The English squire hit the ground with such force that the visor of his bascinet was buried in the earth. Seeing this, the duke threw down his baton, stopping the combat.
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Jacques fought Claude Pitois the next day. The combat was swift; after a few blows, Jacques stepped in and took hold of Claude’s polaxe with his right hand. Clearing an opening, he attempted to strike Claude in the face with the point of his polaxe, which he held in his left hand. But Claude blocked the blow, catching hold of Jacques’ polaxe with his right hand. Releasing his opponent’s weapon, Jacques caught hold of his neck instead. Claude escaped his grip twice, but Jacques finally closed distance and caught his head under his arm "in the wrestling hold known as the Corne-muse (bagpipe)." Once he caught his opponent in this head-lock, he threw him to the ground. Claude landed flat on his back, but caught hold of Jacques as he fell. Losing balance, Jacques fell into a crouch on top of Claude. At this point, the judge threw down his baton. Both combatants retained their axes until the end of the combat.
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So in the above examples....
-disarming pole weapons seemed to happen often (disarming swords were not mentioned though, perhaps its harder to disarm a smaller weapon?)
-sometimes people fall over and retain their weapons too.
- when the opponent grapples, dropping one's own greatweapon/polearm to counter grapple was a valid response. Holding onto the weapon and striking was also a valid response. Perhaps a degrees of success thing in combat mechanics where fail means you get a stabbing, low success means the opponent must drop their weapon and grapple, high means you bypass their grappling and toss em.
-Apparently you can carry a poleaxe and spear at the same time, I have no idea how they did it...
Heavy combat also has a lot of temporarily stunning hits happen, you gotta follow up to KO/kill 'em or they can recover:
So for 'more realism' in heavy armor, a stunned/wobbled state should be a core part of combat and not special supernatural monk powers.Meanwhile, Herve de Meriadec was fighting the other James Douglas. As the two closed in, James lowered his spear and thrust at Herve's face. However, he missed his mark; instead, his point went through the left sleeve of Herve's surcoat and glanced off of the armor underneath. Herve, stepping within distance, struck Sir James so hard on the head with his polaxe that he knocked him to the ground, stunned, face down.
Herve immediately looked to see whether his companions needed assistance, since that was allowed by the rules. As he did so, Sir James began to recover, rising to his knees. Seeing this, Herve struck him to the ground again with numerous blows of his axe. As he turned to aid his friends, Sir James rose yet again, and the two fought briefly with their polaxes. At this point, seeing the danger that the Scottish knights were in, the king ended the fight.