Swords are kinda interesting to experience.
Think how scared you'd be if someone confronted you with a butcher knife. Well swords are worse than butcher knives. Swords are blades designed to harm people (butcher knives are designed to cleave pork knuckles etc.)
One thing that's surprising the first time you experience it is how fast the sword moves. A small movement of the wrist that takes maybe 0.1 seconds makes the tip of the blade travel one metre.