Belegarth

The flail is the most unrealistic weapon in the rulebook. Many rules have been made to decrease their effectiveness on the field. What we have now is a weapon that acts nothing like it's real world counterpart. Many noobs fall victim to this unorthodox weapon, and many bad flailmen get a false sense of their fighting abilities due to the ease with which they kill the uneducated.

Killing the flailman:
*Arm chops are the bain of the flail user, never swing first, keep them at range, block the ball, hit the arm, laugh at them when they drop the flail and hold onto the shield, congrats, you just took them out of the fight. It's leg 'em and leave 'em strategy, but it is hilarious to see a shield wall with no offense.
*If you are fighting a shoulder popper, lower your shield or defense slightly so they are compelled to pop your shoulder. Lift your shield or weapon to catch the chain, the ball will wrap your shield or weapon and hit the back, pull back hard as you chop down hard at their wrist, your shield should pull on their flail just enough to pull their arm toward you exposing their arm, if your aim sucks, let your weapon glide across their shield to their now outstretched arm. Swing REALLY hard so that if you accidentally hit their hand, they drop the flail.
*For better Flailmen, raise your shield or defense to expose your leg. Make sure your forward leg is the same as their flail arm (right handed flailman, right leg forward). When they swing for your leg, bend it at the knee so your foot dissapears under your shield or away from the ball (point your toes). This causes them to whiff their shot, without a bounce back, they will be overextended and off balance. Pick any shot you want, I like aiming for anything unarmored.

I fight with a backshield and I find that closing the distance helps because they can't stab or really hit the front of you easily.

Sure they aren't that unrealistic. But still though, good points there, especially the part that says "block the head" of the flail.