the spear war normally 4 metters long so hoplite vs hoplite the 1st rank would have 4 pointy things going at them

i read here in a very old thread that there where 4 moments in hoplite warfare and the most important one was the oychos or something similar wich meant the push

in a hoplite batle if you could unbalance the other phallanx they would loose and if things got bad then you went for the swords wich was where the spartans excelled and made them the best warriors of ancient greece but if it got there then most of the times one of the army´s would just pull back and surrender the field

imho greek warfare was initially a ritualized pushing game i mean greece as very few plains and alot of rocky ground in the midle ages they where fighting as skirmishers against the turks and not as hoplites for a reason

hoplites where probably born when greeks had to fight the thessalians asians and others who used horses (shieldwall and spears) and when they fighted amonsgt themselfs nobady wanted to loose too many men because those where the citizens the farmers the bakers the armourers so during those times loosing a farmer meant less taxs to collect meant you would loose your milkman and your baker and your paperboy and they wheren´t easily replacable (ofc this is just pure conjecture)

also i think the regards to men being so crumped up in the phallanx that they shited themselfs with the forçe they had to endure or soldiers dieing and only falling to the ground after the phallanx was broken shows how "close" they where to each other and of the density of the phallanx and that only makes sence in a pushing contest so in such an enviroment underhand spear grapping is basically impossible but if you got your harm up you can move it kind of freely so ...