[Dawn Porter]

I'm going for One Handed and Block for the first time, and I think I'm doing it wrong or I just don't understand how they're supposed to be used.
If I block, the enemy hits my shield, it does little damage and so on, I get that.
But as soon as I actually attack, the enemy invariably hits me during it, even if I'm swinging a sword, they're swinging a warhammer and my swing starts about .1 milliseconds after theirs with the block button held down to get my shield up afterwards.

So none of the blocking actually seems to do me any good, because there's no benefit to timing my attack well, so its only use is to slowly wear away my health.
But then if I don't do that, it's the same as if I didn't bother with block at all, and I'd be better off dual-wielding.

What kind of horrendous misunderstanding of sword and board on my end does this result from?