swords...

[aaron_mag]

Alright...time to put my martial art hat on...

I've been doing martial arts for 20 years. I barely know the sharp end of a sword from the handle....

The popular saying in martial arts is the old: Are you going to walk around with a sword? No? Then you need to train unarmed first...

This goes by the theory that people train for self-defense. But in my opinion only an idiot would train in martial arts for self defense. You are going to spend years and years studying something only to be mugged by a guy with a gun? If I truly wanted to defend myself I'd use a heavy cane when I walked around...then go psycho on someone with it. Pure baseball bat fashion. No training needed. And if any martial artist here says that wouldn't be effective I say this: Get out of your fantasy land. Again...I've been doing martial arts for 20 years. The concept of a psycho with a long blunt object scares the heck out of me!

So it comes down to enjoyment. You need to do it because you love it. Weapons bore me to death...but if you like it, then study something like Kendo. Do it for the love of it. Don't get bogged down with someone saying, "No...first you must study unarmed combat for years and years..." That is a bunch of BS.

As far as Jeet Kune Do goes...Bruce was off his rocker. I've read alot of his books. In one of them he said something like: I only like to train black belts. They are the only ones that can understand what I have to offer.

I've got news for you Bruce. That is because they spent years training in a rigid style and learning body discipline. When they got advanced they were ready to move to more formless ideas. To start out a beginner by saying, "There is no style. Just do what is natural." Is ridiculous. Of course they need more...

[Kellen_p8nt]

Hasty I understand that the WUShu weapons thing

From what i understand WuSHu can be done with MANY bladed and non bladed weapons. I just became fasinated by the CHinese Broadsword and now the Afghan Kukri.


I understand the logic of learning unarmed then learning armed so you can better understand combating weapons when you are unarmed. However It seems the likelyhood that someone is goin to jump out of the woods weilding a sword and begin attacking me is marginal(german samurai wackos aside).

Obviously society ha given me an image of the blade weapon that has fueled the fire that makes me wish to practice it. However, In one day of reading from those knowledgable about real bladed weapons I have broken many stereotypes about the weapon. And breaking those misconnceptions has only made me want to learn the styles of the weapons even more.



I tink of it this way. Alot of people on here love guns. I can't stand guns, I But understand people love them and like to learn new guns. SO cool. I want to learn swords like the broadsword and the Kukri.


I wish they had sword ranges that would kick muchas buttas

[Sooky]

Then you miss the inherent message of the martial arts in that the sword, dagger or bow is just the tool and that is it the weilder that is the true weapon. I've been studying the arts since I was twelve (I'm now 31) and while I am skilled in a wide variety of weapons it still all comes back to myself.

I care little for training in unarmed martial arts. I find it very unlikely there will ever come a time when it will be needed - as aaron_mag and kellen already said. I also care little for "the way" that some people talk about, and which has been hyped to ridiculous levels.

I don't care about the "inherent" messages in your martial arts. If this were true of them all, then why don't the Japanese sword arts (JSA) stress this? Or Chinese sword arts? Or European sword arts? If I decide to study iaido, I start with a wooden sword, and then upgrade to a blunted iaito. If I choose western arts, I still start with the sword (or sword and shield, or spear, etc). I don't train my body to become a "true weapon"- I gain proficiency with the sword from the beginning.

I love the sword because of its beautiful, deadly elegance. Swords seem to have a subtle, sophisticated kind of power - not the explosive power of a gun. That is why I want to study a sword art. I like the precision involved, and the sense of weilding something with an incredible history. I have much respect for other martial arts, but I am not trying to become a weapon, I want to learn how to use one.

Thanks for the info on the eastern martial arts. I am new to this field, but is this also true of chinese or japanese swordarts, or just the martial arts?

[Pyrate Jim]

Lotta good posts here. It's a pleasure to read from experienced people.

I do a little swordplay, but it's very period-oriented. I do re-enactments as a seventeenth century seafarer and the swordfight is a big part of our act. We use cutlasses and short swords and the occasional boarding pike or axe.
While working for A&E during the promotion for the Horatio Hornblower mini-series, I'm in several pics here:

http://www.noquartergiven.net/ae_nyc.htm

And more recently, I was hanged on the History Channel as a member of Cpt Kidds crew.

It may not be as elegant as the Eastern martial-arts, but potentially every bit as devastating.
We do choreograph our little mock battles, but the practice sessions while working out new routines can get pretty intense. Enough to know I'd rather get shot than hacked to pieces.

[eg0_Slayer]

I was in martial arts for a little over 5 years, i had to quit due to the rigors of high school
I studied under 3 very different senseis(i believe that's how you spell it) and have learned alot. I started out, 9 years old, and my grandmother signed me up cuz i kept gettin my butt-kicked on the playground. as i progressed, I began to love the arts, and my interest became broader. 5 years later, i am a 1st degree black belt in karate(basically, a mix of all disciplines) my weapon of choice is the kama, (2, actually) I recieved a katana as a gift from my sensei, when i got my black belt, but the sword is a little scary. I have also trained witth the BO, and the nunchaku. I love martial arts, and study them, not so i can beat people up, but so i can understand the culture, and because, well, japanese people kick major @$$...

[Ridgeway]

I am looking into enrolling in the local Aikido school,

does that mean you are giving up biting as a fighting technique?

[Ridgeway]

I tink of it this way. Alot of people on here love guns. I can't stand guns, I But understand people love them and like to learn new guns. SO cool. I want to learn swords like the broadsword and the Kukri.


I wish they had sword ranges that would kick muchas buttas

how can you not love firearms kellen?


/thread hijack off...retreats back into anonimity

[Carbon]

Any ya'll do internal stuff? like Ba Gua (pa qua)/Qui Giong/Shin(g) Yi/Tai Chi? I used to work with a dude who took Kung Fu, he started out externally, doing Shaolin animal forms and fighting theory. AT one point he began Iron Shirt training. From what i gather, when one gets to the higest echelons of certain martial arts it become internal.

In anycase from what he told me, the basis the way he learned was to never forget the art, was at one point a military discipline. The intent, being to disable/kill a person as efficiently as possible. An in accordance to the concept of yin/yan, this art is also used to heal.

Anyway, just chiming in.

[splatattack33]

all you need to do is get a sword or w/e the heck you want and go find some woods and go get animals and birds and trees and w/e else there is in the woods you dont need any classes just go have fun

[brianlojeck]

[QUOTE=Carbon]AT one point he began Iron Shirt training. QUOTE]

Funny Iron Shirt/Bruce Lee story for you. (I studied Muay Thai at the Inosanto Acadamy, and Kru Inosanto would occasionally drop a Lee story in the middle of class).

These stories all start with "A guy comes up and challenges Bruce Lee...", so either Kru was pulling our leg, or Bruce hardly had time to get any work done what with beating people up all day long...

Anyway... A guy comes up and challenges Bruce Lee, says he has mastered the Iron Shirt tecniques, and he bets Bruce can't hit him in the stomach hard enough to hurt him. The guy then assumes the "hit me in the stomach" pose, and waits. Lee walks up to him, slaps the dude across the face, at which point the guy assumes the "why did you just slap me" pose, and Bruce pounded the guy in his stomach, doubling him over into a lump on the floor because his concentration was broken, and he wasn't ready for the punch.

I dont' know why, but the idea of Bruce Lee slapping somebody just makes me laugh...