Sword fighting.
This means different things to different people.
To the Chinese, it means a springy sword with a lot of stabbing action.
To the Japanese and to Star Wars fans, it means long, angular cuts in a slashing motion.
To swashbuckler types, it means a thin blade designed for stabbing, but lots of parrying as one attempts to get past the defenses of the opponent. A flick of the wrist is what is needed to beat your opponent.
Pirate types think of a basket hilt cutlass, gripped with one hand. The cutlass is designed as the primary killing weapon after one discharges your flintlock. The cut of the cutlass is to rely on the weight of the blade to do the cutting for you – often a brute force hack designed to open large gashes that bleed out the victim.
Scottish Claymores are like the pirate cutlass, but on steroids. It’s designed to batter British shields aside, hack its way through chain mail or even armor, then split a skull by sheer weight and cutting edge. The early Claymore was two handed. The later basket hilt was one handed, and designed to be wielded in conjunction with a sword.
Why so many varieties of swords? Why so many different schools of thought?
It has to do with who you’re opposing. There’s a limit to how much weight a human being can comfortably hold and wield.
A man carrying a Scottish Claymore against someone armed with a foil can have two distinct results. The claymore will either strike down the man with the foil, leaving him bleeding and dying in a gruesome end…
…Or the man with the foil will stab the Scot through the heart before the Claymore can descend.
And the second option is the more likely.
Another factor is armor. An armored man moves slowly, so speed is not the key. Getting through that armor is.
Strength of the blade vs. Sharpness of the blade is another factor.
Are you likely facing men on horseback while you run into the battle? Longer blades are required, and heavier, as the quickest way to get to the horse rider is to take out the horse first.
Are you facing men riding chariots? Longer blades and thinner are the key – the chariot moves more rapidly than a single horse.
There is no perfect sword. If any sword can lay claim to that, the Japanese katana is closest to that. But the Katana can be beaten by a Ninja-to, if the Ninja gets inside the reach of the Samurai.
The key to the sword is its design, and the factors on the battlefield. Some swords are designed for use at the tip, some the upper third of the blade, some the very center of the blade. Curved swords are designed for the approach of the curve – identify the curve and you identify the cutting surface.
To cut, one has only to know an asterisk. Make a plus, then an X. Put the two together, and you have your cutting grid.
- Straight down.
- Straight across left to right
- Straight across right to left.
- Diagonal left to right.
- Diagonal right to left.
- Diagonal left to right upwards.
- Diagonal right to left upwards.
- Straight up.
- Jab.
In knife fighting, the instructors often emphasize this 9 point grid on multiple targets. With the sword, and understanding the motion and length required to get a consistent lethal strike, you usually have to imagine this grid across the torso.
Anyone spot the weakness of the Jedi light saber yet?
It’s really long. All I have to do to beat the Jedi is pull a pocketknife, and back into a very crowded space. There’s really not enough room to use the light saber effectively in a space just narrow enough for me to grab you and stab with a knife.
Since most people are fascinated by the Kendo approach to the sword, let’s look at Kamae. Kamae means more than just “stance”. It means “position.” There are eight such Kamae used in Kendo and Kenjutsu. Most only use five kamae,, but the others can be found.
- Jodan – this is upper level.
- Chudan – this is middle level.
- Gedan – this is lower level.
The target for Jodan is the top of the head. The target for Chudan is the throat. Gedan is the stomach, legs or groin. Gedan No Kamae usually is positioned by the sword fighter pointing the Katana down at the groin of the opponent in some schools. One can target any point, but the above targets are the usual.
More tomorrow!
