Cutting Bottles Authentically

Thank you very much, I also discovered Mr. Rodell's "A Practical Guide to Test Cutting for Historical Swordsmanship" which sounds like it could be handy for just about anyone who cuts. Plus his books should give me some of the historical background as well which never hurts to know and is always interesting. I truly appreciate the help.

You're years ahead of me, I'd never heard of YMAA and had to do a search (thanks for the tip, more great information, books and videos) but in the unlikely event I find something out I think you might not already know I'll be sure and share, It would be great if this thread could become a clearing house for information.

There was a thread mentioned about Da Dao form months ago
/index.cgi?board=chineseswords&action=display&thread=8807&page=1
The two systems were taught to KMT (Chinese nationalist soldiers ) and most of survival are now located in Taiwan

I find this clip from youtube and imagine the officer's head is plastic bottle and you actually follow through with the cut without scabbard

the short clip show that the power of the cut will come from the hip rotation as well as from the arms and shoulders

I have read that Da Dao was infantry /peasant weapon so the militarty authority of the period kept the form and system basic

Okay a quick You Tube search on "Da Dao Techniques" yielded this as the result:



Now as I mentioned in my previous post, I don't train with Da Dao, but I do train with Dao. Which is rather than the Military "Machete" (actually Da Dao means "big knife" - I learned that from my fellow forumites here) I train in Dao - Chinese Saber/broadsword. I'm actually a bit different in opinion here from many of my fellows in that I actually prefer the Dao to the Jian. Anyway, there are several different types of Dao - from the straight Dao of the Han dynasty



To the Goose Quill Saber (Yan Mao Dao):


To the Willow Leaf Saber (Liu Ye Dao):


To The Ox Tail Broadsword (Niu Wei Dao):


And several others.

Now, it is my understanding that for the most part all the single handed Dao swords use the same basic cannon of movements. There is a list to be found here: www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/swordtech.htm
Just scroll down the page until You get to "List and Explanation of Broadsword Techniques" There are 18 basic techniques listed with some verbal description for each one. I wish I had video clips of each of the techniques but I have not found anything truly worthy of sharing here yet. If you would like I can repost the above article in a separate post. I might try doing a few vid clips of the techniques myself from my understanding of them, but I'm on the injured list at the moment, and more importantly I'm only a student of Chinese Swordsmanship myself and not at a level where I should be teaching anybody anything.

Hope what little I have does help.

From all accounts the Dadao was reported to have been effective, and I would love to learn a form for it but I haven't found any tutorials.

On the other hand, while looking around for the clip I came across a listing for a book called 'The Complete Taiji Dao" so far it looks like it might be pretty good, although it showed a Xin Yang saber on the front cover so it does probably reflect modern taiji interpretation and reference the Yang 13 saber form, but it supposed to include combat apps as well

Ah, but the thing is, you want to learn to use your swords in the manner for which they were intended to be used. And that is the correct attitude. Otherwise, what's the point of having the thing at all?

I'm another "cutter," you see, and any fool can swing that thing around and chop stuff up, but to do it in the right way (allowing for the fact that I am a little too far along the path of life to start serious martial arts training) is my goal, much like yours.

Cheers!

No, I haven't bought it yet. I've been reading as much of the preview as I can on google books and it seems thorough. I do have Master Jesse Tsao's video of the Yang 13 saber form and it is a fairly good explanation of form movements, but it does not give combat applications and can be confusing when it comes to certain sections of the form such as, "fair lady works the shuttles in eight directions." The DVD is a bit unclear as to what direction one should be facing at the end of the sub-movements, and this can take some figuring out.

However, in what I have managed to read of Zhang Yun's book - I encountered a sizing guideline that I have never seen before. That the pommel of the saber should come to app mid chest height. That seems to be getting more into Miao Dao type sizing. However Garrett and Gundoggy would be the best to ask about that.

I had just taken it for granted that Chinese swordsmanship existed in an unbroken string for hundreds if not thousands of years. Really, it's in a situation roughly analogous to WMA, trying to resurrect itself based on available evidence. Thanks for the link, real food for thought.

I may not be any great shakes as an athlete and I'm too old to become a Kung Fu (Gong Fu?) master but time, that I've got plenty of. I might be able to do some online poking around myself, once I have a better idea what I'm looking for. I love a mystery, this is an exciting, albeit frustrating, time to get involved with this. During the winter while I'm working on longsword I'll have this bubbling away on the back burner and come spring I'll be ready to take this up wholeheartedly. It would be truly exciting to me if I could contribute in some small way, even if it was only by encouraging others in their work.