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Post by Adrian Jordan on Apr 27, 2011 5:50:30 GMT
I'm not positive if this is where I should post this, but I was wondering what the biggest differences were between the techniques of Gumdo and Japanese fencing? I watched a few videos and a short documentary on Gumdo . From these I gleaned that Gumdo is much more flamboyant(this is not meant to be a derisive remark, it's just that "dynamic" seems improper as a good practitioner of a Japanese style is extremely dynamic in their movements and strikes,) and is said to focus more on dealing with multiple opponents, whereas the Japanese is more oriented towards single opponent combat. However, many of the strikes and movements look very similar to me, a practitioner of neither. Thank you for any and all replies.
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Post by Elheru Aran on Apr 27, 2011 15:34:19 GMT
I'm no practitioner either but from what I gleaned from YouTube...  Gumdo seems to be more 'showy', ish. It shares that with taekwondo; both are martial arts that cater somewhat more to the spectator than to actual combat, in my opinion. I could be totally off on this, though. Kenjutsu is single-combat oriented because that was traditionally how the Japanese fought-- samurai would seek each other out on the battlefield and fight one-on-one. Of course there were exceptions, but this was the ideal and it was how they trained. It's no surprise that many strikes and movements are similar. Humans have only so many ways they can move their bodies and limbs, and there are things in common between practically all martial arts. |
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Post by whitefeathers on Apr 27, 2011 15:46:57 GMT
The Gumdo forms are depicting battlefield scenarios against multiple opponents. They're fast paced. It is a "flashier" sword style than the Japanese counterparts. Its about flow, between the movements where as with TKD its more militaristic and snappy. The movements are going to look similar because after all, how many different ways can you move your body and use a sword.
Gumdo is also a more modern art. Supposedly it didn't come to the states until the mid 90's. There is a little wiggle room in the forms to let your personality show, so its great for demos and such. Look at the European Gumdo youtube videos, they really love doing demos.
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Apr 27, 2011 19:11:17 GMT
Thanks, whitefeathers. That's pretty much what I'd thought but it's cool to here it from a participant.
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