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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2009 5:11:55 GMT
Actually interesting you should mention that deb, when I was doing JSA my sensei had a tendency to focus on using mostly the arms to generate power and speed which for someone without much core strength worked extremely well. Would I be correct in saying that this art is relative for each person though? For example wouldn't a taller person with longer arms be expected to make smaller movements than someone who was short with short arms? The reason I ask is because it looks like many of those techniques carried to their fullest range by a person with long arms would leave them open to attack. Because JSA is very front on and is a no-nonsense art it allows for good defense and offense, whereas KSA seems to be a very open style of swordsmanship leaving many openings for reprisal. Also when cutting paper with bokken, are these the full sized bokken of JSA or do KSA bokken have different measurements?
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Marc Ridgeway
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"The best cost less when you buy it the first time." - Papabear
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Post by Marc Ridgeway on Mar 1, 2009 6:24:37 GMT
It has been my experience that primarily using just the arms is exactly the kind of thing that you try not to do.like Debbie says,putting your body into it powers the cut . it's basically striking from your abdomen which in JSA they call hara .when the sword is pushed from chudan into jodan the return to chudan should begin in the core not the arms...to me this is what it means to use hara the spiritual connotations put aside. YMMV
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2009 16:16:26 GMT
Thanks Bill! LOL. Well I have had some looks as people are walking the dogs, but no comments yet. There are 8 yr old twin boys house sitting next door and one of them seemed pretty interested, but too shy to come over - yet. I imagine as it warms up I may hear some things, but by then I hope to move to the backyard where I hope to put in some decent cutting stands. Muhahaha! Very good point BW, and I agree. I just don't have good control of my sword with a single handed grip. In my forms (with bokken or iaito) I am taught to make the cut and NOT swing my arm wide, and I have much better control there. As you astutely noticed I am swinging wide. Master says "why need more?", and he's got a really good point. Interstingly, while using the sword for forms it is not such an issue. Someday, I hope to get that under better control. It is surprising how much difference a few ounces can make, so rather than force the stop now and create extra strain, I thought it would be good to just train and then the control would come later? Seemed to work OK for going up in weight with the iaito. For the rest of it, Marc covered it nicely Thanks. Debbie
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2009 4:03:03 GMT
Deb: my sempai always taught us that to swing any weapon one handed requires extraordinary amounts of wrist strength, especially when it is a fighting art, because it is so easy to disarm someone who is fighting with one hand, something he showed me to great effect. It is extremely hard to stop a one handed cut, especially the ones in JSA. I think it is for this reason that their is no ryu that solely focuses on single handed combat with anything longer than a tanto. Anything longer than a tanto and the only cuts I can really make with a katana are drawing cuts (where you make the cut straight from the saya) anything else and I just can't get the same level of accuracy and perfection as I can with two handed cuts.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2009 9:59:58 GMT
It has been my experience that primarily using just the arms is exactly the kind of thing that you try not to do.like Debbie says,putting your body into it powers the cut . it's basically striking from your abdomen which in JSA they call hara .when the sword is pushed from chudan into jodan the return to chudan should begin in the core not the arms...to me this is what it means to use hara the spiritual connotations put aside. YMMV Agreed. It's the same in my kung fu with our sword forms. With good foot work and with the hips or center leading, the upper body follows naturally, some strength and speed is required from the arms but only enough to control edge alignment and approach angle. Awesome cutting Deb, like the solid establishment of footwork and body movement before the cut, seems like it results in perfect cut every time. I'm in the same boat as you are, been doing martial arts for years but only started cutting months ago. If I may relate my experience so far, you might find it helpful or at least interesting. Lately in the past two months, I've been heavily focused on perfection my edge alignment and approach angle but what else I've found that’s helping my cuts and my martial arts overall is tightening up my swing and swinging the sword at the last moment and trying to stop movement inches away after hitting the target. I guess this is more of a iaijutsu mentality, since I'm reading Flashing Steel, where I'm practicing to conceal my swing at the last moment and stopping as short as possible to recover back to guard position quicker. But it's helping me greatly, but if gumdo teaches differently for their reasons then forget what I said but overall, it was great cutting none the less.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2009 18:12:56 GMT
Bravo, bravo! Well done! Very enjoyable to watch. Thank you for taking the time and effort to share with us. You can be my neighbor anytime.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 7, 2009 23:57:16 GMT
Excellent advice trevor and thank you for your kind words I am working on it Thanks D.B.Rideout! My neighbors are pretty cool
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