Porres.com – Eric's Humble Place in Cyberspace

We worked on simple basics (basically, simple techniques) this evening. Much attention was paid to angles and symmetry of limbs in relation to technique (e.g. the magic triangle of musha-dori).

Moving onto sword work, we used a combination of soft daisho and steel swords. The general technique/idea explored was the idea of ‘dancing’ in front of the opponent to draw him in with his cut (dancing = capoeira-esque). The dance is a trance. Then, we moved onto the scenario in which you are retreating and your opponent gives chase with two to three cuts. How do you defend against that with no blade of your own? (Luck + Skill) The same principles of taijutsu apply; footwork, timing, and distance. For anyone who practices with soft daisho, try cutting at your opponent with a metal blade; you will find that the blade behaves much differently than leather-wrapped bamboo. Cuts are precise in as much as they are certain (unlike the feeling/ability with soft swords to use them like foils…real swords have a weight of their own).