Thread: How important?
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Old 12-01-2003, 06:25 AM   #6
ian
 
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Dojo: University of Ulster, Coleriane
Location: Northern Ireland
Join Date: Oct 2000
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Quote:
Peter Rehse (PeterR) wrote:
You should get all of that from toshu (empty hand). And more to the point - if your training is failing you there - weapons training is not going to help.
With the greatest respect Peter, I beleive this is absolutely wrong.

Cutting with the sword has a different feeling to cutting with a hand; A strong yokomen and shomen uchi is far more effectively developed through sword training - not just due to arm strength, but due to the necessity to push your centre forward when cutting with a weapon (which is not necessary when just using the arm). In my mind bokken work is essential for students to understand the link between their centre and their hands, and to be able to move them together. A student is forced to keep his hands in front of his centre with a weapon, making it easier to get into the habit.

For similar reasons, errors in cutting action can more easily be detected with bokken work than in toshu. (e.g. person bends forward, hands stay raised at chest, cutting action not coordinated with body movement).

However, I would concede that it is only the simplest of bokken work which is necessary (just cutting off centre line). I tend to do more bokken work for the beginners, for this reason, and then focus on it less. I have noticed a MUCH slower development in beginning students who missed initial bokken sessions.

At advanced levels bokken work can bring an urgency and directness that sometimes lacks in tai-jitsu, especially if the ukes are not very aggressive.

Ian
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