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Old 09-14-2013, 10:51 PM   #8
Keith Larman
Dojo: AIA, Los Angeles, CA
Location: California
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,604
United_States
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Re: bokken strike style

A lot depends on why you're moving that piece of wood through the air, neh?

If you're trying to use it like a sword as in an edge weapon intended to cut stuff, well, it does impose some restrictions on use. Not the least of which is doing things that won't damage your blade, doing things that will actually cut stuff, doing things that will actually cut through stuff.

But that said, there's lots of reasons to swing that piece of wood. And they get complicated really quickly.

Most I've seen swinging bokken in Aikido would at best knock a cutting target off the stand if not also damage the blade and mount. Heck, many I see in Aikido have no idea of maai and would be dead before they ever even started to move. A lot of disarms I see start off with the person so bloody close they should have been perforated from repeated thrusts.

But again, all that said, that doesn't mean there aren't all sorts of valuable lesson to be learned by all sorts of styles of practice.

So if you're actually thinking you're doing swordsmanship as in what would work with a real blade, well, now we get in to a much more restrictive and sometimes rather contentious discussion. If we're talking about learning really cool stuff about mechanics, movement, connection, etc., well, hell, all bets are off. Have fun and experiment.

I think that's about all I want to say on this... I'm gonna go finish a sword I'm working on right now instead of watching for responses... Later!

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