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Old 04-05-2010, 07:16 AM   #98
Josh Reyer
 
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Location: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi
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Re: Internal Power (AIKI?)-- Players and Haters

Quote:
Michael Varin wrote: View Post
Fair enough, but this almost ensures that online discussions and general knowledge of the subject will suffer.
The online discussions have been doing pretty badly already with everyone using the same terminology, and they do little to help general knowledge anyhow.

Quote:
These two statements are inconsistent, and the latter makes it sound like you lack any substantial understanding of the martial arts.
The statements are not inconsistent, nor does Ellis lack understanding of the martial arts. You cut your opponent, that's contact. You don't make contact, you can't cut your opponent. Further to the point, the idea(l) of cutting your opponent once and ending the fight is one without substantial understanding of kenjutsu, at least. None of the koryu kenjutsu schools I know of make ichigeki-hissatsu a centerpiece of their practical combat paradigm. Edged-weapon fights are rarely so clean as to end with one blow. An enemy who is bleeding out still has the time (and probably the adrenalin) to continue attacking, so the schools I know of teach being in a position to a) cut while avoiding further attacks, and b) follow up their successful cuts with more cuts, sometimes with some grappling involved, to ensure the enemy goes down and stays down.

Just about the only way to take out the enemy with one cut involves severing the head or a leg, and in that case, you need to be able to deliver great amounts of power without over extending yourself, while finishing in a position to respond quickly and strongly against additional threats. That kind of body skill is exactly what Ellis is talking about.

Josh Reyer

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,
Th'assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge...
- Chaucer
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