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Old 04-17-2006, 10:37 AM   #18
Robert Rumpf
Dojo: Academy of Zen and the Ways
Location: Kailua, HI
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 164
United_States
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Re: benefits of jo practice?

I find working with jo to be much more relevant to my empty-handed training than working with a bokken. This is mainly because one's body is more jo-like than bokken-like - meaning that it is blunt, not sharp. In jo work as well, circular movement and small spirals are more necessary and more pronounced in order for your jo work to be effective - much as with empty hand technique. Certainly you need some of that with sword, but it is less obvious, and I would bet that you can get away without a lot of it if you are doing only bokken and not being carefully observed and critiqued.

As much as I may like to think about and work with the idea of "knife-hand" (te gatana), I don't really have anything approaching a knife as a hand (and probably not even a knife in my hand) since I haven't done any serious training in that regard. However, a tsuki with a jo fails to penetrate in exactly the same way a punch would - even to someplace like the throat. I can also use the jo as a lever, which I can't really do very well with a bokken. The jo is also graspable along all directions, just like my arms are, equally usable from both stances, just like my technique should be, and involves shifting often from one side of the weapon to another.

Swords have many more restrictions, at least in Aikiken practice.

A lot of times I see people say "cut through the other person as you would with a sword" and I think to myself "that works great if they are cut-able." That isn't necessarily the case. When you see the 100 pound woman try to cut through the arm of a 300 pound guy, no amount of sword work will allow her to cut through that arm - except for work farther up the technique chain on taking his balance beforehand - which is why the "make a sword cut" advice is in this case unhelpful.

I think that learning from sword-work makes a lot of sense when you envision your open-handed technique having a knife.. or maybe the person being comparable in size and less well trained. Or being untoughened to such things and prone to cooperation (your standard Aikidoka). It also makes sense if you imagine the person as already off-balance, and you are severing that last remnant of balance with your knife-hand.

However, if you think about things as jo-technique, with all the spirals and connection that is implied and needed for a blunt object to affect balance or to connect with an atemi, you can learn a lot about how to change your open-handed techniques.

My two cents,
Rob
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