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Jean-Christophe Lauf (Mr. P) wrote:
Why on hell does he tell us that f...... story  ? you would think. Just because I don't think using a true weapon is a good idea  . In aïkido, I don't want to injure anyone. A bokken is all that I need. |
I tell this story but no one listens.
One of my first instructors brought out a knife one day. Very small and very sharp. We managed ok until the senior instructor came over. I had pinned him, kote gaeshi pin only I was kneeling, and he was showing me what happens when you do it wrong. I remember a short quick prick in my shoulder. No pain either. The truly amazing thing is that my instructor got cut about a week later with the same knife. Sigh!
No biggie in the sense that it only took a couple of stiches and it was truly an accident from his perspective. Of course, a bit deeper or a bit of a different angle and who knows what might have happened. We were static and I got stabbed.
I think it was Chuck Clark who said, "if you aren't getting cut then you aren't really trying".
I think a live blade is simply a way to get our "ya yas" off rather than initiate an honest practice. If anything, you've got to control the attacks so much that it completely removes any element of realism whereas a wooden tanto gives you some freedom.
I suppose we could talk about the time I took a wooden tanto to the head and they glued me back together. That was fun. Imagine if it had been a real blade.