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Old 04-06-2006, 08:33 PM   #19
giriasis
Dojo: Sand Drift Aikikai, Cocoa Florida
Location: Melbourne, Florida
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 823
United_States
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Re: Is there a new fad "sword exercise?"

And need I add that a core to self-defense is being physically fit? I know many women who work out to fitness videos and what they do is nothing to laugh at. I think this is promoted as fitness first and well if they learn to hit someone with a stick in the process, then why not? And I know that many of these women realize that if they practice a martial art inspired fitness routine that they are not thinking they are becoming a martial arts expert. They're just having fun doing something martial arts inspired.

The craze right now in the fitness industry is FUSION WORKOUTS. They combine pilates and yoga (Yogalates); yoga and karate (Body Forging and Budokan); kickboxing and aerobics (Tae Bo, Janis Saffel and Guillermo Gomez); kickboxing, capeoria, ballet and aerobics (Turbo Jam); aerobics, traditional calesthentics and someone yelling at you (bootcamp and Navy SEAL workouts); ballet and pilates (The Barre Method); aerobics and latin dance (Zumba) etc. Forza is just the newest of the bunch with Japanese sword and aerobics combined. Don't worry, it will not be the end of traditional martial arts.

Also, if this workout gets someone off their duff and start becoming physically active, then why not? It's not like she's claiming to be a Soke 10th Generation Grandmaster of Forza-Jujitsu Ryu and professing this to be a traditional koryu martial art. It's a fusion between aerobics and sword training put in a framework to develop physical fitness.

Anne Marie Giri
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