My opinion of blade work as it translates to hand:
Hand goes to blade NOT blade goes to hand.
Yes I know this tends to go against what we are taught in WC and most certainly in Kali and other FMA BUT from MY EXPERIENCE:
Taking how you fight empty handed and adding a blade works better than taking how the typical blade guy fights and using that in empty hands.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
VT Knives add another forearm of length to distances. We are able to attack from a greater distance to the nearest target with the nearest edge. We can cover greater distances to penetrate defenses and equally move away from wild sword swings at us while combining defensive measures.
Some systems adopted the greater distances for blindside fighting as knives show, but loose the distances for bare hands. Sure a fist/finger may reach but it wont do it with the SLT elbow ideas. So no lin sil di da with the leading arm alone, always two hands fighting one aka control hit. This control hit puts you at a disadvantage because you're compelled to chase/ block an arm to make a punch. Reacting, rather than utilization of striking attacks that also defend, one leading arm at a time, allowing attacking with strikes that cut across intercepting lines of defense , etc...
Subtle but HUGE in terms of speed fighting, you become empowered to strike a guy with two arms and move and angle to dominate them, rather than block n hit as they wail in with two hands. Iow you are empowered to make them the reactors.
In regards to 'drawing' a blade faster, etc... a simple scabbard customization will make a drawing 'up' redundant. A trick guys did for six shooter fast draws was to cut away the leading edge of the holster leaving only a small amount to keep the barrel tip seated. The masters of the quickdraw then only had to 'tilt' the gun from a holster at the target , not draw it up and out, then acquire the target.....very simple custom that made the draw instant. Combat version of BCD isnt hard to imagine.
Last edited by k gledhill; 04-23-2012 at 07:16 AM.
True the elbow/body unity ideas need to be solid or errors of knives added to early will detract from development. Plus the differences in footwork.
Last edited by k gledhill; 04-23-2012 at 07:27 AM.
Not that I aint enjoying the conversations gents, but has anybody actually answered my questions?
Ths is really addresing those that have only practisd the form from Ip Man, as there tends to be no opening set or scabbard use. I find this strange because most decent knife sellers sell a scabbard with the blades... was there any time that you learnt:
1. How to defend your own blades? (ie. to stop them being taken from you)
2. How to draw your knives? (ie. using a sheath/scabbard)
Every demo I have ever seen already has the knives 'drawn', mainly held over the shoulder like some kind of farmer, then a lifting leg work before separating the blades, double chop and away they go!
Has anyone here actually got a clip of ANY demo of themselves using their knives? And if you have, are you willing to share just a little?
Ti Fei
詠春國術
A valid question but the reason you see most forms start with the drawn knives is because that is how it starts.
The whole "draw/kill" that is present in some systems ( most notably Kenjutsu) is NOT the prevalent in TCMA, at least not from what I have seen in forms.
Of course, just like it was one of the "secret" teaching in kenjutsu, perhaps that is so in Chinese fencing too.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !
Fer Gawd sakes, somebody draw! The heat's killin us an Ah only gots a half hour fer lunch
"Wing Chun is a bell that appears when rung.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Re #1. First you have to hold them right. Then you have to understand the role of the joints in connection with that hold. You have to understand your balance and your footwork and line control.
Among other things- what is the big deal. Of course, you are going to tell me that Lee Shing learned the bjd from Ip man himself... because Ip man gave him a pair of knives etc/
#2 Draw your knives? In the wild wild west/east? The knives should be in your hands already. You are making a point of some sort about drawing the knives,,what is your point? Most scabbards sold these days are pretty bad. If you want to work on "drawing" (?) have them custom made.
joy chaudhuri
Exactly. Another storm in a teacup. Someone from Britain has a chip on his shoulder.Among other things- what is the big deal.
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Not that I am yet an authority on all Chinese bladework, but from what I have trained and researched, "drawing the sword" has a far different meaning in Chinese sword work than the gun slinging type of definition seen in the Japanese sword styles.
Haven't even touched the WC weapons from HFY yet, looking forward to if there's commonalities in it to the broadsword work I've experienced.