principles of the sword

[The Void]

The index finger is extended entirely to begin with as a reminder not to use it in the grip, but instead to extend ki. once proficient the index finger is bent loosely around the handle as not to become a target.

doug
aiki

[INFINOO]

Doug: I seen and practiced a fair bit of chinese military knife work in the past five years. From my experience and oberservation the chinese military systems tend to keep ther elbows in a little tighter that the tanto dori and kenjutsu I have seen. The chinese swords are also much lighter than katana, as well as being primarily a one handed weapon. Although there is some reinforcment of the pommel with the free hand. As far as the chinese military systems cutting with the elbow and not the shoulder this has not been my experince. In fact great empahsis is placed on the term momen arm. Which is not just cutting with the weight of the arm and knife, but dropping the weight of the shoulder and the whole body into the cut. Really good stuff. Check out www.rovere.com . Dennis Rovere has some historical books and video on the subject. The content and production of the video's are top notch. IMO definitly worth having in your library. As far as which hand cuts and steers. The chinese two handed saber is grasped left over right. This is completly opposite of the kenjutsu that I studied. I must say that it does give you the feeling of tremendous whip and speed. Instead of raising the sword over the head I was taught to go to the side , next to the shoulder. This universal approach is the same for the bayonet. Hope this helps.

Gregory Rogalsky
Rogalsky Combatives International

[The Void]

thanks Greg for your comments, I wonder then if the difference between one type of sword system vs another is based primarily on type of sword and type of armour utilized. That said if in fact this is the case, which I do believe it is, the discussion should be based solely on martial methods dealing with katana and samarai garb armour.

Doug
Aiki