when you get old enough...goofy

[Marblehead]

Have you ever done a  dual weapon form  before , ie. one in each hand ? 

 

Most of mine have been 2 of equal length and an occasional usage of short and long sword at once.

When I bought my long swords I bought them in pairs.  I do practice Two Sword Tai Chi; slow form.  They are replicas of ancient Chinese double edge battle swords.  Two of the pair are carbon steel and two are Damascus steel.  Then I have a pair of light weight stainless steel practice swords.

 

When I start a new period of exercising I use the practice swords first and concentrate on movement and coordination then go to the heavier swords.

 

I mostly practice in the house therefore the slow form but on occasion I will go outside where there is more room and I can be a little more aggressive and faster in the movements.

 

I saw a master of it once .... a  young woman of about 25 , she used a sort of long and short cutlass (in one of those medieval battle re-enactment groups).  She chose to have no armor, just a guard on her lead arm, so she was light and evasive and tricky against the heavily armed others , man , she was good!  She must have killed about 8 heavily armed guys during their bouts.

 

At the end they had groups of 4 against each other, hers ended with only her left fighting off 3 opponents  , and they were not giving her any quarter !  The crowd was cheering her on ... I have to admit I did get excited and yell out;  " Go little feral pirate girl! "

 

 She 'killed' one of them but in the process the other two moved in and  finished her off ... and the crowd, including me, booed  them loudly.

Yeah, that bugs me about many of the Chinese and Japanese movies - the hero gets killed.

 

There is this one old Chinese Martial Arts movie, can't remember the name, but one of the guys (he was a good guy but a bandit) who used the Two Sword technique.  He was really good.  No, he was great.

 

There are a couple good videos on Youtube of the Two Sword technique.  But the good ones are way more advanced than I am and it's hard to even see how and why the artist is making most of his moves.

 

There is one Chinese woman also who is very good.

 

And then a couple years ago I watched, again on Youtube, a video of the winner of a competition, a Korean woman, doing a stylized dance version of Two Sword Tai Chi.  A really beautiful demonstration!

 

Whats that classic Japanese film ... cant remember the title ...  someone's household is being invaded and people are fighting everywhere. One of the household members, a big fat guy , has the long and short sword in hands and has taken a position on a small bridge in the garden over a pond and fighting off both sides at once as they come at him  -  he does pretty well until numbers overcome him. 

 

What style / type  of swords are yours ? 

Yes, the Japanese put out some really good sword fight movies.  I enjoy watching them but I don't watch for including anything of what they do into my practice because in the most part their style is much different from the Chinese.

 

Can't remember the names of my swords right now and can't even remember where I have the data stored.  But they are replicas of actual swords from back a couple thousand years ago.  I did the research before I bought them.

 

And two of the pair were made in Mainland China to order.  The sword maker made around six to eight different replica swords.  I had to send my money before he would make them and that caused me a little nervousness but all went very well.

[Michael Sternbach]

One Japanese warrior particularly famous for the use of a long sword together with a short sword is the legendary free-lance samurai Miyamoto Musashi. He described his method, called Niten Ichi-ryu, in the Book of Five Rings (a book generally on strategy which would provide material for another study group, besides our current one, the Art of War ).

Edited September 18, 2015 by Michael Sternbach

[DreamBliss]

There is an awesome graphic novel of that....

[Marblehead]

One Japanese warrior particularly famous for the use of a long sword together with a short sword is the legendary free-lance samurai Miyamoto Musashi. He described his method, called Niten Ichi-ryu, in the Book of Five Rings (a book generally on strategy which would provide material for another study group, besides our current one, the Art of War ).

I've not seen the book but just looked at a Wiki article about it.  Yes, maybe even more intense than the Art of War.

 

And thinking back on some movies of samurai I have seen it seems they always carried both a long and short sword.  I can't recall both being used simultaneously but this might just be my memory problem.

[Michael Sternbach]

Fighting with two swords at once was introduced by Musashi, to my knowledge. He was also an accomplished artist, his extant Zen style ink paintings are considered national treasures.

 

Like the AoW, the Book of Five Rings is being studied not least by economists nowadays.

[Michael Sternbach]

Disclaimer

Goofy seniors reading this thread and tinkering with swords do so at their own risk!

The authors don't accept any responsibility whatsoever for damage they might do to themselves or to their surroundings.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Michael Sternbach

[Nungali]

I forgot about that re Musashi  .... now I remember that he, in later life, abandoned them for 2 'sticks'  - two short wooden poles. 

 

My copy has a drawing of him on the cover using the two wooden 'swords' . 

[Nungali]

Disclaimer

 

Goofy seniors reading this thread and tinkering with swords do so at their own risk!

 

The authors don't accept any responsibility whatsoever for damage they might do to themselves or to their surroundings.

 

 

[Marblehead]

I guess that warning goes for young fools too.

[Nungali]

Dodgy shop swords ....     people who wack them on tables ...     

 

I saw a 'demo' once,  the guy was going to cut a watermelon balanced on someone's stomach .. he vigorously drew the sword up and the blade separated from the handle and went spinning up over his head and back into the audience .  

Edited September 19, 2015 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

I saw a 'demo' once,  the guy was going to cut a watermelon balanced on someone's stomach .. he vigorously drew the sword up and the blade separated from the handle and went spinning up over his head and back into the audience .  

That had to have been a really cheap sword.

 

I guess the guy with the watermelon lucked out.

[Nungali]

Lucked out on that one .... one I didnt see , was some guys from one of my clubs ( way back)  the same trick ....   they explained the next week that the cut didnt quiet go all the way through the underside of the watermelon skin so the guy with the sword added a little slice ... while at the same time, the guy with the split open melon on his stomach thought "If I just jerk my stomach up a bit the wobble will make the melon split and fall into two pieces. 

 

one teenie little extra slice   +  one teenie little stomach lift  =

 

Me;  " And ? ..... what happened  ? "

 

Guy lifts his shirt and there is a line of stitches right across his belly   

 

.... I never  volunteer for 'demos' ! 

Edited September 19, 2015 by Nungali

[Michael Sternbach]

.... I never  volunteer for 'demos' ! 

 

I never even go to watch them!

[Marblehead]

When you get old enough you forget there are significant differences between men and women.  Everyone becomes a pain in the ass.

[Nungali]

When you get old enough you forget there are significant differences between men and women.  Everyone becomes a pain in the ass.

 

When you get old enough you realize the constant pain in your arse is coming from your hip joint

Edited September 20, 2015 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

When you get old enough you realize the constant pain in your arse is coming from your hip joint

Or from the three operations you have had back there.

 

I often joke:

 

I have had three hemmeroid operations and three wifes.  I still haven't dicided which was the biggest pain in the ass.

[Marblehead]

And, of course, on occasion I get a return comment something like, "And I thought you were a perfect ass hole."

[Nungali]

No .... although I was going to comment on the Freudian spelling slip 

[Marblehead]

No .... although I was going to comment on the Freudian spelling slip 

I slip often.  No big thing.

[Nungali]

I think  one of my lumbar discs has slipped today ...    can hardly walk ...  and it takes about 3 days usually to get 'better'  

 

 

and I just missed a 1 day $300 driving job      

 

Edited September 21, 2015 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

Yeah, sometimes slip-ups are costly.