Thursday, July 01, 2010

Sword vs stick, fists vs throws

In a battle of sword vs stick, I'll take the sword:



Nice exhibition of throws, too.
Posted by Dan Prager
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4 comments:

Prof. Guilherme Fauque said...

hahahaha - I really appreciated this post! I'm bursting in laughter with this fight between cawboy and the samuray.

Very funny post.

02 July, 2010
Littlefair said...

Cool vid.

the Japanese seem quite interested in the cowboy era. Maybe it's the lone outlaw, duelling mentality that appeals to them. Similar to a Ronin?

Interestingly Bronson was 'defeated' without being struck. Simply thrown. In my experience this can be fairly tiring in itself and if being slapped down potentially dangerous.

We don't train on mats but hard floors in Shorinji Kempo.

02 July, 2010
Anonymous said...

In reality it would be fairly suicidal to attempt to use a stick vs a sword, unless it's a hardwood staff which gives you the advantage of reach. Learning to box is far easier (technique wise) and more efficient in terms of acquiring decent results in the short term. Against someone who really knows how to use his fists it's very difficult to close in enough to effectively throw them, not unless you've got experience in pugilism (i.e you know how he can attack and what combination you'll likely to encounter) and some very good entries (defensives techniques designed to counter and break through his barrier of punches). Using throws against uneducated attacks (e.g running like a madman at the foe) and wild swings is very do-able (blending with force is a sound principle) but it's a travesty when it's used as an example of the usefulness of throws against an educated opponent, especially if he's trained in an striking art. You need to be able to enter his defensive sphere (the distance at which he can effectively hit you) without getting hit in the process and a good opponent will not lean so much into a punch as to unbalance him. If you want to make throws a major part of your arsenal I'd advice learning a few good boxing entries (avoid or parry + hit him hard enough to stun) to go along with them. Throwing is great when grabbed or against kicks though. I'm just not a big fan of presenting my back to the opponent as in seio-nage or any hip throw. A properly executed throw can be a fight-ender though and we should never forget the original intention of this class of techniques was either to kill or maim the foe using impact (e.g dropping him onto his head, breaking his neck or causing a brain hemorraghe) or put him in a defenseless position from which he could be finished quickly with a secondary weapon or neckbreak.

One throw I found very useful against boxing punches is ryo-ashi-dori: pulling his legs from under him is very suprising and provides you with great opportunities to finish (groinkick, leglocks) but you'll still need good timing and preferably a good entry (if he fakes his punch and you go down he can easily counter that with a knee).

Which movie is this from? I recognise the Japanese actor from the 70's mini-series 'shogun', if I'm not mistaken he played Toranaga.

12 July, 2010
Dan Prager said...

The movie is Red Sun, and the Japanese actor is the great Toshiro Mifune, star of many of Akira Kurosawa's Samurai epics. The American actor is the equally famous Charles Bronson.

12 July, 2010

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