swords on the right hip

[realjanuary]

A few clarifications:
The video shown isn't from the course, I think I can find one of them giving a demonstration at it. Found it here.

It was a multi-instructor course with the isds guys being a small part of it. I never met them and found some of their videos surprising.

The hand that's closest to your body / furthest away from the pointy end of sword does most of the work, at least how I've been taught. This always make people calling the normal grip "right handed" sound odd to me.

One should understand the orthodoxy, especially it you're going to deviate from it. Aikikai aikido has a way of doing things just like kyudo has a way of doing things. What parts of either can you throw out before it is essentially changed? Why don't kyudoka use modern recurve bows and carbon fiber arrows? Are your goals and what the discipline produces in accord with each other?
Aikido is not about learning to fight, I'll do some boxing, bjj, etc. for that.

[Ignorami]

I never meant Aikido Tom. The OP went to an Aikido course instead of that sword thing.

EDIT: I think I may have misunderstood the OP. Was that multi-instructor course (which wasn't attended) an Aikido one too?

[realjanuary]

EDIT: I think I may have misunderstood the OP. Was that multi-instructor course (which wasn't attended) an Aikido one too?

No, jujitsu international run course. It's was a multi-instructor, multi-style affair. Mostly gendai budo jujitsu, but some variety (I've seen Buj, Wado ryu, FMA, bjj and even some aikido at other seminars).
My last post was probably a little confusing, sorry. The last paragraph was for people saying that us aiki-bunnies are anal retentive pedants. We are but some of us are self aware.

[Slamurai]

I'm fairly experienced in sword arts, and I can confirm that the man in that video doesn't have a clue. There are too many "noob errors".

1) Wearing the sword on the opposite side is completely unacceptatble in 99% of Iaido/Kendo schools.

2) He doesn't turn his hips on the draw.

3) He pinches the blade with his fingers when sheathing. You can even hear the "squee" of his greasy digits rubbing against the blade. Oh, also...

4) That's a fake sword. A real sword would be protected with mineral oil. His fingers stick to the blade. That makes no sense unless it's a plastic/aluminium sword.

5) His wrists aren't rolled inward. The reason for the inward roll is to help maintain the cutting angle, to keep the tip pointed to your enemy, and to help stop the sword after a cut (also known as "wringing").

6) The sheathing is just fucking retarded. No school would ever allow such reckless bullshit.

7) Seriously, it's like I'm watching American Ninja...

In any event, he almost appears to be self-taught. If anyone needs proof of my credentials I can take pics of my 1st and 2nd dan in DHKD

[Ignorami]

What's dhkd?

[Tom Kagan]

What's dhkd?

Dogmatism Hop Ki Do.

[Larus marinus]

3) He pinches the blade with his fingers when sheathing. You can even hear the "squee" of his greasy digits rubbing against the blade. Oh, also...

That's one fuckup away from a finger loss if using a live blade (shinken? is that the name for it?), right?

4) That's a fake sword. A real sword would be protected with mineral oil. His fingers stick to the blade. That makes no sense unless it's a plastic/aluminium sword.

Playing devil's advocate... Could it be the case that the guy simply didn't/doesn't bother to oil up his sword?

What type of blade is typically used at a demo, anyhoo? Real, but non-sharpened (unless tameshigiri is happening)?


Oh yeah - just to go back to something that was mentioned earlier in this thread. The whole 'if you wore a sword on your right hip and bumped into people in the street when passing on the left, someone would likely cut you down for it' thing...

Back in the day, in Japan - would someone really kill you with a sword for accidentally bumping them? I mean, I don't disbelieve it - look around today at the stupid fights that start because someone accidentally jostled someone and someone said something (I don't suppose that human nature and the nature of people with short tempers was any different back then), but in terms of the culture back then... was it really seen as a standard/acceptable response to pull a blade on someone that readily?

[frenchie88]

When we do demo's, for Battoujutsu, we used our shinken(if the person used one). As to whether you would kill for bumping saya, absolutely. When performing walking techniques, what I was told was that if you saw someone walking towards you and they moved to your left, there was a pretty good chance they had ill intentions.

[realjanuary]

I'm fairly experienced in sword arts, and I can confirm that the man in that video doesn't have a clue. There are too many "noob errors".

1) Wearing the sword on the opposite side is completely unacceptatble in 99% of Iaido/Kendo schools.

I don't know of any sword school that would let you away with that rei either. It's also worn too far back for my liking but that's maybe a minor point.

2) He doesn't turn his hips on the draw.

qft "take the scabbard off the sword, don't pull the sword out with your hands" "more hip"

3) He pinches the blade with his fingers when sheathing. You can even hear the "squee" of his greasy digits rubbing against the blade. Oh, also...

4) That's a fake sword. A real sword would be protected with mineral oil. His fingers stick to the blade. That makes no sense unless it's a plastic/aluminium sword.

Some of the other sounds in the clip are telling, listen carefully and you can hear it rattling. That's a really bad sign. It's a wall hanger. That probably shouldn't be used for solo practice, let alone when there's other people in the room, never mind for retention techniques with a partner.
I don't know what this sound is but it nearly sounds like part of it flying off at 3:30.

5) His wrists aren't rolled inward. The reason for the inward roll is to help maintain the cutting angle, to keep the tip pointed to your enemy, and to help stop the sword after a cut (also known as "wringing").

6) The sheathing is just fucking retarded. No school would ever allow such reckless bullshit.

XMA would. From their site (http://www.isdsamurai.com/secondman-en.html) his sword awards are from a demonstration in Iran from 2005, I can only guess what that was like.

7) Seriously, it's like I'm watching American Ninja...

,,,if the ninja was Persian

In any event, he almost appears to be self-taught. If anyone needs proof of my credentials I can take pics of my 1st and 2nd dan in DHKD

From the site we can see that he studied under the supervision of his father, who doesn't have any credentials listed.

[Larus marinus]

When we do demo's, for Battoujutsu, we used our shinken(if the person used one). As to whether you would kill for bumping saya, absolutely. When performing walking techniques, what I was told was that if you saw someone walking towards you and they moved to your left, there was a pretty good chance they had ill intentions.

In the article in question, it stated that in olde Japan, people walked to the left (i.e. *your* right) when passing each other in opposite directions. Sword on right hip = saya possibly hitting someone on the right side when passing in this manner.

It was remarked that *this* could get you killed.