The Armour Archive

greetings and salutations...
I work for a college, and we currently have on campus a group of asian martial arts people working with naginata's! They are using 7.5' poles, are working at contact fighting, as well as kata's, and it looks like a lot of fun!
it seems to be based on a variety of forms, including kendo...

Has anybody here worked with this form? There seem to be some very strong similarities in techniques between what they are doing, and what i've attempted and observed within the sca...



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lord bela ot kaffa,
squire to Baron Sir Fum,
member of House Kaffa
resident of the Eastern Kingdom and Bhakail

I fight a ploearm style very similar to the style used by wielders of the Japanese naginata combined with some facets of Aikido. This style works fairly well with the
following caveats (for standard SCA combat):

1. The push and draw cuts are not viewed as effective.

2. Attacks to the lower leg are also forbidden.

There are a whole lot of fun things one can do with a polearm - don't view it as just an "at range" weapon - it can be just as effective (with the right training of course) at the belly-to-belly range.

A significant portion of my techniques are geared to engagements with my opponent at belly-to-belly range. I love it when my opponent rushes me to close the range. It usually results in most sword and sheild types getting quite worn out trying to defeat my in-close defense (hint - their sheild is also your sheild), followed by any one of several combinations which either snatch or displace their sheild and then strike them.

-Keith/Austin.

IRC, in Japan there are several styles of nagi-do, one is similar to kendo, using the same basic armour and the weapon's blade is made like a shinai. learning to in the dojo is in of itself an end in this style. then there are thos schools that use hardwood naginatas, wear heavier armour, or none at all, but focus more on using the nagi as a weapon. I think there are also schools that are basicly reenactment groups, wearing authentic harness and fighting in historical styles.
As to the style looking similar to SCA polearm fighting. Well, it is basicly a glaive and there are only so many ways the human body can move.
Slainte,
Fearghus

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"How long will we fight? We will fight until hell freezes
over. Then we fight on the ice."
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