The Armour Archive

Hello. I'm currently in Taiwan using a computer in a mall to make this post. I've sparred with many people here, both customers and net friends. Many of them have formal training background in Chinese martial arts and kendo. I've taken videos of almost all the sparring sessions and will share them with people here once I'm back to Hong Kong and settle down. My opponents mostly used chinese Jian and katana here. There were a few dagger fights as well.

It was really the first time Taiwan martial arts practitioners experienced medieval european fighting technique in first person aspect and may I say "from the wrong end of the sword". HEHHEHEHE....

Stay tuned.

Chan Lancelot wrote: My opponents mostly used chinese Jian and katana here. There were a few dagger fights as well.

Wood? Rebated steel? Pulled shots? Or are these death matches?

With my products Realistic Sparring Weapons. No pulled shot, as heavy and balanced as steel weapons.

http://www.rsw.com.hk/

I'm just back to Hong Kong. The plane trip back was crazy for I caught a typhoon up there... lots of rain, lightning and tubulences.

Ron Broberg wrote:

Chan Lancelot wrote: My opponents mostly used chinese Jian and katana here. There were a few dagger fights as well.

Wood? Rebated steel? Pulled shots? Or are these death matches?

Here is the report of the trip, enjoy!

http://www.rsw.com.hk/taiwan.htm

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun. I wish I could have been there, too!

I have a couple of questions:

1) You folks have an intricate system for calculating points. Do you calculate them as you fight, or just from the video afterwards?

2) You mentioned that you could be more open about your sparring in Taiwan. How are the laws there different?

This is my favorite bit:

One of them, Ju Fa Yue Yi had told me on a forum months ago that his friends wondered how I would match up with them, for they found my style to be "weird and questionable" on videos. So I took the chance to prove myself. We went to the old gym in the university and started sparring there.

You are lucky that Chinese seem to be more willing to do challenge matches. I would love for Japanese kendo and kenjutsu practitioners to work out with us, but we haven't had much luck.

We do the points calculation only on video because with the frame by frame review, the sequence of contact, the time separation between the contact and everything else can clearly be seen, even if someone didn't admit a hit at the moment, from the sound, the sword flex and other clues it can be told on videos.

I think the culture in Taiwan is more flexible and "less laws obeying" in Hong Kong. For example, the traffic was kinda chaos and the signals mean nothing unless there is police around. They have a high tolerance of martial arts practice in public. In fact, the front door of National Music Theatre is simply the largest Dojo in Taiwan where when we got there, there were already some people training unarmed sparring.

Hhehe... There were traditional Chinese martial arts master who saw my videos and forbid his students to fight me... so it happens.

He didn't want them to lose, or he was worried about style "contamination"?

I think it's mostly a face problem. He is not confident that his students could win and losing isn't an option....

Chan, where did you learn your european fighting technique?
I can't view your videos, are your shots full force?
why don't the other combatants have helmets on?
have you ever done any SCA fighting?

I learn from books and videos, sometimes exchanging comments with group like ARMA. I haven't done SCA before, though. Yes, all the shots are full force, and we do full body targetting as well. I didn't bring my helmet to Taiwan because it's bulky. In the first day of sparring I did wear a bike helmet and it handicapped my breathing but all my opponents did not wear one. On the day, I've learned that the one who need a helmet the most was not me, so in the later fight I didn't wear also. But I do suggest wearing a helmet and such is the standard practice when I spar in Hong Kong.

Chan:

You should have challanged the master. Maybe you could have shown him that your style was superior to his school's style.

Boot to the head...

BEDLAM

We use RSW's for local ARMA practice and there's been occasion to get "stunned" by strong contact to the head, even with our hockey helmets. And then there's the thrust to the face--face grill=good.

Chan Lancelot wrote:I learn from books and videos, sometimes exchanging comments with group like ARMA. I haven't done SCA before, though. Yes, all the shots are full force, and we do full body targetting as well. I didn't bring my helmet to Taiwan because it's bulky. In the first day of sparring I did wear a bike helmet and it handicapped my breathing but all my opponents did not wear one. On the day, I've learned that the one who need a helmet the most was not me, so in the later fight I didn't wear also. But I do suggest wearing a helmet and such is the standard practice when I spar in Hong Kong.

Have you ever had any eastern martial arts training? Or are you %100 self taught in European martial arts?
If you have Eastern trianing, do you think it has had an effect on your european style?

I only ask because I am curious. I have often wanted to face off against Kendo fighters using my SCA style and see what happens.

Unfortunatelly, I do not have Real player on my machine, so I can't see the videos you have up.

I don't have former formal Eastern weaponry training, though many of my friends are Eastern weaponry users and I'm the kind of person who will use whatever works, so I don't mind learning one or two move from them. However, I do find that maybe since there were a wide range of weaponry existing in medieval Europe, the swordsmanship develop was quite adequate in dealing with everything I face. I am also the one who did the best when doing sword vs polearms and now people are adapting my half-swording to whatever swords they use.

I do learn a few "fine motor" things from friends and mostly from experiements, such as what kind of grip on the sword gives what kind of attributes in handling, reach, torque, etc. So yeah, I'm mainly a self-taught European swordsmanship practitioner and my friends do learn from me more than I learn from them for some obvious reasons.

Well, I think as long as you have a shield, and the kendoka is playing kendo style, then he's deadmeat and you'll have my bet!

We've recently seen a JSA guy in my group (an experienced fighter) defeated our formiddable shield user, James. But he was not fighting in any orthodox style... oh well, maybe the orthodox style on the battlefield is the one that keeps you alive. He feinted high and cut leg, or feinted side and then cut from top, sometimes for the sake of additional reach, using one hand at the end of the tsuka. I've known the JSA guys on SFI frowned upon my friend's fighting style but I don't think they could do any better when going against a shield user.