Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alright, if I ever see someone use a Katana with one hand, I'll remove it swiftly from their grasp and use it to sever the ties between them and their hand. No one in their right mind should use a single handed Katana, as there are far to many ways to both disarm and capitalize on it. And with it dropping in weight, it makes it that much easier to defend against it, despite the user being able to swing it that much faster.

Explanation: As we all know the Katana works on a push and pull system, while that seems to be given with your wrist and hand working together, as the top portion pushes forward the bottom pulls back, the Katana becomes that much weaker when used with one hand. Now, Don't get me wrong, the Katana is most definatly deadly in the hands of a expert, but when you take away it's weight so that it can be used in one hand, you take away a major advantage that you once hand. With the push and pull system the weight of the Katana was a huge advantage, and since it was being used with both hands, thus covering the body, it could be weild with both strength and speed. With the design of the famos blade comes the saying, "One Cut One Kill", and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But, use one hand and you lose your push and pull technique, or atleast down to the point were it doesn't become effective, and you lose the weight that would caused alot of damage, if not killing the opponent in one strike. If you keep the weight on the katana and use it with one hand, then your further hindering yourself by causing damage to your wrist, resulting in problems down the road.



While I agree with parts of what you say, I have to disagree with others. The use of the Straight sword is meant to be more like a dance then a fight, and you won't be(or shouldn't) hacking away at your opponent, the blade isn't meant for that. If thats what you wanna do then get a Broad Sword. The eleganace of the straight sword is meant to almost be like a rapier, using wristwork(as you stated) to rather unarm or open up your opponents vital areas for a clean stab and kill. So almost like the katana, which definatly use's power and technique over speed, the straight sword can also have a small saying, "one Stab one kill." which isn't as catchy but it still fits.



Yes and no, Yes if misused it is more likely to break, but if properly used and taken care of, it will last much longer then most things in someone's collection that are used in daily hand to hand(weapon to weapon) practice.



Now most of this is just your opinion, but it's easier to copy paste the whole thing.

Now, I do agree with the Skill, aware, and even luck portion of the battle, but speed does not determine the victor. Comprehension of ones attributes does. You take a slightly over weight fighter, pin him against a more muscle bound, but lighter fighter, and see who does what. Now, if each play to their attributes, the more muscle bound one will attack, use his/her speed, and try to gain the upper advantage rather quickly, as most would intend to do, but if the chubbier one is thinking, and knows grappling(as I'm basing this one both knowing both sides of fighting) then he can just wait and counter, or in another sence block and counter. It takes a longer amount of time to strike out then to move your arm across your chest with the use of your shoulder, thus making locking very effective if done right. Same can be done with weapons, as long as someone is skilled and aware, and know's their attributes, then they can win with what would appear to be ease.

You take two fighters with no skill and a equal build and speed will not be the deciding factor, aggression will.

You should have read what I wrote more carefully=




You obviously are thick skulled. Not actual ballet, but more foot work is involved with using a straight sword then MOST others. I never said spinning and such was to be done, but if you've ever been told that you dance in the ring, then you know what I mean.



It would have been nice if you stated that before hand, it would have saved me writting time. Ohwell, No harm no foul.

As Josh said, two words:
Miyamoto Musashi whee

Same difference. It's structurally inferior.



Positioning is distance. Lower body and torso are connected.
Seriously, what are you trying to say?



'Kay.



Point is, and agreed, speed is a factor.

Kai, you're talking more and more crap and I'm wondering wether I should keep answering over and over?
Thank you very much, I've been doing freestyle several hours a week for the past months where I was a mixed martial arts live-in student with one of the most prominent teachers in Europe.
Positioning is all about distance. Wether it's distance from your fist to whatever you may wish to protect, to safe distance from kicks and punches. Even on the ground, positioning is keeping far away from limbs and close to the torso where you can exert control.
Speed is a factor in victory. You make slow punches, you lose. It's that simple.
And the katana is STRUCTURALLY more resilient to BLOWS.
There is a big difference between pressure applied slowly, as is the case in bending, and pressure shortly exerced and then taken away again.

You can break anything. Hell, we can even carve diamonds.
Apart from the edge, the katana blade is structurally more resilient than the Chinese Straight sword.

I have read a few things here about chinese swords and the flexibility problem. The swords used in kung fu movies are basically the same as wu shu training swords they bend because of how light they want to make them. In reality the swords that were used for combat are just as strong as any other strait sword from Europe people don't think much about it but the swords we see in movies are crap they would never penatrate chinese armour.

Some info about the flexibility http://www.northernwu.com/Swordgrp.htm




The chinese had chainmail as well as plaite armor

http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4254&PN=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_armour



Editted by DarklingGlory:
There's no need to advertise other threads in the guild matey, people will either see it or not

3nodding

"He who lives by the way of the sword is shot by he who lives by the way of the gun."
-Old friend from college, probably paraphrasing something else.

At any rate:

-Katana: Historically, katana were straight swords, and were rather like the Jien straight swords of China. It wasn't until dual tempering came into use that katana gained their signature curve. Modern combat katana are made the same way they were during the samurai/bushi hey-day, before the Meiji restoration. You can also go to BudK and get cheapy katana that look cool and you can practice with.

-Shirasaya: A curved katana with no furniture (tsuba, menuki, etc.) and an undecorated saya (scabbard).

-Zatoichi: A straight sword with no furniture and an undecorated saya. Traditionally used as walking sticks. These were used by bushi following the Meiji restoration, when swords were banned as part of the reformations. I'm unsure if any Zatoichi are dual tempered, which is how katana are infused with both flexibility and rigidity.

-Dao: Chinese broadsword, also termed Machetes. These are woods tools turned into weapons; a hacking weapon that gains much more devastating power when wielded with skill, but still deadly in the hands of an amateur.

-Jien: Chinese straight sword. The name is homonymous with the word for "sage", and the straight sword is commonly seen as the weapon of an enlightened warrior in China. Jien, as has been pointed out, actually did not have flexibility for a long time, probably until recently with the introduction of Western fencing. They also started rather short, and lengthened as Chinese metalworking improved.

-Kwon Dao: Also called the Kwon Do, this is "the sword of General Kwon". Legend has it that the sword was created when a spirit came to General Kwon, showed him the sword and taught him how to use it. Unfortunately, the General forgot all but three of the movements. He went undefeated until one of his enemies learned all three movements, and used that knowledge to defeat him. The Kwon Do resembles a Naginiata somewhat, but with a shorter, stouter shaft and a spearhead at the opposite end. The broad blade is also wider than that of a naginata.

-Wushu steel: Wushu steel is similar to aluminum foil, and about as useful in terms of combat.

-Cold Steel: Cold steel makes some very good, very practical Dao and Jien, as well as making three good series of japanese blades of varying length and style. I recommend anyone wishing to find a good sword check them out. They give out DVDs of demonstrations of some crazy things they do with blades, and they give catalogs for free. Those in Southern California may want to check out their yearly Sidewalk Sale.(http://www.coldsteel.com)

-BudK: A purveyor of mostly crap. BudK sells some outlandish fantasy blades, but a good hunter can find some gems among their products. (http://www.budk.com)

All physical technique is made to serve these three principles.

-Highest Principle of Offence: Hit the other guy.

-Highest Principle of Defense: Don't get hit.

-Highest Principle of the Blade: The pointy end goes in the other man. This goes for edges as well.


Ultimately, the fight goes to the most skilled individual. No matter how strong or fast or aggressive a person is, if that person can't use their speed/strength/aggression, they will lose to someone who can.