My sparring trip in Taiwan

[Lance Chan]

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.... <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Stay tuned.

[JohnGallego]

Lance, you don't have alink on your profile to your buisness site, and I'm looking to buy a few of your padded swords, a handy link would be welcomed <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Lance Chan]

Hello. Sorry for the late reply. I'm just back to Hong Kong and the plane trip was crazy. I got on a typhoon, lots of rain, lightning between clouds and turbulence. They dun serve the dinner on the plane because of the unstable environment.

Here's the link:

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

[Lance Chan]

Here is the report of my tour de sparring in Taiwan:

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

Hope you enjoy it. <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

[JeanryChandler]

Lance,

I enjoyed reading about your trip. I think we have a lot in common, I like to do a lot of sparring with non WMA practitioners myself. I am interested in the Chinese fencing techniques with the Jian and Dao swords. What would you say the differences were compared to WMA?

JR

[Lance Chan]

It really depends on whether one is using the Jian/Dao as the routines, or one using it to fight for survive.

For Jian, if one sticks to routine, you'll see a lot of circle movements and the sword arm is very extended like a long guard with single hand. They were design to fight another Jian, so some parries may seem weak. And they emphasize on void-counter instead of parry-counter. However, it's hard to do when fighting against longer weapons.

For Dao, if one sticks to the routine, the movement are very close to the body and the range is short. It traded reach for torque and emphasize on slice rather than cut.

Their footworks are different also. For Jian you may find a sword striking out with the body leaning backward... and for Dao, you may find they are cutting toward their leading legs. The Jian practitioners usually have high flexiblity to void cuts vertically that I would instead parry or pass-backward. As of the Dao, I think the emphasize on very close range costed them the reach and seized their first-attack opportunity.

I think in this trip, I've shown to the Chinese martial artists that many of the moves in the routines do not work as easy as they think and they need full contact full body targeting sparring training. I've also found that their sense of blade alignment was weak. They tend to think the swords are light sabre and a slight touch could do effect. In addition, they're not used to real weight/balance weapons since all they practice with was bamboo/wooden weapons. So they had a hard time coping with the heavier weight and balance of my equipment. They did not know how to use the weight of the weapon for their advantage either. They may prefer a POB very close to the guard so that they can perform the move easily. The result is any impact with the opponent weapon would crash his weapon away. Also, all of them were not used to being attacked at the legs. Hehhe..

Strangely, when one doesn't stick to the routine, his survival rate is higher. It maybe an indication that they should revise their training....

So I think they have a lot to catch up in sparring.

[JeanryChandler]

Realistic sparring is definately the key to keeping any martial art honest. On that we agree 100%

What is the typical point of balance for your weapons?

JR

[Lance Chan]

There is no typical point of balance on my stuff. I model each of them after a real piece. However, I do found that there are some generic range for different enthic of swords after examining the data and the antiques I've come across. For Japanese and Chinese, the POB seems to locate at approx. 40% of the total length while the European ones is located at 25% of the total length.

[JeanryChandler]

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. What you said is interesting though. P.O.B. is usually measured in terms of inches from the guard or cross. I think standard P.O.B for most antique, Medieval to Renaissance era European military swords I have seen stats on is about 2"-7" from the cross. Are you saying that it is normal for Chinese and Japanese weapons to have a P.O.B. which is significantly further out than that? Or do you reckon the western weapons differently?

JR

[Lance Chan]

It is hard to say that whether the POB of Chinese and Japanese swords is further out than the POB of Western swords... For example, a Jian with 69cm length with a POB 3 to 4 inches out.... is it means it's closer to my bastard sword, which is 42 inches long and POB 4.5 inches out?

It's hard to compare with the "inches down the guard" because the hilt length, total length is all different.

However, we can compare POB against the total length. With that, yes, Chinese and Japanese weapons, even India and middle east weapons have the POB further out than European weapons generally.