Hello, fellow scholars of cold steel!
This evening during my cross-training sessions with my EMA friend, he brought along a friend of his who (only for this one day) wanted to try some freeplay with me and my study group.
This guy was in his twenties and not particularly tall(maybe 5'7") but was very powerfully-built and quite strong(probably because he is a lumberjack).
I asked him if he knew about the myth of edge parries, to which he replied, "I know. I don't do that crap that you see in movies."
He brought his bokken and at first wanted to try some longsword versus katana sparring with one of my friends in my group. My friend took up his padded waster and they went straight to work.
He was obviously trying to use his bokken in the manner of an axe. He wasn't really following through on his strikes with the push-and-pull motion that the katana requires but was instead trying to "chop" at his opponent.
I think he only pulled off one draw-slice against my friend's leg, but the rest of the time my young friend took him to the cleaners with some well demonstrated Schaytelhaus, Krumphaus, and Mutieren techniques.
Then, he and my friend went on into grappling. He was obviously much better at this and since he was considerably stronger than my much younger friend, he managed to put him in a rear-naked choke hold and force him to submit.
After that, I asked him if he would be willing to try some freeplay with rapier against katana. Obviously unfamiliar with the use of the true rapier, he took up the sport fencing en garde position and said and I quote, "What? That style? That's faggy! You'll never have a chance!"
I took up my rapier waster and we started to go at it. I think I thrusted him at least 8 times, although I have lost count, before he even finished a single strike. His ignorance of the true rapier quickly proved to be his bane, and this "faggy" style of fighting proved to be quite effective against him. After I defeated him time after time, he admitted, "Damn! The rapier really is one of the most effective weapons ever designed!"
He left without feeling too bad, since he was reminded that me and my group do this all the time and he's new at this. But, I don't think I'll be running into him anytime soon.
Justin
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