Reminds of the Katori Shinto-Ryu seated kata, which have these little hops and a hand on the spine of the sword in a few movements. If there’s a reason for it, I don’t know what it is. “Sportification” of the Japanese sword arts have been going on for a long time, but modern kendo is unwatchable, they just wiggle the shinai at each other and make a spazzy lunge at the end.
This reminds me of my experience learning taekwondo. Like a lot of American kids in the 90s, my parents put me and my sister in taekwondo classes. In our case it was taught at a Baptist church by an ex military guy. One day he brought his teacher in to class, a 70 something year old south Korean grandmaster. Watching them spar I instantly realized what we were learning was nothing like what that old man could do. He beat the pants off our instructor all around the room. 20 years younger and he never landed a hit. By the time the demo was over he looked like he was ready to drop. I quit the class pretty soon after that.
Reminds of the Katori Shinto-Ryu seated kata, which have these little hops and a hand on the spine of the sword in a few movements. If there’s a reason for it, I don’t know what it is. “Sportification” of the Japanese sword arts have been going on for a long time, but modern kendo is unwatchable, they just wiggle the shinai at each other and make a spazzy lunge at the end.
great read!
This reminds me of my experience learning taekwondo. Like a lot of American kids in the 90s, my parents put me and my sister in taekwondo classes. In our case it was taught at a Baptist church by an ex military guy. One day he brought his teacher in to class, a 70 something year old south Korean grandmaster. Watching them spar I instantly realized what we were learning was nothing like what that old man could do. He beat the pants off our instructor all around the room. 20 years younger and he never landed a hit. By the time the demo was over he looked like he was ready to drop. I quit the class pretty soon after that.