Sword Fast Draw Defenses

Kenjutsu is considered different than iaido. Kenjutsu is usually when the swords are already out of the scabbard and you're ready for battle. Iaido is a bit different. That's kind of like a fast draw when your sword is in the side of the scabbard. So there is a difference between the two. They're different arts. It's really not that important but this just means sword and you've heard of jutsu before like ninjutsu, jujutsu. That just means the art in a way. So there's different ways to make the word sword. You know in the Toshin over there, that means blade, the top part of the nin symbol. This literally means a whole sword and then the art of the ways of using the sword. So this one is considered kenjutsu, the battle between two samurai when it's out. Iaido is three kanji. I is stillness of being, so it's all about being in the moment, meditative, ready for anything. Iai is harmonizing and combining things together. So there's being still in the moment, being at harmony or at one with the universe and your opponent and then do is another form of this which means the road or the path of the way like karate do or judo. So iaido is more of the drawing part of it. This is more of the battle, okay? Yes sir. Although they would intermingle. I'm not into the etiquette as much as a lot of people. I'm a pragmatist. In other words, if you get the job done more ninja-like, I don't care as much how you put the sword back because I don't care. If the guy's dead, it makes no difference how you put your sword back. But if you like the meditative side of it, the noto part, then you can really get deep into this. These are a few techniques I'd like to try tonight. We won't go through them all. Some of them are official techniques of the Kuki Shinryu. Some are techniques from other schools and some I've actually made up on my own. So these are a couple of the names. These aren't necessarily full kata but they're quick kata to cut one part of the body and then you could continue on from there. So are you guys familiar with drawing the sword already? So we can do that quickly. Let's start with one of these here and then I'm going to have Matthias, who has just got back from Japan, teach us something that he learned over there, okay? Sir. So from here, if you already have your sword out and you are in Daijodan no Kamae, so from here, if he's going to cut down at me, I want to move over here away from the blade and on the outside of this. If you notice, my right foot's forward, handle is toward the opponent here. So this starts at your hata, your belly. It's even. You don't want it over here and over here. It's right here. Then as he comes in and I move, I'm set up and ready to go from here. As I move over to here, I get my katana ready. Can you move back a little bit more? I feel proud from here. This comes out from the scabbard here and cuts the Kote wrist right there. If you notice, it's very subtle, but there's a slight difference. Because I've cut the angle, I'll get his wrist from here. So as I move here, it's instant cut. I did step back for distance, cutting the hand with one hand, Kote the wrist, Te the hand, anywhere in here. His left hand, you could also hit his right thumb or fingers here. If you cut one of those, he's in trouble. Different angle, please, sir. So if you notice, my body draws and moves here. As I'm drawing, the sword is coming vertically up, the scabbard, my hip goes back up, and the weight of the sword itself is enough to cut the hand. Literally, the cut and the curve of the blade will cut in. So from here, if I'm by myself, practice with me. You'll step left slightly, then your right hip will turn to blade. But as you do that, as I step left, Ichi to shield myself, and then as my left foot goes back, down to cut. Let's practice a few. Blade is coming in, Ichi, Ni, one-handed technique, not two. Be as far away as you can and just cut with the last two or three inches here. Yeah, right from there. Be careful not to hit your left ear, because it comes very close. From here again, down into the opponent, okay? Try that out, please, sir. Next movement is Mr. Hiltford cuts. From here, as I move and cut his wrist, his hand is gone. Go ahead and take that away. Next move, he's going to cut me. I would do that. You notice I'm leaning forward. He would get me too. There. So how do we deal with that? Taijutsu from here. As I move down, as he cuts, I'm moving back and because of the curves of the blade, just using this as a parry to throw it that way, a little half circle. But as I do that, I got to make sure I get my... I don't want to be here. I got to make sure I go back and rock back to parry that away. Again, if you're here, sir. One, as he cuts here, parry, move in, press down. You're going to need to press. Use the sword to kill. From here, cut. Moving in, cutting here, making sure you're supporting, driving that blade into the opponent. People always say, is it wrong to clash swords? What do you guys think? No, because you stop yourself from getting cut. It gets the job done. Yeah. Traditionalist says, well, can't you do it without hitting swords? Yeah, that's the ultimate, but there are many swords in museums with massive pits on them from cutting. So the answer is use this thing to save your life. If you have to dent it up, who cares? You're going to need to use it as a shield. Moving in, pressing the katana there to cut the bad guy back up. Go ahead and try. When you parry, Zane, when you parry, don't just hit it, like, fully make the circle so that his sword slides more. Do fully make the circle. Yes. Watch. If his sword's here, just listen to the difference versus, hold on, more of an extension. That'll throw his arm more. Yes. Hear that long? I both need to cut just the way you pronounce it. Do-gi-ri, body cut. So I'm cutting the torso of the opponent, not the extremities, the kote, cutting in here. So from that position, as he comes in, I'm going to move left this time. Left out here because he's exposing his kutsumetsu. If he had armor on, there's no armor here. So from here, I draw this way and cut his body with my right hand here to the top of the ribs. Sorry. So the angle I'm going is this direction here as I draw out this position here. Again, I'm not too close on this, which is actually good. I'm not too far that I miss. I'm kind of right in the middle. I'm not going to hang here. The second I cut from here, let's do it really slowly. When I cut here, I'm going to cut through and leave that as a shield so he can't come back easily on me. Once I'm here, take your left hand and press it to get that extra momentum to cut deep on the mune, the back of the spine here. One. Again, we're stepping in here. Cutting here. Back there. So from here, feel that pressure. Shove the opponent as far away as you can get, and then you can continue with something from there. Okay? Yes, sir. So on this dol giri cut, as you're drawing the sword, as you're pushing it free, you turn it horizontally so that when you draw it, the blade is going in this direction. This is not a vertical cut. It's a horizontal cut to cut the ribs of the body. If I do a vertical cut, it won't work because if I'm cutting the side of the opponent here, I turn the blade as I draw it out to cut. Now I'm going to strike his sword. So as the opponent comes in from here, he's coming in. I don't want that to happen. As I draw this out, I'm going to move down and hit his blade into the dirt with the side of my sword. So I move into this position, back down from here. As soon as I hit down, I'm going to right there. Keep your distance. Wait until the last second to move. Right about there. Move back, down, in. See how quick it is? Obviously on this one you want to continue to cut through the opponent here. Don't hang out by his body. He'll still be quite lively. From here, right there in cutting, it's the downward hit blade to blade that will dig into the dirt. You can also go this way. Same thing. Makes no difference. Here, one more. Right there. Try it. As he comes in, his energy is flying in. He's coming in this direction. Really slow, please. He's coming here. This next one takes a lot of risk. There's two ways I've seen it done, but you have to think about projecting the tip of your sword out into the throat of the opponent. Matias, as you come in, I'm going to be coming quite quick at you with the tip of the blade. I want you to go quarter speed. As he comes in from here, I draw and I come up here into his throat and I project out to keep him from cutting me. Here is the movement without the tip, so just stay there. As I draw, I go down to one knee and then I project out straight up under his arms into whatever's here. I've also seen it done if you come in again where they move a little more to the side and do it. That gives me a little more clearance, but again, I'm not going to hang out here. This is my life, so rather than poke him and have him do this, as I poke, I'll probably turn the blade up to keep him from cutting me here. I want to go back to the original one. Originally, it's taught where the sword is already out. It's not an EI, it's Kenjutsu. From here, I would just project up and impale him. It's called Sukikomi, Sukikomi, entering thrust. It's not my favorite because I just don't like to be down there with that blade, but again, you have to imagine slow motion from here. This is impaling him so much that he will go back and that won't hit me. Traditionally, it's taught by going down on your left knee without moving your feet, so from here, don't even attack with my sword from Gerando Kamae. It's down on your knee and then projecting in by sliding a bit. From here, you're going to have to continue up because that blade is going to be right there. This angle, please. We're making it harder because we have to draw the sword and then drop. It's way more difficult from here to do this. Way harder, okay? Play with Sukikomi. I don't recommend it, but it is in the Kata and we should address it because it has a good principle of moving in. Sukikomi, the thrust in. Try it. When we're using some of these Kata, it's designed to be done with the armor, the Yoroi. What period of time are we in? Are we in the Sengoku warring periods where they had armor and longer swords? Are we in the Meiji period? Are we in the Edo, the Tokugawa period? This Sukikomi, the one we are projecting in, is designed for armor. It's designed to hit under here into the armor. Mr. Daines had a good point. If you come down at me, I would never do this if I didn't wear armor. Mr. Daines pointed out he's correct. If I have shoulder padding on, steel plate and a helmet, I would be quite safe here from attack because he would hit my steel and bounce off it. Or even if he hits my helmet, I could still deflect that. I would never do this in a different time period where we're just wearing kimono because I wouldn't. I would keep distance. So if he's coming down, this is an armor against armor. I'm coming up into his throat here and piercing him and I realize that it's going to deflect off my plate steel, but it won't kill me. It's always important to ask, what are we working with? What period of time are we working with? Are we working with armor, without? Are we naked or completely padded up? Very important because the techniques change depending on the historical time. When I draw the katana, as my left hand goes here, it turns over so that the blade is down. My right hand goes here on the top of the tsuka and then I draw by pulling this back and out so the blade comes down and out in an upward fashion and then I turn it back to noto here. So at the last second, as I move back and retreat, this turns and it draws out to cut up with one hand into his arm. So whether he's in daijodan or ichi no kamae, any of these skis or thrusts, as he comes in, I move back and I cut at this angle up into his wrist or his fingers or his forearm up using the blade here. So it starts blade up as I move back, slow motion, this turns, I draw this, pull my hip back as I draw out and come up to cut. Now once his arms are going to go up, aren't they? With pain, turn this back and come down again so that I make sure that I kill the opponent. One and a half, down again here. So my hand went up, turn, re-grab for leverage, down on the opponent here. One more please. Ichi, here, up, ni, down on the opponent. From here you could be kicking whatever you want to scabbard from high to low. So as he comes in here and I draw, I go way out, way out of the circumference, draw this out, come down in his head quick like. So I drew it out from here, out, catch, down on the opponent. And I'm using the distance of the sword, I'm definitely not doing this so that I'm open for attack. The difference between this and this is life or death. Huge difference because watch, you can't reach, correct, without moving. No sir. But just by me sinking my body, I'll hit something there quick. There is ultimate, that would be secondary. So it's a vertical down movement, right there, down on the opponent. What's that going to do to you? Yeah, cut your arm, then I can move in and move again. One more, I move back, down on the opponent, knocking that away, moving in, cutting from there. Can you do it? Yes sir. Have fun. That was my trip in Japan, in a Japanese dojo, this was called Mugai Ryu, and part of what they're teaching is what they call the Ni-To-Ryu, double-handed sword defenses, versus the I-To-Ryu, what they're doing. There was a couple of techniques we exercised. So the one was when you come in, and we're basically pretty far apart, and I would go in like this. Am I skiing? You come with a ski. Yes sir. Let's do a few of those, nice and slow. So I already have the sword out, perhaps I'm saying I'm going to get on, no come on. You're going above the blade, here, parry, comes in, I'm done, and then you stab him with your Wakizashi. Yeah, the Ni-To-Ryu, the two-sword style was made famous by Musashi. And is it always the, what's the smaller one called? Wakizashi. So you're using both. There's also one where they cross it, the last moment of opening up and turn around. Yeah, look at that. I like it because his katana is getting me off balance, and taking all my energy, my attention. I don't even see the Wakizashi stabbing in to finish the guy. So the Ni-To-Ryu by Musashi Miyamoto was very famous. He made it famous because he uses Wakizashi to kill. He had two swords, why not use them? If I had two swords, I'd have two out. I wouldn't have one out, I'd have two out. Wouldn't you? To have an advantage. One more, nice and slow. So from here, you're parrying basically. I might even lose that. Oh, I'm dead. He's gone. So you learned that in what part of Japan? It was in Tokyo.