How to Fight with Chinese Broadsword 5 - Attack

[@cyrilfocht]

props to you guys! It's hard to find videos about this stuff, it's even harder to find someone who actually seems to know what he's doing. Thanks for posting!

[@sukotsutoCSSR]

It's great to see a video on the actual use of the weapon instead of the fancy twirly tricking stuff. Please come to the HEMA meets and share your knowledge. I feel that there's a resurgence on weapon martial arts and it would be great for weapon practitioners to meet, spar, and learn from one another

[@randywischnewski373]

Hi! Just starting out with your vids. I'm from northern Canada. Sadly I have no access to a tai chi instructor, let alone with a broadsword. I find the videos articulate and easy to understand. I have a Shotokan background and I believe that has helped me with stances. Are you aware of any literature that describes the broadsword katas? Forms? Patterns? ( please excuse my inept terminology) Thank you and keep up the good work. -Randall

[@taoistinblack4156]

Thank you! I'm glad you find the videos helpful. I'll include a link to a book that might be helpful. Certainly as you continue to work please feel free to send comments and questions here as well. We try to be fairly responsive to this feed! Hope this book helps, Dr. Yang is very skilled and a good teacher and he has several books and DVD's that might be helpful resources on your journey. www.amazon.com/Taiji-Saber-Classical-Yang-Style/dp/B0011Z1SY0/ref=pd_sbs_74_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C063AJ65MZZ04GA0RZJ8

[@seandohe9979]

So I'm practicing with the dao (Chinese broadsword) and I've watched you're videos from the intro up to this one ad I think I'm stuck with the attack part (I won't go any further until I've got the attack part down) And from what looks like you're telling me what I need to do is to block then attack then block and attack (Basically counter) but where it is that I'm stuck is what do I do when my opponent doesn't go for a trike after I've made my attack. I just keep attacking or do I back up and wait for him to attack again. And how would go about just simply attacking or do I have to wait for my opponent to attack first?

[@taoistinblack4156]

An excellent question. It is not necessary to wait for your opponent to attack in order to attack, and if your opponent doesn't follow up a successful defense with an attack of their own it is not necessary to wait for that strike. This video illustrates attack in this way for two reasons. The first is that it builds onto the back of the previous video on defense and so we move forward out of that framework. The second and probably more important is that many new sword players have a tendency to do what I call 'chase the hit', which is to say throw attack after attack regardless of their opponent's response and what this will often lead to is your opponent defending and countering, but instead of returning to a defense yourself, you simply press your attack and you both end up getting hit. To counter this tendency, especially early on I like to emphasize moving between attack and defense, but if your opponent fails to counter then by all means, press the advantage and continue attacking. Some of our later videos, especially some of the videos on distance talk about the straight attack, but watch in the next few days and I'll put together a video on simple cutting for you! Thanks for watching and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask!

[@taoistinblack4156]

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[@wolfzwizdom]

Sean Dohe i def agree in my own experience it is important to not chase the hit and to counter in kind when the opening arrives. in my own tendency in hopes to close distance i use a technique thats similar to "plucking the peach" in this style but has a different term in fencing. in the combat sense your hoping to to close the distance decisively which often times is a deflection with simultaneous footwork into your riposte or counter.

[@swordmaestre]

What you show here is, softly say, not real. First of all, if you use your cutting edge for blocking (as you show on video), you will spoil your sword in one second. If you are interesting in dialogue, you can find me by my nick on FB. You are welcome.

[@taoistinblack4156]

+swordmaestre Since you ended with you're welcome, let me start with thank you! We always appreciate comments and feedback. Let me follow that up with, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that what we do is 'not real' and instead say what we do is 'not how you would do it'. While there are some schools that focus on blocking with the flat of the blade so as to avoid 'spoiling' there are a great many schools of vaunted combat that teach blocking with the edge, mine included. While edge blocking does risk nicks and damage to the blade, blocking with the flat takes the muscles, tendons, and bones of the hand, wrist, and arm out of alignment with the cutting force from the opponent which makes it a less stable and weaker block. While you can disperse some of that energy by yielding, it can lead to cut through, especially if your opponent is using a larger or two handed weapon (check out the video we posted today about combat against a guandao). There are reasons to do either method and in the end it is a choice of style. Though it risks the blade I tend to favor the stronger block because I can always replace a sword, not so much my arm, but that is just my approach. On a side note, I did try to look you up on Facebook and you didn't come up by that nickname.

[@swordmaestre]

Oh! Sorry, I was thinking my nickname is easy recognized)) On FB my name is Boris Linde. You will see me and Grandmastro Yu Chenghui on my front page. You are always welcome.