More on New Holds

So with your saber grip, your pistol grip, and our Dai parry, you have a wide range of angles your sword can make with your arm. Should you allow the angle to happen at the wrist or in the hand?

I've taken to letting my sword rotate around my ring adn middle fingers. For the saber grip, you can basically grip the sword in your fist so that it makes a 90-degree angle to your arm. For the pistol grip, you let your index and middle fingers loosen and push forward with your thumb so the angle becomes flatter, from 90 degrees to 120 or more depending on what's comfortable for you. For the Dai parry, let your little finger and ring finger out a bit so that as you lift your hand back it can sink and make the angle less than 90 degrees. Don't let the sword get too loose in your hand and you'll be able to switch smoothly between grips and adapt as the situation calls.

Now with More Holds

I got to do some fencing against some good Western swordfighters, and I got whupped soundly. I learned a lot during the sparring though, including how to see the way my opponent controlled the line with the tip of his sword and how he could hide his range—techniques I use in empty hands fighting, but that I hadn't seen yet in sword fighting. It's one thing to know a technique, but it's another entirely to have that technique used against you just before they stab you in the fencing mask with an aluminum practice sword!

I learned about some shortcomings in the guard I use that night. The grip I use for my sword is similar to a saber grip. It's sturdy, but it gives up range and while it's good for blocking attacks aimed above the waist, it's actually slow against low attacks. Imagine the line the tip of your sword makes going from high to low to block a cut at your knee. That's a long distance, and I tell people I'm teaching fencing that DISTANCE=TIME.

If I adjust my grip so that the blade is flatter, I gain some range and the sword becomes more neutral between high and low attacks, minimizing the time it takes to block high or low. Let the blade fall forward in your palm. Anchor it with your ring finger and loosen your index finger as if you were holding a pistol. Take note! While this grip means less time blocking high or low, if your opponent tends to attack high, the saber grip might actually be better!

How to Interpose

I got to weighting my swords last night to get a better understanding of what I'm working with since I want to add an edged sword to my "armory" to eventually practice test cutting. I was pretty surprised by the results. My wooden practice sword weighs just under one pound. My Paul Chen practical sword weighs 1lb, 6oz, and my old display sword weighs 1lb, 10oz. Thing is, my wooden sword feels as heavy or heavier than my Paul Chen, and my display sword feels like it weighs a lot more than my Paul Chen, not just four ounces! Upon further examination, the balance is much further away from the hand in my wooden sword, as is the balance in my display sword. This apparently makes a huge difference in the maneuverability in your hand! Therefore, weight is not the only factor in deciding the speed of the sword, but the balance as well. Huh.

 

So, I said I've been thinking a lot about Ge lately. The character for Ge literally translates to "to block by interposing an object." One might think of it in this sense: if someone is giving you the evil eye from across the room and you bring up your newspaper to block their gaze, you have used Ge on them.

 

Here's how I've been practicing it: Hold the sword with two hands, in front of your body, with the point facing straight up. The height of your hands is up to you, but start about navel level. Now stand square in front of a partner and have that partner slowly thrust and cut horizontally at you. Block by rotating at your hips, causing the sword to pivot and be interposed between you and the attack. When you are done with the block, a line drawn from your nose through your sword should be perpendicular to the line of your partner's blade. This will also train yielding and body alignment.

The Foundational Defense of Tai Chi Sword

As much as I was encouraged last week by the problematic content of Stuart Olsen and Scott Rodell's books, I was discouraged this week when I picked up the translated "Taiji Sword" by Chen Weiming and " Classical T'ai Chi Sword" by Petra and Toyo Kobayashi. These books are really, really good. They're clearly written, well organized, and well researched. They have footnotes. FOOTNOTES full of references to source material and clarifying statements. Wow. I felt sad flipping through them on the way home from the store, as if this research project of mine was pointless because there wouldn't be anything for me to add to the community of thought. Still, these two books are so well done that it's ennobling to read them. To learn from and aspire to stand with works of such quality really made me feel privileged.

 

And there is hope: in spite of how well these books are done, they are primarily guides on doing the form, and their discussion of application is slight. In "Classical T'ai Chi Sword" there are also some descriptions of moves that I disagree with where I feel I might be able to contribute some value.

 

Back on the ground, I've come to feel over the past week that what I keep reading about Dai being the most-used block in Tai Chi Sword is only a half-truth. If you look at the motion of Dai, which they say is equivalent to Roll Back in empty hands, then it seems to me that Dai is inappropriate for defending against cuts. I think people who use Dai a lot are probably using it in sword sticking practice, and have overlooked that in a duel that starts out of contact and out of range, thrusts and cuts are equally likely attacks.

 

Therefore, it seems appropriate that Ge be considered the foundational technique for defense in Tai Chi Sword that students should learn before all others.

Dai: Setting up the Counter

In my mind I am building a pedagogical framework for teaching fighting dynamics. We've begun with a basic block to learn how to make contact between blades and knock a thrust attack off line. From there we learned to refine that contact, allowing us to yield and control the attack with the Dai parry.

 

Now, let's think about expanding that yield into actual movement. Picture this: you've picked up and deflected the oncoming attack with a Dai parry, smoothly redirecting the attack into a harmess empty space of your choosing. If you're clever, you rotate your body to face toward the blade, which causes the shoulder closest to the tip to spin away from the point like a Matador evading a charging bull. As you become comfortable with this motion, begin adding a little step away from the blade to make space between you and it. Either foot will do to start the step, and you should practice both ways just in case. This will soon allow you to fluidly make space to return your counterattack.

 

In Yin-Yang, when one force is at it's apex, you find a little nucleus of it's opposite energy forming. What we are on the cusp of when we step out is the emergence of the nucleus of an attack; the beginning of the flip from defense to offense.