Electric shinai- It's Alive!!!!!

[attila]

Hi Guys and Gals

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it before, but this summer after our regular work outs, we are doing electric two hand sword with electric shinai.It is really nice to goof off after a long season and do something crazy. So we were at it last nite and boy was it fun. Basically it is a lot like Kendo ,although we avoid the formalities and the conventions. Cause we just want to get in there and slice around. As we expected it is very difficult to land the single light. Just about anything will cut through unless you do a serious parry. Definetly not like the samurai movies. We started all our cuts in first intention and found tha we would double most itme. In order to land a single touch we had to go into second intention, draw out the cut or counter cut, parry that and land the riposte. Quite nerve wracking and Oh so fun. Our gear is mostly electric sabre stuff with electric shinai. We added kiddy football shoulder pads inside the sabre lame to slow down the big cuts. Though we can't figure out why the Kendo armour is so "manly"? The shinai really doesn't hurt all that much. Getting hit with a Russian FIE epee hurts a hellava lot more.

[neevel]

From the little I know about kendo (back in college I learned a very few basics from a Japanese student who was there for a year and started a club), there is a requirement for hits to have some minimum degree of force to them to be counted (the judges determine this, based on observation, whether they hear the right kind of 'crack' from the shinai, etc.)-- it's not fencing for touch like sabre.

-Dave

[attila]

Hi Neevel

Kendo does have some rather quirky rules. One of them is that even if you land a right smart cut ( big crack and all) ,if the ref doesn't feel you had this thing called "spirit", then the cut does not count. We fenced with a glove on the forward hand and soon realized we needed two gloves. My partner took a hit on his knuckles, it ripped up skin and drew blood. I hear what we do is closer to a kenjitsu than Kendo. Who cares. We just like to have fun. Although some of my Martial Arts buds think this is blasphemy. Something about correct form and spirit is more important than function. Whatever...

[HilandDoug]

so how did you wire your shinai? did you modify an existing weapon or make something from scratch?

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by attila:
<STRONG>some of my Martial Arts buds think this is blasphemy. Something about correct form and spirit is more important than function. Whatever...</STRONG>

Oh, gee...like THAT doesn't sound familiar! Would what you did be the kendo equvalent of the flick debate?

BTW, Atilla. I love your sign-off! Reminds me of the frist verse of the "Barbarian Birthday Song" (Happy birthday...UHN! Happy birthday...UHN! May the candles on your cake burn like cities in your wake. Happy birthday...UHN! Happy birthday...UHN! -- an so on for a number of increasingly graphic lyrics)

[attila]

I Doug

I took a standard shinai,took it apart,removed a stave,covered it with a "sock" of lame material, put it all back together, extended a bit of the lame sock past the tsuba ( so it ends up on the grip side) .I modified foil body cord ( it has an alligator clip that grabs the lame sock, and we play on the sabre circuit of the scoring machine. Fairly simple. Outta try it ,it is quite fun.

Hey Sam

We have a visiting student from west side who thinks we are plain berserk. Seems other places don't have a sense of humor.....

[neevel]

Sam--

You actually do find those kinds of debates within Kendo. Just as with fencing, Kendo is a sport/discipline _developed from_ swordfighting training, rather than a directly practical combat method, and there are techniques and tactics used in competitive Kendo that aren't what you'd see with real combat, and the familiar issues of how far from 'reality' should the sport move, how different people have different motives and find different meanings from it, and the usual handful of folks on either side who get their undies in a bunch over how their motiviation/meaning must be universally recognised as superior to those who think differently than they do...

-Dave

[HilandDoug]

Attila, you are the man! What a great idea! I should have mine converted the weekend, ready to try next Tuesday!

[attila]

Hi Doug

Yes, it is cool. I have talked to a kendo guy and some one from a kenjitsu style. Two completely different point of view. We started with the kendo style guard and after getting either countered or beaten we abandonned it. We now start in a more free form kenjitsu guard where the ceneter of mass is slightly on the front leg, and tip of the shinai ia roughly 2 o'clock and the butt is roughly 8 o'clock and the right hand is at the center. Makes for a quick cut a good beat and a very good counter sixte/beat go. Have fun!

Attila

[HilandDoug]

this is such a cool idea.......

[attila]

Hi Doug

Well, we have been having fun with it. We have moved on from the shinai vs. shinai to Sabre vs. shinai. Martial artists are going to hate it ,but sabre kicks *** over electric shinai! Two hand sword distance is rather limited in comparison to one hand sabre distance. We can get in and snipe then run away before the shinai gets a chance to land on anything. Next up is Epee vs. shinai. I'll post it for you once we figure it out....

Ta

Attila

[Matt_Bailey]

"Though we can't figure out why the Kendo armour is so "manly"? The shinai really doesn't hurt all that much."

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. Even a good crack across the hands doesn't hurt much. Even a dang old pvc pipe with foam over it hurts more. And handles about as close to a real sword.

Kendo is a sport/discipline _developed from_ swordfighting training, rather than a directly practical combat method,...

I sometimes wonder why people think it is nessecary or even benefical to seperate the two. Spiritual and combative training I mean.

Two hand sword distance is rather limited in comparison to one hand sabre distance.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I've used a shinai against an ex kendoka with some success using that very strategy. Of course, a bokken/katana is heavir, giving more advantage to two hands...but to tell the truth, anyone who can handle a backsword can handle one single handed easy enough, use that to advantage in certain situations.