Troper Fencing Academy

Well, I guess it have something to do with will as you'd have to be pretty resolute inorder to strike to kill.

You know what, nevermind.

edited 16th Mar '14 11:17:25 PM by dRoy

Though yeah, the big issue is that flynning damages your sword and does not actually accomplish anything except tiring yourself out

Wait, swords are supposed to talk?

My one never talks to me.

Mine says. STABBY STABBY CUTTY CUTTY STABBY STABBY. What? Its blade what did you expect it to say?

Mine is never that sharply witted. It is rather blunt.

Otherwise I cannot bout with it.

Mine usually says "..."

I call it Chrono.

edited 17th Mar '14 5:34:54 AM by Frishman

I know swords don't actually speak but then again I think I should stay way from watching shows like Bleach. The whole"your sword speaks fear" and what not is just weird to me.

Start worrying when your sword talks back you guys.

In truth, I kind of like that language, its a poetic form of saying "You look like you want to piss yourself"

I do hate bleach a lot though.

I always thought that sword were tools but I guess it is more than that. What does the whole the 'sword is an extension of you' thing about?

Well, in japanese swordsmanship there is a lot of buzz when it comes to strategy. A lot of importance is put on reading your opponent's stance and overall demeanor to get a rough idea of the mental state he is in. A chapter on the book of five rings directly addresses several techniques directed towards making your opponent react to figure out his mindset, and move accordingly.

Western Manuals also deal with determining your opponent's mindset.

It's actually really easy in the West. If the opponent has drawn steel, his mindset is "Trying to kill you."

We're not a very introspective peoples, Europeans.

I do know that the German manuals put a lot of emphasis on an aggressive mindset. In fact, their techniques makes no sense if you're not charging forwards. Silver talked about "a two fold mind": if you have a mind to come in, you must have a mind to get back out of distance, and that aggressive grappling can only be done while your opponent is in disorder.

Just that European manuals are less about philosophy and metaphors doesn't mean that the masters ignored conditioning completely. Though got to remember that manuals and manuscripts can only tell us so much given that most of them are more like memory aides rather than actual instructions that you can learn from the book (military manuals are an exception).

edited 18th Mar '14 5:11:25 AM by IraTheSquire

There is definitely a mindset that goes into fencing. No matter how hard you tell yourself it isn't real, your subconscious still understands that swords are for killing, and it will make you hesitate until you break the habit. You have to duel to get over the fear of hitting someone; once you realise completely that it isn't dangerous, your skill accelerates fast for a while.

But yeah, the reason fencers hate hollywood fencing is because it's shitty technique. Not only is it wildly inaccurate, it's also not as entertaining as something leaning more towards realism. You have to find a middle ground between "people hit each others' swords for ten minutes" and "people stare at each other for two minutes, swing weapons for six seconds and then someone's dead."

Is it bad that I found this utterly hilarious?

I'm glad that, during my short time of learning kendo, I never got hit in the throat. I did get hit below my armpits a few times, though, if that is by any means comparable.

My thoughts on Bleach echo Vegeta's.

"I liked that show better when it was called Yuu Yuu Hakusho!"

edited 18th Mar '14 11:48:01 PM by TomoeMichieru

My brother. *high five*

"And I liked that show better back when it was called Dragon Ball Z!!"

But seriously; just once I'd like to see a popular Japanese anime deal with actual sword techniques. And not confuse people by having it be called Rurouni Kenshin.

Though I will admit that out of all of Bleach, Ichigo's dad came the closest to using actual sword technique. I was actually impressed.

edited 19th Mar '14 5:34:29 AM by Frishman

It's almost like anime doesn't care about realism!

Bullcrap. I've read plenty of mangas about things from Go to football, and they tend to be incredibly realistic if overly dramatic in the dialogue.

If there's a market for Eyeshield21 there's a market for historical fencing.

That's true.

You're right, it's a real shame that there's no realistic historical fencing series.

But would it be in the present day or in the past?

Would it be something like a sports anime or a fighting anime?

Why not both? I severely doubt that there were no combat sports in feudal Japan or ancient China, and I know there were plenty in medieval Europe.

Not an anime, not popular, but here. Don't say I never did anything for ya.

@ "YOUR SWORD SPEAKS FEAR!": I am by NO means good at fencing. My knowledge lies in other weapons, but it's actually a pretty good idea to have the vague ability to tell, "Oh! That guy is vastly better than me... I should be running!" Or even, "Daaaang... even though this is just a sparring match, that guy's just a sadistic asshole..." (A secret punch to the kidneys in a classroom sparring match)

Beyond that, after a while you can get a feel for how a match is going to go, or even what the opponent is about to do by observing, but it's not at all like in anime where some nerdy, untrained guy can pull an Awesome by Analysis. There ARE people who can analyze footwork patterns, body language, focus, muscle tension, etc. in the heat of a match. They just so happen to be jocks. :P

edited 19th Mar '14 10:32:49 AM by Poisonarrow

Also, apparently Japanese have no idea what muscle memory is.