The Way of Least Resistance

I had the following query from a fellow named John: How often do you practice forms with a sharpened blade vs training weapon, do you see extra benefit from using the live blade? My answer was as follows: I actually practise almost entirely with a live blade - at least on forms with which I am sufficiently familiar (I tend to start with a blunt weapon first - until I feel I know it well enough to move to the next level). I wouldn't recommend it however to beginners or to anyone who isn't interested in martial application but just wants to do forms for the sake of the art form. What are the benefits? For starters, you are wielding a real weapon, with proper weighting (not some wooden "equivalent" or some flimsy wushu blade etc.). You realise a whole lot about where you need to improve when you start working with a real sword. You also realise how much conditioning you lack (not just in your wrists/forearms but also in the rest of your body - your back, yo...

I am pleased to announce the pending release of another video, this time on the Chang Dao (2-handed sabre) of China. The promotional blurb reads as follows: This video contains a distillation of techniques of the long sabre known as the "Chang Dao".  It does not attempt to present one single style, but rather a synthesis of practical fencing techniques of the two-handed sabre in China, using forms primarily intended for 2-person practise. More modern martial arts forms, particularly ones created after the Cultural Revolution, might be very acrobatic and crowd-pleasing in their performance value, but they give practical application a back seat.  In this video, researcher Dan Djurdjevic (author of the award-winning blog "The Way of Least Resistance") attempts to present the techniques relating to the chang dao in the form they were originally intended: as training for war.  So rather than serve an aesthetic function, the two forms in this video are in fact ...

In my article "My unlikely relationship with the jian - sword of civilian defence" I opined that the jian was a weapon of civilian defence .  Aside from the Roman and Greek swords and the longsword, true battle swords tended to be curved, single-edged weapons that were used for cutting - ie. sabers. Here is an extract of my article: Unlike the Chinese dao (single-handed saber) and dadao (two-handed saber) (both used by the Chinese military) or the Japanese equivalent, the katana (also a military weapon), the jian is  straight and  double-edged . This means it is not optimized for cutting, but for  thrusting . Optimization for cutting requires a curve. And a curve often (though not always)  leads to single-edged weapons... It should come as no surprise that on the battlefield,  melee range  weapons are best employed in terms of the former, ie.  cutting/slashing with an edge . Being able to thrust with the point is, at best, an adjunct use.....

Following my recent revelations about the jian, I have finally “bitten the bullet” and purchased two “real” jians. The first of them is my lovely Hanwei cutting jian designed by noted Chinese sword authority Scott Rodell. This jian is the one I plan to use for cutting practice. Scott designed this after having handled over 3000 antique jians; it is not a plaything, nor a display piece, nor a brute “cutter”. It is finely balanced jian, that is both historically accurate and specifically designed for cutting. A video showing me unpacking my Scott Rodell cutting jian. I chose the Rodell cutting jian very carefully, as other “jians” are often: purely for display (ie. they are “sword-like objects”, not true swords, and should not even be swung around, never mind used for cutting); or A video showing the dangers of swinging, never mind cutting with, sword-like objects. designed for wushu competition (ie. they have blades of highly flexible and thin spring steel); or intended for taiji a...

I must confess that my relationship with bladed weapons has been through some rocky periods. There have been times where I was highly enamored of them, and times when they have seemed so contrary to my philosophical leanings that they have repulsed me. Specifically, in relation to the straight-edged Chinese sword called the “jian” I can say it was far from “love at first sight”. What started as an uneasy truce somehow developed into a kind of friendship. It has taken almost a decade for it to blossom into a full-blown infatuation. Let me explain by going back to the beginning: As a young boy I had (as many young boys do) a fascination with blades of any kind. I was seven when my father bought me my first hunting knife. The memory of this event is probably one of my most treasured. I was walking with my father through the old part of Belgrade on a cold winter’s morning. It was December 1973, Tito’s regime was in full swing and government borrowing had given the old Yugosla...