- Free sparring with the historical arsenal
Activities
Activities
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On 28th November 2004, our last visitors John and Robyn passed by Hong Kong again and sparred with us once more. Some of the rare participants showed up as well, such as Parke and Ben. The followings are the video highlights of the day:
The first sparring in the history of Shadow and his Katana vs Simon and his lightweight Chinese Jian.
The powerful Robyn wielded German Bastard Sword that was borrowed from Ben single-handedly, making a tough fight for Shadow who wielded a relatively short Katana.
Robyn and German Bastard Sword vs Simon and lightweight Chinese Jian. The difference between their size is showing on their weapon as well.
Robyn wielded Bagua Jian vs Parke and his custom-made longsword. Parke has been practicing German swordsmanship recently and the characteristic of the style is the its all-offense concept.
Robyn wielded Bagua Jian against Edward's Katana.
Parke's German sword arts faced Simon's Chinese sword arts for the first time.
Lancelot faced Parke's German style for the first time. The styles they employed were very different from each other.
Just as Robyn did, John also wielded German Bastard Sword with single hand, facing Shadow and his Katana.
John and German Bastard Sword vs Edward and Katana.
Edward faced Parke's German style.
Ben who had been absent for a long time, faced Robyn and the borrowed Bagua Jian with his own German Bastard Sword.
And then he sparred John.
After hours of sparring, Alfred led both the visitors to taste some local noodles.
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On 26th September 04, we had 4 visitors sparring with us. They were Sharon from Taiwan, Parke, John and Robyn from USA. At first Lancelot thought was Roman but Parke assured him that it was Robyn. Sharon practices Chinese martial arts, while Parke studied Iaido for 1 year. John and Robyn self-taught themselves swordsmanship for over a decade. The period was 14 years of study and 6 years of sparring. They preferred to wield European swords. It was the first time we had so many visitors at once so the first bout of the day was conducted by two visitors, John and Parke.
It was quite unexpected that John and Robyn were using bastard swords almost exclusively with one hand. Moreover, Robyn fought with moves that are very similar to, if not exactly the same, to those in Chinese sword arts and did so with a lot of success, which in itself is a rare feat. John moves involved a lot of circular twisting and binding. Since neither of them had fought against spear before, we gave them the opportunity. First, Robyn faced Gunbuster's spear.
Then our Indian Tulwar guy Maurya fought our Taiwanese visitor Sharon, who wielded a Katana as if it was a Miao Dao.
Alfred the European medieval swordsmanship practitioner fought John next.
Lancelot took up the sword and fought Robyn to experience their self-taught style.
Lancelot found that Robyn's style a refreshing experience. Robyn often kept his sword hand hidden, eliminating an easy target and making it difficult to predict the direction of his next cut.
Sharon took up the next fight against Ho.
Shadow was late to arrive and we forced him to fight against Gunbuster wielding a spear.
Gunbuster did not have enough fun killing one sword wielder and we asked Parke the Iaidoka to fight the spear with a Katana.
As the host, Lancelot invited John to spar.
After witnessing so many swordsman felled by the spear, Lancelot tried his half-swording techniques against the spear's superior reach. It was Drifter's turn to use the spear.
Maurya never fought Shadow before and we gave them the opportunity.
Taiwanese vs American bout, Sharon vs John.
Ho tried his skill on Robyn.
Lancelot fought Alfred. They used the same techniques but Lancelot used a shorter, lighter sword. They fought more than twenty rounds.
Lancelot and Sharon had sparred many times in Taiwan but none of them was recorded. This time it was. The first five rounds were warm up and the next five rounds were for real. Sharon gave a European bastard sword a try.
Alfred took up the spear to fight Robyn. Robyn did a couple of beautiful counters with Chinese sword moves.
Parke wanted to fight against a Katana user to see how well his Iaido techniques would work, so Shadow fought him. Shadow hit him 5 times powerfully in the same place on the arm that led to a big area of blue and purple bruise later on, which Parke's wife was not very happy about.
Edward fought John. John took advantage of Edward's tendency to expose the sword-wielding arm and hit him there many times.
Shadow had expressed that it was his long fare dream to soar against a woman so here came his chance to spar with Sharon.
Since most particpants could not deal with spear effectively, they started an idea to gang up on a polearms user, Drifter. 2 vs 1.
The group fighting had started the interest in team play and two teams were formed.
It was so fun that the visitors teamed up for 2 more teams and gave it a try too.
Another match with Katana fighting Katana.
To give a newcomer more of a chance, Lancelot experimented with techniques he has not practiced.
Parke tried his hand at using a European sword and fought his neighborhood Alfred.
Finally, John and Robyn fought each other using our swords. They said that Realistic Sparring Weapons are the best sparring swords they have used so far. The video card filled up before they finished, though.
Shown below are some other photos of the event, including a fight between two insects! The wasp had caught the dragonfly in mid-air.
On 18th August, the friend Anthony Boyd introduced to me before, Jason Dudek, the Haidong Gumdo sparring competition champion of Seoul with black belt 2nd degree arrived from Korea. We arranged the meeting on 20th. Since it was a Friday morning, many friends could not attend due to job. Fortunately, Jason had brought along his friend Alexander Winfield so that we could have more people to participate. Jason admired the realism, safety and durability of Realistic Sparring Weapons, especially after comparing them to the real swords later. To save space, only Jason's sparring videos will be shown below.
Jason vs Lancelot
1. Lancelot cut forearm.
2. Lancelot cut forearm.
3. Jason cut low shin.
4. Lancelot cut forearm.
5. Lancelot cut elbow.
6. Lancelot cut arm (the 2 hits before were on the mask only and weren’t deep enough to reach the face).
7. Lancelot cut forearm.
8. Lancelot cut elbow and slightly. Jason cut arm.
9. Lancelot cut neck after a hanging parry on overhead cut.
10. Lancelot cut knee.
11. Jason cut belly.
12. Jason cut side.
13. Jason cut fingers.
14. Jason cut face.
15. Jason cut elbow.
16. Lancelot cut shoulder.
17. Lancelot cut knee.
18. Lancelot cut wrist.
19. Jason cut head.
20. Lancelot cut fingers.
21. Lancelot cut forearm.
22. Lancelot cut forearm.
23. Lancelot cut elbow.
24. Jason cut elbow, belly and head in combo!
25. Jason cut fingers.
26. Lancelot thrust wrist.
27. Lancelot cut ribs.
28. Lancelot cut hand.
29. Lancelot cut hand.
30. Lancelot cut ribs.
31. Jason cut head.
32. Lancelot cut elbows.
33. Lancelot cut forearm.
34. Lancelot cut forearm.
35. Lancelot cut elbow.
36. Lancelot cut hand.
37. Lancelot cut elbow.
38. Lancelot cut foot. (Jason parried but the tip did not have enough force to repel)
39. Jason cut foot.
40. Jason cut head.
41. Jason cut shoulder.
42. Lancelot cut ribs. Jason cut face.
43. Lancelot cut knee.
44. Lancelot cut elbow.
45. Lancelot cut head.
46. Lancelot cut hand.
47. Jason cut belly.
48. Jason hit the ground with sword, weapon broken.
49. Lancelot cut inner elbow.
Maybe Jason was used to the Haidong Gumdo competition rules, thus not having the habit of signaling the opponent actively after being hit. He also did not tend to void the hits on fingers, elbows and other less obvious but effective targets. These areas are hard for the judge to see during competition. Moreover, he also find the 2 edges bastard swords manage to perform some maneuvers he had rarely seen. However, he started to adapt and with his keen timing and distance sense, he showed some impressive attack later on.
Jason vs Gunbuster
1. Gunbuster cut chest. Jason cut back.
2. Jason cut back of knee.
3. Gunbuster thrust belly.
4. Jason cut shoulder.
5. Gunbuster cut belly. Jason cut head.
6. Gunbuster cut forearm. Jason cut head.
7. Jason cut back of the leg.
8. Jason cut back.
9. Jason cut head.
10. Jason hit the ground with sword.
11. Gunbuster cut side.
12. Jason cut neck.
Jason wielded bastard sword since then.
13. Jason cut back of the leg.
14. Jason cut head.
15. Jason cut belly.
16. Jason cut shin.
17. Jason thrust belly. Gunbuster cut forearm.
18. Jason hit the ground with sword.
19. Gunbuster cut head. Jason cut leg.
20. Jason thrust mouth.
21. Gunbuster cut side. Jason cut leg.
22. Gunbuster thrust belly. Jason cut head
Even facing the long sword, a longer weapon than his own, Jason managed to fight very well, showing the prowess of championship.
Jason vs Alfred
1. Alfred cut hand and arm with combo.
2. Alfred cut elbow and belly with combo
3. Jason cut wrist.
4. Jason cut wrist.
5. Alfred cut forearm.
6. Jason cut hand. Alfred cut head.
7. Alfred cut wrists. Jason cut arms.
8. Alfred cut forearm.
9. Jason cut head. Alfred cut stomach.
10. Alfred cut belly. Jason cut shoulder.
11. Jason cut head.
12. Alfred cut back of knee (the back leg).
13. Jason cut head.
14. Alfred cut back of knee and then knee.
15. Jason cut head.
16. Jason cut chest.
17. Alfred hit leg with wrong blade alignment. Jason cut head.
18. Jason cut head. Alfred cut thigh.
19. Alfred cut side through Jason’s parry.
20. Jason cut head.
21. Alfred cut body. Jason cut head.
22. Jason cut hand.
23. Alfred cut groin.
24. Jason cut head.
25. Jason cut head.
Jason wielded bastard sword since then.
26. Alfred cut knee.
27. Jason cut head.
28. Jason cut head.
29. Jason cut head.
30. Alfred cut elbow.
31. Alfred cut back of knee.
32. Jason cut head.
33. Alfred cut body, Jason cut head.
34. Jason cut knee.
35. Alfred cut foot through Jason’s parry.
Jason vs Drifter
1. Jason cut foot.
2. Jason cut forearm.
3. Drifter cut forearm.
4. Jason cut shoulder.
5. Jason cut hand.
6. Jason cut forearm.
7. Jason cut arm.
8. Drifter cut knee.
9. Jason cut arm.
10. Jason cut neck.
11. Jason cut back of leg.
12. Drifter thrust face.
13. Drifter cut foot through Jason’s parry.
14. Jason cut head.
15. Jason cut head.
16. Drifter cut foot through Jason’s parry. Jason cut arms.
17. Jason cut head.
18. Jason cut head.
Jason mentioned that sparring with wooden swords had led to broken fingers on Alex's hands and the handling characteristic could not simulate a real sword as close as Realistic Sparring Weapons did. It could not be used in full contact full body targeting sparring without more protective gears than we had worn either. Then we headed to have lunch together and went to Lancelot's apartment to examine some real swords, watch sparring and test cutting videos. Jonny arranged a tour for both of them in the afternoon and a visit to swordsmen Kendo Club at the evening.
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Anthony Boyd's visit
At the night of 14th July, Lancelot received an email from Anthony Boyd, a Haidong Gumdo practitioner in Korea for 7 years (currently an instructor) that he was going to visit Hong Kong on the next day and would like to join our sparring before he left on 18th. It was an exciting news because Haidong Gumdo was the battlefield swordsmanship of Korea. They practice full contact sparring with shinai and padded armor, almost full body targeting and real sword test cutting. The mentality and integration of techniques between test cutting and sparring match us very closely. Since Lancelot had viewed their videos 2 years ago, which showed the spinning cut, the kick and punch thrown during combat, he had been looking forward to spar with the practitioner of this style for long. Just that he did not expect the chance to come by in such a sudden way.
A sparring session was arranged on 17-7-04, after the outdoor test cutting activity. However, a typhoon arrived in the wrong time and the weather was very bad. The rain was heavy and lightning storm appeared. So no test cutting because we did not want to become lightning rods (or receiving the quakening in Highlander's style). Still, we went to sparring.
Upon picking up the Katana we lent to him, Anthony found that the handling was very realistic because he was familiar with real swords. It was a new experience to him to spar with something that handles exactly like the sword he used in test cutting. Before the rain got any heavier, Lancelot sparred with him with the trusty bastard sword.
Anthony vs Lancelot
1 Lancelot cut shin.
2 Lancelot cut knee.
3 Lancelot cut forearm.
4 Anthony cut forearm.
5 Lancelot cut shin.
6 Lancelot cut forearm.
7 Lancelot cut wrist.
8 Lancelot cut arm.
9 Lancelot cut leg, Anthony cut back.
10 Lancelot cut fingers.
11 Lancelot cut hand.
12 Anthony spinning cut body!
13 Lancelot cut forearm.
14 Anthony cut knee.
15 Lancelot cut hand.
16 Lancelot cut rib.
17 Lancelot cut thigh.
18 Lancelot cut knee.
19 Lancelot thrust body.
20 Lancelot cut hand.
21 Lancelot cut forearm.
22 Lancelot cut elbow.
23 Lancelot cut wrist.
24 Lancelot cut forearm. Anthony cut head.
25 Lancelot cut elbow.
26 Lancelot cut thigh. Anthony cut back.
27 Lancelot cut forearm.
28 Anthony hit with flat of Katana.
Anthony found out that his mind was always a bit ahead of his body in the sparring. Besides, it was hard to get rid of the habit of "pulling the shots" before contact, which was caused by the safety issue of shinai, and strike as if he was doing test cutting, putting real sword's momentum into sparring. So we motivated him to treat his upcoming opponents like a straw mat target. *evil grin* Edward was the next one to spar with him.
Edward vs Anthony
1 Edward cut thigh.
2 Anthony thrust side.
3 Edward cut hand.
4 Edward cut arm.
5 Edward cut belly.
6 Anthony cut forearm.
7 Edward cut forearm.
8 Anthony cut hand.
9 Edward cut rib.
10 Edward cut neck.
11 Anthony cut forearm.
12 Anthony thrust body.
Anthony was getting more and more used to the "test cutting on live target" attitude and it showed in his sparring. The next one who sparred him was Shadow.
Shadow vs Anthony
1 Shadow cut thigh.
2 Anthony cut head.
3 Anthony cut hilt and hand. Shadow cut shoulder.
4 Shadow cut head.
5 Anthony cut chest.
6 Anthony cut wrist. Shadow cut neck.
7 Anthony cut body. Shadow cut neck
8 Shadow cut shin.
9 Shadow cut leg.
10 Anthony cut back. Shadow cut neck.
11 Anthony cut wrist.
12 Shadow wrong blade alignment.
13 Shadow cut leg.
14 Anthony cut arms and head.
15 Anthony hit the ground.
16 Anthony cut neck.
The rain got so bad that we had to moved to another position. The final opponent Anthony sparred was Drifter. Anthony even managed to executed his killer move(1.04mb mpeg highlight) on him on the last bout!
Anthony vs Drifter
1 Anthony hit the ground.
2 Anthony cut hand.
3 Drifter cut chest. Anthony cut shoulder.
4 Drifter cut body.
5 Anthony cut leg.
6 Anthony cut hand.
7 Drifter cut body.
8 Drifter thrust chest. Anthony cut neck.
9 Drifter cut body.
10 Drifter cut knee.
11 Drifter cut body.
12 Drifter cut knee.
13 Drifter cut forearm.
14 Drifter cut chest.
15 Drifter cut elbow, but very slight. Anthony cut neck.
Anthony expressed after the event that it had been quite a while since he had sparred so freely. With Realistic Sparring Weapons, the opportunities that were shutting down in Korea progressively due to safety issues were available to him once again. He could cut and thrust like using real swords on various test cutting targets. He could kick and do whatever he wanted with us. He would only hope that he could convince his friends in Haidong Realistic Sparring Weapons a try. It seemed that we had made his vacation worthy.
On 6-6-2004, Cable TV news reporter Winnie C.Y. Mok interviewed Realistic Sparring Weapons crews and customer James Derrick.
First, Lancelot and Simon gave a sparring demonstration with Katana and dao.
And then James started to wear his riveted chainmail for show.
Here is a close up shot of the mail.
After taking up the armor, James and Ben performed sparring demo with sword and buckler and German bastard sword.
And then Lancelot and Max performed sparring demo with bastard sword and Katana.
Later on, Lancelot gave an interview while the others were sparring in the background.
Since it started to rain, we packed up quickly and moved to the office to continue the interview. Winnie interviewed James.
Then Lancelot briefly introduced how we made the sparring swords after the real ones.
Finally, Winnie interviewed the founders.
On Monday, Winnie phoned in and request for some more interviews with our participants. So we invited Drifter, Alfred and Howard to come over on the next day. Alfred was the first to be interviewed.
And then it was Drifter's turn.
Afterwards, we went to the office for Winnie to make the last scene. That ended our interview activity.
The interview will be aired at 7:00pm 11 June 2004 (Hong Kong) on News Channel 1 of Cable TV.
On 26-5-04, a public holiday termed as Buddha's birthday in Hong Kong, the local customers of Realistic Sparring Weapons gathered up for a sparring event. 20 matches with different weapon combinations were fought and here are the highlight of the actions.
Drifter with a spear vs James with sword and buckler.
Cobra with Jian vs James with sword and buckler.
Cobra with Jian vs Jimmy with Bagua Jian.
Cobra with Jian vs Drifter with nunchaku.
Jimmy with spear vs Lancelot with bastard sword.
And there are many more videos available for private review...
Jonny5 is a founder of Shanghai Kendo association, one of the two Kendo clubs in Shanghai. He came to Hong Kong to join the Kendo examination and competition. On 21st, after his examination, Lancelot picked him up from Hong Kong Park and then headed back to our home to pick up the gear. Without serving a lunch, we went directly to the park to duke it out!
Jonny5 did not want to be the first to join the battle, so Lancelot with his trusty bastard sword and Nobody-here, wielding a customized Katana that was light, kinda straight and without tsuba, fought the first 10 bouts.
Afterwards, Max and Drifter grouped up against Gunbuster using spear.
Then it was Wind with bastard sword vs Howard with long sword and dagger.
Jonny5 the kendoka took up the courage and fought Shadow the chanbara player eventually! Jonny5 found that the helmet of kendo was too restrictive in the viewing area and he could see nothing but the frontal attacks.
Lancelot fought Jonathan, whose sword was of Sunday Butchers Era. Jonathan managed to intercept Lancelot's strikes for a couple times with very deep and powerful cuts.
Drifter and his Bagua Jian then fought Gunbuster and his polearms. It was the first time Drifter faced polearms alone.
Jonny5 went on the field again, this time against Howard's 2 weapons. He chose to wear our helmets with broader view. However, Howard soon abandoned his dagger and concentrated on his longsword work.
Nobody-here fought Shadow, 10 bouts with light, kinda straight and tsuba-less Katana vs the standard Katana.
Max with his proto-Dao fought Wind's bastard sword.
Jonny5 fought Simon and his custom-made Chinese Jian. Simon performed a number of jumping attacks that succeeded in the fight and showed how to use "Dian" technique effectively in sparring.
Simon then tested his skill with Jian against Jonathan's polearms. Again, polearms dominated!
Jonathan and Shadow fought polearms vs sword fight, exchanging weapons after 5 rounds.
Drifter challenges Gunbuster's polearms again, this time added with a Nunchaku to his Bagua Jian.
Drifter, who was trying to figure out how to defeat polearms, then went on to fight Nobody-here, who was using polearms this time.
The founders' fight! Max with Dao and dagger really regretted to have joined the battle against Simon's polearms, who was fighting fiercely and completely dominated the bouts.
Jonny5, after getting used to Realistic Sparring Weapons Combat, finally fought Lancelot to end his day here.
At last, Drifter asked to fight Simon's fierce polearms play.
After the fights, we had a discussion about how the powering method of kendo differs from real sword cutting and Realistic Sparring Weapons Combat. In kendo, when one strikes, he/she would use the body weight to tap the shinai on the opponent and then direct all the forces forward by a push. On the other hand, in real sword cutting and Realistic Sparring Weapons Combat, the destination of the force is not located at the point of contact or behind the opponent, but somewhere on the pathway through the opponent.
Noah Arney is a rapier practitioner of SCA (the world's biggest organization to reenact medieval activities). He has been practicing sparring with steel blade for 2 years and he can wield a single rapier and a rapier + dagger combination. Thus he can handle both the long and close range. We could foresee a tough battle ahead.
We grouped up on 10:00am and then headed to Causeway Bay MTR station to meet up with Noah. Then we returned to Yau Ma Tei to have a simple lunch. Here's a photo we've taken.
After the lunch, we visited a nearby sword shop before going to my home to pick up the gear. Then we went to the park to start our fight.
We did a series of warm up and the first pair to do battle was Lancelot with European bastard sword and Noel with a 54 inches long Rapier (something from the Sunday Butchers era) as well as a dagger. It was the first time Noah faced the non-rapier weaponry.
Then Max wielded the Chinese Dao to fight Gunbuster with the Katana.
Then Drifter with his Bagua Jian and Nunchaku fought Howard with the longsword and dagger.
Then Max with the Chinese Dao fought Noah. In this fight Max employed disarming techniques.
After that, Lancelot with the bastard sword fought Drifter with Nunchaku and Bagua Jian. Drifter threw Nunchaku at the opponent several times but could not hit hard with it enough to stop the opponent's attacks.
Noah fought Shadow with Katana. In this battle there were many thrusts to the throat but resulted in no injury. This impressed Noah, who used to practice with steel blunt, with the safety of Realistic Sparring Weapons.
Then Lancelot fought Howard who wielded two weapons. Howard tried to bind Lancelot's bastard sword with the dagger and then attack with his longsword but it didn't work very well. However, in one particular round out of the ten, Howard delivered a perfect attack with both weapon that he carried the opponent's sword away with the long sword and stabbed hard at the opponent's chest with the dagger!
After taking a brief rest, Noah fought Gunbuster who wielded a Katana and a dagger. Gunbuster used to be a spear fighter and was not used to facing weapons longer than his own, such as the rapier.
Max with Chinese Dao fought Drifter with Bagua Jian and Nunchaku. The Nunchaku scored a few solid hits in this battle.
Noah braved the field again and faced Howard with 2 weapons. In this battle, besides the usual face and throat thrusts, there was a groin thrust as well. Howard, who was hit, was not injured at all. It showed the high safety of Realistic Sparring Weapons.
Shadow hasn't met Patrick for a long while and once they saw each other, they sparred with Katana.
Noah fought Renoir who practices Choi Li Fat and Bagua, showing a fight with Rapier vs Bagua Jian. Renoir used to practice sword-binding and it was his first time to fight in all-open battle. How would he perform?
The fight between the founders, Lancelot vs Max, ranging from bastard sword vs Chinese Dao to dagger vs Chinese Dao.
Maybe influenced by Lancelot's fight with the dagger, Noah fought Patrick and his Katana with a dagger only also. However, Patrick soon switched to dagger too.
Eventually, Patrick got to taste the fight with Katana vs Noah's rapier + dagger.
Shadow vs Howard. Howard found out that his dagger is useless in the defense against Shadow's hard hitting attack.
Then Shadow was pulled into the battle by Lancelot.
At last, Renoir fought Noah in dagger combat for over 40 rounds! Noah was a trooper because he sparred over 100 rounds within a day!
After the sparring session, we went to the supermarket to revitalize ourselves and then headed to a nearby sword shops. Later we escorted Noah back to the public transport station and called it a day!
