Light Saber Training (so to speak)

G'day Falugan here.

I just wanted to know if it is alright to begin an aikido class to get used to a sword of some kind. I know that there is no such thing as a Light Saber (I would absolutely LOVE one by the way)

It might be good for me personally and getting back into shape and all.


Falugan

Falugan wrote: G'day Falugan here.

I just wanted to know if it is alright to begin an aikido class to get used to a sword of some kind. I know that there is no such thing as a Light Saber (I would absolutely LOVE one by the way)

It might be good for me personally and getting back into shape and all.


Falugan

I would think it would be more than alright. Aikikai and Kendo are practices that I have been looking to begin learning myself.

I think everyone on earth would love to have a lightsaber btw.

MTFBWY,
Resticon

another thing you might want to consider is a group called the sca, the are all over the world and the practice a lot with sword play, medieval in nature but the art is there. it is full contact non-choreographed and is a very fun, non profit organization. the main difference is that you are wearing about 65lbs of medieval armor.

If asking for opinions, I think the focus on overpowering by manipulation of the aggressors aggression seems really suitable to a Jedi approach to conflict, and using a stick/staff to facilitate that makes sense. Its easy to pick up a stick and use it if needed but doing that would probably be seen as an escalation or invitation to conflict so I'm not suggesting anything be used for fighting. I personally do not have much interest in long bladed weapons (swords) as they are almost as impractical in the real world as a fictitious lightsaber IMO, but if its what interests you then it sounds great fun to learn and I'd agree would be good for fitness too.

I found these on Wikipedia which seem relevant;

Aiki-Ken
AikiJo

b.murphy wrote: another thing you might want to consider is a group called the sca, the are all over the world and the practice a lot with sword play, medieval in nature but the art is there. it is full contact non-choreographed and is a very fun, non profit organization. the main difference is that you are wearing about 65lbs of medieval armor.

SCA has about as much martial value as dagorhir or some other larp group. The only difference between the two is that SCA hits each other with sticks and the larp groups usually use foam swords.

If you are interested in ACTUAL historical european martial arts, you should look into ARMA or the HEMA alliance

Most LARP groups are very fictional but there are some good opportunities to learn combat skills. Several of them have “Fighter” practices and other various training activities where they focus purely on combat skills. Granted, they generally do not incorporate many of the teachings and disciplines found in traditional schools or martial learning, but one can learn a varying degree of practical and applicable combat kills or techniques.

I have several friends throughout the years that participated in these activities and when we spar they are usually very fast and well practiced in the moves and techniques they have spent years practicing.

I would actually recommend it -- certainly aikido (ai - harmony ; ki - energy ; do - way)

Just don't go there with a real lightsaber, a bokken will do nicely.

:dry:

andy:
have you ever done sca for any amount of time? if so where and when? if you think of it as larp you are very mistaken. in my experiences the sca is very practical for sword fighting. yes it is medieval, but it trains a lot of the skills you would need, and there is a certain satisfaction with each hit you land, also knowing i am not going to kill my friend is a plus. if you are talking of the SCA 30-50 years ago then i would agree with you, but the SCA of today is amazing, from individual fights to small group tactics, to major wars, the SCA is a great place to learn and develop sword fighting skills. If you truly believe that it has almost no martial value then please study history as the knights also used wooden weapons to train, and it was effective. the samurai used bamboo. many sca players spend hours every day training their ability to fight. yes we use sticks, but live steel, in my opinion is too dangerous between friends. I will say that depending on where in the sca you will change the way people approach combat. I am not saying that the SCA is the best you can do, but for full contact, non-choreographed fighting with a high level of safety, cant really be bad.

I am very familiar with SCA. And it is historical LARP.

I never said people don't enjoy it. Nor did I say they don't train. But they train to be good at their game with their rules. It's not how they trained or competed historically. People get really good at competing in their rule set, but there is far more to historical combat that the SCA does not allow. Such as halfswording, wrestling with the sword, swinging a two handed weapon more than 180 degrees, grappling your opponent, striking your opponent with anything besides your "sword" etc etc.

You can learn from anything. I could make the argument that baseball has martial value because it teaches you how to swing a club and throw an object accurately with force. But we can all assume that when you study a martial art its for combat value.

It is a sport, a martial sport, but it is too confined by its rule set. It is a lot like saying that civil war reenactment teaches you how to be a better solider.

Its fine if you enjoy it, but don't try to play it off as a martial art, it is not.

I will say it is a martial art, the only rules they have are for safety, with that said I have taken part of and see some fights where we did not abide by sca rules. It was some of the best fights I have had. With that said, almost all martial arts during their competitions have rules, wrestling, boxing,Taekwondo ect. For instance when was the last time you bit someone during kung fu? You don’t, when sparring it is against the rules. When was the last time you broke some ones neck in a spar? You dont, because for the most part you are friends helping to train each other. Part of the definition of martial art is practicing for competition which is all the sca really does. Again I’m not sure what kingdom you were in, perhaps if you could tell me I would better understand what your experience of it is. as to my knowledge as a squire and former knights marshal you can swing more than 180 degrees, grapple your opponent, half sword and grab your opponents weapon. There are just certain rules about how to do it, for instance can’t grab a great sword without gauntlets. I will agree that it is not entirely accurate, for example in real life a great sword or war hammer would destroy a shield, but ours for some reason (air craft aluminum) don’t after a few hits. again, what kingdom did you play in?