“The average squatter,” says James Jacobs, “has no melee experience.”No familiarity with katana swords or other bladed weaponry. No training in kendo, iaido, or other martial arts.If anyone knows the typical combat background of a squatter, a person living in a home illegally, it’s Jacobs. He runs a company called ASAP Squatter Removal, offering do-it-himself eviction services to property owners throughout the Bay Area.
I imagine most people have limited training in iaido, which is a very cool martial art but a niche one even in Japan. It's essentially the gunslinger art for samurai: fast-drawing a sword, making a killing cut, and often returning it to the sheath in a single motion.
Its drills often involve blocking another swordsman's draw using the hilt or the sheath of the sword, delaying them enough that you can get the sword out first and make your cut. In this way it is similar to the Western martial art concept of ringen, which incorporates non-sword moves and tools into a swordfight in order to create brief openings or advantages that the swordsman can use.
6 comments:
Frankly, one of the reasons I go about armed is so I can get back into my home on my return from somewhere.
Eric Hines
I have a well-armed wife and a German Shepherd Dog for that. I don't worry too much about getting back in the house once I finally come home to the mountain.
My well-armed wife, who's almost as well trained as I am in other ways, is often out of the house at the same time I am.
Aside from that, as a wise man once said, "One is none." Applies to people, too.
Eric Hines
I did sword & other weapons training in Japan and it was mainly with wooden weapons. They could break bones and crack skulls, but were of course much less lethal than steel, which is why they're used.
I discovered one day that one of my fellow students was also an iaido sensei and he asked if I'd like to try it. So the next class, he brought his iaido sword and we stayed after class. By that point I'd been training for about a year with wooden weapons, but when he handed me a sheathed steel sword I realized I had no idea what to do with it. How would you wear this? How would you walk with it? Stand up or sit down or run with it? How would you draw or sheath it?
Although everyone likes to focus on the draw-and-strike aspect of it, I found the practical lessons in how to live day-to-day while armed with a katana to be more interesting. I didn't go very far with iaido, but that was only due to my limited time to train.
- Tom
HEMA has a similar concern. Wooden “wasters” are usually used for training at first, but they don’t feel like steel. You have to make the transition to live steel if you want to understand, well, “the riddle of steel.”
That’s one reason I carry a blade everywhere, and use it for everything I can so it lives in my hand. It’s got to be part of you.
Good advice. Alas, it's a bit more difficult to go about armed with a katana in today's world. I should adopt a knife.
- Tom
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