In recent tournament I've seen some brillant swordmanship then they mess it up by throwing the Katana in the air and catching it. Except for excellent coordination (probably a dull/cast iron blade) showmanships and POINTS, what practicle use does this move have??

Now we throw nunchuka in testing the student is to catch and apply, practicle use is be prepare to use a weapon anytime or someone throws you a weapon to defend against a weapon. Is this case with the throwing the Katana in kata?

Trying to stay open minded.

Any tournament which featured someone throwing their sword up in the air is not a tournament featuring traditional Japanese Swordsmanship. We call that sword twirling. Typically they look very fast and precise, largely because they use extremely lightweight dull swords, usually made out of aluminum and weighing around a third of what a real sword weighs.

I'd love to see some of the XMA sword twirlers try their routines with a shinken From a safe distance, and behind a splash guard mind.

Thanks for straighting that out for me, theres level of showboating twirlers. I have to ask does certain Kata show swordmanship in your eyes? I notice your Iaido background can you see swordmanship within a Sword Kata rather then the combat single strike moves of Iaido?

Neko

Almost nothing you see in such tournament events is even close to "good" swordsmanship.

Its a performace pure and simple---well pure anyway--some of the routines are anything BUT simple.

But swordsmanship is ain't

I think you may not understand exactly what Iaido is (or can be). There are few kata that have only one cut. A great many have one or more follow-up cuts, and more than one opponent. What people do at these tournaments is not at all what goes on in a traditional sword arts dojo.

Actually, I think I will start calling people who do such competitions "sword cheerleaders". After all, what they do has as much to do with traditional japanese sword arts as stick twirling has to do with jodo or tanjojutsu.

Hi Neko,
Here is an example of tachi waza (standing kata) from Shin Shin Sekiguchi ryu battojutsu, a koryu (old school) art that is also known as Higo ryu iaido. It involves five cuts in different directions. This is what a traditional solo sword kata looks like. Notice that the gentleman in the clip is balanced and well grounded at all times, and there is no spinning, kicking, or wasted movement. ... http://bushinjuku.com/media/video/toroken.MPG

Thanks simplicity is blessed and brilliant. I do see the difference.

I don't have anywhere to send you for MJER videos, but here's a link to some Muso Shinden Ryu videos. MSR is sort of a kissing cousin of ours as it were

http://iai.whaleeaters.org/

i just got the splashgaurd part lol.

I was at a tournament last year and a local iaido school was going to perform. The MC stuttered on the "iaido" part and ended up saying EYE-aya-EEE-doo. I almost wet my pants!! actually it was wild to see the iai folks in their traditional uniforms standing next to guys in bright red jumpers holdind staves covered in mylar, etc. I don't think the judges knew what to make of it.

thanks,
Allen