Sword Class will help you become a better Karate Student

This was written with the intent of convincing our students to attend sword class....

Sword Class will help you become a better Karate Student

I look forward to the sword class on Fridays for a variety of reasons. Most importantly sword training has helped me to enhance the connection between my body and my mind. This has helped me to let go of a great deal of stress and pressure. I turn to the sword class on Friday evenings to help me let go of all the stress and pressure of the week and recharge the connection between my body and my mind.

The sword exercises force you to relax and use the sword as an extension of your body. Sword training builds strength, coordinates movement with breathing and teaches proper posture and balance. Swordsmanship also concentrates on general mobility and principles of evasion and interception. All of these practices are essential to strengthening and improving open hand techniques. The use of the sword requires intense mental and physical discipline; In effect sword and weapons training will make you a better karate student.

Use of the sword requires deep relaxation and intense concentration. A person must be fully relaxed in order to move the sword correctly. Essentially the sword becomes part of you or an extension of your body. Each movement must be directed to cut anything in its path. This cut should be made with the intent of echoing out into infinite space. This concept should be used in the same way when used in open hand attacks when punching or kicking.

The Japanese sword or the katana has only one main function, which is to cut, but the nature of the sword has two concepts. One is the life giving sword and the other the killing sword. The terms derive from Buddhist allegory and literally mean "life- giving sword" (katsujin ken) and "killing sword" (setsunin to). The "sword," in both cases refers not to the weapon itself but to its usage; and it's not the opponent himself who is killed or given life, but his responses and fighting spirit.

When a combatant uses force of will to overpower, immobilize and strike down an opponent before he can react, this is called setsunin-to (ie "sword[smanship] that transfixes" or sword[smanship] that kills response"). Katsujin-ken ("sword[smanship] that animates"), on the other hand, involves drawing out the opponent, inducing him to strike, and then going inside his technique, countering it at either the moment of its origination or at the point of its most complete extension.

Setsunin-to is an egoistic and risky approach to combat--the slightest miscalculation will result in the swordsman walking straight into the opponent's counter-attack. Katsujin-ken, by contrast, involves a sophisticated manipulation of the opponent and his actions by means of utter selflessness; properly conducted it is virtually undefeatable.

Taken from the The Life-Giving Sword Book by Munenori Yagyu

Sword techniques will improve Kumite or sparring as they are used to defeat an armed opponent. The ideal of Kumite or sparring is the same as the sword. The aim of training is that each single strike should be enough to subdue or defeat the opponent. The sword forces the user to make decisions that could result in either self preservation or death. The life giving sword promotes the ideal of utter selflessness which also is embodied in the moral teachings of karate.

I would hope that some of the points I have made in this article will encourage students to take an interest in our schools sword class. Not only are we fortunate that Sensei devotes this time to sword study, he holds it in high regard. He suggests that all students should attend this class as an added benefit to their training. Sword training in effect allows a person to connect with the ideals of the samurai class and put them to use to better their lives and become highly skilled martial artists.