Jian Sparring

[Pandrews1982]

My student filmed some friendly jian sparring I did with one of my other students recently.

It was at the end of a beginner level Chinese sword workshop where I was teaching some methods from Xing Yi jian - 5 elements partner sequence and from Yang Taijiquan as taught to me in previous seminars with Laoshi Scott Rodell.

The sparring was to show some of the guys what non-cooperative (but not competitive) jian play might look like. As said we weren't trying to beat each other but rather play around and test things out in a fairly relaxed manner but without being compliant. It's not perfect, jian is not my main focus in training but I now teach 1 or 2 classes per week focusing on jian so it is becoming more prominent and we're improving all the time. Afterwards we had a little discussion about some of the pros and cons of this kind of sparring, the equipment, the wooden swords we use, techniques that worked and didn't work and how we should progress and improve.

I know it is often difficult to see the classical "techniques" of an art when watching freeplay but there are numerous examples of cuts and thrusts which constitute some of the Xing Yi 5 elements, a few methods from the Xing Yi animals and some of the cuts and techniques we've been taught by Scott Rodell.

I'm hosting Scott Rodell again in April and September 2017 in Leeds UK and I'll be doing some demonstrations and things at the Royal Armouries in Leeds in February and March 2017 if anyone is in the UK and interested I'll be posting details on my website in the near future (http://www.xingyiacademy.com) or please just email me to get in touch ([email protected]).

[RobP3]

Thanks for posting Paul, interesting to see. The Royal Armouries is a great place, must get up there again some day!

[LaoDan]

It looks like you are using Graham Cave’s Tigers Den wooden jian. Nice.

Afterwards we had a little discussion about some of the pros and cons of this kind of sparring, the equipment, the wooden swords we use, techniques that worked and didn't work and how we should progress and improve.

Could you share this information?

[Overlord]

Sigh.....

[Pandrews1982]

Laodan:

Yes I've used Graham Cave's mujian for a number of years now and they are great for sparring. I competed in the 2011 and 2012 European Jian Tournaments, reaching the quarter final in the first tournament and semi-final in the second. My student beat me in the semi-final and won the tournament. Although I wouldn't say the standard was very high it was comparatively quite well matched. tournament is completely full contact anything goes except pulling the helmet off the opponent. In my very first match I hit my opponent hard on the top of the head and knocked him out. He came around quickly but it showed even with protection there is still some real danger.

In the video some of the things we discussed afterwards were:

- I was not going all out and therefore was at times a little lazy and dropped my guard a lot and left my left hand hanging (although out of danger).
- We should have used more turning of the waist for deflections rather than backing off as much - although backing off is not bad per se it can give your opponent the advantage of forward momentum.
- We talked about the helmet. Once my partner Vlad made a hit at full extension into the face guard which in reality would be about 2 inches short of a real hit. The mask restricts vision and you can feel hot and sweaty too. I am quite severely short sighted and didn't have contact lenses so I was playing without full vision and was also getting sweat in my eyes.
- A few times we both over-extend or start attacks from too far away - something we've worked on before but obviously need more practice of.
- we talked about the realities of cutting with sharp swords (i also have a sharp jian and practice cutting now and again). How in certain situations a touch is ineffective and that you must hit with reasonable force or produce a draw/press against the body of the partner to have an effective cut.
- we talked a little about distancing and the couple of times I controlled Vlad with my left hand and got a stab in as I held him off.

Video doesn't really give this kind of play justice, you see more, hear more and feel more being in the room. The others remarked that the hits I landed on Vlad were pretty heavy and he had no armour on his body and took a few hard thrusts into the torso. We're constantly working to improve and will be training more with Scott Rodell in the future also. I find it helpful to sometimes play a little more non-cooperative and film these exchanges to analyse. In training we often play in threes so that the person standing out can give feedback.

[wiesiek]

good training,
too often /as you noticed/ tendency to go unarmed hand forward,
best

[RobP3]

- I was not going all out and therefore was at times a little lazy and dropped my guard a lot and left my left hand hanging (although out of danger).
- We should have used more turning of the waist for deflections rather than backing off as much - although backing off is not bad per se it can give your opponent the advantage of forward momentum.
- We talked about the helmet. Once my partner Vlad made a hit at full extension into the face guard which in reality would be about 2 inches short of a real hit. The mask restricts vision and you can feel hot and sweaty too. I am quite severely short sighted and didn't have contact lenses so I was playing without full vision and was also getting sweat in my eyes.
- A few times we both over-extend or start attacks from too far away - something we've worked on before but obviously need more practice of.
- we talked about the realities of cutting with sharp swords (i also have a sharp jian and practice cutting now and again). How in certain situations a touch is ineffective and that you must hit with reasonable force or produce a draw/press against the body of the partner to have an effective cut.
- we talked a little about distancing and the couple of times I controlled Vlad with my left hand and got a stab in as I held him off.

Good points and we've made similar observations about this kind of "gloved up" sparring. The distance / backing off thing is the biggest problem IMO, people like to dodge in and out with a couple of flicky hits. We have found one way round this is to restrict the space a lot and also put on a time limit in order to force the people to "work". I've watched too many sparring clips were, in five minutes of sparring you see maybe three actual hits land, the rest of the time is spent circling and bouncing in and out.

I'm sure any detractors out there will shortly be putting up their own clips to show us all how it is done

[windwalker]

The ARMA’s efforts are directed toward resurrecting and recreating a legitimate craft of European fighting skills in a manner that is historically valid and martially sound. We rely for our source material upon the dozens of rare surviving manuals of Medieval and Renaissance Masters of Defence.

http://www.thearma.org/about.htm#.WF0-2xsrJnI

interesting site, might be some ideas to explore and try for those into weapons of old.


http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/MAoREp ... F0_2BsrJnI