Samurai jiu-jitsu wasn’t what you think
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 гру 2021
- #samurai #jiujitsu #kenjutsu
Martial arts like judo, BJJ, aikido, kendo, kenjutsu, iado, daito ryu aiki jujutsu, and other nihon jujutsu and sword styles are “descendants” of the samurai hand to hand and sword fighting arts of jiu-jitsu and ken-jitsu respectively.
The samurai never practiced karate. Karate was developed independent of the samurai in Okinawa.
Now let’s talk about it.
Ramsey Dewey is an MMA coach and fight commentator, and occasional musician based in Shanghai, China.
Thanks to my channel sponsor:
Xmartial: catering to all kinds of combat sports athletes from BJJ, MMA, Muay Thai etc. find rash guards, fight shorts, grappling spats, boxing gloves and other training gear. Use my code RAMSEY10 for a 10% discount on everything at
www.xmartial.com/?ref=AyJ_EjP...
This video features original music by Ramsey Dewey
Follow me on Instagram at: / ramseydewey - Спорт
My 2 cents. The sword was a glorified weapon but like all melee armies over the world they use spear and bow as primary the sword is secondary. Grappling is because punching or kicking "armored men" is not viable.
Rome primarily used the gladius which is a short sword.
Samurai were horse archers, the katana was heavily hyped up.
Generally agree. But then there is also that guy who KOd the other guy with a headkick in the weird m-1 armored fighting
@@therecalcitrantseditionist3613 imagine running into the battle and head kicking man running against you
@@thecevi9179 imagine how many women you'd get if you survived
Fun fact, samurai used guns and spears too. No weapon was beneath the samurai. They used jujitsu to pin their opponent and stab them
The wooden sword used in kenjutsu is called a bokken (木剣). The bamboo sword used in kendo is called a shinai (竹刀).
The sword was created by my bloodline on the island Crete by the Minoans. A stick is a stick.
@@HarryTzianakisTheGodOfSpeed the Minoans didn't create any asiab swords lol, what are you on about.
@@thatwolfensteinguy8954 look it up Xiphos
@@HarryTzianakisTheGodOfSpeed ‘Arslantepe swords’ look that one up ☝️
@@Cigarbawz Rome didn't exist it's the last empire to ever be built. If they had Greek swords there then that means they stole them from Greece when the Greek Empire was destroyed. Rome was built after the end of the Greek Empire Romans took all the brains from Greece and built Rome so how can their history be older ha ha ha ha bronze swords were made by the Greeks first the Bronze Age began in Greece.
It makes a lot of sense that armoured swordfighting would devolve into grappling. Long cutting blades aren't ideal for defeating hard armour, so a lot of fights would have to end some other way. Like getting the guy to give up, or breaking some bones or joints, or holding him still and pushing your sword or knife through an opening in his armour.
Aw man I was hoping I made a video about this before anyone else lol. I actually had the privilege to learn Kobudo martial arts many many years ago. It was from a small sized Japanese family style. Basically they teach you sword, spear, bow, horse riding, Jiu Jitsu or Goshinjutsu (literally self defense).
They will first tell you they do this to preserve their roughly 500 year old family military arts as a historical piece, and you cannot master them unless you put effort at a young age.
So most of the time they make you chose sword arts because they felt it was the foundation to all the other styles. Also striking grappling if you chose so.
But I was also told if I want to learn a more modern application, to take their “modern” class. The modern class was basically judo and quite a bit of Kosenjudo style grappling. It was extremely similar to bjj, and in fact we cross trained with bjj and judo guys alot.
Anyways, the old style jiu jitsu/self defense was extremely specialized. Meaning we actually had to learn moved accounting for wearing armor and stuff.
Even the sword techniques were not applicable to use on the streets in modern times with a stick. Many of the moves actually accounting for things such as swinging your sword while not hitting your own helmet, armor piece.
Also many of the fatal moves were large, wide movements or pokes of aiming for holes in the armor itself. This style slowly changed as the Japanese stopped wearing armor.
Anyways the point is that martial arts “evolved” with the change of time. Alot of these Kobudo arts as my Sokei told me is to preserve history.
One thing I have to disagree is according to my souke, fights did not go to the ground. In fact there is a huge chance you will be killed if you are down rolling by other opponents.
Fight started with archers killing as many opponents as possible, then horse back and spears/glaives. The Katana was almost a secondary weapon. Also, you were to never lose it no matter what. Hand to hand fighting was the last resort that you do not want to happen. Armor to armor fighting had very specific strikes to certain areas such as the armpit, between the shoulder pads and helmet (neck), cutting behind knee, etc where there is no armor. You can penetrate the breast plate but that is a move that exposes your head.
Its hard to explain but ancient samurai sword fighting feels alot like boxing to me, except your lead hand is also your lead leg. Also, counter attacks are king because it opens up opportunity to get to areas where the armors are weak. It sure is interesting thats for sure :)
I wonder how my teacher is doing. He was a black belt in judo and he picked up bjj around 2001 and also did various other martial arts. I remember his kobudo clases were getting smaller and smaller due to dwindling popularity.
He told me one of the biggest reason was that people are not rewarded for preserving history. modern martial arts at least have competitions. I wouldnt be surprised if he makes most of his money from his judo and bjj classes and teaches old style for free to those interested.
You are exactly right. Every medieval documentary and book in the world for samurai or knights says the same thing.
I remember being told once all you had to do was get an armoured opponent flat on his back and he couldn't get up due to the armour that's why judo puts so much emphasis on ippons
@@davemeads859 Oh yeah that too, i forgot to mention this on my reply. The helmet is massive and heavy too. Being on your back really sucked. I dunno if that is why Judo emphasizes the ippon since Judo is a rather modern amalgamation of Japanese Jujutsu. I always thought it was due to Olympic rules to make it look more exciting.
@@davemeads859 You can easily stand in armor. It doesn't weigh much and is not truly so awkward that most normal motions are hindered. That is if the armor is properly fitted, of course.
A couple of points to add:
Armor was pretty much only available to rich people, poor warrior class had shaby armor
Swords were banned in the 1600's for anyone not a samurai class
Swords were banned for Samurai class in 1870's
Japanese Grappling evolved into Judo after the sword ban ~1882
As a 30 year JuJutsu practitioner I want to say that you conveyed, in very simple terms, what the whole of this martial art is, and how to explain it to the the uninitiated. Well done.
I practiced Iaido for some months. It's a really valuable martial art in the sense of budo. You learn a minimum of very short techniques and practice them over and over and over, trying to become as efficient with the movement as possible. I honestly found it kinda dull after a while, but mostly because the use case is missing. Someone else in the comments already pointed out, that it's the equivalent of training a quickdraw for a pistol duel, which pretty much nails it. You start in a neutral stance with the sword in the scabbard and then draw and cut at the same time as fast and precise as you can. Which is fine, but sparring that way is almost impossible, since you either use padded sticks, which takes the pain and hence the tension out of the equation or you use wood or even steel and seriously hurt each other, which isn't really an option. So you're left with a martial art that is very challenging and puts you on a path of constant self perfection, but you can't really use it. To compare it to combat sports: combat sports means you're painting a picture, Iaido means you're practicing single strokes with the pen to make perfect lines, but you never draw anything (except your sword! Puns are fun).
I think seitei iai (the synthetic forms from the Kendo association) and koryu iai (classical traditions on which seitei iai was based) have slightly different mentalities regarding the practice. The former being more about perfect motion, the latter being somewhat more open and free, and more oriented on the cultivation of a warrior's mind (although the execution and body mechanics still need to be sensical of course).
I'm sure experience vary from country to country, and tradition to tradition though.
"Sparring" in iaido would really have to be a sort of situational self-defense training. You'd be wearing something like HEMA style protective gear with a blunt steel sword in a scabbard and you'd be suddenly attacked and have to survive from a position of being surprised. Not very traditional, of course.
Like wing chun it's banned in mma like loaded gloves
@@connorperrett9559 yes, but that sounds fun tbh :D
@@based_prophet you mean Iaido is banned in MMA? If so, well obviously. You can't bring a sword into the cage :D
Iajutsu originally came about as a means for a swordsman to simultaneously draw and cut with a blade. Think of it like a gunfighter learning QuickDraws. Whatever gives you an advantage.
Yeah, just like battojutsu on the Tenshin Ryuu hyoho swordmanship school.
Quickdrawing was never legitimately used as a fighting technique though, it was a circus performance art that came about as gunfighters moved into the whole "cowboy" themed exhibitions of the day.
Really you just want to draw your weapon in a way that you are absolutely sure you can both keep hold of it and defend yourself. If your opponent has the drop on you are in trouble, but they have to actually hit you first. There's only really one account of a quickdraw gun battle I can remember, and it ended with Wild Bill slowly aiming his pistol on his forearm and shooting the other guy, who drew faster and fire first, dead. I suppose it's easier to cut someone with the draw of a sword, but if they are standing that close and are already drawn, you are probably dead, if they aren't close, you can draw normally, and if they haven't drawn at all, well, that's when Iaido would be most useful probably.
@@AveSicarius very interesting, thank you
@@AveSicarius I think your points about accuracy over speed with a firearm is borne out in movies & in technical firearm instruction too. Clint Eastwood's movie where he learns of his friend (Morgan Freeman) being shot & killed and put on display, demonstrates lots of wild shooting by others in the bar on that wet & stormy night. While he calmly aims & disposes of them one at a time. Being first does not guarantee success unless it's matched with accuracy.
@@BelloBudo007
In some movies yes, but it is rare to see in the Westerns where the main character is portrayed as a gunslinger aside from a few such as Unforgiven (which is the movie you mentioned), the goons attacking them surely do miss quite a bit, much like the stormtroopers in Star Wars haha. In more modern movies the gunplay often more accurately reflects actual shooting protocol now, depending on the film of course.
In regards to modern firearm doctrine, accuracy and stopping power are almost going to be priorities, you don't want to sacrifice too much speed, but your focus is going to be controlling your breathing, leading the target, and firing controlled shots to the centre of mass. This wasn't too different in earlier periods of history either, but the firearms were way, way less effective. Drawing is also done in a controlled manner, because the situations where speed would be a priority are generally those where you already have a gun on you, and if that person knows how to use it, well you aren't going to finish the draw no matter how fast you are (the same goes for firearm disarms, they don't work if the person knows how to use a gun no matter how fast you are).
This really also goes for most unarmed martial arts though, accuracy and stopping power are very important, and sacrificing them for speed just isn't a viable tactic. It's why you don't see Wing Chun "chain punching" in MMA or boxing, because it's better to throw (and land) to a specific target a single powerful shot than to throw many more much less powerful shots that may not do the damage you need (or do any damage). This changes a bit when talking about weapons like knives or swords, where power is less important because you don't need it as much to cut or stab, but you still need to hit your target, and that requires control and finesse.
It is as you say, being first to strike doesn't ensure you hit, and indeed some people sacrifice accuracy for speed. It's always better to slow down a bit and hit your target with enough power to put your opponent down than strike first and miss or fail to strike effectively, at which point you leave yourself open for a counter, which in gunfighting could easily be threatening.
The kendo sword is called a shinai, and funny thing... All sumo throws can be done in full armor, because the "no gi grips" work just the same, and the belt grips can be done to most types of japanes armor styles... And being able to throw your oponent to the ground while standing beside them with your sword is one hell of a skill to have on the battlefield
Well the wooden sword is actually a bokken, a shinai is the bamboo version
Umm, it's pretty damn easy to grab samurai armour... You don't need "no gi" grips
whats great about no-gi grips is that you can give 0 fucks about what your opponent is wearing :D
I once heard a hema guy say "the guy who first realizes it has become a wrestling fight instead of a sword fight is the one to win". I don't know if Hema people can agree on this but it kinda stuck with me.
As a major judo nerd, can't fault a thing you said. Always appreciate your attention to the history and theory. The specific jujutsu styles that most informed judo were Kito Ryu and Tenjin Shinyo Ryu, both of which still more or less exist in their historical forms as living arts.
Yawara
It's not just the bind (when the sharp edges of two swords bite into each other, causing them to sort of stick together instead of being able to slide up and down along the length of the blade) that makes grappling go hand in hand with sword fighting. The Samurai and the European knights of the late medieval/early renaissance both had very effective armor that, while not impossible to defeat with a sword, was extremely good at protecting the warrior inside. That's why you see blades replaced with blunt weapons in many occasions, and why grappling was so important. You basically had to pin your opponent down so you could stab him through the gaps in his armor, or break his limbs so he couldn't fight.
^ this. You're not cutting someone through metal armour. You have to pin them down, keep them still, and stab them through the gaps. All armored warriors carried a small back up sword/dagger for this very reason.
Sharp edges of the swordbite into eachother? What kind of kenjutsu is that? Read about how real swords are made , you meet the edge of a blade with the back of yours. The softer steel at the back is far far less likely to shatter.
Thats the whole point behind the differential quenching that creates the visible hamon
@@lancehobbs8012 European swords weren't made like Japanese ones. Japanese swords had a very hard and sharp edge which would stay sharp longer, but was much more prone to chipping, which is why you're supposed to try to defend with the flat or spine of the blade. European swords were more or less the same hardness throughout, and they weren't as hard as the edge on Japanese swords, so they were softer and would dull faster, but the edge of the sword was far less prone to being damaged, and using that relative softness to bind with your opponent's blade was a nearly universal principal in European swordsmanship.
In case of the knights the pin/submissions had one extra reason though. Knights were valuable hostages. Pinning them gave them a chance to surrender, so you could exchange them for money
@@jc-kj8yc yes, that is also true.
This is why I get irritated when people claim, wrestling and jiu-jitsu don't have anything valuable for self defense BECAUSE they're sports...yeah they are now lol, but they come from warriors throughout history
it all comes from Greece ,,
Every culture everywhere has/has had some form of grappling
@@markhatfield5621yup that the Greeks first showed them.
@@markhatfield5621 Alexander the Great did not only open schools to teach history they showed the world how to fight. Only a science-based community like the Greeks could evolve in human physical conflict
@@HarryTzianakisTheGodOfSpeed The Greeks invented Shuai Jiao? I'd love to see any relevant information about that,
" wrestling is the prerequisite to any fighting" ~ Tank Abbott.
Excellent video Ramsey.
"Come again?"- Any sort of machine combatant or really most modern infantry.
I think you got something wrong. The main weapon was not their sword, the main weapon is spear, bow, other polearns, sometimes big two handed sword (like polearm size). The sword we know best now, is always their side arm, a backup weapon (like modern day soldiers, main weapon is rifle, pistol is only side arm). Wrestling/grappling is arguably important for all hand to hand weapon based fighting.
Indeed that's how it always was across the world. Swords are sidearms. Pole weapons and missile weapons are the primary weapons of war. In the case of samurai it is indeed the bow that was their most important, most trained, most vital skill for warfare.
Greeks invented everything
@@HarryTzianakisTheGodOfSpeed Untill the romans came about with large shields and short swords
@@user-oy9fu9db8c Rome was built way after .. When the Greek empire was destroyed they took all the bri
Brains from Greece and built Rome.. The romans are A cheap copy of what the Greeks were.. Rome was the last ancient empire
I enjoy your martial arts history videos. Great background for the video btw.
Love your Channel sir. Been studying martial arts over 40 years and I love how you truly break things down. So much disinformation out there and getting the real truth out is something that is sadly needed.
Something a lot of people don't know, is that we call jujutsu an "umbrella" of names of different martial art practices, coined with this term in the 17th century, as the name became somewhat of a fashion. The yoroi kumiuchi the way the samurai fought and grappled unarmed or even armed, as it was quite popular the grappling in armor, with small swords, knives even with pole arms such as naginata, with leading example the school of the-Araki Ryu for example - torite-kogusoku,. This style hadn't at the time it was practiced -and used for war, no official Ryu or school, and it was more resembling sumo and folk wrestling styles, taught by veteran samurai, who were teaching empirical and practical ways to survive on the battlefield, connected with all the other weapons. On the other side "Jujutsu" never saw the face of any (major) battlefield and it was a product of the "peace" period of Tokugawa, no armor of course. So for war, we had something with live sparring like modern wrestling and the more stylized jujutsu that came later, after the civil wars. Kano when fighting the other jujutsu styles for the Tokyo metropolitan police competition, crashed every other style because never trained live. Even Kano's one of the main 2 jujutsu parents of judo, Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū had only kata training and only kito had live (for good). There where exceptions, like the master Mataemon Tanabe of Fusen ryu, who had live training and excessive development of ground grappling. I researched in Japan Fusen ryu and I couldn't find any trace of ground grappling like the one of Mataemon, so it was the brilliant teacher who made this exception. I do BJJ (black belt) for 25 years and with this or with judo or wrestling you can get the most out of jujutsu but without live training and a solid of-course base in grappling you can't get far, no for self-defense, no nothing, even if you try to use "deadly" techniques of jujutsu it is not gonna work. This is the paradox that Jigoro Kano realized, who saw that judo without the "dangerous" techniques, was more effective - because of live training, and could do better than the other styles with "dangerous" and "lethal" techniques, but no live training. I studied a few styles of jujutsu in japan and I know for sure. The person makes the difference, with the simple principles of resistance and live training, solid basics etc. So samurai when they fought used wrestling-like practical "methods" and jujutsu is something else, a different, stylized art, of a different period. Thank you for the video.
I would recommend watching kumiuchi armored battles, great show of how armored samurai would use jujutsu and kenjutsu in combat.
I'd like to point a few things out:
1) Katana was just like the arming sword a backup weapon! You can think of it as the role a pistol has both in the military and civilian life. Thus, duells were very rare, unless scheduled! They were far more likely to face off against someone with a polearm or ranged weapon!
2) armour makes you punch like a heavy weight champion, but punching armour is pointless! However, armour facilitates wrestling as it moves the weight up and it can add leverage.
3) armour allows you to close in for wrestling as you can take some hits. Immobilising the opponent is the best way of exploiting weak points in armour. Even in unarmoured fighting good cuts are rare as it's really difficult to make one if the target keeps avoiding getting hit and even worse attacks you! Thus cutting through cloth, or stabbing through mail is not as easy as if you do it on a mannequin...
can you imagine fighting someone in full plate armor with no armor yourself
@@user-qe8mw4ub3u its like fighting a car
@@user-qe8mw4ub3u the unarmored person would be in an advantage, as he would be faster and is able to move more agile.
@@ishitrealbad3039 nope.
@@ishitrealbad3039 no, they would be at a severe disadvantage. Armor wasn't as encumbering as it looked. The highly developed European plate armor of the late medieval period was easy to move around in. There are videos of people in replica armor running around doing summersaults and cartwheels. The common misconception that armor was ridiculously heavy comes from examples of jousting armor, which was made extra thick because it needed to stand up to repeated heavy impacts from blunt jousting lances. The knights weren't expected to do any fighting on foot in that armor, and it was competition, not battle, so they went in for maximum protection, disregarding any need for mobility. Actual battlefield armor was pretty light when you actually wore it on your body. The biggest disadvantages would be 1) temperature: it gets really hot under all that armor, but an unarmored person wouldn't have to worry so much about that. 2) vision: the eye slots on late medieval plate armor were miniscule to protect against anything getting through them and hitting the knight in the eyes, which obviously is really bad for vision, but there were ways to deal with that. Most fully enclosed helmets at this time had visors that opened up or that you could take off entirely. So, assuming you and some other person are going to fight, and neither of you have been trained to fight, but they're wearing full plate armor and you aren't, they can hit you literally anywhere and will be able to hurt you, but there are only tiny gaps in the armor for you to be able to hurt them. Even if you take the helmet off, they only really have to defend one target, whereas you have to defend your whole body. If you manage to get to grappling/hand to hand range, they have very hard armored limbs to beat you bloody with, but you're only going to hurt yourself if you try to hit them with your soft, squishy limbs. Assuming you've both been trained to fight, all those same things are still true, but now you know exactly how to defeat their armor, but so do they, and they know how to defend against your attempts to defeat it. Bottom line, all other things being equal, you are extremely unlikely to be able to defeat someone who is wearing armor if you have no armor yourself.
Having played around with fencing and other weapons based martial arts, I always got the feel that the tools and skills needed to be good at combat with weapons overlapped pretty well with those used in striking based fighting. That being distance management, cutting angles, tempo/cadence, explosive force generation, parrying/countering, etc. With my background in boxing/kickboxing and other striking martial arts I took very easily to fencing. But judo on the other hand... Therefore these old combat techniques (used by samurai and other professional warfaring cultures) where truly mma as far as combat attributes were concerned. Striking took the form of sword, spear, and halberd, while grappling remained the premier 'in-fighting' tactic.
At least, that's my two cents.
Love the content Ram!
Hey Ramsey,
Thanks for the video, your explanations are good and clear. Just one thing I noticed regarding the technical terms you've been using: you don't need to say "daito katana" as "daito" means "long sword" and the katana is by definition a long sword, so it's a bit redundant. That's why the katana-wakizashi set is usually called "daisho" (daito + shoto (the latter meaning "short sword").
I love all the art and pictures in the background. Very Nice!
Hey Ramsey, new to your channel today and love it already.
I’m a lifelong student of ju-jitsu and what you’re saying here really resonates with how I learned. Sense I used to make us wear mittens to stop us properly holding each other so that it became more about body dynamics.
A point about iaido - yes, today it’s experienced by many of us as a meditative process but in its day it had practical application. If you think of Wild West gunslingers, a perfect aims no good if your opponent can draw faster than you and still aim well enough - the emergence of ‘fast-draw’ schools times of peace worked on this theory. In a duel, if two competent swordsmen not wearing armour square up the first to draw his blade is likely to win!
Good confirmation about grappling. I think it's the awesome sauce every martial artist needs to improve whatever else they do!
An Informative and highly competent telling of an oft misrepresented topic…and might I add, your speaking voice is super smooth and soothing.
Iaido was battojutsu, and it arose from the need to transition from spear or naginata to your sword when your opponent got close to you. Iaido was developed later and eventually greatly changed to match the aesthetics of kendo.
The most important Samurai martial skills were archery and use of the spear. The sword was essentially a personal weapon. Going to war, they would have primarily used polearms and bows and arrows.
I think people have over simplified what Samurai were, as simply as really good swordsmen. They were a warrior class, different from things like Japanese infantry, bowmen, cavalry etc. They could theoretically and often did use Swords, Bows, Spears, Clubs, Muskets depending on the Samurai. While the bulk of Japanese infantry like the Ashigaru were just common peasants that a Samurai would round up, train them in whatever form of combat the Samurai could afford to arm them with and go off to fight.
Indeed, like every ancient warrior ever to exist. I mean, long, heavy thrusting objet that can pierce through armor? Pretty good if I may say so myself
@@ProtomanButCallMeBlues What was that line from Kurosawa? "A long life eating gruel is best"?
@@hillside21 oh yeah, Japanese cinema was always critical of the social oppression the peasants had faced. Often Kurosawa films the bad guys were war veterans and bandits who moved on to oppressing people. Likewise Zatoichi the blind swordsman is famous because in most films his antagonists were Samurai, and he was the exYakuza swordsman that under Japan's own laws at the time would be sentenced to death for carrying a sword.
I love this realization brought to light. Im a huge fan of martial arts and all the content you’ve been making for years now. I was just thinking to myself as i listened to this video. I thought “Man, wouldn’t it be cool if some of our favorite rpg and/or action and adventure games put more emphasis on the close relationship between armed and unarmed combat? My first thought was Fromsofts Sekiro, or Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima- both games encapsulate the mythical feeling of samurai persona. But how cool would it be if we (in game) performed a judo throw, or a wrist lock, before ultimately performing a critical or fatal blow?
As always, I your content.
Great video. I studied Koryu Jujutsu (Japanese jiu jitsu) for 3 years straight and started working Security in Stockholm. I destroyed all my civilian clothes at this time haha. The JJJ I learned saved my life. On the Streets people wear knives and sometimes even know how to fight. JJJ is great for when you dont want to injure anyone. But Koryu jujutsu JJJ has got serious K.O strikes and kicks. (Legitimate atemi waza) I wish I had used one of those when a thief drug addict threatened me with his syringe held in his hand like one of Wolverines Claws.
A little simplified but absolutly true. Even with spear, primary weapon on the battle field, you have to know grappling as even with it's reach, at some point you will end up in a grappling situation. I think Fioré covered a lot of that in his treaties.
grappling with polearms was for sure essential (well not pike necessarily) bcs otherwise u can quickly lose your reach advantage
Well, I just learned something today! Never thought of that. Thank you!
4:54 EXACTLY I first heard this quote on an excellent channel, ran by a University Fencing Instructor, HEMA Instructor and Antique Weapons Dealer; called Scholagladiatoria. He knows his sword/knife fighting!
Captain Context - Matt Easton. Solid dude, great channel.
Gotta keep things in context! Lol
It's all about context.
ole Ramsey should be narrating documentaries . got the perfect voice and demeanor for it
More like thinking outside the boat, Coach! Love the channel!!!
Loved the mention of Musashi :D
Kendo sword should be 'shinai'
The wooden sword would be 'bokken'
doesn’t “shinai” like literally just translate to bamboo sword? and “bokken” literally just mean wooden sword?
so shouldn’t the terms be interchangeable?
@@midshipman8654 no shin means real or live a boken is a wooden sword
A shuriken is literally a thrown sword
Shinken is a real sword with a live blade, and the term has lots of uses as a metaphor as in " lets do this shinken" means basically a live weapon exercise
I'm looking him up after this. A boat oar? Thats pimpin!
Guns. Samurai also really liked guns. The ones who won anyway.
Because of the difference in our timezones, your videos often end up being a great way to end the day
Hi Ramsey Dewey! Awesome Video! I believe the Kendo Sword is called a Shinai and I hear some people who train in kendo use Bokuto for solo practice.
As usual Ramsey is interesting and informative
Also some submissions are specific to the way that the armor restricts your mobility and you can use those restrictions for leverage. It is similar to how you can use gi in grappling vs non gi.
Where can I get some of those pictures? Great explanation….
Binding is a thing at least in my German longsword books but so is wrestling.
Ramsey "greetings nerds and virgins" Dewey
This is a solid video on Samurai martial arts nice
I was thinking about the art of drawing the sword when I was running through some sword forms just a few hours ago, lol.
I can see the value of it in terms of efficient self-defence, maybe even moreso these days,
because getting your weapon to hand is pretty important. Even if you're not super-proficient at wielding it, once it's out... chances are you now have a sword, and they don't! 😄
I’m taking my brown belt test tonight! I’m somewhat nervous about it any ropes for remembering the knowledge?
Most of that the Samurai were really known for was for being great Horse Archers really. But many people focus on the swords this days because swords are cool.
I get it, I get it.
& yes you got the Musashi dueling story somewhat right he didn't crave a sword out of the oar really but rather a long blunt weapon, probably resembled a top heavy bo or a long kanabō (Japanese mace). He fought a duelist that wielded an Odachi (a "horse-slayer" katana thats significantly longer than usual, longer than a Tachi katana even).
Not really horse archery was only the main practice for Samurai during two periods but even during those times there were Samurai renowned for swordsmanship.
Concerning that famous duel it is arguable if it actually occurred,nodachi/oachi actually has no evidence being you specifically against horses, about Tachi being longer than a katana that's more of a modern classification.
@@eagle162 No one said Samurai cant be great swordsmen. All he said was that the "majority" of Samurai in
combat were horse archers which is true. Swords were a secondry arm after being dismounted. Horse archery fell out of use in 1751.
@@teovu5557 no again that fell out of favor long before that and swords also were use on horseback.
Back then the arts employed didn't emphasize inner peace, calm and control which is abundant today. They were all for killing since those times were very turbulent.
I myself am happy to be living in this era with an extreme appreciation for today's martial arts.
Great reflection Ramsey, I have been practicing kendo for five years now and learned a lot of its history. Kendo as we know it today its actually quite modern, it took its final form on the mid 1950s, when it became a martial art for self development. The ultimate goal is to create better human beings through the teachings of the sword. The word Jutsu (as in Kenjutsu) means Method or Art, The word Do (as in Kendo) on the other hand means Way. This emphasizes the Way kendoka live by the modern sword teachings instead of the old traditional way of using the sword as a war weapon.
First comment on your channel, yay!! Not wanting to downplay wrestling's importance in swordfighting (almost all historical fencing manuals I know have dedicated wrestling sections), but Silver seems to have meant what you mentioned as a problem specific to the rapier.
George Silver was an Englishman who wrote his "Paradoxes..." in order to defend the traditional English broadsword against the oh-so-fashionable in his time Italian rapier, which he deemed too dangerous. His whole book contains huge sections of essentially rapier bashing.
The meaning of his quote seems to be along the lines of "Rapier is such a faulty weapon that no skill belongs to it, therefore when two men fence with it, the best wrestler and not the best fencer prevails".
Again this isn't meant to say that wrestling is not important to fencing, just to provide some context.
A question for the coach. What happened with the infamous "phantom punch" in Ali v Liston? There are so many theories based on the reputation of each fighter and the historical background but I have been trying to find any mechanical breakdown of what actually happened and can't. I would love to hear what you have to say about the footage and what really happened. Thanks
Coach will have better opinions obviously but my two cents as someone who's been knocked out too many times: rotational force! it wasn't a heavy hit but Liston was leaned forward, Ali's cross came over and down, that angle of attack quickly rotated Liston's head, and that quick spinning of the brain does far more damage to your faculties than a heavy straight punch, hurts less for sure, but even if the lights stay on that kinda hit will make you forget where you are for a few milliseconds every time.
Hey Ramsey! Been watching for a while, but I think this is my first comment. Another reason why the samurai might have used grappling: If someone is unarmed, striking is going to be ineffective against an armored opponent, so if a samurai wants a "back up" emergency skill set, grappling is pretty much the only option they have. Also, I think iaido is not just the art of unsheathing the blade, but the art of doing so and killing your opponent in the same movement. Which makes it a lot more interesting than just sheathing and unsheathing. Thanks for the great videos!
There's a great book by Ellis Amdur called Old School, about classical Japanese martial arts. Mostly weapon styles, some included grappling with weapons.
Great vid!!! I really love the historic perspective of the arts! I would love to see a very serious competitive weapons fighters like HEMA give their take on weapons injuries found in mass graves. Like the battle of Towton. I think we are just so ignorant on how these battles were fought. The movies always make it seem like one blow one death. I think it was way more brutal, gruesome and complex
GEORGE SILVER!
And here Ramsey is trying to say he isn't that kind of nerd haha.
Edit: Man George Silver really hated the rapier. I can confirm though, that grappling is effective in rapier combat.
Lol, Ramsey isn't that kind of nerd :), that's a cool line!
George Silver really hated the Italians lol. His book has so much trash-talk aimed at them it's crazy, you'd think it's a UA-cam comment section.
Rapier with a sidearm or buckler is fine, but mostly in a civilian context and George Silver doesn't like that. But single rapier? That got Silver fuming, since it fundamentally ignores defense in favor of playing tag with the blade. Rapier fights can have both duelists end up looking like swiss cheese and still move, then they die later of internal injuries anyway - so nobody wins. As a military man, George Silver wants a clear win, and nothing is as clear as cleaving someone's hand off.
Great info🙏 Makes all the sense in the world. Was it The Paradoxes of Defence, written by George Silver in 1599ad?
That’s the one.
@RamseyDewey Thank you Sensei ⛩️🙏 love what you've done on the Martial Arts Journey show 💪🔥🐉🙏👊
I think wooden kendo sticks are called shinai in Japanese my uncles did the sport. I fought with European broad swords and grabbling was a important part but when swords met we were taught not to keep pushing unless you see an opening to grab the guys arm but to move the sword back and make another attack and with the swords although size mattered it was far more forgiving with size differences if you were lighter/smaller than say Judo or wrestling if you were fast and hit very hard and fast and used the lever affect well.
No they are called Bokken, the bamboo ones are for kendo and Bokken are for Kenjutsu
All weapons are Greek. Relax you didn't invent shit
Military history and martial arts, what a combination of topics! I wonder how increasingly complex formations would have affected the practice of grappling in combat, as well as fighting opponents who utilized different combat systems? (Macedonian Successor Phalanx vs Roman Polybian Legion, for example).
love musashi, and the story of him with the oar! what a legend! im pretty sure the kendo sword is called a "shiniai" or something :)
I always liked to think of Judo as the "greatest hits" of Japanese jujutsu. Back when it was still called Kano-Ryu Jujutsu, named after it's founder Jigoro Kano, it was an amalgamation of different styles that Kano practiced and perfected. When it became more sport oriented the "jutsu" was removed from the name to remove any association with criminal behavior and warfare and was replaced with "do" meaning "the way" which was often given to more modern interpretations of old school martial arts. I.e. kendo vs kenjutsu, iaido vs iaijutsu etc.
That's partly correct. The main goal of judo though was sport and sportsmanship behavior. As Japanese liked to put emphasis on honor. They took out every lethal technique. So no trying to kill your opponent. And more of a point based system. It's mainly that wich separates do from jitsu. Where jitsu has very little sportsmanship behavior. Quite the opposite. The goal was to fight dirty and finish fights in a brutal matter. Maiming and killing were the main goals. The use of these tactics by the criminal underworld of Japan almost destroyed it's legacy. So kano tried to purify it and made it into two separate disciplines that still brought honor to it's history on the battlefields. Jujitsu wich was more about control techniques and movement and judo wich was sport oriented and competitive.
People forget Kano's aim went much much further than that. Judo was conceived as a PHYSICAL EDUCATION system and a CHARACTER BUILDING system for modern civilized man. This is why Judo has such a strong all around value, while BJJ people usually behave like dope bros or like outright gangsters.
Hey Coach Ramsey, can you do a a session on which martial arts would be ideal for the military? Specifically the army and special forces. I'm aware that there isn't a huge requirement due to the usage of guns as well as the limited time frame of the training period (6-9 months for EM and 1-4 years for Officers, depending on the type of entry). However I'm interested in knowing your views about the matter since you're an experienced mixed martial artist as well as an instructor.
I'm not speaking from military experience, but Jocko Willink who is a combat veteran from the War on Terror claims that Jiu-Jitsu is best because you're correct in stating that you won't need to strike often. BJJ helps because those abilities are more for comfort controlling unarmed people and innocent people, of various levels of resistance. Hope it helps bro!
@@darkness1293 thanks!
Bear in mind that he practices a regulated unarmed sport, not in a military context. I've seen a couple documentaries on MMA training in the military, but obviously the important part is weapons training (guns, bayonet, knife). Even if you go back in history, it's hard to find a resemblance to modern MMA because people never tried to fight unarmed and often fought in formation, a very different context from one-on-one duels.
Alternatively he could talk about historical (melee) duels, which could be more similar to MMA, though people still wouldn't be unarmed. But there would be wrestling and swordplay would replace standup kickboxing.
@@MynameisBrianZX How about trench warfare during WW1? Often times the enemy was so deeply embedded that it meant charging through no man's land to attack them. After reaching the enemy trench using guns was difficult considering the length of the gun and the small size of the trench. Often times I believe they had to use various improvised weapons to get the job done.
@@shankarsatheesan6846 from the little I've read and seen about it, it's invariably armed, so again this would probably be more relevant to a military history channel. No doubt people were punching and wrestling in the trenches at some point or another, but the use of trench shotguns, knives, clubs, and knuckle dusters in a cramped trench is a very different context than the Octagon.
Those old photos and woodblock prints are incredible to look at, ever since i was a young child they have resonated with my spirit.
Thanks for including them & doing so in a designerly way. It's nice to see them placed with equal negative space between them
I heard many of those photos are commoners posing in armor, not actual samurai, for souvenir photos for foreigners. But the ones in kimono like 0:12 and 0:45 are probably actual samurais.
@@v.d.2738 Yes, very cool. That does make sense with photography being a new technology and japan slowly opening its borders more
We used the boat oar bokken for resistance training when I did kendo. Only for 6 months.
A great breakdown.
In European fighting books, I love seeing moments when fencing masters will remind the reader not to learn from less-experienced teachers, who flail and swing around in fancy flourishes to look impressive. After hundreds of years our martial arts trash talk has not evolved.
As you know I tried sooo very hard not to like you. I've failed again. KUDOS dude. You da man. Your features are enlightening right and CORRECT. Please feature the Ainu samurai of Japan and Korean Kempo aka Kwon bop. Osu and respect sir. 🙏🏼🐉🐅
hey coach what do you think of one punch man/ Saitama training, 100 sit ups, 100 push ups, 100 squats and 10 km run every day
Hi, Ramsey. Great and informative as always. I have an off topic question for you. I really like what you did in the background of this video. Do you know a good app to use for splicing different video clips together. I'm really trying to do this with my youtube channel but I'm personally lost in the dark about how to do it and how to edit in general. Any information will be very much appreciated. Thank you very much.
That photo collage in the background is something any iPhone can do automatically with any pictures in your photo album. Just highlight the pics you want to use, press the … in the lower right corner, and select “slideshow”. Screen record it, and use it however you want.
@@RamseyDewey Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I don't use an iphone, but thank you all the same.
Wow that was real interesting. It shows imo why striking advancement is new cause every culture forever has been fighting with weapons. I never thought about how important grappling would be in that b4.
Hi Bro love your contents.... Please react to silat betawi 3 iron body, is it legit or another bullshido.
Excellent episode, 100 percent true about sword duels.
as we can see in modern mma, it's hard asf for a pure striker to handle a grappler as grapplers will almost always control where the fight is gonna be
I got a fun question: what Bullshido art do you think would be most effective? Like if you got a bunch of no touch guys and systema guys and "ninjistu" guys, etc together, what style do you think has enough kernels of truth to actually be effective against the other bullshido guys?
The ninjas. They have swords.
Coach..I miss your videos!!
Well, I have a about 2000 more you can watch and more on the way all the time!
"He fought way differently than his opponents, which is why he killed them." Is one of the best quotes I've ever heard. I'm actually laughing out loud xD
An interesting tidbit I learned is that samurai grappling in armor (yoroi kumiuchi) also included techniques with the Yoroi-doshi, which was a type of dagger than could pierce armor. Samurai would duel each and the winner would collect the other person's head as tribute to their Daimyo.
I respect you opinion of your perspective on martial arts espacially self defense systems. You are right acctually and you trying too the true reality of its effectiveness. I belivie they might work but the practioner of the martial art must pay attention to awareness and keep having good mindset. The true meaning of martial arts is acctually to avoid yourself from a situation full of danger.
You should invent a time machine and go explain the true meaning of martial arts to the samurai, since they used their martial arts specifically to wage wars and kill people.
@@RamseyDewey I meant on modern days. Samurai had diffrent tactics on the battlefeild . My point was that they used hand-to-hand combat as their last option when they were out of arrows or even disarmed that made them use espacially grappling against their opponents.
How do you feel about cross training in boxing, muay thai, nogi BJJ, etc for MMA? Is it actually useful for the athlete's improvement nowadays, or it is something that is more done just for fun and variety?
Good commentary, i’ll also add that unarmed strikes don’t work too good through armor but throws and joint locks still do, that and ground and stabbing your opponent
I heard many of those photos are commoners posing in armor, not actual samurai, for souvenir photos for foreigners. But the ones in kimono like 0:13 and 0:45 are probably actual samurais.
I love those ukiyoe arts btw. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi is one of the best.
Hey Ramsey, what Martial Art do you think would be best for swordfighting, as in what Martial Art from it's forms etc. translates best to swords but is also effective in unarmed? Also from both the Eastern Arts and the Western Arts.
Did you know that the term “martial arts” in English was originally used to describe European sword fighting?
@@RamseyDewey wow I actually did not know that, kind of funny since "Martial Arts" colloquially is understood as Asian.
Excelent breakdown, there is a video depicting how they fought in old days. Once their spears clashed, they went for a takedown.
You have a pleasant voice!
Always great instructive video.
I just found out some strange martial art online and i think it could make a good break down video on this weird style. I dont even know if its legit but you should chek it out lol.
its called Okichitaw martial art and its seems to be a martial art including some native american war technique or its what they claim.
it could be something someone put together and made it unique, like the Hawaiian Martial art, i forget its name, which is a mix of several martial art styles in one!
Ramsey brother. If u have space to make distance from green screen at least 1 meter. Ideal would be to have one light just to light green screen(to avoid any shadows on green sc.).no need for fancy light.just decent power led will do. It will make keeying so much eaiser and it will looks really crisp. Peace bro and for any help in video u can contact me. Am not some pro but i learned a lot through years.
Verry interesting
Some of the most efficient sword techniques involve grabbing your opponents hands to immobilise/control their blade while you use your other hand to deliver a lethal blow. A lot of kenjutsu techniques I learned involve grappling and wrist control, and if your opponent is good enough to stop your killing blow you suddenly both find yourself in a grappling match, then it’s usually the first to take the other down and draw their dagger who wins
What’s your view on Glima? I know you’re a descendant of Thor, (jealous) lol. I’ve never had a chance to take a class on it, but it seems like how I used to wrestle others as a kid while rough housing.
I don’t know much about it, but it’s fascinating that every human culture has independently developed at least one style of wrestling.
Here I was thinking it was bunch of guys pulling guard on the battlefield and complaining about slams
There is a good video by Chadi with some examples, battles during less than a minute
People in the comments are generally right about shinai, the practice sword--typically constructed from bamboo slats in a way that adds more flexibility to the practice weapon, and thus less damage upon striking--and the bokken, the Western term for the practice sword typically of one piece.
Shinai (竹刀) is, indeed, bamboo sword.
Bokken (木剣) is wooden sword. Now, the second kanji, is commonly used, but not always, on a double-edged sword. It's the more commonly used word in the West, as when the word came from Japan, that's what was used at the time.
That said, bokutou (木刀) is the Japanese pronunciation of wooden sword. The kanji, when put together, gives a different reading. You may see bokutou alternatively written as bokuto, though it's a long o in Japanese, so bokutō is also a fair transliteration.
I mention this because it's the more common usage nowadays for the same object. When I mentioned that ken (剣) can be used for a double-edged sword, it's really applicable to various sword types. So essentially, wooden wasters could be considered bokken if someone were to speak Japanese.
Finally (for the purposes of a random youtube comment), there's kidachi (木太刀). The "ki" is the same kanji for wood, as you can see with bokken and bokutou, but the "dachi" part, when not connected, is "tachi", a more specific type of katana. In more modern contexts, tachi is used not unlike how the West uses "katana", in that we'll apply it to Japanese swords in general. So going from tachi to kidachi, we also have "wooden sword". You won't necessarily see this word as much, but it's a possible variant.
tl;dr--So, pretty much in the West, you'll hear shinai and bokken for the two types of wooden swords. in Japan, you'll hear shinai and bokutou for the same two types of wooden swords. There's another term, but is most likely less common in both speaking circles.
Side note about George Silver: Someone who knows more can correct me on this, but as far as I know, George Silver absolutely hated the rapier, so I'm not sure I would take his words about rapier fencing too seriously.
Did you watch Fight Bible's video on an MMA belt rank system, something you spoke against in the past and did it or anything else changed your mind on the matter over the months?
My school teacher was a Vietnam veteran, had his gun with him in a dug-out trench at night and had to grapple hand to hand combat. He said in modern warfare you'll almost never see the enemy up close.
This was a primary use of the short tanto blade many samurai carried. Judo is considered to be a consolidation of a vast number of regional/family Jiu Jitsu styles. The throws in Judo are meant to be performed against an armored opponent (which, by the way, would stun an armored opponent with that kind of force). The submissions in the ground work and ground positions are meant to hold your opponent in place. Then the Tanto comes out and can be forced into an opening in the armor.
Makes sense!
Samurai arts have a bunch of really COOL and obscure weapons, there is this one style that has rope grappling, it looks really cool. (I can't remember the name but it's literally just rope grappling, not kusari-gama or anything like that just the rope).
This comment is only slightly related to the video but I felt an urge to share my liking of obscure martial arts
*What do you think about folk Romanian wrestling (Trântă)?*