Pressure Testing in Classical Budō
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Even in classical arts that emphasize pattern practice, it is important to test our skill.
Students typically regard their teachers as skilled, otherwise they would not be training with them – somewhat tautologically. One thing I enjoy about the HEMA community is that while in general the direct historical linkage provided by Asian martial arts is not present, more detailed writings survive on the arts as taught in their time period, and with a great deal of effort, and a modern open-source mindset, a high level of skill has been evoked in that community in a relatively short period of time. It makes me wonder what would happen in the koryū community if the different groups decided to regularly get together and fight one another and prioritized basic training (i.e., fitness) in addition to pattern practice.
It is a bit of a fallacy to think there can be no free practice in traditional martial arts, due to the dangers inherent in their practice. At the same time, we want our practice to retain the character of what it is, instead of regressing to the mean in an attempt to win at a competition — this is a structural challenge with simply cross-training in Judo or MMA or HEMA to bring pressure testing into one's practice. One is pressure testing Judo or MMA, not their koryu or other classical practice. Doing so might benefit the latter, but a lot of work on integration of what one learns through the process is still required. Regardless, where grappling or sparring with mock swords is concerned, I think there is more the koryū community could do as a whole to keep their practices alive.
Some arts do this, but they are arduous, and do not attract many practitioners. People who excel at arts of good repute might quickly fail out of that kind of training evolution, once randomness and freedom are introduced. The familiar can become unfamiliar, and with freedom comes a proportionate amount of stress introduced into the practice. I am not sure each traditional martial art is capable of taking anyone interested in older approaches to training and culture on an intellectual level and bringing them to the correct mindset, without an external threat of conflict that would drive practice and an associated cultivation of how to keep the mind focused and relaxed during times of danger (through posture, breathing, visualization, incantation, or other means).
In my own case, after moving to Seattle I initially had no one to practice formal kenjutsu kata with. However, I did find a sparring partner who trains in a different tradition than my own who was interested in free practice, with the blessing of his teacher. In doing so, we used heavy Nen-ryu style fukuro shinai popular among Kashima Shinryu, along with Lacrosse goalie gloves and HEMA fencing masks. I found the activity to be a very useful laboratory to explore all the things I have learned over the years, at Hobyokan and elsewhere.
I noticed that for me, Shinkage-ryū works much better than Shinto-ryū in free sparring, although bits and pieces of Shinto-ryū seem to be effective when just outside of grappling range. This has caused me to more and more focus only on Shinkage-ryū over time.
My kenjutsu training for a time wound up focused on gaining fighting experience and working on body conditioning. The reason the sparring sessions seem to be working for me is we are both committed to our individual arts and exploring how to use them, rather than deviating from them when we have trouble, simply in order to win.
I have also had the good fortune of since being able to recently participate in Fight Night at Lonin, a HEMA collective in Seattle. Fight Night is an open sparring session where HEMA groups can get together to spar with light steel weapons. I acquired a fencing jacket, neck protector, padded pants, shin guards, gauntlets, back of head protector, neck protector, and a steel blunted longsword and joined in their open fight night two weeks ago. The longswords are about 42 inches long so the distance is closer to a larger Chinese jian or a Japanese odachi (greatsword) than a Japanese tachi (sabre), so it is taking some getting used to.
At times in sparring I could use some tactics well, despite having to adapt to a different distance and tempo. I am taking time to practice aspect of Chinese swordsmanship with the steel longsword (called a feder or "feather" sword ) to get the movements facile (there is a cross-bar type guard that one must be cognizant of as jabbing yourself in the eye is not to be desired). Over time, I will work on Shinkage-ryū in the same manner.
I have taken photos of longsword competitions in previous years and was glad to attend Longpoint in Maryland and Swordsquatch in Seattle. In late 2018 I took the step of entering into an Open Steel longsword HEMA competition so I could experience the action first hand.
While I do not actively practice HEMA, I found the experience exciting and engaging and found it interesting to adapt to the increased distance and speed (the "Feder" is lighter than the weapons I typically use, for safety reasons) found within the Italian and German longsword practices. I enjoyed sparring people I had not met before and trying to adapt to their individual styles without much prior knowledge of what they would be doing.
The way I cut in kenjutsu and Chinese swordsmanship is a bit different than is common in HEMA; with proper body organization it is possible to generate sufficient power with smaller movements than are used in HEMA, but it takes a long time to develop that kind of skill. It is part of what makes those arts so special. So, I did not score well in the matches, but did manage to keep my focus and intensity and looking at the video footage, am generally pleased with how things turned out. I was there to experience freestyle sparring at speed with new opponents, and test my skill. That much I accomplished.
In the spirit of owning up to intensity needed for proper training, accepting strengths and limitations, striving to exceed the latter while developing the former, and taking the good with the bad, below are links to my matches:
I was happy with my ability to close and to uproot opponents backwards to make room to cut; a challenge with the rule set is how small the rings were. Part of how I fight involves closing with an opponent, removing their options by getting them off-balance, and then cutting them. One way to do the latter is to drive them back using body organization and cut. In my matches, I found that driving someone back to do this often took them out of the ring, calling a halt to the action.
I did succeed in executing two throws spontaneously, drawing on my Taijiquan, using an arm entangle and stab from Bagua Jian, and in escaping from an arm grab at close range. So, some of the Chinese Internal Martial Arts skills are coming through for me in free practice. The mat was a bit slippery and I lost my footing once. At least my opponent was moving backward and out of range when that happened, but falling was much less than ideal.
I found the continuous format required a great deal of stamina to stick with the flow of sparring while wearing relatively heavy armor and protective gear. The ring, however, was a bit small to maneuver in, and caused many of the engagements to start too close. I would like to be able to do a similar format with more space. The open steel format is different enough from what I am trying to develop in my YCGF and my kenjutsu practice that I am not sure I would optimize for it in my training, and make a point to start entering HEMA tournaments regularly, but they are a great resource that I want to point out exist for testing one's spirit, especially to the koryu community for those willing to step outside their comfort zone.
I think most koryu practitioners would find doing so useful as a calibration, even if not part of their regular training. It would be good if serious Asian martial arts groups that did sparring or wanted to do sparring with weapons took up HEMA gear and rules as a starting point and integrated free practice into their training after a while, and then sparred each other (even across groups). It would change most of the discussion around koryū, especially as Kendo has evolved too much from its roots for that to be a meaningful laboratory for older styles of Japanese swordsmanship, just as Olympic fencing has for European swordsmanship. The HEMA community has developed or invented a sort of middle ground for themselves, where the German and Italian resurrected traditions can interact, and I believe some lessons can be adapted to kenjutsu under the right circumstances.