The Silk Road School

Of Sword and Self-Defense

Practice and Preparation

Basic Techniques
Drills
Basic Equipment
Notes
Terminology

 

Basic Techniques

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Drills

BASIC KATANA DRILLS
1. X-cuts – always rising to the outside
2. vertical cut:  rear hand to forehead; remember to slice, not chop
3. long diagonals:  rear hand comes down to pocket, both elbows relaxed; keep tip from dropping too far
4. back and forth – direction change:  keep the edge where you want it
5. block with the ridge, not the edge (not always possible in combat):  pair off and take turns doing slow cuts, while partner practises getting ridge placed correctly
6. basic wards:  middle ward, side wards (high and low), low ward

BASIC LONGSWORD DRILLS
1. double-edge X-cut/direction change:  hands behind the lead edge
        a. low, high, low – small loop at top
        b. low, high, high
        c. high, high, high
2. dropping tip circles (can also try writing name as small as possible with the tip): lead   hand parallel to edges, thumb on the flat
3. stationary tip, hands side to side – basic hand block (either grip):  keep tip ready for  a face thrust while blocking a cut to your hands
4. changing grip – rotate hilt between hands
5. cross-cuts from changing directions
6. basic wards:  central ward, low ward (plough, or fool’s ward), side wards

BASIC DOUBLE-SWORD DRILLS
1. “stir” with the back edge
2. cross-cut from opposite shoulder and back-edge follow-up:
        a. as a parry and a cut in one
        b. as two cuts
        c. as a lie and a cut
3. Silver circles
        a. blocks over & under
        b. cut from over, cut from under
        c. wide back edge cuts from under – 1.a. with two hands
4. basic wards: 
         a. wide hands, narrow tips – the clock face – tips about ten inches apart
           i. middle ward
           ii. high & low (Jaws of the Dragon)
        b. staggered tips:  retreat one pace to maintain
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Basic Equipment

If you keep practising with the Silk Road School for more than a month or so,
you’ll need some equipment of your own.

1. STREET HOCKEY GLOVES for fast work
(required within the first month)
2. STREET HOCKEY HELMET (with screen attached)
or 3-WEAPON FENCING MASK
(required within three months)
2. 1 or 2 SHINAI
(required within six months)
3. 1 or 2 BOKKEN or WASTERS
(required by discussion for certain styles)
5. STURDY, COMFORTABLE LEATHER GLOVES for slow work: 
e.g. welding gloves, gardening gloves, sabre master’s gloves
You may also find some or all of these to be useful:
-groin protection
-breast protection (for women)
-knee pads/shields (street hockey or equivalent)
-elbow pads/shields (street hockey or equivalent)

-dit da jow liniment for sore muscles & bruises

Please feel free to ask me for likely & economical places to find these.  I can be reached
at 831-335-1395, or by e-mail: silk.road.school@ix.netcom.com

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Notes


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Terminology

SILK ROAD SCHOOL PRACTISE-YARD TERMS

GENERAL

spar: to practise in a mock fight.
bout: a round of sparring; a single ‘fight’.
match: the competition version of a bout.
slow work: practise fighting done in slow motion to develop a sense of form and body dynamics.
sworder: a person of either gender who practises the art of the sword.
shinai (pron. “she-NIGH”): a bamboo practise sword (Japanese), originally made for kendo.
kendo: literally ‘swordWay’-- originally the martial art of swordsmanship, now mostlya sport: Japanese fencing. Actual martial art seems to enter kendo at about the 5th dan (level) of black belt.
draw-cut: a cut relying on sharpness rather than force or speed for its damage, by
pulling (or sometimes pushing) the edge across the target.
lead-cut: a cut made with the leading, or forward, edge.
back-cut: a cut made with the back edge.
slash: usually a shallow draw-cut, executed with the lead inch or two of blade.
half-swording: European concept of gripping a longsword at hilt and mid-blade in
order to use it like a staff, or in order to control an opponent’s weapon.
dojo (pron. “DOE-joe”): literally ‘Wayplace’-- a practise hall, or any place at all
approached with the same attitude.
bokken (pron. “BOE-ken”: literally ‘staffsword’ or ‘sticksword’-- a Japanese hardwood practise sword. Not recommended for sparring. (Some of Musashi’s most celebrated kills were performed with bokken.)
waster: an European hardwood practise sword. Not recommended for sparring. (See notes on bokken.)
sabre (or saber), foil, epée: fencing weapons; European versions, in steel, of shinai or bokken (see also “sabre” below).
buckler: a small European shield, held in front of the fist. Many varieties and shapes, although the commonest is simply round.
target, targe: European shield covering the arm from fist to elbow. The targe is
sometimes used by the Scots with a dirk held point-down in the same hand.

PARTS OF AN EDGED WEAPON

hilt: the part of your edged weapon that you hold (i.e., not the pointy end): the grip, guard, and pommel.
blade: the part of your edged weapon that you don’t hold (i.e., the pointy end): the
bare, sharp steel (or bronze, or wood, or stone, as the case may be).
back edge (sometimes ‘false edge’): the edge aligned away from your lead cut;
generally the edge closest to your thumb.
guard, crosspiece, tsuba, cage hilt, basket hilt, quillons (sometimes mispronounced
– and misspelt – ‘quillions’): various types of, and names for, hand protection.
forté: the back half of a sword-blade’s length, the section closer to the user: literally
the “strong” part of the blade.
foible: the lead half of a sword-blade’s length, equally literally the “weak” part.
fuller: (sometimes called a “blood groove”): a groove or trough ground into the
blade lengthwise, running part-way or the whole length, either in order to lighten the overall weight of the sword without weakening it substantially (on the same principle as the I-beam), or to alter the balance for better handling.
tang: the portion of the blade that’s out of sight inside the grip; the place a sword is likeliest to break is at the tang. Most commercial swords have a narrow tang, which makes for weakness at a crucial point of stress; a strong tang should be about half the width of the blade. Many knives, and some spears and naginata, have short tangs which are also weaker than usage demands.

TYPES OF EDGED WEAPONS

katana, tachi (pron. KA-ta-na, TA-chee): Japanese swords, single-edged-- the tachi is generally the more curved of the two (not without exceptions), and is worn in a scabbard hanging from the obi (sash) rather than thrust through it.
ken: ancient Japanese sword, straight and double-edged-- rare. Today rarely found
outside temples. The source word for kendo.
chokuto (cho-KOO-toe) (also known sometimes as ninja-to): straight, single-edged Japanese sword.
wakazashi: Japanese shortsword or left-hand sword, single-edged; carried with katana or tachi. Also known as ‘companion sword.’
tanto: Japanese dagger or short knife, single-edged.
rapier: a long, slender, double-edged cut-&-thrust sword. (Some modern stylists insist the rapier is no use for cutting, and is only used for thrusting. The Masters of the 16th century seem to have disagreed.) Usually includes a complex cage or basket hilt.
cut-&-thrust sword: a rather awkward term devised by the above modern stylists, with no historical evidence, to describe blades they don’t want to call rapiers.
side sword: mistranslation of ‘espada di filo’
edge sword: correct translation of ‘espada di filo’: a more period term for a cut-&-thrust sword that’s a bit heavier than most rapiers, but not heavy enough to be intended for use against armour.
case: a matched pair of swords (usually rapiers), with half-hilts arranged so as to look a singlesword when sheathed together.
main gauche (“man goshe”): (also “left-hand dagger”) double-edged European version of the wakazashi-- too many styles to list.
falchion: curved European blade with extra weight at its primary spot of cutting &
impact power. Made to take the stress of getting a blow through armour.
sabre (or saber): cutting sword with a curved single edge. Katana and tachi actually fall into this category, but are almost never referred to that way. And to further confuse the issue, one style of Chinese sabre (see dao) is frequently referred to as a “Manchu broadsword.”
scimitar, shamshir, talwar, tulwar: various cultures’ names for the Asian sabre, ranging from Turkey to India, from blades almost rapier-slim to heavy choppers like the falchion, and from slight arcs to extreme curves. All of these variations occur in almost every country where any type of the weapon appears. Usually has a swelling pommel of some kind to keep the hand in place. Almost identical are certain Russian and Polish blades.
broadsword: a straight, double-edged sword made more for heavy cuts than for draw-cuts or thrusts. An exception is the “Scottish basket-hilt broadsword,” where the back edge is only sharpened for the first foot or so near the point. (There is some debate as to whether this term existed at all before the 18th century.)
backsword: English term for a single-edged straight sword, usually with basket hilt
(e.g. the Scottish basket-hilt broadsword); 16th – 19th centuries. longsword, bastard sword, hand-and-a-half: a sword large enough to be fit for either one- or two-handed use, and equipped with a grip (sometimes barely) long enough for both hands. Most claymores fall into this category (see next entry). Some are mainly for one-handed use, with a little extra power available from the other hand; a few are mainly two-handers, with some limited one-hand use (this border varies according to the strength and size of the user, of course). The maximum length of these is somewhere around five and a half feet, at which point (heh) it’s generally termed a greatsword.
greatsword: These can reach up to seven or eight feet, and are strictly two-handed
weapons. There are Japanese versions of these as well, called no-dachi; Germanic versions, termed zwei-haenders-- lit. “two-handers”--; and a Scottish type, (actually ranging anywhere from a longsword to a greatsword) referred to as the claymore (the proper Gaelic term is claidhaemh mór).
dao (“dow”): Chinese sabres – everything from slender blades to broad ones, but
always curved to some extent and generally single-edged. There are many, many varieties, some dating as far back as the 9th century C.E.. The commonest and most current version is often known in the U.S. as a “Manchu broadsword.” In China, it is a type of willow-leaf dao.
jian, jen (“jyahn, jenn”): (Often known as “t’ai chi swords” in the U.S.) Chinese
swords with straight blades, generally double-edged. Generally an aristocrat’s weapon, comparable to the rapier in social status and use. Some versions are so ancient they possess jade or bronze blades.


There are too many types of sword in the world for this to be more than a beginning. Ask me ifthere’s something you find missing; the SRS has quite a number of books available for check-out.
-Gereg

  
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