Miyamoto Musashi’s book “”The Book of Five Rings”

I have the last 5 months reread Miyamoto Musashi’s book “”The Book of Five Rings” and have had quite a lot of eureka moments, as the more times I read it I get a completely new perspective about bladed combat, I have lost count as it is more than 10 times as I don’t take notes but try to understand the full picture than just a few pieces of the puzzle, as I view it from my interpretation of the book that has changed or rather confirmed my view on how to use long bladed weapons, which is completely contrary to how I have been taught to do in sport fencing, the FMA styles I have trained and other systems where the weapon is launched first and the body moves after or at the same time.

As it is nearly the same as I have learned training AMOK! stick and machete, making it easier for me to change muscle memory and an easy transition, that in the end has removed any doubt about if I should or could combine previous training and concepts, but I cant as they are incompatible with my current one, but also teach how others systems attacks to have general idea of why and what to expect, and most importantly persons with no training based on watching how untrained persons swings a stick horizontal at shoulder height as it is the most natural way for the shoulder, so they are exposed to very different attacks to learn and experience the difference in oppositional training and sparring. 

The emphasis on using the body first to launch the attack, and with heavy stickiness on impact which will keep the pressure on the line of attack instead of a possible redirection of his weapon and an unknown counter attack path, creates situations that I have been training a lot and have explored all kinds of variations for swords, inspired by a really good chi sao like sensitivity drill I was taught by a HEMA instructor Dan Smith from the EHCG, which then opens up for a lot ways to find a Guided Discovery path/way to attack while keeping the opponent locked in a momentary fixed position, that leaves him no choice than to keep him there to avoid being cut as the power output is maximal and if he breaks contact he will get cut, or try to find a way to attack without disengaging the blade to blade contact. That is only 1 element of many that makes the book so interesting to keep reading it over and over again, the book is so full of wisdom that I find it worth to keep on finding as much as possible from a source with so much to offer.

I have used the same concept with knives and it is perfect for martial arts trained opponents that does not move their hands outside the frame of their torso when they parry, as while the other is working on a solution and is at the start of the second OODA loop (Observe, Orientate, Decide, Action) after his parry which is his 1st loop, I find a path by reflex and have finished my actions and have completed the 2nd OODA loop with my second attack that is combined with a pin, control of his weapon hand, trap, takedown or something else while keeping him on the start of the next one while I execute my Actions fast and extremely aggressive non stop, as the Decision is to go AMOK!, so he has to Observe constantly and will have difficulty to reach the Decision point. 

If the OODA loop is an unknown term I recommend reading about it as it is one of those things that is extremely important to know, and it has even more applications than only strategic warfare and combat, same goes with Musashi’s book ”The Book of Five Rings". 

Train Like an Ancient Hindu Warrior: The Steel Mace Workout

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/04/23/train-like-an-ancient-hindu-warrior-the-steel-mace-workout/

The Great Gama: undefeated wrestler, owner of a heroic mustache, and mace trainer

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Silat Suffian Bela Diri - Joint Dislocations & Takedowns

Even though their training methods are absolutely not my cup go tee, as it is too compliant were anything is possible since it lacks oppositional training, many of their videos have a lot of interesting things to offer, I like what I see but don’t like how it’s done.

This has tremendous value depending on how you look at it, I have chosen to get inspiration and use it as another view as many of their techniques are similar to what I teach, but as I teach with 90% opposition and 10% specific technical training, so all I need to do is train the techniques and then see if it can be done in oppositional training and sparring.

One huge misconception in some clubs is that some techniques do not work as they have tested it in sparring, but I know a HEMA (European medieval combat) club that use that as a yardstick to chose what is efficient or not, the head instructor has only had 3 nights of training 4,5 hours total before instituting himself as an expert in European medieval combat by reading old books, that would be the equivalent to have trained any system 3 times and after reading books from an age where the structuring of the text to pass on information was IMO very lousy, and name yourself as an expert of that style of combat. There are depictions from medieval times but not in sequence, you have to read and in some cases guess how they reached from start to end as there is only one drawing for the technique.

The problem is when amateurs who appoint themselves as experts, it is most likely that the reason why they cant execute certain techniques is because they have not reached a high enough skill level or have not trained it properly and failed. The easiest way to blame the errors is by choosing that it’s the techniques inadequacy and not their own lack of skill and training, and use it for deciding what the high% techniques are.

Our two week poll resulted in Ancient Training Methods getting 34% of the vote. Arguments For & Against Crossfit received 31% of the vote (and will be the Oct/Nov 2012 issue).

This issue would highlight the use of training methods used by people over the last two thousand years, focusing a lot of attention on club training techniques. It would also contain articles about how people used to stay “fit” by simply surviving in hostile environments with little access to technology.

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