it's a nice thing to watch. especially the principles that govern each weapon. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JapMGyUbT68"]Kendo vs. Escrima - YouTube[/ame]
here's another one: notice the difference in body movement and preferred range of fighting. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_z9prXJ30"]Kendo vs Escrima - YouTube[/ame]
Somehow I fail to understand what the purpose of these video duels. Based upon my observations of Kendo in person, I do not see a highly skilled Kendo practitioner in the vids.
What has that got to do with anything. Not everyone has to be an expert. I personally found it interesting, especially the range and fluidity of each weapon. Expert or not my bet is each practitioner went away from the sparring session with a greater understanding and a load of questions regarding both their art and how they apply it.
It would seem, that some of these vids are "showboating" It would be refreshing to meet the participants either before or after the vid. Likewise to a semi-interview To post a vid on anything is ok, but what if someone posted a vid of two practitioners in a art you really like, and in that vid, the representation is lower skill standards. This would make others watching the vid think this is the actual skill of the participants per the art that had studied. Likewise to the highest skill shown. Per the title; "Kendo vs Escrima" This short title could have others thinking this is the actual deciding factor of which is better.
I've done some friendly cross-weapon sparring (no art in particular, just fooling around with Jugger as an excuse), and I'd take a long sword over duals any time. Not just me, that seemed to be the consensus with the more experienced people I was sparring with. In my humble opinion, knowing nothing about Kendo, the kendoka was too slow and didn't keep his range properly.
From those two clips I noticed neither fighter had a basic understanding of the others weapons and both would have ended up dead. The FMA guy did not appreaciate that the Shinai is actually a razor sharp weapon and getting it caught under your arm or being tapped on the head with it is not a good idea. And the Kendo guy did not appreaciate that the footwork he used would be all but useless on a battlefield where it is more live and active hence he got caught so much. Both of these guys would be sent in early as cannon fodder to look for weaknesses. Both had weaknesses that would see them end up dead.
Thing is Mr O'Malley Kendo isn't about fighting on a battlefield, it's Kendo. I had similar thoughts to you however. How are these two guys working? What is the rule set they are working under? Is the Eskrimador working from a fighting context or is he more sport based? No I'm not going down the sport/real life argument it's just that if you have one chap who is basically playing his sport and another who is fighting then there's going to be some disparities between the two. Unless the Kendoka also trains in Kenjutsu then there is probably a very good chance that he will behave as he would in a Kendo competition, the foot work, movement and hitting rather than cutting that you see.
His renzoku waza was lacking. From what I have seen, he may have done this once. I did not notice uchiotoshi And finally, he did not perform renzoku waza enough. I am not a Kendo expert and only dabbed in it at a Unnivesity.
What i seen from both parties was regardless of it being in a sporting or fighting context, neither had a decent understanding of distance, timing, ranging or possitioning whilst hitting or defending.
I would find it more interesting to see an escrima player against a kenjutsu dude, or at least a kendo dude that did more than go for shomen uchi. His defense was good but that was about the only attack he did. I used to be the same fighting a ninjutsu friend, I was going for the "tap and pull back," he'd block the shomen, wait for the pull back then smack me lol. I enjoy these style v style videos, but would be more interested to see something a little less limited than kendo (by that I mean the guy is clearly going for the "point" areas, as opposed to any exposed target, which I think would make this a lot more fun to watch.)
I have seen LIVE kendo in action apart from the posted vid. I have also seen LIVE escrima from a seminar. The posted vid lacked many things. To reiterate my earlier post; To post a vid on anything is ok, but what if someone posted a vid of two practitioners in a art you really like, and in that vid, the representation is lower skill standards. This would make others watching the vid think this is the actual skill of the participants per the art that had studied. Likewise to the highest skill shown. In short, it was not a prime representation IMHO
I was referring to the way the sticks were used. They were used as blunt weapons not as if they were swords (blades). Therefore, the demonstrations in the videos did not represent 2 swords v. 1 sword.
i posted it because they were not experts. on the field, there will be a few encounters with masters or senior students. what i found fascinating is the orientation that each man takes towards his weapon and how it affects his preferred fighting distance.