Self Training...

[Swordlady]

Thank you for the kind words.
________________________________________________________________

I do respect my sword, and you know what, i'm going to be honest with all of you. It DID cut me. thats right it did, it sliced my finger.No peremanet damge, nothing real bad, just a slice on my finger. I take full credit and responsability for this, because i did screw up, i messed on one of my own rules. I was trying to sheath it quickly, and even had the bright idea to use my fingers to guide it in..... KIDS READING THIS..... DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!
It hurt.... it bleed. now its wrapped up, cause i hate bandades, so it is wrapped up with a red strip of fabric. My rule is only draw it quickly, once the enemy is gone or dead, take your time, nothing else is after you so take your time in sheathing it, the danger has passed, so dont be recklass. Yes i deserved it, i broke my own rule and now my finger is wrapped up.

So now you know first hand just how ridiculously easy it is to cut yourself. I've nicked myself on my fingers many times - by simply cleaning my swords. Once I made a shallow cut across my knuckles because of a lapse of attention.

Do you see that even the simple act of drawing and resheathing your sword has certain nuances that only a fully qualified teacher would be able to teach you? The sword art I practice (Yagyu Shinkage Ryu) has a blind resheath - but I started by looking at what I was doing before trying to sheath my sword without looking.

For the love of God, at least practice with an iaito (dull alloy blade used for Iaido) if you insist on practicing with a blade. You've seen the pictures on the "self-teaching" thread on Sword Forum; if you are not careful, the same thing may happen to you.

I know that you are still young, but just to let you know, there are three teenagers who train with me at the dojo. So yes, it is possible for someone your age to get some training.

 

[Charles Mahan]

I'm beginning to think there is truly no hope for this one. One piece of advice for the Ronin Masta. If you somehow survive your adolesence with all your digits attached, and seek real instruction, do your best to forget everything you've managed to puzzle out. Why?

For one thing you are most assuredly doing everything wrong. I'll say it again, you cannot teach yourself that which you do not know. If you were to seek out an instructor, would you look for one who didn't know anything about the subject at hand? That's the person you have instructing you now.

For another, if prospective instructors knew you'd been toying around after having been advised not too, there's a good chance they wouldn't take you on.

About a year after I started training with a live blade, a visiting instructor asked me if i'd cut myself yet. I was quite happy to tell him that no I had not. He looked at me funny and said, "What are you doing wrong?" i thought he was cracking a joke, but he wasn't. Took me awhile to puzzle out what he was getting at.

Why is it so hard to stick to wood? If you want to work on nukitsuke and noto find a plastic saya. It's not that hard if you look around online. A number of places sell them. Then you can stick with a bokuto.

 

[kroh]

Well...we've made our case and whatever happens... happens.

But before I sign out of this discussion...IMHO, it is pretty much criminal to have such a young (albiet mature) man ( I won't call you a kid because you've been very polite here) being given a live weapon without the proper instruction.

I applaud you for your efforts Wolf... I just hope you come through this safely.

Regards,
Walt

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

I applaud you for your efforts Wolf... I just hope you come through this safely.

Regards,
Walt

thank you, and i assure you i will be fine. and thank you for being so nice to me Kroh.
______________________

I'm not saying i cant go to training cause of my age, i'm saying i cant, cause i have NO money.None, not one dime that i could use to get me to one, and even if i could work something out to go to the dojo.... there is a thing called GAS.. wich keeps going up. No money = no dojo, meaning do it myself or dont do anything and still have the live sword.... if i dont do anything, i am most likely to get hurt by my sword, cause i wont know anything, so its either do it myself, or dont do anything.

no risk no reward.

I will come out with all 20 digits (counting toes) and fully living. I do stick with my bokken, i dont wear my bokken like i do my blade, i dont take up as much love for my bokken as i do my blade, but i do train with my bokken. After listening to my know-it-all Uncle who is the one who told me to practice drawing and sheathing it, well now i'm not going to bother with it, i know how to pull it out, and once i'm done using it I can wach and put it back up. I'm going to go back to my original rules before my Uncle said anything.... train with bokken, show off sword,dot use sword unless doing some cutting or in life/death situation, wich there are plenty of ways to avoid such. so train with bokken, i am. :wink:

(My Uncle was the one that was going to teach me... not sure he knows now.) :lol:

R.W.-M.

 

[Clint Strickland]

thank you, and i assure you i will be fine. and thank you for being so nice to me Kroh.
______________________

I'm not saying i cant go to training cause of my age, i'm saying i cant, cause i have NO money.None, not one dime that i could use to get me to one, and even if i could work something out to go to the dojo.... there is a thing called GAS.. wich keeps going up. No money = no dojo, meaning do it myself or dont do anything and still have the live sword.... if i dont do anything, i am most likely to get hurt by my sword, cause i wont know anything, so its either do it myself, or dont do anything.

no risk no reward.

I will come out with all 20 digits (counting toes) and fully living. I do stick with my bokken, i dont wear my bokken like i do my blade, i dont take up as much love for my bokken as i do my blade, but i do train with my bokken. After listening to my know-it-all Uncle who is the one who told me to practice drawing and sheathing it, well now i'm not going to bother with it, i know how to pull it out, and once i'm done using it I can wach and put it back up. I'm going to go back to my original rules before my Uncle said anything.... train with bokken, show off sword,dot use sword unless doing some cutting or in life/death situation, wich there are plenty of ways to avoid such. so train with bokken, i am. :wink:

(My Uncle was the one that was going to teach me... not sure he knows now.) :lol:

R.W.-M.

I self train as well and I'm pretty good * supports Ronin 100% *

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

Yeah Clint and i are training buddies actualy. we are good friends since like 4th grade. :uhyeah:

R.W.-M.

 

[Clint Strickland]

Yeah Clint and i are training buddies actualy. we are good friends since like 4th grade. :uhyeah:

R.W.-M.

UNFORTUNALY LOL jp.

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

I know what you mean. :iws:
lol
(jp)

 

[Clint Strickland]

I know what you mean. :iws:
lol
(jp)

:whip: Oh shut up LOL

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

:lol:

 

[Clint Strickland]

yeah he always looses at the fight though lol

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

ok on that note... :-offtopic lol

 

[Clint Strickland]

ok on that note... :-offtopic lol

LoL:mp5:

 

[Walter Wong]

True age isn't always a factor. In fact we have a 13 year old girl that's training MJER with us. Nguyen Sensei don't typically take kids into the dojo to teach because of most kids's low focus, being easily distracted and bored and not continue training even within a 2 hour class time. But this 13 year old girl we proudly have in our dojo is exceptionally mature and focused for sword training. She's been doing this for a year so far and does fine with her Iaito.

Ronin, seriously, you are just playing and what you are doing only likely shadows what real sword fighting is. This 13 year old girl in our Eishin Ryu class, even though she's a beginner with a year's worth of sword training, I am highly confident she knows more about sword fighting than you do and is more capable with a sword than you.

If you're doing what you're doing Ronin for the sake of knowing sword combat, and you're doing it through self teaching, you're just playing and hardly doing real sword training no matter how seriously you swing your bokken or sword around. Even though we don't carry a sword for defense and whatnot making swords pretty much irrelevant to your typical modern fight situation, if your interest is real combative applications with the sword, I'll repeat again, there are subtleties that mean life and death in sword fighting that won't be revealed to you through your self teaching.

It would not be sensible to try to self teach yourself boxing without formal instruction. If you think so, go ahead and self teach yourself to box and walk into your local boxing gym and ask to spar with their beginners. I don't think you'll be able to out box them.

Same if you think you can teach yourself grappling. Go ahead and self teach yourself to grapple with your friends and whatnot, walk into a Gracie Jujutsu or Brazilian Jujutsu dojo and grapple one of their white belts and that white belt would have you submitted and tapping out right away.

How far you think self teaching yourself sword fighting will take you with real sword fighting?

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

Well, i feel that all fighting is for the most part... instinct. read my sig.

also on another note, how maney people are carrying a sword that are going to start fights have had real training.... almost none. So they are self taught, and i can fght other selftaught people with the same odds of winning, gratned not many people fight with a sword today.. but thats beside the point, thoses that do are typicaly not trained, and thats why they start stuff... no respect, do disapline, no care for life.... and then they pick a fight with someone like me, or like even a real trained person and get there butts beat, and no i'm not saying i am as good as yall i'm just saying i have a good chance fighting other self taught people, and alot of people are.

R.W.-M.

 

[Ojiisan]

Clint's opinion really is of no importance. They are two buddies (children)playing samurai. As for the person calling themself ronin; you can buy a bokuto and plastic saya at e-bogu for about $28. This way you can practice without the possibility of death.

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

Thanks for telling me where to buy a plastic saya for my bokken.

Not nice or kool to say that Clints oppinion does not matter and also not nice to call us children after we have been nice and respectful to everyone.
Just saying you could work on you people skills a bit.

i like your avatar.

R.W.-M.

Ps. "Ronin" suits me since i dont have a master... kinda goes with the whole selftrain thing... yeah.

 

[Ojiisan]

If I recall correctly, you said you are 14 and if your friend Clint is your best buddy then he is about the same age. Technically at age 14, you are classified as a child. When you reach the age of 18 you are considered and adult. Ergo, a person 14 years old is a child.

 

[Ojiisan]

Oh yeah, and at age 61; I believe I can call most everyone a child.

 

[Ronin Wolf-master]

no a child is a person of about 3-5 years, then they are a kid until they are 10 then once they hit 13 the are considered as a young man or a young woman, then at 18 and adult.
(no disrespect meant towards an elder. just stating facts.) :wink:



R.W.-M.