I wrote a review on your book for the dutch magazine but I am afraid they won't place it this time for the reason that they do not have any place left so it will be placed in three months. Do you by any change have a picture of a real sword in 300 dpi for the magazine???
I will write (or translate) the review in English for the british magazine and send you a copy.
As I wrote before I was a little disappointed of the few pictures of old swords and only one detail picture of the metal. I had hoped the book was more about the art of sword making and sword play. The bulk of the book is about two forms. Never the less there was more then enough to be positive about and until now it is the best book I have encountered on chinese sword mastership. I also have mixed feelings about putting your foot into somebody's chest while his sword is not engaged with your sword like on page 99. In my view this is asking for a cut on your ankle. You can say that when he goes for your ankle you cut his throat but in that situation you could have done that anyway. It is difficult to catch in photo's a moving situation.
These are the only negative aspects I saw.
Book review and question about kicking
Moderator:Scott M. Rodell
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Scott m. Rodell
Re: Book review and question about kicking
(For those who don't know Epi, he is the Netherlands Taijiquan Association President).
Welcome Epi-
I have many images of Chinese swords, a 300 dpi image isn't going to go via email, how can I send it to you?
As for your question about kicking to the chest, surprisingly, kicks like this one & other can be quite effective. The quesion is not if they are effective but when to use them.
As in the photo, you are only going to employ a kick of any kind when you have control of your duifang's weapon. And what still photos don't show well, is that you want to gain time on your duifang by catching (jie jin) his energy & controlling him for that moment while he is still bring his energy out. In this way it is harder for him to realize he has been deflected & it takes a moment for him to stop his forward movement & change direction. Ideally, you would kick AS you are deflecting, not after. In this way there just isn't an opportunity for the duifang to counter-cut.
There is another aspect to using kicks in general during swordplay. The opportunity to use them doesn't come up all that often. The result is that 90%+ have conditioned themselves to only focus on their duifang's weapon. They don't even have the idea that they could be kicked or struck. So when you find yourself a littler close, a deflection followed by a quick kick, shocks the duifang for a moment. Their brain stops for just a millisecond to say, "hey what's this thing coming at me", their weapon tends to drop out of play for that moment, & all the attention that was on your weapon, goes to the foot that is kicking. Whether this kick lands or not, a thrust from your jian is fairly certain to. I've used this technique effectively a good number of times.
We could say the moral of the story is, use "listening, sticking & following" in swordplay in the same manner that you do in sanshou, being aware of the duifang's entire body. Naturally if you do this, you will notice that you understand what's coming at you a lot sooner.
Looking forward to meeting you this spring...
Welcome Epi-
I have many images of Chinese swords, a 300 dpi image isn't going to go via email, how can I send it to you?
As for your question about kicking to the chest, surprisingly, kicks like this one & other can be quite effective. The quesion is not if they are effective but when to use them.
As in the photo, you are only going to employ a kick of any kind when you have control of your duifang's weapon. And what still photos don't show well, is that you want to gain time on your duifang by catching (jie jin) his energy & controlling him for that moment while he is still bring his energy out. In this way it is harder for him to realize he has been deflected & it takes a moment for him to stop his forward movement & change direction. Ideally, you would kick AS you are deflecting, not after. In this way there just isn't an opportunity for the duifang to counter-cut.
There is another aspect to using kicks in general during swordplay. The opportunity to use them doesn't come up all that often. The result is that 90%+ have conditioned themselves to only focus on their duifang's weapon. They don't even have the idea that they could be kicked or struck. So when you find yourself a littler close, a deflection followed by a quick kick, shocks the duifang for a moment. Their brain stops for just a millisecond to say, "hey what's this thing coming at me", their weapon tends to drop out of play for that moment, & all the attention that was on your weapon, goes to the foot that is kicking. Whether this kick lands or not, a thrust from your jian is fairly certain to. I've used this technique effectively a good number of times.
We could say the moral of the story is, use "listening, sticking & following" in swordplay in the same manner that you do in sanshou, being aware of the duifang's entire body. Naturally if you do this, you will notice that you understand what's coming at you a lot sooner.
Looking forward to meeting you this spring...