MAI Editor Bob Sykes interviews David Rawlings, instructor of the boar's tooth fight school
Bob Sykes:
Hi Dave! Most people are familiar with EMA, but not much is really known about the western martial arts WMA, could you tell us more about them?
DR:
The weaponry is different in use. Both the long and single sword in european swormanship have two edges which are both used in attack, whick changes the style.But the main difference is of course the antiquity of the systems of combat we use.The earliest manual is dated from 1285, but that said, it makes the arts no less complex or effective than their modern or Asian equivalents. They incorporate all the ruthlessness and practicality you'd expect from a modern system. For example wrestling systems advocate staying on your feet, striking to soften up and then breaking bits off your opponent; the sword systems very much focus on striking your opponent rather than attempting to parry first
BS:
So very early fighting was very agressive, sort of a berserker-like system?
DR:
Agressive yes,berserker-like not at all. The authors and founders of these systems recognised that if you are defending or blocking an attack, you opponent can carry on attacking you until he hits you.
They felt the better way to counter this was use cuts or strikes that would intersect the enemy's line of attack meaning that you would block or deflect your opponent's strike with the very strike that kills him
BS:
A lethal parry then?
DR:
(Laughs) Exactly...that said there are a lot of concepts: distance, timing, feeling and winding, a tactile awareness of blade pressure that allows you to continue you attack after it has been parried, which i the sword equivalent to chi sau. The WMA are very tactical in their approach, they are not simply hit and hope
BS:
You mention chi sau, I take it you've had a EMA experience as well?
DR:
Yep, I teach Wing Chun too.I started martial arts when my mother put me in Judo as a kid, but I never excelled. I then wandered fairly aimlessly through differing arts till I started Wing Chun (which i still teach).I studied with the same sifu for around twelve years but started adding concepts and techniques from WMA and Mendoza's Boxing system.I also spent a short while studying Iaido and Nitten,thought not long enough in either,and then i discovered european longsword
No pongo más que es una odisea copiar el guiri
