Honestly…this looks like a Kata for seniors/pensioners, there is no strength, or stamina required, nor is any any need to be flexible like any other martial art. Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Kung Fu and so forth…. any of those martial arts requests much more of any effort than this slow motion swords swinging with some basic karate guards like Zenkutsu dachi. This strikes me as some form of TaiChi with a sword. And in a real sword fight, swinging left and right like a maniac with full charge would be more effective than this.
No offense but you might take into account that you do not know Iaido.First off, this is is Iaido, part of kenjutsu. Second, these 'old' people are demonstrating a selection of kata of selected lineages, most of which are of a slow pace, but not all are. Third, all the basic stances in karate like zenkustu, kiba, go or neko dachi are in fact derived or influebced by kenjutsu/iai and not the other way around. For example, Gichin Funakoshi's son practiced Iai and adapted Shotokan kata accordingly. For example influence in basai and kanku dai. Fourth, 'flashing' a sword is perhaps what you see in movies or certain RU-vid channels but realistic swordsmanship (in Japan or in the West for that matter), were not 'flashy' at all. In fact, fights in duels would not have lasted longer than a minute in general. Do some research on the relation between Iai, kendo and empty hand fighting, you might find it interesting. I practice Iai and karate, 7/7 quite complementary. Respectfully, M.
@@mikaelbauer3818 I totally understand your prospective, I myself am a ex Karate and Taekwondo practitioner and my father was a Judoka for 25 years. But… Like Bruce Lee said, (and I’m not a great fan of Lee) to many unnecessary moves and stance and rules and precision and so forth and so on, which in real fight don’t apply at all. I didn’t claim that zenkotsu datci stance is taken from Karate and implemented in Iaido, I wanted to point out that it’s a basic and simple move, and that those demonstrations don’t appear difficult at all. If one’s got nothing else to do, no daily obligations, this could be learned in a week, two tops. I mean helicopter kick or back spinning airborne kick is something those old dude’s would never be able to preform. But this pulling out of the blade and then slow motion swinging doesn’t seem difficult AT ALL, period, it doesn’t take any real effort to learn, you don’t need to be in any kind of shape or form or anything. And please don’t explain to me how exact must every move be, because I know of that precision Japanese nonsense, it’s not the precision that drives those Japanese, it’s their believe that elder’s or old people are omnipotent, always right an therefore must always be in the first place. Well someone should tell them.. THEY ARE NOT
I think you are underestimating iaido, it takes years to perfect it. It always looks simple and easy, but once you are actually doing it you’ll understand how difficult it is, this could be said with practically everything. Though it may not be as hard as a spinning kick, it has its own level of difficulty. There is a reason why certain katas are performed that way and why there are slow in certain parts of the movement that it would seem silly to other people. And older people aren’t always right, there’s a reason why there’s so many schools or lineage.
