Best home defense melee weapon

[Doughbelly]

I'm gonna do my own research but if Doughboy or anyone can point me in the right direction, what form of Japanese sword training incorporates full realistic sparring into it?

I've done 6 years of Kickboxing/Muay Thai/Boxing so I don't want to end up doing something that's purely Kata and demonstration based.

From what I've seen, Kendo seems to get down with some hard sparring.

Well... Kendo is to actual fighting with a sword as Olympic TKD is to MMA or kickboxing.

Not that there's no value to it. There's a great value to learning the basics of footwork, movement, distance, timing, etc in a formalized environment. At least you won't let your upper body get ahead of your lower body. You can look at some of those MEMAG guys I linked in that thread I linked earlier for examples of what happens when you don't learn things in the correct order. Can you imagine throwing an uppercut, then noticing your feet are out of position, then moving your feet into position after you have throw your punch? That's essentially what some of these HEMA guys do in their demonstration videos.

 

[minute bull]

Semen netting.

If you know how to use it.

 

[Doughbelly]

Are you a fellow kenjutsuka?

I studied Niten Ichi Ryu.

Kendo and Toyama-ryu derived kenjutsu, but not in 15+ years. Also, I was forced into it by family and my other martial arts teachers, so I was never a big fan.

Kendo, while I got a lot out of it, is to this day the most boring martial art on the face of the planet, IMO. With the single exception of kyudo, which is the art of watching paint dry. As a guy, the only reason to ever get into Japanese zen archery is because a lot of chicks are into it.

 

[JohnnyTowers]

 

[These Two Hands]

Semen netting.

If you know how to use it.

The Art of Offensive Onanism...?

 

[fightingrabbit]

I live in South Korea. Extremely restrictive gun laws here. None of you advice makes any sense here since you can't even begin to look for an SKS, much less buy one, much less different stocks, much less be permitted to store it in your house. You aren't allowed to keep your gun in your house even if you're one of the few permitted to own a hunting rifle (and only really low caliber weapons are allowed). Planning to use a firearm for self-defense here simply doesn't work because once you have a gun, the police will want to know where it is pretty at all times, and if you do use it on a person, you'll be the one going to prison even if it was in self-defense.

So basically California.

 

[Doughbelly]

Thanks, good read. Just went through it. I wound up looking up my old fencing coaches to check out their lineages. The competitive instructor was taught by Santelli, but I can't remember the other guy's background. Or name.

I had the opportunity in college to join the fencing team in the 90s, but that was the one thing I just didn't have time for (coaching TKD in DC, teaching judo in Baltimore, working in a lab, Army, carrying a double major). In retrospect, knowing that the opportunity for sport fencing would never come again and where my interests lie now, I would have dumped the TKD coaching.

One way or another, I think it's important to have formal instruction of some type in your background. You know Skalla, the Youtube guy? He has a video justifying his lack of formal instruction, saying it is possible to learn martial arts from books, but the reality is that you can't. The Asian arts went through this in the US in the 70s and 80s and we went through the same thing again in the 1990s and early 2000s with BJJ and grappling.

 

[Codger]

I reckon something like a fish filleting knife and a rounders bat in the other hand.

You can start with the bat if distance and space allow and if they get in close the knife will go in nice and easy and finish it right there.

A sword could turn out badly in a tight space or if surprised up close.

 

[SammyPops]

Hammer.