How to Block with a Katana

Video Transcript

"TRES TEW: Hi, my name is Tres Tew. I am an instructor here at Yeshua's Ryu Martial Arts. Today, we're going to be talking about the katana on behalf of Expert Village. All right now, when you're training with a partner, you want to use a wooden sword or a shinai, this is a bamboo sword. You can find these on the Internet. But we're going to talk a little bit today about blocking, okay? There are different areas where you want to block. You want to block straight up for a straight downward strike, you want to push out like this for a strike that's coming at an angle, and then you roll it over for the exact same effect--from a strike coming this way. For a strike coming straight across, you would simply do that at a different angle, okay? And then for strikes coming down, you swing and block right here, as well as for strikes and thrusts coming straight in. Also, you can use one hand on the back of your sword because it is--it does only have a single edge. You can--take one hand on the back and push with it, to kind of assist with your block and in just a couple of minutes, we're going to show you guys how to use your blocks effectively. Okay, now we're going to show you how to implement your blocks when training with a partner, okay? This one will be coming straight down. You'll simply block up, make sure that you've got both hands pushing and pulling against the strike, so that if--make sure that you have that, because if you don't, then if you only have one hand, it'll kind of slip out, okay? There, okay, coming from an angle, you block it just like this, so that you're covering your body all the way from here to here, okay? And then coming from another angle, simply do the same. This covers your body all the way, down to here, okay? And then coming across, you're going to do the same thing, okay? So you're just turning your body into it, okay? Go, other side, good, okay. And then from a thrust, you got to parry it out of the way, okay? And then coming down at an angle, okay? Coming at an angle, good. All right now, you're going to block it just like that, okay? And then at the other angle, just the same, okay? Now keep in mind, as long as your sword is, that's how well you can block with it, okay? You want to block as close to the hand as you can but you're only able to block with how long your sword is, okay? Pretty obvious, but some people, I've seen this happen. Nick, come down, they want to block and then they miss, and it hits them right in the head, okay? So you don't want to do that. Just make sure you're using pretty--you're being pretty careful, okay? And that's how you implement your blocks when training with a partner."