Fencing?

[Anbu Alex]

there is also thrust techs with the katana its both circular and strait foward

[UseoForce]

And there are slashing techniques with the rapier.

It is just that katana is about 80/20 slashing thrusting and the rapier about 30/70.

[battousai16]

furthermore, you're more apt to get the katana stuck in somebody, making it difficult for a repeat thrust attack.

[Vyze]

first let me say, iv had 3 years of fencing experience, and iv been in okinawan gojuryu karate for 6 months (not alot, but iv got a taste and love it!) let me say, that traditional epee fencing (modernized rapier fencing in the USFA) would not work directly with a katana. Now let me say if you could take sabre fencing, which is more like the katana, a slashing weapon, it could some-what easily be utilized with a katana. Finally, if you take enough lessons from fencing, and understand the principles, you could theoretically use most any weapon somewhat skillfully, or use hand-to-hand fighting. fencing teaches you principles which can be related to in other styles of martial arts.

[ebff]

Theoretically if you learn Sabre very well, and always fence very technically well (e.g. only parry with the lower third of the blade etc.) then learn the same techniques using the katana then ok (there's no poking, it's all slashing). Now in reality most fencers tend to use their handguard a lot for parrying, and the sabre is extremely light - I haven't held a katana but I'm assuming considering its size it's probably much heavier.

However in contemporary fencing both epee (touch anywhere on the body) and foil (touch torso only) have a "gun"-like handle (because it's a "poking" weapon - they used to have normal flat handles before though) whereas sabres have flat handles (like a tennis racket or a katana) so maybe it would work.

Anyway sabre is the most fun, I recommend it for anybody taking up fencing. I found foil very tiresome, very technical and to be fair too arsy for my tastes. Never tried epee but they don't move very much.

[Cybren]

Modern fencing does not use the rapier. Both the katana and the rapier are two heavy for modern fencing, as you can not parry and immedietly counter attack (riposte). More traditional fencing with a rapier or small sword of yesterday was slower, often involved holding a dagger inthe off hand for parrying (called "main gouche"), and far removed from the modern olympic fencing.

Also, there's no requirement for using a pistol grip. Infact, most of the epee fencers i know prefer a french grip (one uses it to post, that is, hold it at the end to get extra reach, and the other is just a prude, so a french grip is right up his alley).

[UseoForce]

Modern fencing does not use the rapier. Both the katana and the rapier are two heavy for modern fencing, as you can not parry and immedietly counter attack (riposte). More traditional fencing with a rapier or small sword of yesterday was slower, often involved holding a dagger inthe off hand for parrying (called "main gouche"), and far removed from the modern olympic fencing.

Also, there's no requirement for using a pistol grip. Infact, most of the epee fencers i know prefer a french grip (one uses it to post, that is, hold it at the end to get extra reach, and the other is just a prude, so a french grip is right up his alley).

Yes, modern fencing does not use rapiers, but they foil and epee are closer to rapiers than anything else.

Historiacal fencing (thearma.org) is where it's at.

[ebff]

Modern fencing does not use the rapier. Both the katana and the rapier are two heavy for modern fencing, as you can not parry and immedietly counter attack (riposte). More traditional fencing with a rapier or small sword of yesterday was slower, often involved holding a dagger inthe off hand for parrying (called "main gouche"), and far removed from the modern olympic fencing.

Also, there's no requirement for using a pistol grip. Infact, most of the epee fencers i know prefer a french grip (one uses it to post, that is, hold it at the end to get extra reach, and the other is just a prude, so a french grip is right up his alley).

That's quite interesting - here in the UK I believe I've seen maybe one french grip in all my time fencing (excluding sabre of course), and it was on a very old and rusty blade so I assumed it was a more antique way of holding the thing. Thanks for the correction.