Found some older videos of me

While chatting with one of the naginata folks from the East Coast, I was made aware of some naginata videos of matches in the 2004 USNF national championships that were posted to the Web (www.naginataka.com). I participated in that tournament -- in fact, that was the one in which I beat Saxton for the first time, on my way to become the (now former) national men's shiai champion.

The thing I found most interesting while studying these videos is to compare how much my naginata fighting style has changed over the last two years. In my various matches (for example, vSaxton and vEngalla) I seem to be moving around much more than I do now. I used footwork that came naturally to me from my extensive karate and limited boxing training (ie., using angles, changing up distance, skip steps, etc.) Over the last couple of years, however, I've tried to "mature" my fighting style, as my sensei might put it, by trying to remain as calm and motionless as possible before an attack.

Remaining motionless with opponents whom you believe to be quicker than you and in possession of superior timing and sense of distance requires that you have utmost confidence in your reactions and speed. Prior to this year, I believed the likes of Saxton and Peterson were so superior to me in those respects that the only way I could equalize the odds was to give them a a moving target and to fight them in a way that made their ability to time me more difficult. Another factor was that I believed I had superior conditioning than most of my opponents, so I could keep up a much more active pace than they could.

The criticism i hear incessantly from many quarters is that you cannot move around so quickly if you had a real naginata in your hands. While I accept that as true, I also accept that most of the people who level the criticisms couldnt hold a real real naginata and even make a straight cut. So much of what we do with shiai naginata, the critics included, cannot be done with a real naginata, so their point is pretty much moot.

I may talk about that later. Needless to say, I do understand that as one matures in this art, ones movements become much more economical.

As I post videos of me in the most recent national championships, I think the comparison between how much my movement has changed will become evident. It should be fun to watch.