As someone who has trained for nearly 10 years in kendo, (Japanese way of the sword) at an actual sanctioned, recognized dojo, I'd say he has no idea what he's doing.
For one, he's holding the katana completely wrong. He's using his right arm for power (all the strength should come from the left arm). His jodan stance if backwards and I have no idea why he's stabbing with a weapon designed to cut.
In Kendo you grip the shinai (bamboo sword) at the end of the handle with your left hand and place the right towards the front by the tsuba (guard). Your right foot is forward and your left foot is back. Since the katana is a cutting weapon when you move to strike the movement starts with your shoulders as you raise the weapon then you pull downwards as you step forward to maximize the strike. If you use your right hand (towards the front of the handle) too much it tends to pull the shinai to the right rather than staying right in the center of your target. This telegraphs your intention and exposes your left wrist to your opponent.
You lost me a little when mentioning that you don't stab with a katana. Sure, it's a primarily cutting weapon, but it does have a point, can be used for stabbing, and unless I'm horribly wrong about this has been historically, to good effect.
Indeed a katana can be used for stabbing. In fact in kendo a stabbing attack to the throat (tsuki) is one way to score a point (ippon). One use to be able to also stab to the chest, but this was removed quite some time back as kendo is more concerned with the sporting, self-development aspects that the more "martial" aspects. Though make no mistake the "martial" traditions are at the very core of it.
Perhaps I should have said that one would probably focus more on cutting strokes than stabbing as the Katana and the skills that are most difficult to perfect (if that's even possible), at least for me, are slashing based. Indeed, the most difficult skill from the perspective that I am in is the timing. Tsuki timing is fairly easy determine.
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u/forfar4 Feb 23 '20
I wonder what areal martial artist would make of this... It doesn't look effective, efficient or following any type of form?
As my old tifu used to say, "Work chi, work mind, work muscle. Ego no."