Thats what I would have thought...ludicrous. But at 3:10 and 4:26 he goes much further than a wide grip and actually grabs the blade up near the tip during blocking movements. Strange. I tried digging around for some bokutos with extra length in the grip and found only one at 14 inches.
Yeah, that would be about as long as you can find other than customised ones for specific ryu-ha. Still far longer than the average 10, and that changes things a fair bit.
You go on to say that understanding whats going on in the clip is not going to help me, and that I should ask more general questions, and so on.
I cant think of anything more general than how to hold the darn thing, but you're right its not going to help me. In fact, even if I became proficient with a steel sword thats not going to help me either...unless I planned on carrying it around all day.
Okay, maybe that wasn't expressed clearly. My point was more that asking specific questions about one singular approach (in this case, Kuroda's grip as opposed to other sword grips) is of no use unless you understand the basic grip in the first place. It's like picking up guitar fo the first time, and asking exactly how Jimmy Page does this particular lick in Black Dog. Without knowing how to play guitar, the information will be of no good to you. And your question is not about sword grip in general, it is about Kuroda's in particular, as it is different to what you have seen before. And that is irrelevant unless you are studying his system and want to understand the reasons. Does that make more sense?
Oh, and as for it not being useful at all unless you are going to be carrying one around, well, there are a huge number of benefits of training in swordwork that have nothing to do with combative effectiveness in this day and age. But you need to train it to get that, I feel.
People do all kinds of things in martial arts and life that arent going to help them. Doing a crossword puzzle, having an orgasm, eating a chocolate chop cookie, reading about weapons you have no intention of using...none of these things are going to help anyone. However, I dont control what others are interested in so I dont try to change that.
Well, doing a crossword helps you keep your mind sharp, and can increase your vocabulary and knowedge, eating a chocolate chip cookie can release endorphins resulting in pleasure, as well as giving a quick energy burst when needed, and as for having an orgasm? If that isn't helping you, you're probably not having one...
I'm not saying that asking questions is bad, or you should stop. In fact, quite the opposite. I prefer if people ask questions, but the questions need to be the right ones. Otherwise there is no reason. And in a number of your questions and posts, you seem to be jumping past your understanding, with no real context (we'll come back to that in a second), which means that your questions have no way of giving you the answers you are actually after.
I'm not trying to change what you are interested in. I think it's great that more people get interested in the sword arts, or martial arts, or anything at all, really. But if you jump to the end in your questions as you have been doing, then you will not actually get the information you will need to continue your interest, as you will not be able to really relate it to anything. So my point is not that you stop being interested, but that you look to the right aspects first. And in that way, you will gradually get the understanding to see these questions and their answers, and be able to put them together. By only getting the end-point questions, your interest will be short lived. It's the same as our earlier guitarist. If on his first day holding a guitar he asks to learn a Jimmy Page solo, he will be frustrated and disappointed, and give up. If he is taught some basic chords, however, and shown how to combine them into a basic song, he will feel better and keep playing longer. So my post was to give you a way to keep your interest longer, not the other way around.
The real question is whether its going to help my cousin, who takes Aikido and asked me to make a bokuto for him.
Okay, this is context. Without it, you will never get the right answers, as we will not know what you are asking. I suggest including a bit of this in your OPs in future, it'll help you and us.
Woodworking happens to be my trade, so he sent me this book called 'Bokken' by Dave Lowry (1986). He was adamant about having one with a low balance point, which means a heavy grip, and a while later sent me this clip asking 'what the hell is that?'
Cool. I know the book well, Dave goes on about his personal preference and a few other things. There's a bit of controversy surrounding Dave and that book, but that's not that important here. Just know that itis not to be considered the be-all end-all.
So he sent you the clip asking you what the bokken Kuroda was using was? And that's why you sent it to us? Okay. There was nothing even indicating the slightest part of that in your post. You asked about his grip, and later clarifyed that you were refering to a supported blade jam, or block, which is really not a grip so to speak. So what we have is a question which is not what you were really asking or wanting to know, and that is combined with a lack of knowledge of what you were watching in the first place (again, this is not to belittle you or your interest, just to point out the issues with jumping ahead in learning about these things). That is why context is so important.
I'll be posting some pics in a week or two (in a thread I started called 'The Ideal Bokken') of a short trial version in hickory, which is in glue clamps as we speak...so dont open that thread if you're disturbed by people doing things that wont help them.
Well, I've read your thread there as well, and again there is no context. I would suggest that you state that you are intending to make a bokken for your Aikido training cousin, and that you are a woodworker, and are asking for some feedback. It's no wonder you didn't get the answers you were after there either, no one knew what you were asking.
A few things on that, though. While I don't know your woodworking background, the creation of a bokken is quite different to most woodworking from what I have seen. Your first step should be to determine what methods are typically used to create such items. Next, invest in some bokken so you can model them (all the best I have come across started out copying ones they already had). Lastly, a bokken for Aikido is different to those used in other schools. They have no tsuba, are a bit thicker than others, and the kissaki is cut off for safety. Do a search for Iwama Ryu bokken to see what they are like. If it is for Aikido, that is probably the way to go.
I realise that your questions are stemming from not knowing what questions to ask. That is why I suggested that this line is not really going to help. I hope this has.
