Slavic Sword Art

[David Weatherly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cFnGQWrAys&feature=related

 

[arnisador]

How authentic is it?

 

[David Weatherly]

How authentic is it?

Good question. Anything can show up on youtube. I do know that a lot of traditions are being revitalized in Eastern Europe. I wanted to see if anyone had any comments on this vid.

David

 

[tellner]

I've seen Georgian martial arts practice, new clips and old grainy film. Some of it is very interesting. Some of it has devolved to colorful native dancing in traditional costumes with circus-wrestling. But there definitely was something important there back in the day. It may still exist in odd corners of the culture.

 

[David Weatherly]

I've seen Georgian martial arts practice, new clips and old grainy film. Some of it is very interesting. Some of it has devolved to colorful native dancing in traditional costumes with circus-wrestling. But there definitely was something important there back in the day. It may still exist in odd corners of the culture.

Yes, I'm in touch with some folks who practice Georgian martial arts. They have been working very hard to ensure that their traditions survive. There are at least a couple of groups active in Georgia now.

David

 

[tellner]

That's great to hear. Western- and Central-Asian martial arts are great stuff and undeservedly obscure.

 

[Ken Pfrenger]

How authentic is it?

The vid is of a guy named Belov....he honestly seems a bit flakey from what I have seen of him and would not doubt he makes up much of what he teaches on his videos.

But the saber stuff just might be authentic. There are still units of Cossacks that include traditional saber fencing in their training. I have seen other definitely real cossack sword material that resembles this almost exactly so I would say yes to it's authenticity. Now how often it is fenced instead of demo'ed I cannot comment on that but it is at least a surviving remant of Cossack saber play.

 

[David Weatherly]

The vid is of a guy named Belov....he honestly seems a bit flakey from what I have seen of him and would not doubt he makes up much of what he teaches on his videos.

But the saber stuff just might be authentic. There are still units of Cossacks that include traditional saber fencing in their training. I have seen other definitely real cossack sword material that resembles this almost exactly so I would say yes to it's authenticity. Now how often it is fenced instead of demo'ed I cannot comment on that but it is at least a surviving remant of Cossack saber play.

I agree with you Ken. I've since had a friend from that part of the world view the clip and he basically said the same thing, the Saber work is mostly authentic.

David

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I would say it is hard to tell from that video. Most of the skill set shown is twirling and behind the back moves. That may come from a traditional dance but is it real authentic slavic sword work? :idunno: