In this sense of real sword clash training, I don’t see any practical benefit of randori other than having some fun swinging boppers around . Of course, the same could be done with bokken or even live blades, but we respect our training partners and would like to return home in one piece and alive and the focus on the live weapons takes away from the point of the exercise.

At the end of the day, Judo is a sport and has been developed as such to instill physical training and mental discipline without the brutal violence of military technique. Remove the mats, the respect, the no-nails, no-biting, etc etc and you end up with a visceral clash…the key here is to be able to detach your mind and be able to move through space and time with a “calmness of spirit” As these elements are mastered, the “resistance” can be introduced without clouding the purpose.

Thanks again..

Sincerely,

NK

Those are not “nerf swords”.

They are imitation killing devices, simulated 28-inch razor sharp cleavers. Every one of the clashes shows An-shu stabbing or cutting with the imitation edge of that killing device with perfect timing as an attacker spontaneously charges him. Every one of his training partners stopped only when they ran into what in a battle would have been that sharp cleaving edge inflicting mortal wounds.

If they had kept going, ignoring the reality of what happened in the fight and pretending that they were not cut (“you missed me!”) and continuing with a bop-for-bop pingpong match, then Tim would be right.

But such is not the case, and in his zeal to criticize Mr. Hayes and nin-po training, Tim’s comments are just plain off-base.

….what more do you want/need to see? Should his partner ignore that his wrists are cut off and that he’s bleeding to death? Brush it off like nothing happened?

“Resistance means not falling over or moving away when my opponent had not physically made me.”
Should Mr. Hayes bludgeon his partner to death with the padded sword?

Do you insist that judo training rise to the same high standard you are imposing on the YouTube clip?

“You are wrong about the use of nerf swords being the same as using mats in judo” (If you took exception to my referring to your mats as nerf floors, I’m sorry, I meant no disrespect).

I’m wrong about them being the same? Because I did not say they were the same, I said they were analogous. The difference being that we train a variety of moves with padded weapons for potentially raw unsupervised situations. On the other hand, judo limits its training to throws, sweeps and grappling on supervised, matted floors to compete on supervised, matted floors.

They are analogous in that they both facilitate responsible training environments.

I hope I’m being more clear. If not I’ll leave it to others to answer the editor’s invitation to respond to you.

You are wrong about the use of nerf swords being the same as using mats in judo. In judo randori they are resisting each other and though brute strength might get used it is not ideal. Ideally people remain soft and use the opponents power against him. Leverage is applied at the other person’s weak point. Resistance does not mean two football players running into each other. Resistance means not falling over or moving away when my opponent had not physically made me. My logic is fine. The clip has nothing martial about it. It is reminiscent of the bujunkan tai kai’s where people throw one punch and then let the other guy knock them down. There is some benefit to this training like praticing technique and learning new skills. But if there was actual resistance the Clip would have looked much different.

First, resistance training is best suited to developing solutions which rely on brute power. Not every situation calls for that. Football players also engage in resistance training. But that’s the difference between a sport with referees, pads, and mats on the one hand, and self-defense on the other hand.

“Anyone can do anything to someone who isn’t resisting.”
Then why can’t the attackers do anything to Mr. Hayes if he isn’t resisting?

Second, I would say it’s telling that his partners only slow down AFTER Mr. Hayes executes his move. There’s one point where Mr. Hayes maneuvers below the attacker’s slash, and then the attacker slows down after missing. At first I thought this looked staged. Then I noticed how off-balance and vulnerable the attacker was. Then I realized the uke was saving himself.

As for the nerf swords, they seem to serve a dual purpose. They facilitate safe training without requiring the attackers to pull their punches. They also discourage brash YouTube copycats. In this spirit, making the ukes respond like they were hit (or more accurately, slashed) with a nerf sword instead of a real sword would utterly defeat the demonstration’s purpose. Judoka acknowledge when they are thrown by professionally getting up and bowing instead of trying to beat up their training partner. Same principle here. Put another way: his use of nerf swords is analogous to judo’s use of nerf floors.

If Mr. Hayes insisted every training situation involve real attackers with real weapons, few would survive the first day and it would only undermine ninjutsu’s reputation as an art with everyday application.

Jigoro Kano advocated randori, or resistance training, because that’s the only way to build real reactions and train skill sets. Therefore, at the end of every judo class, students engaged in resistance training. If this school has that than I am wrong about your school. But the clip, in my opinion, does not show any skill at all. Anyone can do anything to someone who isn’t resisting.

[ Editor note: Anyone reading here want to write and comment on the obvious flaw in Tim's logic? Anyone see the mistake in observation he has been programmed to make here? ]