Daito Ryu responses are tailored for weapon retention, responses to very strong grabs and holds, which would be employed to prevent a guard from drawing his blade, while other enemy would disarm the guard. Assassins would also seek to disarm a court guard in order to procure a lethal weapon to carry out an assassination of a high level target.
Thus all grabs and holds are done w/a death grip during training, under the idea the defender is armed w/wakazashi sword and tanto dagger and if he's not held w/total strength he'll deploy a weapon to cut down the attacker. This is why many Daito Ryu responses are to wrist and arm grabs, as well as bear hugs, shoulder grabs, grabs towards the belt where weapons are carried.
Additionally, the finishing strike w/shout is shown as an empty hand kill but to practitioners it's understood that this simulates drawing the tanto dagger or wakazashi short sword to deliver the killing blow to the attacker.
It's not an art designed for unarmed or disarmed warriors/knights on the battlefield, nor civilian empty hand dueling. It's specifically created for armed samurai knights assigned as indoor palace guards whom carried weapons & members of the court whom carried a tanto dagger. Think of a modern court bailiff who carries a pistol in court while visitors must all disarm, thus any intent to attack the judge must over power & disarm the bailiff of his weapon to use it against the judge.
So Daito Ryu is an effective art created for such a scenario. Very effective for police, law enforcement, anyone whom carries a weapon concerned w/weapon retention & counter-abduction in a combative situation.
I explain this because very few uninitiated understand what's being demonstrated when they see Daito Ryu. So they claim it's w/out merit in an MMA cage, grappling match or fist fight. It's purpose is NOT unarmed dueling.
It's extremely effective for it's designed purposes.
To the uninitiated observer many of the very subtle biomechanics of Daito Ryu are indiscernable thus provoking onlookers to slander the art as fake or bullshido. However, anyone whom has felt the crippling effects of Daito Ryu will testify to the incredible power which comes from the science behind this weapons based combative art.
Simply put, one must 'feel' Daito Ryu to understand it's power for it's imperceivable by visual observation.
Another misunderstanding the unitiated can not see by observation is the subtle application of Kuzushi within Daito Ryu which proceeds all throws, takedowns and many controlling joint or spinal locks that finish w/the defender deploying their weapon to deliver the killing stroke. Again, this form of kuzushi applied in Daito Ryu must be 'felt' in order to be understood for it can not be seen overtly by observation. It is an extremely subtle and scientific art of weapon retention and countering limb detention, as well as other skills specific to the area of operation for which it was developed and refined.
Every combat art, just like every tool in a tool box, every weapon in an arsenal, has it's specific job related function. It's ignorance which possesses men to judge every tool, every weapon, by the same standard operating proceedure.
A military tank is very good for the purpose it was designed. As is an AH64 attack helicopter, an M24 system sniper rifle and a TOW 2BRAVO missile.
It would be ignorant to argue which is better, the tank, the AH64, the M24 system or the TOW 2bravo missile given they each are created for an important, specific, application on the battlefield.
And so it's just as ignorant to judge which art is better between a weapon retention art, a ground submission art, a body slamming art, a striking art, a bolo machete art, a shield and spear art or a mounted archery art. Context is everything, placing their value within the context of intended purpose and application. 'Context changes everything', therefore it's unwise to judge a hammer by how well it can perform within the context of a wrench. It's unwise to also judge an unarmed combat sport and an unarmed civilian dueling art by the same context of a weapons based military art.
Context is everything. And regardless of one's grappling or boxing experience, the subtle science of Daito Ryu must be 'felt' to be understand, for the mere observation of it's applications appears incredible to the uninitiated. And the secret to it's subtle power against fully resistant attackers lies both in the proper application of kuzushi and the biomechanical locking of the spine and joints once kuzushi has stolen the structural balance of the resistant attacker.
In closing, it's crucial to understand for the competitive unarmed grappler, unarmed duelists and combat sportsman, whom presumes that noone ever holds the wrists or arms, in a fully committed, unyeilding, death grip, that Daito Ryu was created for men carrying bladed weapons.
When grappling such an armed individual, whom may quickly draw a wakazashi short sword or tanto dagger from their waist and end your life very quickly, it's incumbent to secure the hands or arms first, to prevent their deploying a lethal weapon and ending your life.
Thus Daito Ryu was born from this reality, far from the competitive, unarmed, combat sporting arenas of today. Born in a realm where one or two swords plus a tanto dagger were carried in one's waist band and your attacker's were intent upon either grabbing you weapon to use against you or seizing, holding, you while another relieved you of your weapon and cut you down by your own blade. This is the world from which Daito Ryu was born.
Daito Ryu is as much bullshido to modern unarmed combat sportsmen as today's modern unarmed combat sports would be considered bullshido to Feudal Japan's samurai, whose view of combat was a life or death, weapon based, endeavor.
Hoo-ah,
AnDrew Soldier
0300hrs.
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