Weapons of Jiu Jitsu: Swords - Defences

Swords are dangerous weapons, but the Samurai realised that they may be disarmed on the field of battle, and may have to defend theselves against a sword armed attacker. To this end Jiu Jitsu developed several defensive techniques.

As usual if we assume that most people do not intend to attack themselves with their weapon, then the best place to be to avoid being hit by the weapon is where the attacker is.

Some simple attacks are described below.

Against a Vertical Strike

From a shomen uchi attack, the jitsuka must move into the attack and try to stand in the same place as the attacker whilst taking control of the sword. The sword will not suddenly stop dead when blocking the arms, so it is better to control the arms and keep the attack moving through. The best example of a technique to do this would be yama arashi. This can allow the jitsuka to lock both arms and because it is a hip throw will allow the jitsuka to assume the position of the attacker and to put them to the floor in one sweeping movement.

If the attack is seen early enough, the jitsuka may be able to rush the attacker. Stepping quickly to the outside and placing a covering hand on the hilt of the sword, the other hand can come forward to take the face nad eyes in order to take the attacker's balance backwards causing them to fall - probably onto their own sword.

Against a Thrusting Strike

From a morote tsuki attack, the jitsuka needs to side step the attack. From the side, the jitsuka should then attempt to wrest control of the sword. Because a thrust tends to be for the abdomen, the arms tend to be too low to lock up into an arm lock. Instead the jitsuka should try to focus on the wrists. Covering both hands, the jitsuka should be able to extend the motion of the thrust and use it against the attacker to guide them into a wrist lock. Whilst applying the wrist lock it may even be possible to strike the attacker with the own sword - quickly resolving the situation.

For more information about swords in Jiu Jitsu take a look at the swords page.

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