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Japanese Samurai would have had a hard time against other fighting men


I warn you imdb posters right now. I am a BIG FAN of Terry Schappert's WARRIORS from the History Channel, so expect to see a lot of posts coming from me. You can either read my posts and be amused and entertained or just skip my posts and write yours.

I was completely astonished by the ferocious efficacy of the ancient fighting skills, techniques, and hand-to-hand combat from ALL these countries that Terry Schappert visited. And I don't know why I should be because I've read about the martial arts and studied some myself. But in the West we tend to think of martial arts fighting skills as being predominantly an Asian tradition whereas in the West ancient combat was just white men clumsily swinging swords and later boxing by swing fists at each other's heads.

Well, I now beg to differ. Who says white guys can't fight? Terry Schappert visits places like Scotland, Germany, and Norway, where fan groups keep alive the ancient fighting skills of their Indo-European ancestors. Let me tell you sports fans, that from what I've seen, some of those Scottish, Germanic, and Viking warriors would have made mincemeat of the ancient Japanese samurai and their famed katana swords.

Who says white guys can't move fast? I beg to differ. Watch these European modern warriors demonstrate their ancestral fighting skills and these white guys can move with unbelievable speed. Before you can even blink they're behind you with a sword, spear, axe, dagger, or wooden club. Like skilled warriors from all over the world, it's about striking a debilitating blow or a mortal blow on your enemy from a direction he leasts expects. In the west our popular image of ancient warfare in the west is big white guys all decked out in armor slowly chugging along and clumsily swinging a long, heavy broadsword. Well, that's all Hollywood and it's all misconception. The human body is capable of amazing agility and strength.

Watch all the episodes of WARRIORS and you'll start to perceive similarities in the fighting movements, individual tactics, and bodily strikes, from every part of the world, from Scotland to Guatemala to the Hawaiian Islands. Why? This is a no brainer. Everyone has the same human physiological structure since we're all from the same homo sapien species. There's no one out there with four arms, four legs, or flexible like an octopus, LOL. Therefore, for example, in Germany, you see a fighting system using only a short, crude wooden club and a small wooden shield. In Hawaii, the modern warriors demonstrate the use of a small wooden club in hand-to-hand combat and the similarities between the German club fighting and the Hawaiian club fighting are amazing.

So let me tell you why the ancient Japanese samurai would have had a hard time with these ancient warriors from Scotland, Germany, Norway, Guatemala, Zululand, and Hawaii. The ancient Japanese warrior, standing somewhere between 5'0" and 5'4", maybe up to 5'6" if he was tall; would be going up against these well-over-six-feet plus warriors who were masters of their own weapons and could maneuver around an opponent with the speed of greased lightning. Against a six-foot, 2-inch tall guy with a big shield and a long sword who can move with the agility and speed of a mountain cat, and has a bag of tricks up his sleeve to incapacitate an enemy warrior, I actually feel sorry for that samurai. The Zulu warriors looked like they were all 6'5" or taller. Placing all his faith in his fabulous steel katana would be a mistake. The modern warriors from Guatemala, Africa, and Hawaii, even with their wooden, stone, and shark's teeth weapons, demonstrated more than enough capability to take out a samurai nobleman (without his horse). The Hawaiian modern warriors graciously demonstrated their secretive Lua hand-to-hand fighting art. I had heard and read about it in Hawaii myself. There was a little similarity of techniques in Scottish and Mongolian hand-to-hand combat, but not much. The point was to go into an opposing warrior, bare-handed and target his bones and joints with the aim of breaking them. This is fundamentally different than most hand-to-hand fighting systems that target soft vulnerable areas of the human torso and head. The closest to deadly lua is the Japanese ninja's hand-to-hand fighing system called kappo, which trained the ninja to block an opponent's blow by striking the limb as it came in towards you, hopefully breaking or cracking it. Another was the Filipino system of escrima or arnis, using two sticks, short knife or even the long knife, which targeted the opponent's arms and biceps. It was called, 'defanging the cobra'. No matter how good a fighter you may be with your hands and weapons. If your arms and/or legs are disabled, you're helpless. It was designed against the invading Spanish conquistadors, who wore full torso plate armor but did not cover the arms and legs.
When I was in Honolulu, there was no way to learn lua fighting, as I recalled. The practice of lua was and still is secretive. It's also very dangerous to learn as you can see on the episode of WARRIORS. You have to go slow and soft while training with someone, otherwise you'll break something too easily or the other guy will break something in you. I don't even know if there is a way to safely spar in lua. The fighting system was never intended to entertain as in western boxing. It was kill or be killed.


YOU'RE RIGHT, MADAME. I DON'T CARE AS MUCH AS I SHOULD.
(Christopher Lee as Professor Sir Alexander Saxton in, "Horror Express", 1973)

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So let me tell you why the ancient Japanese samurai would have had a hard time with these ancient warriors from Scotland, Germany, Norway, Guatemala, Zululand, and Hawaii. The ancient Japanese warrior, standing somewhere between 5'0" and 5'4", maybe up to 5'6" if he was tall; would be going up against these well-over-six-feet plus warriors who were masters of their own weapons and could maneuver around an opponent with the speed of greased lightning.

Hate to be picky, but if you are going to use modern averages for Europeans, Africans, Pacific islanders et al., you should use modern averages for the Japanese as well. Which would place them at 5'7. If you go by historical averages, you won't find 6-footers anywhere. The tallest average I have been able to find in Europe are Swedes in the 10th-11th centuries, standing at 5'9. But typically vikings were around 5'7, and Europeans only got shorter toward the 1500s.

As for the rest of your post, well, it should come as no surprise that people are good with the weapons they know. Whether it is the samurai with his spear, the European man-at-arms with his spear, or the Zulu warrior with his spear.

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