Spear (Yari) fighting - Armed combat & tactics

[IKEEMBLEM]

Do you by chance have any vids on Jumonji Yari (Cross Spear) combat?

[gonefishingstudios]

yeah , the traditional chinese battlefield wushu is lost , replaced by modern (performance) wushu , which sucks and gives chinese martial arts a bad name in my opinion , as everyone thinks that CMA is all flash and no actual good in combat..which is completely the opposite regarding traditional wushu

[TOMHYLE88]

Cool. These are the log Yari blades, even so there is very little cutting involved. The Japanese swordsmanship experts at Sword Forum International assured me (quite vehemently) that spears were used just like swords. While I see some slashing in spear arts, I have basically found nothing but contradiction for this assertion. Moral? Pay no mind to SFI.

[ACTdirector]

@TOMHYLE88 Naginata is more suited for cutting while able to thrust. Yari is more suited for stabbing while able to cut. The spears (Yari is just that) are used mostly to stab, while cutting motion can be used to deflect an attack , set up an attack or actually dispatch an opponent especially if his weapon is shorter. Spear on spear usually involves a contest of speed, feints and thrusts. The cuts are there but really a minority of techniques.

[TOMHYLE88]

@ACTdirector Thanks, yeah. That seems to be what all knowledgeable or responsible students of martial arts say. SFI claimed their guys (Christopher Ron Covington and Jason Anstey among others) were so expert that even questioning thier proclamation was trollish and intrinsically without merit.

[sannsikk]

i find that wushu spear techniques are far supirior in matters of speed, precision, and psychological disruption, but would not be as well fit for heavy combat such as a wargame, where a yari would be far supirior. whats your take on it?

[ACTdirector]

@sannsikk Wushu techniques are displayed today with a feather light shafted spear. Not to take away from the skill of the competitors...BUt if you look at the battlefield of China at those times you would find spears very much similar to Yari. Not identical but again similar. Sturdy shaft, very little to none flexibility, hard wood , sometimes metal fixings at the end, all of that done to deny cutting through the shaft and of course adds to weight. The blade at the end was common too...

[nirnrootninja]

Properly applied a master of the yari would defeat a master of any other mele weapon in my opinion.

[ACTdirector]

@nirnrootninja

I tend to agree. Of course there would be a matter of historical context. But in a "sterile" test environment, one on one , weapons drawn and at ready, minimum armor, and proper distance maintained before closing, yes, a spear expert has a distinct advantage over any other weapon that is not a pole weapon. My opinion of course. The absolute necessity, of course, would be to know how to deal with aggressive closing in.Maintaining distance, using the shaft.

[IKEEMBLEM]

Is there any info on Jumonji Yari with weighted ends? I played Samurai Warriors and Yukimura's spear has a club like end to it, were these real?

[ChishioAme]

@IKEEMBLEM Not quite as large as depicted in the game, generally, but yes, many polearms had some form of counterbalance, particularly the shorter they get; in game, Sanada's jumonji yari is depicted as being little taller than himself (so probably about 6-6.5' total), so a counterbalance would be necessary to keep the weapon relatively quick.

[ajb7876]

Can I ask a historical question? would these weapons have been issued to lower ranking soldiers only or would samurai have used them as well? and if they were for a low ranking man what kind of fighter would he have been compared to a samurai? I know that samurai made up only a small percentage of Japanese society but medieval Japanese armies were sometimes massive so were these spearmen conscripts or professional soldiers?

[ACTdirector]

@ajb7876

As far as I know the Samurai knew how to wield Yari and it was a weapon studied by many and not reserved to "cannon fodder" :). I would not presume to know the battle formation or the military structure and hierarchy of feudal Japan's army but I will tell you that Yari jutsu or So Jutsu is absolutely included in the skills learned , pracriced and ,mastered by the Samurai. Hope that helped!

[helikos1]

they look more like naginatas than yaris

[ACTdirector]

@helikos1

Well the blade is straight and narrow. It is essentially a pole weapon with a straight blade attached to the shaft. It matches the basic parameters of the Yari , believe me we have checked :). Problem is the parameters are widely ranging (length of the spear and the blade in particular). One thing remains constant though - the straight blade as opposed to the curved blade of a naginata. Don't you agree?

[helikos1]

@ACTdirector ye supose ur right

[maeljin]

I keep coming back to this video, it's really great! Who makes that nice spearhead simulator? It looks like it's padded and flexible but not floppy.

[ACTdirector]

@maeljin

Glad you like it!! Appreciate the praise and yah we love our simulators. They are made by an in house engineer , we equip all students with them. Knives, machete, katana, longswors, yari...If it has blade - we make it.

[nastymkfan]

I want to learn how to use that and I want a long and thin bladed Yari

[ACTdirector]

@nastymkfan

I appreciate your sharing our interest in weaponry and especially the Yari, I really regard it as a very elegant and effective item in our arsenal. Thanks

[talon115]

good stuff!

[ACTdirector]

@talon115

Thank you kindly. Glad you liked it:)

[CollegiumInArmis]

Nice work, I like it.

[ACTdirector]

@CollegiumInArmis

Thank you kindly, much appreciated!

[evilgummieshark]

Who makes that particular spear?

[ACTdirector]

@evilgummieshark

In house expert from our school.

[maeljin]

This is very nice: I'm studying Meyer's staff and can recognize most of the moves. For example, the one handed thrust you use is used in one of his techniques, even if it isn't as widespread system-wise... And since a staff isn't supposed to have a piercing point, it doesn't stop there.

What is particularly lovely about you video is the bind work and the feints, this is just what I am working to improve in my training!

[ACTdirector]

@maeljin Ah, finally! I was waiting for somebody from WMA to recognize the work:). Thank you for your praise , we may practice yari jutsu and so justsu (Japanese spear fighting) but also we delve a lot in European traditions (mostly Longsword), Talhoffer and others...What is evident that as you start sparring to test the effectiveness of your studies EVERYTHING becomes so similar that it is almost impossible to know what is European and what is Oriental. Don't you agree?

[maeljin]

@ACTdirector @noahsarkil yes, I noticed similarities everywhere too in both staff and spear-pole weapon work anywhere.

[maeljin]

and BTW, in Meyer this gets really funny, since Meyer himself seems to blend spear fighting and the staff :)

[CollegiumInArmis]

@maeljin That's my theory too.  Meyer's staff is really a training weapon for both staff and short spear (e.g. a 'boar' type of spear), as well as the foundation for any other pollarms (halberd, pike etc).

[ACTdirector]

@CollegiumInArmis

Agreed. At the end of the day they are very close in nature. I also think that the staff work is closer to the halberd (glaive, partisan or the Japanese naginata) due to the fact that you can cut with them, which is reminiscent of striking with both ends of the staff. And the thrusts are obvious of course. So yeah , I think that one helps to teach the other.

[noahsarkil]

@maeljin Glad yo liked it.

Meyer is a great didactic source.

I'm not surprised at all that you found more similarities than differences.

the basics of blocking and attacking with pole weapons in large part are very similar be they in Asian or Europen traditions. add a sharp point to the staff and you focus more on the thrusting. vary the length and again you get samll changes, add armor and it changes again. small nuances that are not game changers. this is why we look at both.

[Kardagroup]

Haven't done a lot of spear -but that was great! Setting up clean counters in live play -nice!

[noahsarkil]

@Kardagroup Thanks, Glad you liked it.

it certaily is different live than in drills.

being able to bring into play a broader scope of technique in unchoreographed

echanges is the goal and what we work on through a combination of dynamic drills and alot of sparring.

[ACTdirector]

@Kardagroup

Thank man, and you can always compare to bayonet fighting - not that different...And yeah, them clean counters are really hard to pull off against experienced fighters believe you me!. What I like about the spear - no mistakes. You snooze - you be dead. Almost EVERY strike takes you down, that is why I love this weapon , so much focus needed and so much pain if you loose it!:) Thanks again.

[mjryazanov]

Wonderful! Similarly, great timing, nothing more! Wonderful feeling of the enemy and distance. Technically ... Thanks to Alex and all the team ACT for the excellent and hard work!

[ACTdirector]

@mjryazanov Thank you so much. Coming from you , means all the more. It is all about timing and a proper set up isn't it? I mean that's how it happens in the nature... Boxing , karate, kendo...Simple, yet complex. Effective , yet beautiful in their very simplicity. Simple is natural, and natural is effective. Timing, distance, speed, all are right there in the nature. Mongoose, snake, big predators...All of them have it. Mongoose dodges the best though.

[ACTdirector]

As always , appreciate your kind words.

Thanks a lot and your praise makes it worth a while.

More to come!

[yairseeman]

very nice, alex and all the ACT staff.

as always, the slow motion subtitles helps to understand what's going on in the video when strikes aren't so clear.

as always, thank you for all the hard work and the will to share.

[jadekayak01]

great video for tutorial

Looks alot like Kunk fu dragon pole but all pole arm work looks alike as the pole is simillar and the target hasn't changed in thousands of years(i.e. us)

Why the long blade?yari were traditionally much shorter!

[ACTdirector]

@jadekayak01

Thanks for the praise! Yeah, a lot of similarities between different pole weapons and those similarities often cross the cultural differences. Regarding the length of the blade, it is about 60 cm , you will agree that there are Yari with the pole head of that length. Thanks again!