Spear (Yari) fighting - Armed combat & tactics

Fighting with a spear (yari) - about 2 meter long heavy spear with a non flexible shaft and a straight blade (cut and thrust).

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• martial
• art
• combat
• armed
• contact
• full
• realistic
• spear
• yari
• so
• yarijutsu
• sojutsu

[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.

[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.

[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]

@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.

[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.