Grappling in Swordsmanship

Grappling is often overlooked in Asian swordsmanship, so I thought I would share a fun grappling pass that happened at the club the other night. The video with breakdown is above. I would like to talk a little about grappling as a whole though and the levels in grappling.

Grappling is a skillset that could be the difference between life and death in a sword duel. I’ve tried to break down some aspects of sword grappling below from my experiences in grappling in sparring. We will call the person who initiates the grapple the initiator and the person on the receiving end of the grapple the defender.

The initial contact:
This is where one swordsman takes the initiative to try and initiate a grapple. This needs to be done from a position where both swords are controlled. In the video above it is done with the initiator going into a high block and then controlling both swords by first pushing them upwards and then taking the left hand off to grab the defender’s wrist. This action has to be done from a place of controlling both swords, otherwise you are asking for your hand to be cut off.

The grappling displacement:
What follows after the initial contact makes or breaks a grapple. The initiator must find some way to break the opponents body structure, if this is not done then the defender will either push the initiator over or easily counterattack. In the video above, the initiator uses his left hand to forcefully push both the defender’s arms down and to the right to break his posture. This opens up the opportunity to use the sword in the grapple to end the opponent.

The counter grapple:
In most grappling bouts, someone has usually died by this point. The defender has either had his structure broken and been slain or the initiator has failed to break the defender’s structure and been counterattacked. However, there is a moment before the defender has been slain for a counter grapple. As a general rule, if one person takes their hand off their sword, the other should too. This allows the defender to have their structure broken but still have one hand free to control the initiator’s sword to turn the tides and counter grapple back. In the video above, the initiator uses the sword in his right hand to go for a stab to the head and the defender takes his left hand off his sword to use it to counter grapple and take control of the initiator’s sword. If the defender can then break the initiator’s structure he can slay the initiator.

Time buyers:
If you watched the above video, you’re probably wondering what the step before the counter grapple was where both swordsmen attacked at each other. Here, the defender did not have time to counter grapple as the initiator had started at attack to their head and there was no feasible way to get the left hand up in time to counter grapple. As such he did a brilliant move which was to keep both hands on the handle of his sword and overpower the initiator’s left hand holding his sword to try and cut at his thigh. The initiator had to pull back and push the defender’s sword forward and in this way did not have the reach to land the attack to the head. Actions like these are time buyers - in cases where death is almost certain, putting forward an attack will either make the opponent react in a way that might give you a second chance or you will die and possibly wound you opponent. These are only to be used where the opportunity to counter grapple is not present.

The stalemate:
If there has been a counter grapple but it is unable to break the initiator’s structure, both parties are at a stalemate. They both will struggle to gain the initiative and will need to resort to other tactics as a stalemate breaker. One such example is shown above with the defender going for a kick. Other examples would be headbutts, takedowns or trying to disarm the opponent, often with some turning manoeuvre. It is important to note that these can be quite harmful, even in full protective gear so please practice them with restraint. The defender made a slow speed kick with little force to connect, but if he had kicked with intent he probably would have won the bout with it.

The brawl:
Here things get messy. From the stalemate, if a stalemate breaker is used then what follows is less technique and more reaction speed and instinct. I suppose in broad terms there are a few reactions to stalemate breakers that could be codified. If they go for a kick, try and use the blade of their sword to block their foot as shown in the video above. If they go for a headbutt try and duck down and put the top of your head lower than theirs to use the hard top of your head to crash into their more delicate face. If they go for a takedown do not let your weight be swayed backwards, instead double down forwards and try and take them down instead. If they spin to go for a disarm, release their weapon and put both hands on your own and try to pull your sword in the moment to slice their hands and pull it free before they get a solid grip on it. These techniques though are things that must come from instinct as the window of opportunity for them will be very small and will often fail nonetheless.

The counter counter grapple:
In the case that the initiator has initiated a grapple, successfully broken the defender’s structure but the defender has removed one hand from their sword to allow a counter grapple, the initiator must perform a counter counter grapple. This is an action that denies the opponent control of their sword or sword arm. The easiest would be to pull the sword arm back so that the arm and blade are harder to grab as they are out of reach of the opponent, however, a skilled opponent may still grab the blade as it comes in for a stab, as the defender did in the initial counter grapple. Therefore, another tactic would be to initiate a feint that makes the defender try to go for an action to control the sword but actually opens them up for another attack. In the video above this was done with a initiator using a high feint to make the defender reach his left arm upwards, and then changing it to a rising cut to the exposed underarm.

I don’t think I have ever had as many intentions as the grappling pass shown in the video above, so it was really good to have a clip that demonstrates all the levels of grappling, at least the ones I have considered. Huge thanks to my opponent for being so skilled in grappling, I think if I were the defender I would not have been able to react to all of those actions as well as he did. If there are more stages to grappling that you have come across if your sparring bouts I’d love to know and please feel free to let me know via email at justabug.yt@outlook.com.