Thank you! I'm glad you find the videos helpful. I'll include a link to a book that might be helpful. Certainly as you continue to work please feel free to send comments and questions here as well. We try to be fairly responsive to this feed! Hope this book helps, Dr. Yang is very skilled and a good teacher and he has several books and DVD's that might be helpful resources on your journey. www.amazon.com/Taiji-Saber-Classical-Yang-Style/dp/B0011Z1SY0/ref=pd_sbs_74_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=C063AJ65MZZ04GA0RZJ8

An excellent question. It is not necessary to wait for your opponent to attack in order to attack, and if your opponent doesn't follow up a successful defense with an attack of their own it is not necessary to wait for that strike. This video illustrates attack in this way for two reasons. The first is that it builds onto the back of the previous video on defense and so we move forward out of that framework. The second and probably more important is that many new sword players have a tendency to do what I call 'chase the hit', which is to say throw attack after attack regardless of their opponent's response and what this will often lead to is your opponent defending and countering, but instead of returning to a defense yourself, you simply press your attack and you both end up getting hit. To counter this tendency, especially early on I like to emphasize moving between attack and defense, but if your opponent fails to counter then by all means, press the advantage and continue attacking. Some of our later videos, especially some of the videos on distance talk about the straight attack, but watch in the next few days and I'll put together a video on simple cutting for you! Thanks for watching and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndeadLiZ1dOmnqM.html

Sean Dohe i def agree in my own experience it is important to not chase the hit and to counter in kind when the opening arrives. in my own tendency in hopes to close distance i use a technique thats similar to "plucking the peach" in this style but has a different term in fencing. in the combat sense your hoping to to close the distance decisively which often times is a deflection with simultaneous footwork into your riposte or counter.

+swordmaestre Since you ended with you're welcome, let me start with thank you! We always appreciate comments and feedback. Let me follow that up with, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that what we do is 'not real' and instead say what we do is 'not how you would do it'. While there are some schools that focus on blocking with the flat of the blade so as to avoid 'spoiling' there are a great many schools of vaunted combat that teach blocking with the edge, mine included. While edge blocking does risk nicks and damage to the blade, blocking with the flat takes the muscles, tendons, and bones of the hand, wrist, and arm out of alignment with the cutting force from the opponent which makes it a less stable and weaker block. While you can disperse some of that energy by yielding, it can lead to cut through, especially if your opponent is using a larger or two handed weapon (check out the video we posted today about combat against a guandao). There are reasons to do either method and in the end it is a choice of style. Though it risks the blade I tend to favor the stronger block because I can always replace a sword, not so much my arm, but that is just my approach. On a side note, I did try to look you up on Facebook and you didn't come up by that nickname.

Oh! Sorry, I was thinking my nickname is easy recognized)) On FB my name is Boris Linde. You will see me and Grandmastro Yu Chenghui on my front page. You are always welcome.