If you are one of those stick, knife or machete fighters who cannot seem to convince a Filipino FMA practitioner to actually meet you in contact sparring or competition, you are not alone.
In a recent article on his Arma site [the link is on our Network page] John Clements recounts how no Japanese kenjitsu practitioner would consent to any contact work with his people for an independent film documentary. The world was scoured, and every Japanese master of the sword had an excuse or two or twenty for why he was too dangerous and his weapon and art too rarified to be tested against the crude arts of the West.
I'll let John explain it. Go check out his article. It is the same old thing; Asian-based practitioners afraid their mysticism might fail against experience. John, don't you know that Asians have severe gear allergies, that prevent them from using fencing masks in order to facilitate full contact sparring?
Check out the Arma site and read Recounting an Experience with a TV Documentary on Knight versus Samurai.
