Shinai vs plastic II

 Back in March I reviewed a nice video about the elegant encounter between a kendoka and a practitioner of the Bolognese swordsmanship (HEMA). Three days ago I found another really pleasant example of cross-discipline fencing. This time two Canadian fencers -- kendoka Wilson Humphries and Phil Swift, practitioner of Fiore's longsword tradition -- showed us the value of meeting people of different fencing traditions.

0:51 - A decisive thrust. 

1:14 [1]

  A lot of background information is available about the participants. Phil trains at Maritime Sword School (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island), while Wilson teaches kendo at the Rock Kendo Club (St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador), the only kendo dojo of the island. More about this club might be found in this article. 

2:31 - Just missed by 1-2cm

2:32 - But not this time!

 Also there are some interesting comments below the YT-video [2]:

Wilson Humphries (Kendo) vs Phil Swift

 I have really enjoyed this video, also it has been fun to watch it in slow motion, and try to figure out the exact number of clean hits for both fencers.

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1. One could argue that Phil's blade hit the kendoka with the flat.
2. Phil: „Yes Humphries is strictly Kendo, however he is willing to experiment. Problem is we don't have anyone well versed in Kenjitsu here in Newfoundland. Being on an island it's tough to travel and visit experts.” „I felt like it was respectfully even. It wasn't a match to see who wins, it was more of a conversation of blades or technically wood and synthetic lol. We were examining each other's technique and mainly testing the waters” Wilson: „I was indeed slower than usual, partly because this was only our second time inter-sparring. I hesitated often as I had to concern myself with the false edge of his longsword and how maai and measure would change sometimes dramatically, we were trying to commensurate styles best we could. Though as you saw with the first solid thrust, hesitation got me a good clean thrust to the face. It was really enjoyable to go against such a different style and I learned a lot while doing so.”