Adrian Paul and the katana?

Question

I have read that Adrian Paul of Highlander: The Series has some training in weapons styles. Do you respect his abilities with the katana?

Answer 1

Is adrian paul the main character of the craplander tv show?

If so I would say absolutely not.

1) from what little I have seen of the show, he holds the blade like a bat not like a sword.

2) his movements are flashy and ridiculous. To my knowledge

(mostly made up of finding ways to bash a show that went from a cheesy but memorable 80's movie, into a cult phenomenon that created tons of wannabe samurais and "self-trained" sword students and promoted the most outrageous and idiotic ideas and notions about historical sword technique) This man has no real training, if anything he only has forms and training in "fencing". There actually was an artcile by a sword consultant I came across a few years ago that said that due to production times they simply couldn't teach the actors (because that is all they are) real techniques, so there was a balance between reality, choreography and time.

Movies are not going to have realistic martial arts of any kind because the very idea crucial to martial arts weapons especially, is that you disguise your motions so others (your opponent) can't tell what you are doing- subtlety vs. predictability.

In movies and theatre the goal is to entertain, and for the audience that means that they can see what is going on in the fight and be entertained by it. And there cannot be as much prep time to train the actors in a tv show which is under much stricter time constraints than a movie or play.

Audiences today are generally untrained and unable to understand the distinctions- unlike in shakespeare's time when the actors actually were trained and used legit techniques more than today because the audience knew what they were looking at- and because fightmasters and actors were of a similar social class.

Unless it is a doccumentary a martial arts movie cannot portray real or realistic sword or any other martial art or fighting because the audience would not be entertained.

No, I do not respect his abilities with a katana, let him show up and spar full-contact with a waster/bokuto or blunt and get some fight footage of him going all out at a legitimate sword organizations seminar or gathering with someone who has experience. Hell I would respect him if he just showed up as a beginner to learn. But learn properly.

Learning to use a weapon in martial arts does not mean doing forms with it. you must learn to use it and defend with it against another weapon or different type. But it must be trained realistically, forms alone is not realistic- although I believe they have thier place with certain weapons more than in unarmed martial arts as they can teach you to properly move with the weapon in the beginning stages getting you used to it.

Answer 2

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RE:
Adrian Paul and the katana?
I have read that Adrian Paul of Highlander: The Series has some training in weapons styles. Do you respect his abilities with the katana?

Answer 3

Adrian Paul

Answer 4

Yeah I'd say that I do, even if the blades are not full Tang steel, they can still be dangerous, so you've gotta exert some control when using weapons even in practice or rehearsal.

Answer 5

Early years of the show.... Not so much. But some of the later years and the fight scenes in the movie "Endgame" were pretty impressive and entertaining.