barsoomcore said:
Oh yes. I was talking strictly about the katana. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
In the case of one-handed point weapons, large amounts of power do not need to be transmitted through the weapon, so the grip is completely different. Really, your hand in that case is occupied with simply aiming the point at the target while the legs and arm propel it forward. With a katana, the hand forms the end of a complex armature directing force from the torso out to the edge of the blade and against the target.
At least, that's how I'd sum it up. I know next to nothing about fencing, however. My hand-eye coordination is TERRIBLE, and it seems that success in fencing depends in large part on that, which may explain why I've not done so well at it.
There has been some very good swordfighting discussion which I'm sorry I fell into late.
Most of the comments here have been pretty dead on, in my experience.
I practiced Shinkendo for over 8 years in one of Toshishiro Obata's groups, and have had the opportunity to train with him during weekend torture, er, ahem, training seminars. I've done a good bit of reading and corresponding with other sword practitioners, and from what I've seen the 'backwards grip' of the katana shows up legitimately in several iaido and a couple older kenjutsu styles, mainly for an unsheath-and-slash move or extremely close draw-cut. In my opinion (which isnt that experienced, YMMV) it seems like it would only be good for things like that. Giving up that much reach, zones of possible defense, etc doesnt seem like a trade-off I'd want to make, plus it seems like you would be much more likely to catch a block directly on the edge of the sword (which is sort of bad, unlike when you do it with a big round tonfa). Like someone else said, I would most likely see it as something you could do and then transition to a two-handed grip. It just seems that the blocks that I've been taught for most katana attacks are just much quicker (for blocking and potential block-counterattack maneuvers) than all of the movement that the inverted grip would require, but I've never really practiced it so I'm no good judge. But the swordsmanship I studied is a bit more of an anachronistic one, kinda like pre-tokugawa vs. some of the styles in some later-based Iaidos/Kenjutsus that picked up a more unarmored 'duelling' flavor.
As far as some of the fencing comments, sure your hand is occupied with keeping the point on line, but there is much more fine finger/wrist manipulation going on and that requires a completely different grip so you can do effective disengages, etc. Hand-eye coordination is very important, but having little (such as I do) you can overcome a lot of that with lots and lots of practice (try hanging a tennis ball from a string in your garage and then doing lunges at it over and over and over, or throw a glove over your head against a wall and try to pin it to the wall at chest height as it falls)
And make no mistake, roleplaying games like you to think that 'rapiers' are those tiny little sprightly fencing weapons. Even Epee fencers like to often say they are *directly* descended in style from Rapier. Both of them are... misguided. Like Dogbrain said, rapiers were much longer and heavier than most folks would believe. Some historical examples out there are as heavy or heavier than what most folks consider a 'longsword', and they were often not very well suited to quick parry/riposte maneuvers that are inherent to modern olympic style fencing.
Epee fencers and roleplaying games more aptly emulate later period smallsword/courtsword fencing IMO than most rapier work, and there are examples of late-period duelling smallswords that are darn near indistinguishable from a modern epee except that they have a very fine point (one of which I own).
Of course, while I did love them as a kid, I blame a lot of old hollywood movies a la Errol Flynn and Zorro for giving folks that impression, what with pirates leaping around and whacking on each other with olympic sporting sabres and epees.
I did some rapier training with a John Clements-trained group a few times, and not only the grip but most of the stance work is reasonably different from smallsword/epee fencing. Very fun, nonetheless, but quite different.
EDIT: my personal hollywood pet peeve is the propensity for guys who pick up the katana to want to do that little all-wrist twirl off to the side with it, like they are limbering their wrist or something, but they do it within striking distance of an enemy. Even Tom Cruise did it once in The Last Samurai and it made me cringe. Other than that, I often try to let go of my personal nit-picks as much as possible as long as the action on the screen is entertaining... though I nearly plucked out my *own* eye after watching Uma Thurman massacre Japanese swordsmanship in the Kill Bill's. Sorry if ya'll liked it, but she was so completely unconvincing to me that it ruined the movie for me.
