Scott M Rodell takes on an arrow shot from a distance of 45′ or 15 metres. KILL or CUT? Can he cut it?
Speed is one of the five essential elements of Chinese Swordsmanship (Jiànfǎ, 劍法). Cutting an arrow in flight is the ultimate test of a Swordsman’s skills. The Japanese refer to this skill as Yadome no jutsu (the military study of arrow cutting or blocking), considering it an indicator of superior martial prowess. Scott M. Rodell, director of the Great River Taoist Center, draws his jian (sword) slicing an arrow shot at him from just over 15 meters away. Traveling at 70.2 mph (113 kph) the arrow flies 51’ (15.5 m) in .48 of a second. Drawing his jian (sword) from the scabbard, his Liāo cut (撩) sliced it neatly in two.
The archer is James Yu, probably using a thumb ring to release the arrow.
They are here; www.grtc.org
Scott M Rodell
Scott M. Rodell has studied martial arts since the age of nine. He has dedicated the last three and a half decades exclusively to study of Yang Family Taijiquan (T’ai Chi Ch’uan). Rodell spent many years traveling to find and study with the best teachers in this lineage to fulfill a person goal – renovating Yang Family Taijiquan. He sought out teachers known for certain specialties, pulling together elements of the system that have become separated and fragmented. Rodell has been privileged to receive instruction in push hands and free fighting from William C. C. Chen, sword and push Hands from T.T. Liang and the Yang Family Michuan Taijiquan, form, applications, push hands, fan, sword and spear, from Wang Yen-nien.
Rodell is the Director of the Great River Taoist Center. The Center was founded in 1984 and now is headquatered in Washington, D.C., and has branch and affiliated school across America, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Australia. He began teaching internationally in Russia at the request of the Soviet Wushu Federation in 1991. In 1992, the Moscow branch officially opened as a branch of Great River. For fourteen years, Rodell taught across western Russia before turning over the Russian Branch of GRTC to his disciple student, Albert Efimov. While in Russia, Rodell has made TV programs about Taijiquan for Moscow’s learning channel and Sochi local Television and has been interviewed by various daily newspapers.
Rodell is also the author of four books on martial arts and Chinese swordsmanship. Chinese Swordsmanship – the Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition explains and demonstrates the basic principles, cuts, and forms that form the Yang family’s taiji jian tradition. This was followed by Taiji Notebook for Martial Artists, in which Rodell explains insights gained from his over thirty years experience in internal martial arts. Rodell’s third book, A Practical Guide to Test Cutting for Historical Swordsmanship, provides a step-by-step guide for the swordsman looking to expand their swordsmanship practice with the art of test cutting. And his most recent book, Traditional Manchu Archery of the Qing Imperial Guard, has been described as “a unique tranmission of a traditional art in our hands that will delight the reader and convey many new insights.”
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