Aikido uses techniques that do not damage or kill unlike other forms of martial arts. The movements and skills being taught are just meant to divert attention or immobilize people. This is perhaps the reason why most people prefer aikido, because of it’s focus on peace and harmony as opposed to aggression and conflict. In fact, aikido developer Morihei Ueshiba believes that to control aggression without causing any injury is the art of peace.

Ueshiba, who is also called Osensei, which means Great Teacher, created aikido from the principles of Daito-ryu aiki-jujutsu. He incorporated the techniques of the yari, the spear; the juken, which is a bayonet; and the jo, which is a short quarterstaff). But what ultimately separates aikido from other forms of martial arts is the fact that its practitioners can attack while empty-handed. Practitioners need no weapons for protection.

As a young child, he was much into physical fitness and conditioning. This is because of his vow to avenge his father’s death. Eventually, his studies and activities brought him to the discipline of the different martial arts. He studied all. He even has certificates, fencing, fighting with spears, etc. He has learned it all. This is perhaps the reason why aikido is such a diverse and multi-disciplinary form of martial arts.

Yet despite his know how, he remains dissatisfied. He felt that there is still something missing. It was then that he turned to the religions. He studied under a spiritual leader, Onisaburo Deguchiof the sect Omoto-kyo in Ayabe. Deguchiof taught him to take care of his spiritual growth. He then combined his spiritual beliefs and his mastery of the different martial arts. Aikido was born.  

His association with this charismatic spiritual leader Deguchiof also paved the way for his introduction to the elite political and military people as a martial artist. Because of this connection, he was able to establish aikido and even transferred the teachings to students, who have in turn developed their own styles of movement in aikido.       

Aikido is a combination of the different styles of jujitsu as well as some of the techniques of sword and spear fighting, of which Ueshiba is an expert. To get an overall picture, aikido combines the joint locks and throws techniques of jujitsu and the movements of the body when fighting with sword and spears.   

Oriental in origin, it was brought to the west by Minoru Mochizuki when he visited France in 1951. He introduced the aikido techniques to students who are learning judo. In 1952, Tadashi Abe came to France as the official Aikikai Honbu representative. Then in 1953, Kenji Tomiki toured through the United States while Koichi Tohei stayed in Hawaii for a full year where he set up a dojo. Aikido then spread its influence in United Kingdom two years after and in 1965, it reached Germany and Australia. At present, aikido has centers all over the world.

It can be said that the search for the ultimate fighting technique predates history, as even the apes use unarmed combat.  The earliest documented accounts of mixed fighting styles we have is from the Olympics held in Greece in 648 BC, then called the pankration.  This later developed into the Etruscan and Roman pancratium, as showcased in the Colosseum.

The concept of proto-MMA continued on through European history and led to a match between a wrestler and a boxer in the United States in 1887.  In the early 1900’s, there was a duel between an Italian wrestler and a Japanese fighter skilled in various Asian forms.  From there, it expanded to Japan and other countries in the Pacific Rim.

In the late 1960’s and early ‘70s, the quest for an ultimate fighting style blending older forms and adding new styles had a resurgence.  The legendary martial artist, Bruce Lee, with the development of his style of fighting called “Jeet Kune Do” returned the concept of MMA to the American mindset.

Jeet Kune Do itself is a hybrid style, originally developed from Wing Chun.  In Bruce Lee’s style, it incorporated elements of boxing and fencing, but he emphasized that “the Way” of Jeet Kune Do was of incorporating styles and techniques that are useful to the individual, discarding what doesn’t work, and that there is no set style to it.  These concepts fed greatly into the development of MMA.  He has even been called “the father of mixed martial arts” in 2004 by UFC president Dana White.  And so we come to MMA as we know it today.

The riders raced from the steeple at one church to the steeple at another church, giving rise to the term Steeple Chasing.

During the 19th Century, steeple chasing became more sophisticated with enclosed courses and professionally trained horses and the traditional amateur was unable to compete at this level.

Other attempts were made to stage races for amateurs, from which professionals were excluded. Local Hunts undertook to organise amateur races and the Atherstone Hunt was the first hunt to organise a meeting annually from 1870. This hunt still has a meeting today usually at the end of each April.

There were no accepted rules for these races until 1913, when the Master of Hounds Point to Point Association formulated a list.

In 1935, Point to Point racing was brought under the umbrella of the National Hunt Committee which runs professional jump racing, who formalised a new set of regulations which generally still stand today.

Point to pointing has often led the way for National Hunt racing to follow:

Ladies were allowed to race against men in all races except Mens’ Opens in 1974; Sunday racing with betting started with point to points.

As point to point fences are six inches lower than National Hunt fences, many of the top horses like ‘Best Mate’ and ‘Denman’ began their careers in point to points. It is an invaluable training ground for young horses and riders.

Each year there is a limited number of races at National Hunt courses between February and May that are confined to point to pointers.

They differ from normal races as the horses are not handicapped by weight in order to equalize their abilities – so the best horses tend to win.

These are good betting opportunities but you need to have considerable knowledge about point to point form.

Legendary winning horses of the Irish Grand National include Arkle in 1964, Flyingbolt in 1966, Rhyme and Reason in 1985 and Desert Orchid in 1990.

The 2009 Irish Grand National was won by English raider, Niche Market, ridden by Harry Skelton and trained by Bob Buckler. The eight year old won at odds of 33/1 and finished a couple of lengths ahead of Church Island (50/1).

The Irish Grand National is run over 3 miles 5 furlongs with 23 fences to be jumped.It is a handicap race for horses of five years or older and is Ireland’s most prestigious steeplechase race.

Steeplechasing was born in Ireland and England in the 1700s, and had gained an especially fixed following in Ireland by the mid 1800s. The word ’steeplechase’ was first used officially in 1807 in the Irish Racing Calender. Steeplechasing has originated from cross country races known as pounding races, where the riders chose their own routes, with the first steeplechase being the result of a wager in 1752 between Cornelius O’Callaghan and Edmund Blake, who raced four miles (6 km) cross-country from Buttevant Church to St. Leger Church in Doneraile, in Cork, Ireland. Records of this race are to be found at Dromoland Castle in County Clare. The winner in a steeplechase race was the one who outlasted the other riders, and the orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple ? the riders often went from churchsteeple to churchsteeple ? agreeing on an end point made for more organised racing, with less falls and injuries but to endure this kind of race the horses had to be able to cope with uneven and sometimes dangerous ground and jumps. Of course these ‘everlasting’ races couldn’t go on forever, so a course was set up in Bedford, England in 1810, which was 3 miles with 8 fences.

By the mid 1890s courses were laid out at many sites, especially in Ireland, with the Irish Grand National, the most popular race by far, being set up in 1870 at Fairyhouse.

Regulation of the steeplechasing sport began in the 1860s with the Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee in Ireland and the Grand National Hunt Committee in England. The Grand National Hunt Committee changed name to the National Hunt Committee in 1889.

The 2010 Powers Whiskey Irish Grand National next year will mark 140 years of Irish Grand National history. For more information on the Irish Grand National go to www.irishgrandnational.co.uk.

Landscaping is a highly aesthetic landscape art form that needs a quantity of useful knowledge having to do with plant knowledge, practical applications and operating with various equipments. It could be stated that the earliest landscaper was the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, who spent a lot of time pondering the nature and various scopes of landscaping.

Where a lot of early landscapers said that true landscaping alters plants or fields directly, such as in the activities of farming of food crops, Thales rejected this definition of landscaping or shaping the landscape, arguing that any aspect of the physical world affecting someone’s visual perception of an area of land was a correct application of landscaping. Landscape and landscaping are all around us each and everyone of us.

Both Aristotle and Plato had nothing but praise for Thales philosophical modeling related to landscape and landscaping, as well as how his theories can be applied somewhere else in philosophical exploration. G.E. Moore also mentioned Thales in several of his own philosophical works explaining how philosophical inquiry and discourse has led to the truest forms of human progress and understanding.

Then in the 1800s many philosophers debated if visual beauty should even be accepted as a required goal of landscaping or controlling landscape, though by the years 2000 a lot of western philosophical thinkers had grown to reject the idea of an objective aesthetic standard for any type of art, whether architecture or landscaping

Since the later half of the 20th century, landscaping professionals and practitioners have experimented with stunning visual landscape panoramas that since became widely accepted as being a category of landscaping, at least in the occident.

More often than not we do not appreciate the quiet beauty of great landscaping plans. In our busy life the time to look around and enjoy the beauty around us has become a luxury. Next time you go out of your work place on a nice sunny day, why don’t you sit silently on a park bench and enjoy the landscape around you.

Most stock holders do not really have much say in how the business is run because their ownership proportion is negligible. In order to make a difference, you must own lots of shares or you must work with several smaller shareholders. Now days, buying stock has become more of an investment rather than trying to run the business. You simply buy stock and wait for the company to grow. This will appreciate the stock value and you make money by selling it. Or you could simply make do with the percentage of profits the company gives you based on your shares.

The stock exchange is the place where people trade stocks. The three important share markets in the United States are the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq. Stocks are bought and sold through stock brokers or Direct Investment and Dividend Reinvestment Plans. The plans allow you to purchase the stock directly from the companies instead of the market.

Wall Street is a famous and important place when it comes to the American stock market. The street is named after the high fence built by the Dutch settlers in New York during the 17th century. Though the fence lasted till 1685, the street next to it was permanently named Wall Street. The history of the American stock exchange begins in Philadelphia. The first stock exchange was built here in 1770. Two years later, the first New York stock exchange was opened, though it was less successful. In 1817, New York stock exchange representatives traveled to Philadelphia to understand why it was more active.

This created a more disciplined and formal New York Stock and Exchange Board. Another important point in this history is the crash of 1929. This crash triggered the Great Depression.

Newmarket was the venue for the first horse racing meetings in Britain, and horse races became a professional sport and the subsequent legal betting and racecourses quickly followed, with Ascot being founded in 1711 by Queen Anne.

The Jockey Club was formed to oversee and control English horse racing, making horse racing the first regulated sport in the UK. The Jockey Club wrote a comprehensive set of rules for horse racing and sanctioned racecourses to adhere to them. Five races were designated as “classics”: ‘The 2000 Guineas’, ‘The Epsom Derby’ and ‘The St Ledger’ which together make up ‘The Triple Crown’, and the ‘1,000 Guineas’ and the ‘Epsom Oaks’ open to fillies only.

In order to regulate the breeding of race horses, the Jockey Club formed the General Stud Book which lists all Thoroughbred horses who were to be allowed race in this country professionally.

Millions of people began to watch horseracing with the technological advances of the 19th century, with a marked increase in betting and media coverage. Interest continued to escalate with the introduction of television, and was compounded by the opening of the first betting shops in the early 1960s.

Organised steeplechase racing developed from the English and Irish past-time of foxhunting – rough cross-country races known as “pounding races”, in which the winner was simply the one who out-lasted other riders. At the end of the 1700s, racers agreed on the end-point for a cross-country race ? more often than not, a church steeple. The prizes back in those days tended to be money and alcohol! The word “steeplechase” appeared officially for the first time in the Irish Racing Calendar in 1807.

Two of the most famous steeplechase races in the world are the Grand National which started in 1839 and is run at Aintree in Liverpool, and the Irish Grand National, held every year over the Easter weekend at the Fairyhouse Racecourse in County Meath, Ireland. The Irish Grand National has a prize fund of ?250,000 and runs over 3 miles, 5 furlongs, and includes 23 fences. An added bonus goes to any UK trained winner who takes the Irish Grand National after having also won the Cheltenham Festival Chase. So all very exciting stuff!

Today, online horse race betting continues to draw new audiences to the sport of horse racing ? why don’t you get involved for the Easter weekend festivities?

Part of our Sword buyers Guide goal, is to help people to not get cheated into purchasing what’s actually not a sword but an over-ambitious kitchen knife, or just a simple display peice! Swords and knives differ in what’s expected out of them. A sword is most definitely not a longer knife, and people who merely approach it that way may be selling you something no better than a Taiwanese replica piece of junk! Which I even freely admit we do sell here at The Captains Trunk are mostly DISPLAY Only pieces. But we are always increasing our inventory, so check in with us often.

However as there are so many factors that determine quality, we wanted to give you a very cursory breakdown of a few things to get you started.

Metallurgy of Metal Used

First of all, anything made of stainless steel cannot be considered a real sword but a display sword. Anyone selling you stainless steel as a real sword needs to understand that stainless blades are molecularly brittle and cannot take nearly the same punishment as the swords of old, regardless of the steel coming from Toledo of Spain or any other historical landmark.

Modern metallurgy has had incredible advances. Steels of different metallurgies have different designations, but they are all generally simple alloys or “low alloy” high carbon steel.

Let’s take stainless steel for example. It’s generally very high in chromium which acts as a grain enhancer but weakens the molecular bonds – definitely not a weakness you want in a sword!

On the other hand, 5160 steel is used much in truck springs and has proven itself as a sword that can give as much as it can get. Other steels that are used for, say, higher end Japanese katanas might be made from forge welded cable steel, or from the AISI 10xx series such as 1050, 1084, 1095, etc. which are metallurgically similar (though with differences) with traditional Japanese steel sources. L6 is a steel that is currently the talk of the town, with incredible performance being reported. In the case of Japanese swords, the steel must be able to be clay tempered to create a real temper line (or “hamon”) which is something high alloy steels cannot do.

Some smiths have used O1, D2, or A2 for swords. These are in the tool steel category, and can serve as functional swords. But if you want the same beautiful aesthetics as a real Japanese sword temper line, you’re out of luck unless the smith knows a special technique to achieve this.

Quality

Another thing of importance is the quality of the source of steel itself. How so? Many swords manufactured in the Philippines and other third world countries such as India and Pakistan may use “spring steel”. These are in fact recycled springs from tanks or trucks. While in America the cost of new 5160 steel is quite low, the recycling of truck springs could present a problem. Often times, recycled spring steel is not processed properly; the process of treating the steel takes some skill, but third world countries have been known to cut corners. This results in “memory” in the steel which may cause the steel to stress and want to revert to its original grain direction. Also, without proper annealing and normalization, the steel can suffer micro-crystaline cracks. Thus, over a period of time, this can cause “cracking” along the grain boundaries as the sword is subjected to stress and shock. The result is that swords can eventually break if they are not made correctly.

Thus, be very careful when purchasing swords. Find out what country they are made with. Observe the sales pitch. “Live steel” or “Spring Steel” or just “High Carbon Steel” can be either incomplete or misleading information depending on how its presented. This is not to say that steel from recycled sources are bad. Some of the best Japanese style swords have been made from anything from forge welded cables to Russian anchor iron. It’s how the steel is recycled and retreated for the sword.

Heat Treating

The goal of heat treating is to achieve an ideal balance between toughness and hardness – qualities which are inversely proportional to one another! Toughness has to do with impact absorption and shock tolerance, while hardness has to do with cutting and edge-holding capability. Too soft, and your sword gets cut into. Too hard and the sword is too brittle.

Poor heat treating can totally ruin a sword. It’s amazing how some businesses or websites boast about the quality of the steel but speak very little about how a sword was heat treated. If there is no mention, and the sword retailer or reseller cannot comment on the heat treat, and if the sword is US$300 or under, then chances are your sword may not perform as well as a sword made by a smith who paid particular attention to maximizing the performance of the blade.

In the case of Japanese swords, the edge is harder for cutting durability, while the back of the blade is softer to withstand the stresses of combat (though the Samurai tried to kill with single blows and avoid blade-to-blade contact altogether!)

If you don’t heat treat it right, initially, it might not survive the final water quench and end up crack. Some cracks are very obvoius, and some are very fine. The fine ones can grow larger over time in some cases.

Some Renaissance Faire interpretations of, say, the Japanese sword, are – to say the least – pitiful. They do not have a hardened edge and softer spine like traditional Japanese swords do – which is a magnificent marriage between toughness and hardness – a result of extra careful heat treating. They are merely selling a curved bar of steel with a sharp point and a sharp edge which do not require as much work!

Weight and Balance

Even if some have a good concept of the first two points, some sword makers don’t have any concept with how a sword should feel. The best thing to do is to discretely ask the sword maker his philosophy on approaching a blade design. Dean Piesner, a sword maker in St. Jacobs, Ontario, Canada, relates that he first determines with the customer what the intended use of the blade – and its intended target is. These factors – including the person’s physical measurements – come into play in the resulting sword design. A sword made to cut armor will differ in design than a sword designed to just cut through flesh. Historically, the Japanese sword had differences in balancing thickness and blade width, and adding fullers (or grooves – not “blood grooves”) to lighten the blades in some cases.

A large blade needn’t be all that heavy, as a result of balancing all these factors. Thus the ability to craft a weapon that satisfies (and exceeds) the parameters of its intended use is a tremendous blessing. In short, a sword does not have to be heavy, contrary to some people’s belief. In fact, a heavy sword can undermine maneuverability, and in a life or death situation I would bet my life on a well balanced and ligher sword that was made with the aforementioned qualities (Points 1, 2, and 3).

Swordmakers of yesteryear constantly worked with fencing masters, etc. in a synergistic relationship which provided constant feedback of how a sword was made. The sword was made for man. Thus a smith without this kind of support is hindered from providing a product that can serve as a weapon. Otherwise you have a wall-hanger or decorative piece.

Beware of swords that are over 3 lbs. Some decorative swords are 5 to 10 lbs. which is as heavy as a weight-training dumbbell. In olden times, a sword of that incredible weight would get you killed by someone else’s sword!

Design and Aesthetics

Some say, “Who cares how it looks, so long as it’s functional?” However, the sword of ancient times have their own artistic elegance which cannot be denied. While not all swords are ornate or detailed with gold, silver, or gems, the fact remains that there is a balance, again, between sword design and aesthetics, ranging from swept hilt rapiers to Italian schiavonas to Scottish basket hilt broardswords.

A fuller, for example, may in some swords be joined by one or more smaller fullers. The effect looks decorative, but the lighter sword suffers no compromises in strength. If you imagine the diamond-like cross section of a sword and picture a fuller on either side of the blade, a fuller basically creates two spines. The spine serves as a backbone of support for a blade.

Modern day swordmakers who make ugly weapons perhaps can benefit from a study of historical weapons. Some Western-interpretations of the Japanese katana are indeed pitiful in appearance. The handles are not of wood, as was the tradition, but is basically the tang made thicker, and then wrapped around with an appoximation (or an attempt) of a traditional wrap, and then “frozen” with epoxy. One person related to me, “They do that because they just don’t know how to make a proper handle and wrap the thing properly!” Interestingly, they boast about the functional aspects of the sword to detract you from looking at the poor aesthetics.

At one knife show, someone showed me his “katana” and boasted about it, indicating four different Rockwell hardness readings, from edge to two mid-points and finally the spine. He was very pleased with himself at the differential heat treat he achieved. But what is it made of? “Stainless steel.” Ah. Bu-bye.

And if you’re approaching someone to make a Japanese style katana, it’s worth studying the actual geometry of a Japanese blade. A katana blade, if you study it carefully, is beautiful because of its wonderous temper line, its grain (which comes from forging and not stock removal or grinding) and the geometry of the blade. People who make curved bars of steel with sharp edges and sharp points have entirely missed the point of the katana and have inadvertently made the sword heavier (this is one serious problem I have with many Renaissance Faire interpretations of katanas.) The attention to detail of the facets of a traditional Japanese blade given by traditional sword polishers is an immense discipline of many years of study and should not be flippantly overlooked!

Another thing to take into account is the hilt. The hilt comprises the guard, the handle, and the pommel. While the pommel is mostly seen as the counterweight to the blade, the hilt has to be seen as a whole. This, in turn, has to be factored in with the previous Point regarding weight and balance. Many fantasy swords have the wildest hilts in the world, and yet the hilts are so heavy that the sword makes no sense as a weapon.

For the handle, I find that certain wire wraps are very comfortable, while certain others will absolutely tear your skin off or give you blisters. Certain leather grips are good, but some others may give your hand a hard time. Those “katanas” which are, say, parachute chord over the handle/tang can be uncomfortable to the hand by virtue that you’re trying to grip a flat rectangular bar of steel and not a more ergonomic rounder handle that a wood-carved handle can give you.

Adherence to Tradition

There is a reason why swords were made the way they were. They’ve come from many years and generations of painstaking research, trial and effort. Certain designs worked and certain ones didn’t. Consider the Japanese katana and how it maintained its general shape throughout the centuries!

There is a saying that if we don’t study from history we are bound to repeat its mistakes. I personally admire the swordmakers who approach museums and private collections of historical antique swords and research how they were made, their construction and their balance.

My personal feeling is that modern technology should generally only enhance and not replace the overall creation of the sword. For example, certain metals or techniques or tools can aid and help deliver a better performing product and improve consistency of quality. Swordmaking is as much an art as it is a science, and perhaps a way of life.

Recreations of historical swords should, at the very least, match the functionality of the original. Some modern pieces may not duplicate the ornate decorative features of the original sword as closely as the originals were, so as to maintain affordability and lower cost. The degree of decoration does not necessarily guarantee a more battleworthy sword.

In the case of Japanese swords, creating a Western implementation where it’s a contiguous bar of steel and wrapped either with an approximation of a handle wrap, or just strung with parachute chord, etc. are strictly Western interpretations and don’t truly qualify as “katanas”. Devoted schools of tradition feel these sword should not even be marketed as katanas but as “katanas” because so much work has been bypassed in making such a sword. Smiths of ancient Japan have been known to sit at the feet of their masters for at least a decade learning the craft of sword making. Claims by smiths today – who have bypassed the painstaking processes – and claim superior performance are debatable and should be taken with a grain of salt. Do you want a sharp bar of steel, or do you want a real sword?

Conclusion

Finally, does the sword feel like it is a part of you – an extension of yourself? Is its use awkward to your own natural body movements or does its use appear intuitive? While these are debatable and subjective qualities, I feel these are a good start for a beginner. If a sword maker has satisfied the aforementioned points, the quality of their work compared with that of others following the same criteria will be – not identical – but within the same ballpark. There will always be room for new discoveries and new methods and approaches to forging and design. A smith that achieves the aforementioned points and yet is actively researching ways to improve quality is probably worth your attention. Dean Piesner says, “It’s not the final product that is the art but rather the process itself.”

To find high quality swords, knives, daggers and more online goto: www.thecaptainstrunk.com