Reverse Blade Swords – A Safe Training Option

Reverse Blade Swords – A Safe Training Option

 The sword, a long piece of metal with one or both sides sharpened to a cutting edge is one of the oldest weapons known to man and its use has been recorded from the earliest known wars.  Reverse blade swords differ from the conventional swords because, as the name implies, the cutting and blunt edges of the sword are interchanged.  With a traditional sword, the side that is used to strike the opponent is the sharp side – the idea is to cut and injure the opponent.  With reverse blade swords, the side which strikes the opponent is the blunt one and besides pain and bruising, little in the way of serious injury is likely to occur.

 Using reverse blade swords for training purposes allows the trainee to hone his sword fighting skills with risking any injury to the person he is practicing with.  Reverse blade swords can be of any design and duplicate the shape, weight and look of various types of swords – the only difference is that the cutting edge is reversed.  The Sakaba swords of ancient Japan are the first recorded instances of reverse blade swords being used.  The term Sakaba does not refer to any particular type of word but to the fact that the cutting edge is reversed.

 Sakaba swords were used in not just sword training but for all types of martial arts.  Their popularity was due to the fact that using a reverse blade sword allowed the learner to use a sword that was almost the real thing and gain proficiency in its use without risking serious injury to other trainees he was practicing with.  Although unlikely to cause serious injury during training, these swords were still hard and heavy enough to cause painful blows and bruising, which was enough to make trainees take seriously the art of avoiding the blows.  It is thought that these swords may also have been used in real combat situations – where the warrior wanted to disable his enemy and capture him without inflicting life threatening injury.

 Today, reverse blades swords are returning to popularity and one reason in the growing popularity of Japanese anime that feature historically inaccurate depictions of Ninja and Samurai warriors who use reverse blade swords to engage in non lethal combat.  Also, modern safety concerns make the use of the swords the best option of those who want to learn swordsmanship as part of their martial arts training.